Paterson, New Jersey's diverse immigrant population holds the potential to revive the city's declining economy. Writer Jeff Byles documents key resources the city has and how similar postindustrial cities have harnessed community-driven planning.
"...the people of Paterson are deep in the downside of the American dream. Between 2000 and 2010, according to Together North Jersey’s draft regional plan, the state of New Jersey lost nearly 200,000 jobs, with the poverty rate in Paterson hitting 27%. Over the past 50 years, the region’s urban quality of life has cratered, with incomes dropping, racial segregation increasing, and infrastructure crumbling. Paterson, said one recent report, is “one of the most violent small cities in the country.”
If Paterson was a pioneer in urban American opportunity, today it is a prism for understanding the capacity of communities to survive 21st century shocks and stresses. This complex swath of northern New Jersey offers unusually fertile ground to test new tactics for turning blight into fresh opportunities for the 45 million people who live in “legacy cities” like Paterson — 15% of the United States population, according to one study — that have lost their economic mission."
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