From City & State: Gerrymandering Jersey City Unemployment to Help Kushner Projects in Jersey City

Remember the "Bed-Stuy Boomerang" I uncovered in 2011, which was used to gerrymander an area of high unemployment to enable cheap EB-5 financing from immigrant investors for Atlantic Yards?

Well, such gerrymandering continues, and in my essay in City & State, I explain how that was done for a couple of very high-profile EB-5 projects, those involving the Kushner Companies in Jersey City, one branded as Trump Bay Street: HOW JERSEY CITY UNEMPLOYMENT WAS GERRYMANDERED TO HELP KUSHNER PITCH INVESTOR VISAS:

It shouldn't be a surprise. Like some other real estate developers, the Kushner Companies, builders of two luxury apartment projects in Jersey City and owned by the family of President Trump’s aide and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have gamed the EB-5 investor visa system, getting their buildings officially located in zones of high unemployment – thanks to creative mapmaking.
These maps, previously unreported, connect Kushner's 65 Bay Street project, marketed as Trump Bay Street, and the proposed One Journal Squaredevelopment to Jersey City's poorer southern section.

These strange maps, perfectly legal for now, string census tracts south into shapes like a club or wobbly walking stick. The practice raises more questions about a program that is supposed to create jobs but often serves the private interests of investors, the project developer and the middlemen. The recent criticism of the Kushner family's efforts in China has highlighted how EB-5 marketers push the ethical envelope to recruit investors.

For the rest of the article, click here.

Here are backing documents describing the census tracts at issue and the unemployment rates.