Executive Summary of Great Falls Neighborhood Plan 2022-2032 (20 pages)

The Great Falls Neighborhood A 10 Year Plan • 2022–2032 Paterson, New Jersey Proposed Strategies and Activities

Our Stakeholders SPECIAL THANKS to everyone who participated in our stakeholder meetings leading to the creation of this plan, especially residents. Your input has been essential to the making of the Great Falls Neighborhood Plan!

Consultants Jason Rowe Diane Sterner New Jersey Community Capital

Education Gilman Choudhury Martín Dominguez Lorennys Garcia Jennifer Guizar Michael Hill Enrique Noguera Dr. Curtis Palmore Erica Plaza Mohammed Uddin

Local Businesses Jeff Abrams Mery K. Aguilar Manoucheka JeanBaptiste Allyson Burzinski Migdalia Campos Carmen D. Carroll Jorge Cortez Kenny Disla Jose A. Estrella Yan Carlos Filpo Elio Gencarelli Jolanda Gonzalez Josephine Grambone Aracely Gutierrez Victor Hernandez Claudia Herrera Bernal Eliot Jeri Juan E. Lopez

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Marco Marure George McLoof Victor M. Morales Diana Navarro Juan Carlos Nova Leomar Paulino Lilliam Rodriguez Victor D. Ruiz Antonio Sanchez Lawrence C. Stabile Khoder Itani Maria Sudario Abbas Uddin Olga Vargas Carlos Vera Matilde Vera Miguel Victoria

Government Gianfranco Archimede Michael Lysicatos Michael Powell William Rodriguez

Neighborhood Residents Mufti Ahmed Cortea Akens Nazma Begum Alma Begum Coral Colon Lizbeth Contreras Carolyn Cruz Raquel De la Cruz KaShena Fabor Sonji Lopez

Maria Sanchez Charletta Maye Jessenia Medina Duran Norma Daniel ‘DJ’ Osorio Kenya Percival Myriam Quiroz Beatriz Renjifo Jessica Schutte Hannah Tannin Gladys Urena Aida Vasquez Janet Velazquez

NJCDC Mike Cassidy Michael De Blasio David Gelman Eddie Gonzalez Robert Guarasci Tamara Lugo Lety Reyes Tiffany Shepherd Cristina Tone Valerie Trawinski

Non-Profit Darren Boch Jennifer Brady Marie Caliendo Carolyn McCombs Kenneth M. Morris, Jr. Heather Thompson Martin Vergara Jim Walsh Leonard Zax

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

January, 202 Dear Friend of NJCDC: NJCDC’s new Great Falls Neighborhood Plan is the result of approximately 18 months of work with local residents who live in one of the most diverse and dynamic neighborhoods anywhere in our state. The plan is one that is resident-driven, and the six overarching goals that the plan articulates are entirely reflective of the priorities of local residents. While we may have had to develop our plan over a virtual platform due to the ongoing pandemic, the final product flows from dozens of topic-driven conversations with residents, focus groups with community stakeholders, and surveys.

Paterson, founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1792 as our country’s first planned industrial city, is a city on the rebound. Once a leading center of commerce and industry, Paterson today faces many of the same challenges common throughout urban centers in our state and nation. But there is significant hope and opportunity in front of us. Our population is growing, as documented by the latest census, and our city is home to a wide diversity of residents hailing from countries as different as Peru and Bangladesh. The Great Falls Neighborhood, which is the focus of this plan, is just as diverse and--with the Great Falls of the Passaic River and the surrounding national park at its epicenter--is an attractive and exciting place to work, visit, and call home.

We invite you to delve into this plan and learn about the Great Falls Neighborhood, and the goals, strategies, and activities that the community has established as our priorities for the next decade. I believe that these goals—while ambitious—are entirely attainable as NJCDC continues to facilitate board community and stakeholder participation to reach our objectives.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in this process, most notably local residents who dedicated considerable time and effort to make this plan possible. After reviewing it, I hope you agree that the Great Falls Neighborhood is as unique and promising a place as we believe it is—and while we have work to do to make it better—we are all ready and excited at the task before us.

