The Fourth Regional Plan

Equity

In an equitable region, individuals of all races, incomes, ages, genders, and other social identities have equal opportunities to live full, healthy, and productive lives. The investments and policies proposed by the Fourth Regional Plan would reduce inequality and improve the lives of the region’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged residents.

Goal: By 2040, the region should sharply reduce poverty, end homelessness, close gaps in health and wealth that exist along racial, ethnic, and gender lines, and become one of the least segregated regions in the nation instead of one of the most segregated.

Health

Everyone deserves the opportunity to live the healthiest life possible, regardless of who they are or where they live. The Fourth Regional Plan provided a roadmap to address health inequities rooted in the built environment to create a healthier future for all.

Goal: By 2040, conditions should exist such that everyone is able to live longer and be far less likely to suffer from mental illness or chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease, with low-income, Black, and Hispanic residents seeing the greatest improvements.

Prosperity

In a prosperous region, the standard of living should rise for everyone. The actions proposed in the Fourth Regional Plan would create the robust and broad-based economic growth needed to lift all incomes and support a healthier, more resilient region.

Goal: By 2040, the region should create two million jobs in accessible locations, substantially increase real incomes for all households, and achieve a major boost in jobs and incomes for residents in the region’s poorer cities and neighborhoods.

Sustainability

The region’s health and prosperity depend on a natural environment that will nurture both current and future generations. To flourish in the era of climate change, the Fourth Regional Plan proposed a new relationship with nature that recognized our built and natural environments as an integrated whole.

Goal: By 2040, the region should be nearing its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent, eliminating the discharge of raw sewage into its rivers and harbor, and greatly improving its resilience to flooding and extreme heat caused by climate change.

In the 2010s, the region’s infrastructure was deteriorating. Housing policies, local land use practices, and tax structures were inefficient and reinforced inequality and segregation. Public institutions were slow to incorporate state-of-the-art technology to improve the quality of services. The transit system was technologically outdated and couldn’t keep pace with growing ridership, as the institutions that oversaw the subways, trains, and buses were not empowered to properly invest in and upgrade infrastructure. When faced with challenges such as climate change, public institutions were slow to take action, and did so piecemeal and without adequate funding.

Solving these existential challenges would require public officials and citizens to reassess fundamental assumptions about public institutions. The need for this transformation was the underpinning for many of the recommendations in the Fourth Regional Plan. Empowered to serve the region and its residents, these bodies could and should be reformed to accelerate progress toward solving major challenges of affordability, infrastructure investment, and climate change resilience.

Transform the Way We Govern and Pay for Transportation

• Reduce the cost of building rail transit
• Restructure the Port Authority to function as a regional infrastructure bank
• Create a Subway Reconstruction Public Benefit Corporation
• Modernize transit systems outside New York City
• Charge drivers to enter Manhattan, price highways, and transition to vehicle-miles tolling

Create New Institutions and Funding to Tackle Climate Change

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a cap-and-trade market modeled after California’s program
• Establish a Regional Coastal Commission
• Institute climate adaptation trust funds in all three states

Change Fundamental Inequities in How We Govern Land Use

• Reduce reliance on local property taxes
• Create regional school districts and services
• Make New York City property taxes fair
• Make the planning and development process more inclusive, predictable, and efficient

Make Technology Policy a Core Part of Government’s Business

• Increase participation in local government
• Expand affordable internet access across the region
• Create a Regional Census to support better use of data for public purposes

Transportation is the backbone of the region’s economy, and is essential to the quality of life for all residents. But years of population and job growth and underinvestment in both maintenance and new construction had led to congestion, lack of reliability, and major disruptions on a regular basis.

The Fourth Regional Plan argued that some transportation improvements could be made relatively quickly and inexpensively at the local level, such as redesigning streets to accommodate walking, biking, and buses. But the region also needed large-scale transportation projects to better serve the residents of the metropolitan region. Transforming the fragmented commuter rail network into a comprehensive regional rail system would greatly expand capacity and reduce travel times throughout the region. Strategic investments in the subway system would make it reliable, comfortable, and fast - and accessible from more neighborhoods. Traffic congestion would be sharply reduced. An integrated network of buses, light rail, and affordable on-demand car services would transform above-ground transit. High-speed rail connections and modernized airports and seaports would improve global connections and intercity travel.

These proposed investments would have far-reaching and positive effects on land use, settlement patterns, public health, goods movement, the economy, and the environment.

