Instructors:

• Kathe Newman, Kathe_newman at excite.com
• Norman Glickman, Glickman at rci.rutgers.edu
• Carlos Gallinar

Purposes of Course
(1) Learn about community development
(2) Provide applied research assistance to a community-based organization
(3) Explore the impact of property tax revaluation on community development actors
(4) Learn how to use multi-media GIS for neighborhood planning

Project Description
Our client is one of the largest and most successful community development corporations in the country: the New Community Corporation of Newark (NCC). NCC was founded in the 1960s in reaction to the 1967 civil disturbances and the unmet needs of poor people in that city. NCC’s founder, Msgr. William Linder, continues to lead the organization with vigor and intelligence. Located in Newark’s Central Ward, NCC currently employs more than 2,400 people; its size and breadth of activities set it apart from other CDCs. NCC is involved in housing construction and management, job training, welfare-to-work training and services, retail trade (it is part owner of a successful Pathmark supermarket), childcare, senior care, health, security, and education (it has three charter schools). No CDC on the planet provides a more comprehensive set of services. (Students in last year’s CD studio completed a comprehensive overview of NCC’s operations. That report is available in your course pack.)

Extreme disinvestment and abandonment in the City of Newark ensured a ready supply of land for NCC’s developments in the past. However, an increasingly hot real estate market and NCC’s sometimes adversarial relationship with the City of Newark have decreased the supply of and access to vacant land. Compounding these changes, Newark recently completed a state mandated property tax revaluation—the first time it has done so since 1961. NCC, which felt little pressure to develop a long-term plan for future development, now realizes that planning its future development is a priority.

NCC has asked for our assistance to identify and map the properties it currently owns, determine the tax status (abatements and when they expire) and tax assessments of each parcel, identify land uses and ownership of private and publicly held parcels on the blocks surrounding NCC properties, and identify potential sites for future development.

To do this we will:

• Visit NCC, meet with NCC top staff, and tour Newark to view the renaissance
• Learn about property tax revaluation from tax policy experts
• Combine data from a variety of sources to identify and map NCC properties and their assessed values
• Create maps showing demographic and housing trends in relationship to NCC property
• Learn how to conduct a parcel inventory, map our findings, and present them to a community organization to facilitate neighborhood planning
• Develop multi-media GIS (use GPS units and digital cameras to merge photos of land use with maps)
• Interview NCC staff throughout the semester to determine their development priorities

At the end of the semester we will present our findings to NCC and provide the following products:

• Maps of NCC properties
• Final report with research methodology, findings, and recommendations
• Spatially enabled datasets that NCC can use for its own future development planning

Product Time Line

Course Materials

Course Pack:
A course pack is available at Pequod Copy on Somerset Street.

Distributed in Class:
NCC Literature Packets

Guskind, Robert and Neal Peirce. 1993. Against the Tide: The New Community Corporation 1968-1993. Newark: NCC.

WebCT
To access the course syllabus, calendar, discussion groups and other resources on the course web site, go to http://webct.rutgers.edu, enter your Rutgers email id and password and select 970:511 Community Development Studio.

Grading

20% - Class Participation
20% - Work Plan
50% - Final Report
10% - Presentation

January 21. Studio Overview, Introduction to Newark, NCC, and Community Development

Introductions and interests—yours, ours
Overview of the Studio project
Background on New Community Corporation
Review of Community Development

NCC Literature packets (distributed in class)

Film:
New Community Corporation. 1998. Faith, Hope, and Leverage.

Meet in Newark at New Community Corporation for lunch at the Priory (NCC’s restaurant and headquarters), meet NCC staff and discuss the project, and tour NCC and Newark (bring your cameras and notepads!)
(The Priory, 233 West Market Street, Newark 973-623-2800)

Guskind, Robert and Neal Peirce. 1993. Against the Tide: The New Community Corporation 1968-1993. Newark: NCC. (distributed in class)

Linder, William and Gerald Shattuck. 1996. New Community Corporation: Neighborhood Development in Context. Newark: New Community Press.

_____. New Community Corporation: An Alternative Community Development Model in Religious Context. Newark: New Community Press.

Community Development Studio. 2002. Building Community: The Work of the New Community Corporation. Rutgers University Program in Planning and Policy Development Studio Report.

Jacobs, Andrew. 2000. “From A Newly Cool Newark, an Invitation to ‘C’mon Over!” The New York Times on the Web. Living. November 24. http://www.guide2newark.com (go to the in the news section).

