Regions

RPA operates in the 31-county New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region, with offices in New York City, Princeton, N.J. and Stamford, CT, and a representative on Long Island. RPA's project work extends to all corners of the Region, from the Merritt Parkway Trail Alliance in Connecticut to the Long Island Sound Stewardship System to the Civic Alliance in Lower Manhattan and the New Jersey Mayors' Institute in Princeton.

Featured Projects

A collection of maps produced by RPA illustrates the variation in commuting patterns across Connecticut. The maps show the home locations of commuters to Connecticut's largest employment centers. In the case of Hartford, Connecticut's largest center of employment, workers come from all directions, with the heaviest concentration of workers living west and south of Hartford. In contrast, Greenwich's workforce lives primarily within the towns of Greenwich and Stamford along the heavily populated I-95 corridor.

A new groundbreaking study released today by Regional Plan Association shows how the Access to the Region's Core project (ARC), the new trans-Hudson passenger rail tunnel being built by NJ TRANSIT and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will significantly increase New Jersey and New York home values near train stations on the NJ TRANSIT system and MetroNorth's Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines by $19,000 on average if homes are within two miles of train stations and by $29,000 for homes within walking distance. Cumulatively, this increase in home value will be an astonishing $18 billion, creating a higher tax base and relieving pressure to increase tax rates in communities across New Jersey and New York. The report also shows that, because ARC shortens commuting times, the number of people who live west of the Hudson River within a reasonable (50-minute) commute of Midtown Manhattan will double when ARC is completed, expanding the workforce for New York City's highest-value businesses.

Regional Plan Association is pleased to announce the formation of the Better Airports Alliance - a coalition of business, civic, labor and environmental organizations committed to restoring, maintaining and expanding New York Metro region airports.  The Alliance aims to build a consensus for major improvements to JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports, which rank as the country's most congested airports.

Regional Plan Association executive director Tom Wright testified at hearing on the Access to the Region's Core project and use of eminent domain, expressing support for the project. Once opened, ARC will double commuter rail capacity into the region, provide better access to higher paying jobs and be an economic boon to the region improving New York businesses access to the New Jersey labor pool.

Click through for full testimony.

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Video footage and workshop presentations are now available from the first-ever "Municipal Summit on Climate Action" held at Yale University on March 13, 2010.