A new Rutgers Regional Report, "The Receding Metropolitan Perimeter: A New  Postsuburban Demographic Normal," finds many New Jersey counties are experiencing a population decline, while more urbanized areas have been growing rapidly over the past four years.

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"Years ago, cities were dangerous, schools were failing, crime was soaring and mass transit was falling apart, but many urban areas are turning things around and attracting more people," said Rutgers economist James Hughes, one of the authors of the study.

Hughes said New York City is actually at the epicenter of this new population growth, but the trend is also evident in parts of the Garden State.

"The sixtth borough of New York is doing quite well," he said, referring to an area of New Jersey. "This is the Hudson River waterfront, which includes Weehawken, Jersey City and the like. They have bounced back significantly and made significant progress, and we're even seeing some areas of Newark, certainly the Ironbound section but also some of the residential development downtown."

Hughes added that "it's the outer counties that are now shrinking, it's the in-line urban counties where most of the growth is taking place."

He said from 1950 to 1980 we saw dramatic growth in the suburbs, but ever since the end of the Great Recession things have been changing.

"What we have is a new pattern after more than a half-century of dominant suburban growth," Hughes said.

He also pointed out the baby boomer generation represents the workforce of the past, while millennials, gen Y, echo-boomers, "whatever term you want to use," are now front and center in the working world.

"They tend not to want to live in the suburbs, particularly the outer suburbs, such as Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon counties," Hughes said. "They'd much rather live in edgy environments such as Brooklyn and the Hudson River waterfront."

Hughes said at some point younger workers may get urban fatigue and want more space, so they'll head back out of urban areas, "but most likely they're not going to choose the plain vanilla suburban subdivisions their parents favored - but that story isn't written yet."
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