Sincerely,

Robert Guarasci Chief Executive Officer

Building Address 32 Spruce Street Paterson, NJ 07501 Mailing Address PO Box 6976 Paterson, NJ 07509 T 973 413 1616 F 973 413 1640 E rguarasci@njcdc.org W www.njcdc.org

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The Great Falls of the Passaic River

Executive Summary

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Executive Summary Introduction About Our Neighborhood The Great Falls Neighborhood of Paterson, New Jersey is a community of 13,423 people who reside in the blocks to the east and the west of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.

The neighborhood has a rich history: It was a planned industrial city, envisioned by the first U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. During the 19th and early 20th century, its manufacturing mills were powered by water diverted from the Passaic River above the Falls which ran through its raceway system—an engineering marvel in its time. The neighborhood was the home to waves of immigrants who labored in the mills—and who stood up, through labor organizing and strikes, to demand respect and their fair share of the abundance they helped produce.

Today, the people and families who make up the neighborhood are diverse—59% Hispanic, 17% Asian, and 14% African American—and young, with more than one in four residents under the age

of 18, and with roughly as many residents under the age of 5 as residents age 65 and older. Nearly half of the population is foreign born, coming from countries like Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, and Peru. Half of the population speaks Spanish in their household, and one in five residents speaks Bangladeshi.

Despite high rates of employment, the neighborhood is poor, with a 30% poverty rate and a median annual household income of between $35,000 and $40,000. 84% of households rent their homes, and, despite nearly 20% of households receiving some form of housing subsidy, residents face issues related to housing quality and affordability.

Notwithstanding these challenges, the neighborhood community today, like its predecessors, has fought its way forward—building community, advocating for itself, and creating opportunities for improvement.

City of Paterson, New Jersey

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Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

GREAT FALLS NEIGHBORHOOD Proposed Strategies and Activities – 2022

Map of the Great Falls Neighborhood Geography The Great Falls Neighborhood is a one-square mile area located in the central-western section of Paterson, NJ. The neighborhood straddles both sides of the Passaic River, with the Great Falls National Historic Park functioning as the neighborhood’s center. In addition to the National Historic Park, the neighborhood includes the western edge of downtown Paterson, the Great Falls Historic District, with its historic mill buildings and raceway infrastructure, S.U.M. Island, and a number of commercial and residential areas.

Irregular in shape, Union Avenue serves as the neighborhood’s northwestern border and West Broadway serves as its northeastern border. The neighborhood’s eastern edge continues south down Main Street until reaching Grand Street, at which point the boundary continues further East until arriving at the railroad tracks and continuing southward. Interstate 80 serves as the neighborhood’s southern border east of the Passaic River until New Street. The riverfront itself serves as the southern border for the neighborhood’s western half.

Neighborhood Boundary

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

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Executive Summary About NJCDC For over 28 years, New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC) has embraced the Great Falls Neighborhood and has been working hand-in-hand with local residents to improve conditions. As a local non-profit organization focused on the neighborhood and serving more than 4,000 children and families each day through a variety of programs and services, the Great Falls Neighborhood is NJCDC’s home. Throughout its history, NJCDC has worked with community residents and stakeholders to develop housing, community facilities, parks, schools, workforce programs, and— most importantly—community leaders.

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In 2008, NJCDC convened a resident-driven neighborhood planning process to develop the neighborhood’s first neighborhood plan. Over the past fifteen years, NJCDC and residents have made significant progress implementing this neighborhood plan, building over 200 units of housing; hosting numerous block parties and community events; beautifying the neighborhood with murals and gardens; improving parks and building playgrounds; launching the Neighborhood Help Center for educational and know-your-rights training; and enhancing leadership-development efforts.

