What he's saying is if it works there, in middle income suburbs, imagine what would happen if we applied it to truly distressed communities. As another example, some older communities are seeing huge increases in construction dollar spending, thanks to a new rehab code introduced by the Dept. of Community Affairs. The code wasn't billed as a smart growth action, but it is clearly benefiting existing communities that might otherwise have lost out to newer areas for construction dollars. That's happening in the office buildings in Newark. There are still some disparities.
Inequities exist for very specific reasons.
In the South Bronx we have a rail station but it is not used. It has never occurred to the metro authority to use that station as a route to get neighborhood people to jobs. They are only concerned about getting middle income people to the city and back. The state plan should encourage people to do community planning. The Urban Coordinating Councils have been the partners in this.