ORANGE, NJ — Housing and Neighborhood Development Services held a Heart of Orange virtual focus group on economic development on Nov. 17 to discuss what would benefit the city in terms of bringing jobs, economic development and better business to Orange.
HANDS Director of Programs Khady Ndiaye hosted the meeting and drew attendees’ attention to the meeting’s focus area in Orange, the area encompassed by Park Avenue to Glenwood Avenue to South Center Street to Central Avenue to Scotland Road and High Street, back to Park Avenue.
“We just have the map of the new Heart of Orange expanded boundary that we’re going to be proposing for the neighborhood plan, just so everyone can see which area we are talking about when asking these questions,” Ndiaye said during the meeting. “The job and development portion of our focus groups, we’re just going to be going over a snapshot of the neighborhood employment, and the business community will have a discussion around jobs, businesses and what it means to have a local living economy.”
Ndiaye also asked for attendees’ thoughts on “some of the activities that HANDS is currently doing, to get feedback on how it works and what additional resources would look like as an extension.”
Ndiaye stressed the importance of local businesses hiring from within the community and of local consumers supporting these businesses.
“How you create a local living economy is residents choosing to shop local vs. shopping at a chain store,” she said. “For every $100 someone spends at a local business, they (give) $58 to the local economy, vs. a chain that (gives) only $33 to the local economy.
“If residents change at least 10 percent of their shopping to local, it’ll increase the local economy. It’s like a cycle, and it’s pouring back to your community in order to make it richer.”
After the forum opened for public comment, one resident suggested that the area needs a reliable grocery store with high-quality items at affordable prices. Another resident suggested building communities around businesses through events and activities, while another resident suggested that businesses create surveys for feedback.
New Jersey Community Capital senior communities strategy consultant Jason Rowe, who partners with HANDS’ neighborhood planning initiative, focused on employment in small businesses during the meeting.
“Eighty-one percent of residents between the ages of 25 and 54 worked in the last 12 months, and about half of the people in that age group and three-quarters of that group who have worked, worked full-time year-round,” Rowe said during the meeting. “That’s important, because it gives you a sense of the employment and unemployment rate at the neighborhood level, (in addition to) the federal unemployment rate that we’re all familiar with. It may be too small a sample, but that does give you a snapshot that this is a neighborhood of working families and working people. It also is a neighborhood where the median annual wages, despite the fact that over half of the adults of the prime age range are employed year-round full-time, the median annual wages fall between $25,000 and $30,000 a year. One-third of … the neighborhood residents who work make less than $20,000 a year in total wages, and three-quarters of neighborhood residents who work earn less than $45,000 a year.
“In terms of what type of employer neighborhood residents have, three-quarters of neighborhood residents who work are the employees of a private company. Just over 7 percent are self-employed, evenly split between those who are self-employed in incorporated businesses and those who are self-employed in unincorporated businesses,” he continued. “There’s a sizable share of people who are employed in local and state government work. To give an educational profile of the neighborhood, of neighborhood residents aged 25 and older, 23 percent have not achieved a high school diploma or a GED, 77 percent have at least a high school diploma or GED, and 15 percent of neighborhood residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher.”
According to Rowe, the largest industry sector in which residents work is health care, at 21 percent. This is followed by accommodation and food services, construction, transportation and warehousing, and retail trade. Just under 6 percent of neighborhood residents are employed in educational services. Similarly, top industries in regard to employment in Essex County are health care and social assistance, though educational services ranked highly as well at 13 percent; construction is not a top industry in the county, even though it was one of the top industries in the neighborhood.
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