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

GREAT FALLS NEIGHBORHOOD Proposed Strategies and Activities – 2022

A Community-Driven Plan

Time of Opportunity

In 2020, NJCDC launched a new communitydriven neighborhood planning process to develop a renewed set of strategies and activities and build on the foundation that had already been set. Key to this foundation were the community leaders who worked with NJCDC and who formed the backbone of this planning effort.

This neighborhood plan arrives at a particularly opportune time for the Great Falls Neighborhood.

The neighborhood is riding a wave of hundreds of millions of dollars in private and public investment. This investment is further enhancing an already asset-rich environment. There is political will across levels of government to support the neighborhood’s improvement, and strong community leadership, honed through over a decade of NJCDC led neighborhood revitalization work and an intensive, community-driven planning process.

With a track record of getting things done, NJCDC has shown its capacity and effectiveness as a lead organization in these revitalization efforts, and has formed a budding partnership with St. Joseph’s Health that promises to improve the health of the community in more ways than one.

Over the course of 18 months in 2020 and 2021, in the midst of the COVID pandemic—NJCDC and community leaders met to discuss priorities and key issues, and to develop proposed strategies and activities to advance the neighborhood. These community leaders also incorporated other stakeholders into the process—including local business owners, public officials, non-profits serving the community—to obtain their unique insight. Supported by NJCDC, residents also surveyed a representative sample of neighborhood households and the property conditions of every single parcel in the neighborhood. All told, over 600 neighborhood residents participated in this planning process, which included 17 community meetings and stakeholder focus groups.

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

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Executive Summary

Great Falls Neighborhood Snapshot Overall Population

13,423 People

Households

3,526 Households

Living in “Group Quarters”

7% of Total Population

Percent of Total Population

Hispanic

59.9%

Income Median Household Income

$35,000-$39,000

Poverty Rate

30.8%

Age

Percent of Total Population

Under 18 Years Old

27.7%

Age 18-64

61.8%

Housing

% of Households

Age 65+

10.5%

Homeowners

16.0%

Renters

84.0%

Receiving Some Form of Housing Subsidy

19.5%

Race

Percent of Total Population

Some Other Race

35.3%

White

30.5%

Asian

16.8%

African American

13.9%

Two or More Races

3.2%

Foreign Born/ Language

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Ethnicity

Foreign-Born

44.7% of Total Population

Language Other Than English Spoken At Home

72.2% of Total Population (Spanish: 49.1%; “Indo-European” [Bangladeshi]: 23.1%)

Limited English Proficiency

38.2% of Population Age 5 and Older

Education Have at least a High School Degree (Age 25 and Older)

69.3%

Have at least a Bachelors Degree (Age 25 and Older)

11.0%

Employment Employment-Population Ratio, Age 24-54

67.0%

Workers Age 20 and Older Employed Full-time, Year-Round

70.6%

(Source: 2015-2019 US Census American Community Survey Five-Year Estimates)

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

GREAT FALLS NEIGHBORHOOD Proposed Strategies and Activities – 2022

Summary of Goals and Strategies Goal 1. Empowered Community Strategy 1.1: Conduct Effective and Empowering Community Organizing Community organizing is essential to creating a truly empowered community. This strategy looks to create a broader more focused and structured community organizing program, that will be integrated into all of NJCDC’s activities.

Strategy 1.2: Support Resident-Led Community Initiatives An empowered community is able to take direct initiative to improve the neighborhood through organizing projects and other community-improvement efforts. This strategy supports residents in carrying out these types of projects and efforts, including trash clean ups, beautification projects that plant trees or apply fresh paint to eyesores, or resident-organized block parties that bring neighbors together.

Strategy 1.3: Continue and Enhance the Neighborhood Help Center as a Community Hub This strategy expands the reach and impact of NJCDC’s Neighborhood Help Center. The Center will extend its hours and open satellite sites. The Center will also increase its service offerings to place greater focus on community organizing and immigrant integration as well as financial literacy and budgeting.