Create a Fully Integrated Regional Transit System

• Build a second bus terminal under the Javits Convention Center
• Build new rail tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers
• Expand, overhaul, and unify the Penn Station Complex
• Combine three commuter rail systems into one network

Rebuild the Subway System

• Adopt new technology for fast, reliable subway service
• Modernize and refurbish New York City’s subway stations
• Build new subway lines to underserved areas of the city

Adapt Streets and Highways for a Technology-Driven Future

• On city streets, prioritize people over cars
• Improve bus service, and introduce new light rail and streetcar lines
• Expand suburban transit options with affordable, on-demand service
• Reduce highway congestion without adding new lanes
• Remove, bury, or deck over highways that blight communities

Create World-Class Airports and Seaports

• Expand and redesign Kennedy and Newark airports
• Build fast and affordable rail service in the Northeast Corridor
• Modernize the region’s seaports and expand rail freight access

Climate change was already transforming the region in the 2010s. The number of days of extreme heat increased, sea levels rose, and the coastline shifted inward. It was estimated that more than one million people and 650,000 jobs were at risk from flooding, along with critical infrastructure such as power plants, rail yards, and water-treatment facilities. The Fourth Regional Plan predicted that by 2050, more than two million people and 60 percent of the region’s power-generating capacity, as well as dozens of miles of critical roads and rail lines, would be at risk or simply be underwater.

Reducing the region’s greenhouse gas emissions was critical, but it wouldn’t be enough. The Fourth Regional Plan stated that the region needed to accelerate efforts to address climate change. This included adapting coastline communities to permanent and periodic flooding; strategically protecting open space with the most potential to absorb carbon dioxide and stormwater; planting more trees and vegetation in urban neighborhoods at risk of extreme heat; upgrading water and sewer infrastructure; and modernizing and greening the energy grid. Doing so would not only mitigate the impact of storms and heat, but also create a new relationship with nature that would improve the health and well-being of residents.

Adapt to Our Changing Coastline

• Protect densely populated communities along the coast from storms and flooding
• Transition away from places that can’t be protected
• Establish a national park in the Meadowlands
• Determine the costs and benefits of a regional surge barrier

Bring Nature into Our Communities

• End the discharge of raw sewage and pollutants into waterways
• Restore the region’s harbor and estuaries
• Cool our communities

Improve the Natural and Built Systems That Sustain Us

• Prioritize the protection of land to help adapt to a changing climate
• Create a tri-state trail network
• Upgrade infrastructure to high standards of resilience
• Connect the region’s water supply systems

Create a Greener Energy System, With More Capacity

• Modernize the electric grid
• Scale up renewables
• Manage demand with energy-efficient buildings and variable pricing
• Electrify buildings and vehicles

Between 2000 and 2017, the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region became more attractive to people and businesses, as well as more expensive. Household incomes stagnated and housing costs rose sharply, straining family budgets and resulting in increased displacement and homelessness. The region’s history of racial and economic discrimination kept many residents away from neighborhoods with quality schools and good jobs. Instead, many lived in areas that were considered unsafe or environmentally hazardous. More and more, residents had to make difficult decisions between an affordable home and a good school; a better job or a safe environment; a community they valued or one from which they could be displaced.

The Fourth Regional Plan stated that the region needed complete communities that were healthy, welcoming, and enjoyable places to live, as well as affordable. Constructing more new homes, especially near transit stations, would only be the first step to make the housing market more stable and affordable. The Fourth Regional Plan recommended greater enforcement of fair housing regulations and that all neighborhoods include more affordable homes. The Fourth Plan also encouraged diversified job growth in cities and downtowns throughout the region, while maintaining New York City’s position as a leading global city and economic powerhouse that offered opportunities for all.

Provide Affordable Housing for All Incomes, Ages, Races, and Ethnicities

• Protect low-income residents from displacement
• Strengthen and enforce fair housing laws
• Remove barriers to transit-oriented and mixed-use development
• Increase housing supply without constructing new buildings
• Build affordable housing in all communities across the region
• Make all housing healthy housing
• Reform housing subsidies

Expand Access to More Well-Paying Jobs

• Maintain a globally competitive regional business district
• Restore regional job centers
• Make room for the next generation of industry
• Promote partnerships between anchor institutions and local communities

Support Healthy and Livable Communities

• Remake underutilized auto-dependent landscapes
• Turn environmentally burdened neighborhoods into healthy communities
• Support and expand community-centered arts and culture
• Expand access to healthy, affordable food
• Expand and improve public space in the urban core

To demonstrate how the policies and projects recommended could shape the region, the Fourth Regional Plan described potential futures for nine flagship places that represented unique communities, built environments, and natural landscapes. These narratives were intended to be illustrative and inspirational, rather than prescriptive, and represented particular opportunities to achieve significant, positive change.

Leading up to the publication of the Fourth Regional Plan, RPA launched the Four Corridors (4C) initiative, a collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation and Princeton University School of Architecture. The region was reimagined as four corridors, the Highlands, the Suburbs, the City, and the Coast, each representing a common set of needs and opportunities. A jury selected four design teams to generate design strategies. 4C was later exhibited at the AIA: Center for Architecture and summarized in a book. Visit the 4c site (archived version) to learn more.

