New York”™s suburbs are falling behind the city in job growth while the poverty rate climbs and construction sputters, according to an April report from the Regional Plan Association.
The association, a planning nonprofit that focuses on the tristate metro region, said its recent findings were a “sharp departure from longstanding patterns.” The report is called “Fragile Success: Taking Stock of the Tri-State Region,” and its sections include one focusing on what is referred to as a “suburban slide.”
Rohit Aggarwala, co-chairman of the RPA”™s Fourth Regional Plan Committee, said the region needed to take “bold steps” to ensure future economic vitality.
“What this report makes clear is that while our region has many advantages, our institutions often have failed to make the difficult choices necessary to ensure our continued prosperity,” Aggarwala said.
The city has seen a 12 percent growth in jobs since 2003 but northern New Jersey and southwestern Connecticut have seen a 1 percent decline, the report said. (The Hudson Valley has seen a slight uptick overall, according to the report.)
The growth in the poverty rate in the suburbs has also been outpacing the city”™s growth, with the Hudson Valley and southwestern Connecticut each having about 10 percent of their populations living below the poverty line as of 2010.
The report also cites a growing number of young adults who prefer to live in urban environments, reversing the trend of a suburban population boom overall and slowing new housing construction in the suburbs when compared to New York City.