Strategy 1.4: Improve Public Safety Great Falls residents identify public safety as an especially pressing community issue. Starting from the goal of an empowered community, this strategy will empower neighborhood residents to address public safety issues by working directly with the police, City officials, and other residents employing a diverse set of tactics.

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

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Executive Summary

Goal 2. Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy 2.1: Support Local Businesses and Commercial Corridors The Great Falls Neighborhood has a number of retail and restaurant corridors that serve the community by providing residents with groceries, meals, personal services, and other consumer needs. This strategy will help strengthen local businesses both individually and collectively by connecting businesses to resources and capital, enhancing the look and feel of retail districts, and attracting visitors through joint marketing efforts.

Strategy 2.2: Promote Tourism Opportunities Created by the National Park to Spur Economic Development and Revitalization The Great Falls National Historical Park is a tremendous neighborhood asset that brings visitors from around the country into the Great Falls Neighborhood on a daily basis. However, the neighborhood is not yet fully capturing the potential economic benefit of the National Park. This strategy seeks to better position the neighborhood to realize these economic benefits while also enhancing the options and experience of visitors to the National Park.

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Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

GREAT FALLS NEIGHBORHOOD Proposed Strategies and Activities – 2022

Strategy 2.3: Improve Parks and Recreational Assets There are a number of other parks and recreational assets in the neighborhood that suffer from under-utilization and are in significant need of improvement. This strategy looks to improve quality of life for neighborhood residents and give them more opportunities for living healthy lifestyles by making these improvements and upgrades to the neighborhood’s parks and green spaces so that they are inclusive, healthy places.

Strategy 2.4: Help Residents Access and Create Good Jobs Despite working consistently, Great Falls residents generally earn relatively low wages. Helping residents access higher wage jobs has major potential to transform the neighborhood. This strategy seeks to achieve this through education and training, partnerships with employers, and labor rights organizing.

Strategy 2.5: Facilitate Large-Scale, Strategic Economic Development Projects at Key Neighborhood Sites With the neighborhood attracting tremendous levels of investment and development, community leaders have an important role to play in helping to define and facilitate future large-scale economic development projects in the neighborhood. This strategy aims first to cultivate and maintain a policy and planning environment that promotes positive, equitable redevelopment.

Strategy 2.6: Implement and Improve Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Infrastructure Given its density, the Great Falls Neighborhood has great potential to be a walkable, bikeable neighborhood. Unfortunately, the neighborhood currently lacks critical pedestrian and cycling safety infrastructure to fully achieve this potential.

This strategy looks to change that.

NJCDC CEO Bob Guarasci with our charter school students

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

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Executive Summary Goal 3. Education and Youth Development Strategy 3.1: Expand the Full-Service Community School Model The Full-Service Community School Model has proven hugely successful in supporting students and their families through extended school day hours, social and health services, family strengthening activities, and educational and personal development programs. This strategy seeks to expand the full-service community school model to all of the neighborhood’s K-12 schools and expand the offerings of current programs

Strategy 3.2: Host a Broad Array of Education and Youth Development Programs Over the past decade, NJCDC has cultivated a core set of youth development programs. Despite the impact of these efforts, neighborhood youth still face obstacles to achieving their full potential, often struggling with issues related to poverty, parental immigration status, mental and emotional health, limited adult mentors who have completed college, and other factors. This strategy seeks to continue and enhance these educational and youth development efforts to support neighborhood youth from early childhood through college and career readiness.

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Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

GREAT FALLS NEIGHBORHOOD Proposed Strategies and Activities – 2022

Goal 4. Quality, Affordable Housing Strategy 4.1: Develop Quality, Affordable Housing within the Neighborhood Housing affordability is a major issue for Great Falls Residents. This strategy seeks to develop a diverse mix of quality, affordable housing to meet the needs of the neighborhood.

Strategy 4.3: Promote Homeownership Recognizing the importance of homeownership, this strategy seeks to maintain and increase the homeownership rate in the community, with a particular emphasis on helping existing neighborhood families prepare for and achieve homeownership.

