We started work on the Fourth Regional Plan by conducting surveys, convened focus groups and talked to a wide range of community, civic, business and public-sector leaders to better understand the needs and concerns of everyone who calls the metropolitan area home.

What emerged was a paradox.

People in the New York City metropolitan region love where they live, and they believe in the region’s future potential. They have seen the region face daunting challenges over the past generation and come back even stronger. This was true for everyone we spoke with: rich and poor, city dweller and suburbanite, young and old, families and single people.

But people also said they were losing faith.

Regardless of where they lived or how much money they made, many said life was becoming too expensive, housing and jobs were too difficult to find, and the social divisions in our society were too deep.

Most distressing was the feeling that we could not solve these problems. 

The fourth plan is about how we can secure a safe and prosperous future for the next generation if we break free from thinking that these problems are too big or too complex to solve. But first we must shake off our old habits and assumptions and have a bold plan of action that considers the needs of everyone in our region. The Fourth Regional Plan is a roadmap to making the region work for all of us.

It takes a village.

The fourth plan was the product of a whole movement of effective and thoughtful leaders on community, transportation, housing, environmental and governance issues. It is these leaders and their successors who need to be empowered and motivated to make change over the next decade. Help us get the Fourth Regional Plan in their hands!