The Inaugural Don Malone Housing Conference – April 23, 2025 at Saint Peter’s University

Don Malone was a Professor of Sociology at Saint Peter’s University for over two decades and an active, informed expert about affordable housing in Jersey City during a period of rapid change. He was a professor who chose his school’s city as a point of research, inviting his students to engage with the community and also taking an active role in writing op-eds for the community to consider.

Sadly, Don passed away on July 9, 2025 after a brief illness; the city lost an important voice on a topic that remains as important now as it was when Don first started writing about it in the early 2000s in Jersey City.

Don was beloved at SPU by colleagues and he is dearly missed. To honor him, and to continue to bring light to a topic that Don cared deeply about, his former colleagues at SPU have created this housing conference which will occur this coming Wednesday, April 23rd at the Roy Irving Theater (located on Montgomery between JFK and West Side). And while I am no longer a full-time professor at SPU, I was honored to be invited to speak at the conference.

I first met Don in 2015 as he was receptive to my articles about property tax abatements on Civic Parent. I was eager to learn from him, having read his op-eds in the Jersey Journal. As a trained sociologist, Don had a unique, and uniquely trained, eye on Jersey City’s redevelopment. He was interested in my perspective on the city’s development from the lens of public tax data, as it provided another perspective on the city’s development trends. Don was, as I would quickly learn, kind, funny, witty, and incredibly down to earth.

Fast-forward a few years; in spring 2024 I was teaching a class at SPU about local government budgeting and public finance for the Master’s in Public Administration program. As part of that class, I collaborated with Dr. Anna Brown of the Department of Political Science to host a series of talks centered around affordability in Jersey City; the series was called “Spring into Civics: Exploring Affordability in Jersey City.” By this point, Don had retired, but he was someone Anna and I were eager to bring back to campus, which we did on March 14, 2024. On that evening, Don shared insights gleaned from more than twenty years of experience teaching. I’m sharing below some photos of his lecture.

It was an informing lecture that contained insights culled from over two decades of research around affordable housing, with specific points of reference to Jersey City’s recent history. It would be the last lecture Don gave at SPU. Don was an important voice who infused his writing with a mixture of empathy and accessibility. He warned repeatedly of the pitfalls of local governance that wasn’t inclusive of those with the means to keep up.

I thought it might be helpful, as both a lead-up to the conference and also as a tribute to Don’s memory, to share a compilation of his own words that have been recorded for posterity on the public record. Many of his insights are captured in op-eds he wrote over the years, but they are also framed by local reporters who sought Don out for expert insight on topics related to development and affordability, and even a SoundCloud interview with Don from the 2014 timeframe.

Don taught at a Jesuit university and his work at SPU illustrated his commitment to the Jesuit ideal of being “a man for others.” And at times he criticized the university, holding his employer’s feet to the fire for not living up to its own principles (listen to the full Soundcloud interview from 2014 to hear his perspective). He wrote with empathy and conviction, rooted in purpose to drive the conversation around affordability forward. I hope this frame helps share some of who Don was, especially for those who may not have the chance to meet him.

Don Malone, in his own words. I’ve sorted this alphabetically by date to share the through line of Don’s perspective. I’ve also created simplified references to make it as readable as possible; click on the links to access the primary references.

• 2009. “Learning from Experience: St. Peter’s Students Engage & Organize the Community” – Huff Post, originally published in The Jersey City Independent. June 22, 2009.

This article details how Don taught his students with an experience-based model (rooted deeply in Jesuit principles). “Connecting with the community is important to us as a college,” Malone noted at the time. Read the article to get a sense of Don’s approach to teaching, and the importance he placed on empathetic listening as a tool to learn and deepen understanding of a complicated topic like affordable housing.

• 2012. “Saint Peter’s University Sociology Prof Says City’s Top-down Policies Shrink Middle Class.” Nj.Com, by Terrence McDonald. October 16, 2012.

This is a good frame on Don’s work. The article states that “Donal Malone, 66, has taught at Saint Peter’s for two decades. A Maplewood resident, he said he chose to delve into the specifics of Jersey City’s waterfront renaissance after noticing the differences between Downtown and the rest of the city.” It goes on to detail how “Malone, who used Census data and statistics from federal agencies and other sources to compile the report, told The Jersey Journal he was shocked to learn how few of the 30,000 jobs created during the waterfront revitalization went to city residents. “What kind of public policy is that?” he said. “How does that rejuvenate the city, except in a very secondary or tertiary way?””

• 2013. “Jersey City: Lessons from Unequal Development.” Shelterforce, by Don Malone. October 15, 2013.

In this paper for “Shelterforce,” Don details the backdrop for Jersey City’s redevelopment from pre-WWII era (as a manufacturing center) to the early 2000s (as a center for the “FIRE” industries of finance, real estate, and insurance). He names affordability as a crisis that must be addressed by local and state government, with concrete steps elected actors can take.

• 2014. “Opinion: Outside Housing Developers Put ‘old’ Jersey City at a Loss”, Nj.Com by Don Malone. January 27, 2014.

In this op-ed from early 2014, Don points to Mayor Fulop’s nascent administration “dedicated to a new and more equitable way of doing business in Jersey City.” He notes that “residents as well as community-based organizations, block associations, religious institutions, nonprofits, business owners and other stakeholders should be part of this process” of redevelopment.

