New Jersey’s war on sprawl came none too soon. The Star-Ledger recently reported that New Jersey suburban areas now house the majority jobs of jobs in the state, and even urban residents’ jobs are moving away from cities.

The paper reported that during the nineties, the state’s 30 largest cities lost a whopping 23% of the jobs that were held by local residents. Major cities did experience some job growth, but it did not necessarily benefit local residents. In Newark, for example, the nineties attracted 6,500 new commuter jobs into the city. Newark jobs for Newark residents, however, dropped by 11,500. At the same time, many suburban areas, such as Parsippany-Troy Hills, gained jobs at a higher rate than competing cities. In the 2000 Census, Parsippany-Troy Hills moved up to 6^th place, from 10^th, as the most frequently named place of work for NJ residents. The number of jobs in the municipality during the same period increased by 11,000.

The statistics advocate strongly for a better connection between land use, transportation, and affordable housing. In many cases, sprawling land use patterns not only induce congestion, but also mean that lower income urban residents, many of whom don’t have cars and are priced out of higher income neighborhoods, have to travel longer distances to work in the more wealthy, suburban communities. This type of segregation can also lead to a host of other longer term social and economic problems.

It also means that traffic congestion dilemmas in the state are going to harder to solve, since mass transit depends heavily on land use patterns that concentrate development in certain areas. If workplaces are spread throughout the state, it is impossible or at best, extremely difficult, to adapt transit routes to reduce commuter traffic.

Many towns also lose their appeal (and possibly see declining property values) as office parks, strip malls, and other employment centers bring traffic and destroy open space. One Parsippany resident told the Star-Ledger that although her town was still a great place to live and raise a family, she was tired of the effects of sprawl. "It’s built up so much, there’s no space left. The traffic is unbearable. Enough is enough," she said.

The paper did not mention how New Jerseyans working in New York City affected these statistics. Perhaps New Jersey-NYC commuter data would make the numbers somewhat more encouraging. 

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