We Have a Housing Crisis. This New Jersey Town Has a Solution.

New York City is home to the country’s largest economy, but its suburbs are almost all zoned for single-family homes. That lack of development has resulted in a severe housing shortage in and around the city. But Palisades Park, N.J., is forging a different path.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of this audio essay. To listen to this piece, click the play button below.

We Have a Housing Crisis. This New Jersey Town Has a Solution.

Palisades Park is ending the tyranny of single-family homes.

Binya Appelbaum: My name is Binya Appelbaum, and I write for the editorial board of The New York Times about economic policy issues.

I write a lot about housing because I think it’s a huge problem in this country. We have a critical lack of affordable housing. Trying to put a spotlight on the lack of affordable housing is something I’ve spent a lot of time doing in recent years.

I got an email recently from a guy who works at the American Enterprise Institute and studies housing issues there named Ed Pinto. He said he had a solution to the housing problem confronting this nation. I get a lot of emails like that, but what really struck me about it was he said that he had found that solution in the town where he grew up.