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Urban voters seek a governor who will turn cities around
Originally appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirerer on 10/15/01
Cynthia Pulliam of Camden is a true believer.
She thinks it is only a matter of time and the right leadership for her beloved city to come back.
On Election Day, when deciding who would better address the needs of struggling cities as governor, Pulliam will have a choice between Republican Bret D. Schundler and Democrat James E. McGreevey.
She said she believes government must continue to improve the future for inner-city youths, who she fears could fall prey to drugs and violence.
"We need some strong, powerful training for our youths so they can really understand what's going on in this world. All of these kids need help," said Pulliam, 44, who was laid off in August as a recreation coordinator for the Camden Housing Authority because of budget cuts.
She and others in run-down New Jersey cities say job creation and affordable housing are also among the priorities for revitalization.
To attract urban voters, each candidate has outlined his vision to help ailing cities.
Schundler has been campaigning on his achievements in Jersey City, where he was mayor for eight years.
"We can help Newark, Paterson, Camden and Elizabeth experience new job growth by implementing the same type of policies that we implemented in Jersey City," he told the state NAACP at its annual convention in Cherry Hill last month.
Schundler said bringing in developers, building more charter schools, lowering crime, and reducing taxes in urban areas would bring people back to cities.
McGreevey, who is mayor of Woodbridge, said more private-sector investment and the creation of enterprise zones would help struggling inner cities.
"As cities revive, their reliance on state aid decreases, benefitting not just their own residents but taxpayers statewide," he said.
Revitalizing cities means providing the necessities to satisfy existing residents while offering incentives to lure new residents and businesses.
"It involves transformation from an old-economy manufacturing center into a new-economy, information-based job center," said James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
For Jeffrey Thomas, 36, of Newark, the revitalization priority for the governor elected on Nov. 6 should be increasing job-training and employment opportunities for people such as him.
He was a computer technician for Continental Airlines but was laid off after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Thomas, who does not own a car and relies on public transportation to look for work, said: "Most of the jobs are at least 20 or 30 miles from here. We're hard workers, and we deserve a chance to make our communities a little more stable."
To stimulate urban job growth, Schundler proposes eliminating the capital-gains tax on the appreciation in value of properties that are developed and sold.
"The zero capital gains for property investment will bring investment back," he said.
"If someone goes [into an urban area] and builds a plant there, they will have zero capital gains on that plant. That will bring investment back. We will lower unemployment, and we will empower people to take better care of their families."
McGreevey is pushing for the creation of "tax free" renaissance zones in distressed areas - a concept that Pennsylvania and Michigan have used to give new businesses tax breaks. He said he also would push for Economic Development Zones for suburbs that are losing residents and businesses.
"In these [economic-development] zones, all the increased state taxes generated by new development would be reinvested in the zones for building roads, improving mass-transit facilities, redeveloping abandoned industrial sites, building affordable housing, or developing parks," he said.
At 72, John Walker, a retired casino worker, said he envisioned an Atlantic City where more affordable housing would be built.
His dream is to own a single-family home for him and his wife, Dolores.
He said the next governor would have "to do more in cleaning up cities, making housing available, and working with lower taxes."
"We have a lot of homeless," said Walker, who lives in the Inlet, one of the most impoverished parts of Atlantic City.
Police "chase them out from under the Boardwalk because they don't want tourists to see them."
Schundler said revenue from the increase in Jersey City's waterfront development had enabled the city to build more affordable housing and helped the homeless resettle in transitional housing.
McGreevey is proposing to increase affordable housing by leveraging state funds to attract private investment. He said that whenever a new commercial development generates tax growth for the state, the added revenue would be channeled back to the community to build affordable housing.
Whatever the next governor incorporates to help spur inner-city revitalization, he will face a special case in Camden, which is New Jersey's poorest and neediest city.
State lawmakers are considering a controversial bill that would pump millions of dollars into the city in exchange for state control of the municipal government.
Schundler and McGreevey have said they do not support such a state takeover of Camden.
Instead, each proposes a "partnership" between the state and Camden.
Schundler cited a shopping-center project he spearheaded in one of Jersey City's poorest neighborhoods as an example of what can be re-created in Camden. He said the project had relied on $150 million in city, state and federal dollars, leveraged with private capital. It now includes a large supermarket, a post office, and a number of African American-owned businesses.
"That was a partnership between the city and neighborhood people who were guiding the investment," Schundler said.
"It was not the city coming in and saying, 'This is how we're going to do things.' "
To McGreevey, small businesses, such as Giovanni's Cyber Cafe at 124 N. Sixth St., are the key to Camden's future. The coffee shop was opened two months ago by YaVanea Gonzalez with help from the Latin American Economic Development Association.
"The point is, you have to reduce the cost of doing business in Camden," McGreevey said during a visit to the shop. "The state must also recognize the need to provide incentives for small businesses."
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