News & Events
In tight times, towns must embrace shared services | Editorial
State and local revenues have cratered since New Jersey was slammed by the coronavirus, and the need to cut costs by sharing municipal services has taken on a greater meaning. Data from the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) shows that Gov. Murphy is serious about shared services. … Murphy is hardly alone: In 2018, Senate President Steve Sweeney’s task...
EAC Group’s Jeanne Herb featured in The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Coastal Habitat Learning Series
Jeanne Herb of the Bloustein School's EAC Group will be a speaker on the upcoming Pew Charitable Trusts' Coastal Habitat Learning Series. Ms. Herb will be joined by Lisa Auermueller of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve to present their work on the state's "A Seat at the Table" initiative to develop guidance, training, tools, and...
Tax relief on home renovations in Belleville? It could be happening
Marc Pfeiffer, the assistant director of the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University, said the increase in taxes would go up about 20 percent a year. Township attorney Steven Martino, who helped draft the resolution, said a resident would not see a tax increase in the first year following the improvement. After that, residents will...
New Risk Analysis virtual issue on Environmental Justice
This virtual issue provides a compendium of papers from the 1980's through the present that examine some of the risks and disadvantages that people and communities experience as a result of environmental injustices. Environmental injustice is one form of social injustice that refers to the disproportionate exposure of some individuals and groups to...
Op-Ed: COVID-19, Racial Injustice and Climate Change Require a Bold Approach, Not Incrementalism
With a nation rattled by a public health emergency, a deep recession that has left thousands jobless, and growing signs of climate change, it may be time for bold new ideas to address those crises. Read this NJSpotlight opinion piece co-authored by EAC Executive Director Jeanne Herb that summarizes discussions at a recent virtual...
Small NJ city at center of corruption probe as ex-lawmaker charged
“Elected officials should really watch who are they are appointing to positions, where they can appoint political patronage jobs. They really need to know who they are appointing because when it goes bad it brings down a lot of people,” said Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director at the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University. “It...
A Watershed-Based Approach to Flood Hazard Mitigation in the Raritan Region
This project examined the flood mitigation plans of the seven counties in the Raritan River watershed to better understand local government flood mitigation planning in the region. The study examines how county agencies analyze flood risks and mitigation strategies at the watershed level, the challenges that hazard mitigation planners face when thinking...
Local governments face financial crunch from coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic has wrecked state finances – ballooning its spending, decimating its tax collections, requiring a federal rescue to keep it afloat. Similar stresses, though not as severe, are faced by local governments. “What they have in common primarily is uncertainty,” said Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director of the Bloustein Local Government...
Many public employees cannot work from home. Towns are searching for new options.
Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director of the Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said municipal officials need to update their understanding of computer systems as well as their software. “It’s not whether a system is ‘closed’ or not,” Pfeiffer said in an email. “A network that is connected...
Aquatic Connectivity Through Climate-Ready Culverts
Aquatic connectivity is a key restoration goal for the New York – New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP) and its partners. The creation of connectivity assessment protocols, training methods and data sharing developed by the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC) streamlined the effort to prioritize barrier removal to improve...
Recent Products
Toward a research agenda on climate‐related migration
Climate change is one of the many stressors to which humans must adapt. Environmental concerns usually combine with other factors such as poverty, ethnic strife, or poor governance to become serious enough problems to warrant strong action. Migration away from...
Co-Creation of New Jersey’s 1st Health and Food Systems Municipal Master Plan Element
As described on the Trenton 250 website, a Master Plan, also called a comprehensive plan, provides a long-range vision for the built environment of a community. It guides the appropriate use of lands within a municipality in order to protect the public health and...
Energy Technologies as Social Innovations
Framing the Issue Commercial building owners introduce energy- saving technologies based on relative advantage This means that they expect that it costs less (incremental and/or life cycle costs), functions better and provides an overall benefit to the building...
Hometown Dashboard: Smart Cities Technologies for Improving Quality of Life
Hometown Dashboard is a proposed set of smart city technologies for improving Quality of Life (QoL) in small towns and cities, which often cannot afford custom apps and in-house smart-community capabilities. This platform – the Hometown Dashboard – establishes 3-way...