• 2014. “The McGinley Square Project – Dr. Donal Malone – Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies Department. Interview and Soundcloud link from 2014. In this interview, you can hear Don’s voice as he’s interviewed by students from Saint Peter’s University who were compiling insights around a planned 21-story residence tower next to Jersey City’s Armory. The tower was delayed and ultimately was not built (the university would in 2022 open a much smaller building, a bit further east on Montgomery, that was only six stories tall and included only student residences).
  
  This entire project is worth listening to; it shows the value of gaining perspectives from all sides, and it’s a wonderful example of what youth and young adults can contribute. Don’s episode is the twelfth track at the link below:

• 2015. “Jersey City Sees Big Building Boom.” Nj.com by Terrence McDonald. April 16, 2015.

In this article about Jersey City’s “building boom” in the 2015 timeframe, Don sounds an alarm about how “the rapid pace of development threatens to replicate what’s happened in cities like New York and San Francisco, where low- and middle-income residents are struggling to find affordable places to live. It could also threaten local businesses.”

He goes on to note that “a better way to develop Jersey City without pushing out lower income residents would be to work with midsize developers and nonprofits instead of going after boldfaced names like Jared Kushner, who is set to build residential towers on the site of the old headquarters of The Jersey Journal and on the long-vacant lot across the street. “The model is top-down development,” Malone said. “But if you leave it to a relatively free market, it’s always going to go to the most profitable housing, and that is luxury.””

• 2015. “Rebuilding Jersey CIty from the Inside Out. The Case for More Just and Equitable Development.” by Don Malone. October 2015.

In this paper created for a series within The Guarini Institute, Don critiques the Fulop administration, stating “while the current administration may be doing more than previous ones to spread the gains of growth more broadly, its overall top-down approach to redevelopment is similar in perpetuating major inequities.” He reshares the frame on Jersey City’s history that he laid out in the 2013 Shelterforce piece, and calls for actionable ways to create more affordable housing in Jersey City.

• 2016. “Better Ways than Abatements to Address Jersey City’s Affordable Housing Crisis | Opinion.” Nj.com by Don Malone. July 24, 2016.

In this op-ed, Don gives a pulse point on Jersey City’s affordable housing crisis (an issue even back then), critiques a revived tax abatement policy aimed at addressing affordability, and offers alternative solutions (eight that are bulleted at the bottom of the article).

• 2017. “Jersey City’s Real Estate Investment Summit — Investment for Whom? | Opinion.” Nj.com, by Don Malone. November 7, 2017.

In this op-ed, Don shares a critique of the annual ‘Jersey City Summit for Real Estate Investment,” an annual gathering of real estate stakeholders in Jersey City. He also points to the role of civic stakeholders, including Jersey City Together, as a “people power” counterforce to “money power.”

• 2018. “Who Decides How a City Redevelops and Why Does It Matter | Opinion.” Nj.com, by Don Malone. August 9, 2018.

In this op-ed, Don explains the term “cost burdened” as “spending over a third of [one’s] income on housing” and the adverse impact of that burden: making “it difficult for them to pay for other basic needs such as food, clothing, transportation and utilities.” He then explains Jersey City’s role in becoming the “master developer” for Bayfront, a large development site located on Route 440 on Jersey City’s west side. Don was a proponent of the Bayfront plan, explaining in the op-ed his view that “it is important in restoring the role of government in providing essential public goods like housing. As master developer, Jersey City will decide how this property called Bayfront will be developed, not private developers whose interests are at odds with the housing needs of the city’s mostly working class and immigrant families. It is another example of how cities today are attempting to fill in the gaps left the by the federal government’s reduction in support for housing as well as other public needs.”

• 2019. “Make Bayfront a Community Land Trust to Ensure Its Housing Stays Affordable | Opinion.” Nj.com, by Don Malone. July 31, 2019.

In this op-ed, Don further expounds on his views on Bayfront and details how the city can “do much more to ensure that this project serves the needs and interests of most residents” which would include designating “part or all of the site as a “community land trust” (CLT). A CLT is an independent nonprofit organization consisting of community stakeholders such as nonprofits, elected officials and residents that would have the legal right to buy and retain permanent ownership of land for various community needs such as affordable housing, community gardens, parks as well as economic development.”

• 2022. “From the Hudson to the Hackensack, Jersey City Experiencing Another Growth Spurt.” Nj. by Jake Maher. April 10, 2022.

In this article about development in Jersey City, Don lends insight into gentrification in Jersey City in context of a spate of new, green-lit development projects in Jersey City at places like Porte Liberte, Mallory Ave, Culver Ave, and Newport. The article details Don’s perspective:

“Gentrification, he said, is a problem all over the city — though he said the issue is a question of policy, not of blaming “young professionals” for moving in. “They’re just desperate. They’re paying 50%, 60% Downtown,” Malone said. The problem, he added, is that “any time you improve communities, it ends up being more attractive to people who can afford to pay higher prices to move in there.” The question, then, is how to balance those two priorities. But Malone is hopeful it can be done.”

• 2023. “City-Owned Building in Journal Square Can Become Museum, but Should Also Include Affordable Housing | Opinion.” Nj.com, by Don Malone. February 23, 2023.

In this op-ed, Don details how the city can include more affordable housing in Journal Square if the city’s “announcement that the Pathside Building in Journal Square will become an outpost of the Centre Pompidou”. Don details in the op-ed that “While the cost of the museum and its benefit to residents have been questioned, inside and outside of government, if the plan for it proceeds, it should include housing for the city’s workers and families.” He details how “The site on which the Pathside Building sits can be redeveloped to construct a high-rise that would include the museum along with housing for working- and middle-class families. While this may require demolishing the building, the need for housing for residents outweighs any historical significance the building may have.”