Addressing these challenges would require significant financial investment. The Fourth Regional Plan recommended ways to reform the way that new rail infrastructure projects were designed and built to reduce their cost, in addition to redirecting funding from low-impact programs to more effective ones. But even with significant budget savings and a growing economy, more funding would still be needed to fund the Fourth Plan’s recommendations. The Fourth Plan proposed new funding streams that would more fairly distribute the burden of taxes, fees, and tolls, while promoting strategic policy goals. These included sustainable patterns of development, more equitable distribution of wealth and income, energy efficiency, and climate resilience.

New or underutilized funding streams identified in the Fourth Regional Plan included:

• Pricing greenhouse gas emissions to fund climate adaptation and mitigation measures, transit, and investments in environmentally burdened neighborhoods.
• Highway tolling and congestion pricing to fund investment in highways, bridges, and transit.
• Value capture from real estate to fund new transit stations or line extensions, as well as more affordable housing near transit.
• Insurance surcharges on property to fund coastal climate adaptation.
• Reforming housing subsidies to fund more low-income housing.

Work on the Fourth Regional Plan began by speaking with residents and experts as well as aggregating data. Fragile Success, published in 2014, assessed and documented the region’s challenges: affordability, climate change, infrastructure, and governance. Utilizing detailed land use data and forecasting models, RPA documented the region’s built form, quantified population and employment trends, and extrapolated future growth scenarios. Charting a New Course, published in 2016, compared these scenarios and presented an optimal growth pattern that would achieve several benchmarks of success. This aspirational scenario guided recommendations developed for the Fourth Regional Plan.

RPA undertook a robust public engagement program to ensure that the Fourth Plan’s recommendations reflected the needs and priorities of all residents of the region. A range of tools, including issue area working groups, surveys, public forums and stakeholder briefings, were used to reach a broad audience. RPA worked with hundreds of experts in housing, transportation, land use, and environmental issues, and received regular feedback at nearly 200 meetings and forums, where discussions were held with more than 4,000 people.

RPA also engaged in multi-year collaborations with community organizations including Make the Road New York, Make the Road Connecticut, Community Voices Heard, Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, Partnership for Strong Communities, Right to the City Alliance, and others. These organizations represented more than 50,000 low-income residents and people of color, and provided a wide range of perspectives on affordability, jobs, transportation, and environmental justice.

Between the publication of the Third and Fourth Regional Plans, growth patterns within the region dramatically changed. The New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area was able to capitalize on global trends that favored places with large concentrations of highly educated workers and walkable, transit-oriented communities. The economy flourished after the deep recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the region gained millions of jobs in the 2000s and 2010s. As job growth climbed steadily, more people moved into New York City and the surrounding suburbs.

But many did not share in the prosperity of the 2000s and 2010s. For many towns, villages, and rural communities, concentrated growth in New York City was accompanied by sluggish local job growth, an aging population, and high property taxes. Older industrial cities struggled to grow their economies. More people lived in poverty in the 2010s than a generation ago, and there was greater income inequality in the region than elsewhere in the country. For the bottom three-fifths of households, incomes had been stagnate since 2000.

While household incomes plateaued, housing costs rose sharply and took a larger share of household budgets. Discretionary income couldn’t cover critical expenses such as health care, college, child care, and food for many residents. In New York City, the return of jobs and people presented new challenges: rising real estate prices and rents, families displaced by unaffordable housing, and neighborhoods that longtime residents no longer recognize as their own. This growth also put pressure on the region’s aging infrastructure, such as its subways and roads. Years of infrastructure neglect led to daily disruptions in the transit system, outdated airports, and unrelenting traffic. Disruptions and unreliable services were further strained by the impact of climate change and more severe storms, heat waves, and catastrophic events like Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene. Lives were senselessly lost, and the economic toll registered in the billions of dollars.

The crises of stagnant wages, rising costs, and climate change were exacerbated by a legacy of discrimination in housing, transportation, education, environmental injustice, and other policies that disproportionately impacted low-income residents and communities of color. Although the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region was one of the most diverse in the country - nearly half of all residents were people of color and a third were foreign-born - it was also one of the most segregated.

Yet government institutions failed to make the difficult decisions necessary to address the persistent problems of discrimination, affordability, opportunity, and resilience.

RPA believed that the continued success of the region depended on its ability to meet these challenges and become a place that fulfilled its promise of equal opportunity. The region needed to become capable of adapting and prospering in an age of rising seas and temperatures, as well as a global hub that harnessed its resources and talent to make the metropolitan area an easier, healthier and more affordable place to live and work. But achieving inclusive growth would require rethinking the institutions that govern the region and oversee its infrastructure.