William Julius Wilson of Harvard University will deliver the keynote address at our forthcoming conference The Challenge of Camden, The Challenge for America. Doug Massey of Princeton University will discuss new findings on the effects of affordable housing, 40 years after the Mount Laurel decision.
https://www.camden.rutgers.edu/challenge-camden-challenge-america
Center director Paul Jargowsky presented his recent research Inequality’s Spatial Dimension: The Case of the United States at the Conference on Solidarity VIII: Inequality and Social Solidarity in Vienna, Austria on April 5-7, 2013, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council and the Institute for Human Sciences/ Vienna.
Lucy Vandenberg
Executive Director, PlanSmart NJ
Lucy I. Vandenberg joined PlanSmart NJ as its Executive Director in the Spring of 2011. She has a broad background in land use planning, community development, housing, and urban revitalization. She is a licensed professional planner. Lucy Vandenberg most recently served as Planning and Redevelopment Aide for Mayor Dana L. Redd in the City of Camden. Her focus included creating new energy-efficiency programs for the City and developing a strategy to revitalize abandoned properties.
Previous to this, Ms. Vandenberg was the Executive Director of the NJ Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) from 2003 until 2010, where she supervised a staff of 25. Ms. Vandenberg reviewed and approved municipal affordable housing plans and local land use ordinances for over 300 municipalities participating with COAH, the state agency established by the NJ Fair Housing Act of 1985 to implement the Mt. Laurel Supreme Court affordable housing decisions. Earlier in her career, she served as the Senior Policy Advisor for housing and urban revitalization in Governor James E. McGreevey’s administration.
From 1997 to 2002, Ms. Vandenberg worked in the non-profit sector, serving as the Associate Director of the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ, a statewide association of affordable housing and community development organizations working to build communities. She has a master’s degree from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. Ms. Vandenberg is a member of the Board of Directors of Preservation New Jersey and serves as a member of the Mercer County Open Space Preservation Board.
Please click here for the event flyer.
Metropolitan development patterns that developed in force after World War II encouraged significant population shifts away from central cities, leaving reduced tax bases in core cities to support public services and redevelopment. Many cities and communities have found ways, however, to improve key policies and enhance both the local economy and the quality of life. Increasingly, significant policy outcomes are the result of an innovative amalgam of efforts by federal, state, and local government, community development corporations, education reformers, juvenile justice reformers and other all working to promote evidence based solutions. This talk explore some empirical evidence to place the impact of what some have called networked governance and puts forth a guarded judgment on the meaning for urban and metropolitan development. Click here for the event flyer.
John Atlas is the author of Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America’s Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group, hailed by Robert Kuttner as “the definitive book on one of the most effective grass roots organizations of low income Americans.” For over 35 years, Atlas has been a public interest lawyer, activist, radio talk-show host, and organizer. A founder and board president of the New Jersey-based National Housing Institute/Shelterforce (NHI), a national think tank that promotes concrete strategies for affordable housing, urban revitalization, and a more robust and engaged civil society, Atlas has sustained a lifelong commitment to improving the lives of those less fortunate.
Read more about Seeds of Change and access selections from the book. Read John Atlas’ blog at nj.com.
Co-sponsored by:
Rutgers-Camden Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE) and the Urban Studies Program
