Regional Plan Association

Think tank in the US

Regional Plan Association
A color coordinated map of the 31 counties from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut that are under the purview of the Regional Plan Association
31-county area[1]
AbbreviationRPA
Formation1922
TypeNon-Profit
PurposeRegional planning
HeadquartersManhattan, New York, New York
Region served
New York metropolitan area USA
President
Thomas K Wright
Staff
30
Websiterpa.org

The Regional Plan Association is an independent, not-for-profit regional planning organization, founded in 1922, that focuses on recommendations to improve the quality of life and economic competitiveness of a 31-county New York–New Jersey–Connecticut region in the New York metropolitan area.[1] Headquartered in New York City, it has offices in Princeton, New Jersey, and Stamford, Connecticut.[2]

Regional plans

RPA has produced four strategic regional plans for the New York metropolitan region since the 1920s. The chronology of their plans is as follows:

  1. The First Plan in 1929, developed under the leadership of Thomas Adams, provided a guide for the area's road and transportation network.[3]
  2. The Second Plan, published as a series of reports in the 1960s, aimed at restructuring mass transit and reinvigorating deteriorating urban centers.
  3. The Third Plan in 1996, "A Region at Risk," recommended improving regional mass transit, increasing protection of open space and maintaining employment in traditional urban centers.
  4. The Fourth Plan in 2017 suggested improving the area's transportation network, making more affordable housing, implementing measures to fight climate change, and restructure the area's public institutions.[4]

Planning philosophy

The RPA program represents a philosophy of planning described by historian Robert Fishman as "metropolitanism," associated with the Chicago School of Sociology. It promotes large scale, industrial centers and the concentration of population rather than decentralized development. Its critics point out that this results in windfall real estate profits for downtown interests. Whether this approach to regional planning is efficient, particularly because of the infrastructure and energy required to sustain such concentration, has been questioned by scholars including James Howard Kunstler.[3]

Impact in the Tri-state area

Regional Plan Association's strategic plans have proposed numerous ideas and investments for the New York metropolitan area that have turned into major public works, economic development and open space projects, including:

  • The location of the George Washington Bridge.[5]
  • The preservation of the Palisades and the construction of the Palisades Interstate Parkway.[6]
  • The redevelopment of Governors Island, through the RPA-led coalition Governors Island Alliance.[7]
  • The establishment of urban national parks like the Gateway National Recreation Area in Jamaica Bay.
  • The creation of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system in Hudson County, New Jersey[8]
  • The revitalization of the regional centers like Downtown Brooklyn, Newark, and Stamford.[9]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Danielson & Doig 1982, pp. 35–37.
  2. ^ "Contact - Regional Plan Association". Regional Plan Association. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Fishman 2000, pp. 65–88.
  4. ^ "Fourth Regional Plan - Regional Plan Association". Regional Plan Association. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  5. ^ "For Hudson Bridge Above 125th Street". The New York Times. December 28, 1923. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  6. ^ Binnewies, Robert O. (2001). Palisades: 100,000 Acres in 100 Years. Fordham University Press. p. 203. Retrieved October 7, 2014. It has also been my hope that a strip of this land of adequate width might ultimately be developed as a parkway, along the general lines.
  7. ^ Governors Island Alliance. "Our Mission".
  8. ^ "Spinal Tap". The Broadsheet. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  9. ^ Regional Plan Association. "Shaping the Region". Retrieved October 20, 2014.

Bibliography

  • Danielson, Michael N.; Doig, Jameson W. (1982). New York The Politics of Urban Regional Development. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 1–352. ISBN 0-520-04371-5. OCLC 300399555.
  • Fishman, Robert (2000). "Chapter 3: The Metropolitan Tradition in American Planning". In Fishman, Robert (ed.). The American Planning Tradition: Culture and Policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 65–88. ISBN 0-943875-95-1. OCLC 606524089.

Further reading

  • Hiss, Tony; Yaro, Robert (1996). A region at risk: the third regional plan for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. p. 281. ISBN 1-55963-492-8. OCLC 474182259.
  • Johnson, David A. (1995). Planning the Great Metropolis: The 1929 regional plan of New York and its environs. London: Routledge. p. 299. ISBN 0-419-19010-4. OCLC 473189260.

External links

  • Official website
  • Guide to the Regional Plan Association Records, 1919–1997
  • v
  • t
  • e
Public transitPrivate transitMajor
construction
projects
Currently operating
Canceled
Proposed/Future
Traffic proposalsOperators
Public
Current
Defunct
Private
OrganizationsOther
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
International
  • FAST
  • ISNI
  • VIAF
National
  • France
  • BnF data
  • Israel
  • United States
  • Czech Republic
Artists
  • ULAN
Other
  • IdRef
frontpage hit counter