Strategy 4.2: Tenant Rights Education, Assistance, and Advocacy The vast majority (84%) of neighborhood households rent their homes. Great Falls renters experience a number of challenges, from affordability to issues related to quality, health and safety, maintenance, and habitability. To confront these challenges, this strategy will provide tenant rights education; support tenant rights cases; and advocate for enactment and enforcement of City policies that better protect tenants.

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

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Executive Summary Goal 5. Vibrant Arts, Culture, and Recreation

diversity through ethnic heritage festivals and parades. These efforts will beautify the neighborhood, inspire community pride, and build unity.

Strategy 5.1: Elevate the Arts as a Major Driver of Neighborhood Revitalization

Strategy 5.3: Develop and Open the Paterson Youth Arts Center

The arts have significant potential to support the revitalization of the Great Falls Neighborhood given the neighborhood’s physical, natural, cultural, and human assets. However, for the arts to achieve their full potential as a driver of the revitalization of the Great Falls Neighborhood, they need to be further elevated within the community and aligned with other key factors impacting neighborhood life.

Strategy 5.2: Curate the Neighborhood with Arts and Cultural Works and Events This strategy seeks the production, display, and performance of works of arts and culture throughout the neighborhood. It also looks to share and celebrate the neighborhood’s cultural and ethnic

NJCDC is in the initial phases of an adaptive reuse project to transform the historic First Presbyterian Church into the Paterson Youth Arts Center. This strategy seeks to achieve this asset’s full potential, by completing the construction of the Paterson Youth Arts Center and enriching it with programming.

Strategy 5.4: Continue and Expand Existing Arts Programming This strategy seeks to expand our arts programming as a means of engaging more local residents, providing creative programming for neighborhood youth, and showcasing the rich array of talent that exists in Paterson.

NJCDC’s 25th Anniversary Concert at the Great Falls

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Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

GREAT FALLS NEIGHBORHOOD Proposed Strategies and Activities – 2022

Strategy 5.5: Enhance Recreational Opportunities in Neighborhood Parks and Beyond Parks feel safer and more enjoyable when they are actively used by community members. They also are spaces where community members can gather together, engage in healthy physical activity, and improve their mental health through exposure to fresh air, sunlight, and nature. In order to bring more people to the parks in the Great Falls Neighborhood and encourage their use, this strategy proposes holding a wide range of programs in the parks.

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

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Executive Summary Goal 6. Promote Health and Wellbeing Strategy 6.1: Promote Access to Health Services Building a strong and resilient community requires ensuring that residents have access to health care services. This strategy will expand residents’ access to existing health care services and

address the gaps and barriers that exist within the current health care service infrastructure.

Future Barclay Street Healthy Homes Project

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Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

GREAT FALLS NEIGHBORHOOD Proposed Strategies and Activities – 2022

Strategy 6.2: Support Healthy Lifestyles Health is about more than just accessing health care services—it is about living a healthy lifestyle.

Through education and programing, this strategy will support community residents and families in

living heathier lifestyles, thus building a stronger and more resilient community in the Great Falls Neighborhood.

Great Falls Neighborhood – Proposed Strategies and Activities 2022

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NJCDC’s Board of Trustees Donald F. Buckley, Chair TD Bank

Nita Das S&P Global

William Pascrell, III Princeton Public Affairs Group

Anthony Coscia, Vice Chair Windels Marx

Etta Denk Bank of America

Kenyatta Stewart, Esq. City of Newark

David Berninger, Treasurer ICBC

Robert Garrison Laborers’ International Union

Martin Vergara II Morgan Stanley

Carline Morrison, Secretary BD

Robert Guarasci, Ex-Officio NJCDC Founder & CEO

Eric Daleo Gateway Development Commission

Victor J. Herlinsky, Jr. Sills Cummis

New Jersey Community Development Corporation 32 Spruce Street, Paterson, New Jersey 07501 Phone: 973-413-1600 • Fax: 973-413-1640 E-mail: info@njcdc.org • Website: www.njcdc.org