For many years the New Jersey-New York-Connecticut Metropolitan Region has been experiencing an increasing suburban growth of business and industry. This growth, often characterized by the word “decentralization,” is interpreted in various and sometimes conflicting ways. To some people it means that the central city as well as the older outlying industrial cities are losing economic activity to the relatively undeveloped urban fringe.
Other persons, denying that there is real decentralization, believe the central areas have simply reached a stage of maturity in which their volume of business activity will be maintained at a relatively stable level while future growth will take place immediately adjacent.
Still others affirm the growth of both inner and outer areas, but interpret decentralization as the relatively faster development of the more open outlying districts. Which of these ideas is soundest remains to be determined.
Former studies conducted by the Regional Plan Association noted declines in some industries and increases in others. Whether in sum these changes meant net losses or gains for the different areas of the region was not determined because of the lack of comprehensive data.
Accordingly, the present study is addressed in part to this aspect of the problem. Besides measuring changes that have occurred, the data developed in this study for the first time enable a general inventory of the current distribution patterns of most kinds of business activity in the region.