NCC’s Website http://www.newcommunity.org

Guide2Newark.com. http://www.guide2newark.com/

Speakers:
Ernest Reock, Professor Emeritus, Bloustein School
Jean Jacobsohn, Tax Assessor, Plainsboro

Jacobsohn, Jean. “Tax Assessment in New Jersey.” Property Tax Administration Course. Appraisal and Assessment Administration Program.

Zuckerman, Sills Cummis. 2002. “Property Tax Appeals-Are You Entitled to a Reduction in Assessment?” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. March.

Rutgers University—Community Law Clinic. 2002. Revaluation Handbook: The Newark, New Jersey Case Study. Newark. Rutgers Law School.

The Center for Government Services. 1999. The Potential Impacts of Revaluation on Property Tax Burdens in Newark: A Final Report. New Brunswick: Author, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Merdinger, William. 1997. Update. City of Newark Tax Impact Projection Following A Revaluation.

O’Brien, Tim. 2003. “Newark’s Tax Abatement Program Hobbled by City Failure to Escrow More than $120 million Collected but Nothing Set Aside for Tax Relief.” New Jersey Law Journal. January 13.

Mays, Jeffrey. 2003. “Newark Sued Over Fund for Tax Relief.” The Star Ledger. January 26. Accessed online.

Brief overview of ARCGIS 8.2
Mapping NCC’s properties, Census Data, and Using a Digital Parcel Map

Sawicki, David and William J. Craig. 1996. “The Democratization of Data.” V62, n4. Journal of the American Planning Association. (Autumn): 512-.

Blackford, Loren and Lisa Mueller. 2002. “Partners Power GIS: Mapping Community Needs Requires Sound Data and Committed Partners.” Shelterforce (November/December) #126, 18-21.

Elwood, Sarah. 2001. “GIS and Collaborative Urban Governance: Understanding Their Implications for Community Action and Power.” Urban Geography. V22, 8: 737-759.

_____. 2002. “GIS Use in Community Planning: A MultiDimensional Analysis of Empowerment.” Environment and Planning A. v34: 905-922.

Al-Kodmany, Kheir. 2000. “Extending Geographic Information Systems to Meet Neighborhood Planning Needs: The Case of Three Chicago Communities.” URISA Journal. V12, n3: 19-37. (http://www.urisa.org/Journal/protect/vol12no3/al-kodmany/al%20kodmany.pdf)

Incorporating photos in GIS using GPS and Digital Cameras
Incorporating Existing Data
Mapping the Results

Pickles, John. 1995. “Representation in an Electronic Age: Geography, GIS, and Democracy.” In John Pickles, ed. Ground Truth. New York: Guilford Press, 1-30; and "Conclusion: Toward an Economy of Electronic Representation and the Virtual Sign," 223-240.

Monmonier, Mark. 1996. How to Lie With Maps. 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1-4, 10-11.

CMAP: http://www.nonprofitmaps.org
New Jersey Spatial Data Clearinghouse: http://njgeodata.state.nj.us/
NKLA: http://nkla.sppsr.ucla.edu/
Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Partnership: http://www.bnia.org/in_baltimore.html

Review progress
Address any questions, problems, etc

Final Presentation in Newark at NCC

de Souza Briggs, Xavier and Elizabeth Mueller with Mercer Sullivan. 1997. From Neighborhood to Community: Evidence on the Social Effects of Community Development. New York: Community Development Research Center, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy. New School for Social Research.

Koechlin, Carl. 1989. “Integrating Compassion and Pragmatism in a Successful Community Development Strategy: A Case Study of New Community Corporation.” Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

KOG Associates, Inc. 2001. Return on Investment Study, Welfare Transition Program. Prepared for New Community Corporation, Gateway to Work.

Linder, William. 1988. An Urban Community Development Model. PhD Dissertation, Fordham University.

Linder, William and Gerald Shattuck. 1991. New Community Corporation: An Alternative Community Development Model in Religious Context. Newark: New Community Press.

_____. 1996. New Community Corporation: Neighborhood Development in Context. Newark: New Community Press.

NCC Assorted Project Photos. http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/bruner/1993/new_community/photos/index.html
(secure permission before use).

PICCED. Community Development Corporation Oral History Project. New Community Corporation (NCC). http://www.picced.org/advocacy/ncc.htm

Zdenek, Robert. 1998. Leadership is Not Enough: The Importance of Organization Capacity and Social Networks in Community Development. PhD dissertation. University of Southern California.