Ernest Erber Papers

Ernest Erber was born in Chicago on 27 September 1913 from immigrant German stock, whose origins lay in the Polish province of the Russian Empire. His formal education was terminated early in his life, not quite completing the third year of high school. It was the winter of 1930-1931 and being a wage earner was more vital than study. He apprenticed with a newspaper, The Northwest News. The year after, following the presidential election, Erber became active in the Socialist Party.

At various times into the 1940's he chaired the Young People's Socialist League, edited several periodicals and organized and was a member of several labor unions. In the winter of 1932-33 the nineteen year old Erber led local 49 of the Chicago Workers Committee on Unemployment on a sit-in at the local relief station. He taught labor history under the WPA program and in 1936 was political representative of the American Socialists in Spain.

By this time he had become the publicist of numerous tracts, including "Plenty for all: the case for socialism." In 1946-1947, in New York City, he served on a citizen committee to save the subway fare. Also at the time he undertook research on real estate tax policy, land values, home-job locational factors, etc. He became involved with a group of young urban planners organized into an urban research group seeking an advocacy role.

In 1949, the Passaic Valley Citizens Planning Association was founded (currently the Planning Association of North Jersey). After reorganization the following year, Erber was made director. PVCPA sought to promote surveys and studies on population, employment, income, public service, housing, transportation, land use and subdivision, zoning and to encourage the coordination of good planning in these areas.

Early on, PVCPA was involved in the planning of such major projects as that of the New Jersey State Highway 21. Later, when New Jersey undertook to make a study of the potential uses of the Meadowlands, Erber and PVCPA pushed for the creation of a planning board to supervise overall direction. From this effort came the establishment of the Meadowlands Regional Planning Board, the first of this type in the state. Erber opposed the "wasteful" uses of land then (and still) common American development practice. He preferred a redevelopment of existing urban areas, describing the alternative "spread city" lacking complex civic centers and devoid of meaningful community life.1

The projects Erber worked upon required the cooperation of various levels of government, local, county, state and region. They give evidence of his concern for a unity of economics, environment and social well being.

In 1960, the Regional Plan Association (RPA), an organization formed in 1930, decided to open a chapter in northern New Jersey. Erber was offered the position, which he accepted, as Area Director of the New Jersey Chapter.

In this period Erber served as an Associate Director and Technical Advisor to the N.J. Federation of Planning Officials. He was faculty member of Fairleigh Dickinson University and served as consultant to the Urban Studies Center at Rutgers, the State University. He was also consultant to the N.J. Department of Community Affairs, to the Committee to Study County and Municipal Government in New Jersey, Technical Advisor to Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson of Newark, and to the staff of Senator Harrison Williams.

In 1968, he organized the Minority Response Rally in Trenton designed to demonstrate to the legislature that urban housing and education programs had the support of the affluent white citizenry. He was also a founder of the Appalachian Highlands Association (AHA). This organization constructed an ambitious plan to check urban growth by controlling development rights in open areas of the Appalachian range around the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan region. The plan was to bring private lands as well as public under control. Unfortunately, it met the determined resistance of opposing groups—local governments, business concerns, and land owners.

From the early 1950's Ernest Erber has contributed to numerous publications: master plans, municipal codes and ordinances (involving zoning, subdivision housing and building), studies in urban renewal, transportation, land reclamation, flood control, etc. His background study and position paper on New Jersey's total capital needs led to the appointment of the Governor's Capital Needs Commission and the passage of the $900 million bond issue in 1968. Another on the need for state long-range planning of water supply and pollution control led to the appointment of another special commission and passage of a state bond issue the following year. Aside from numerous brochures, article and professional papers he is the author of the book entitled: Jobs and Housing: A Study of Employment and Housing Opportunities for Racial Minorities in Suburban Areas of New York Metropolitan Region, Interim Report (1970), the co-author of Urban Planning in New Jersey (1968), and editor and contributor to Urban Planning in Transition (1970).

In 1953, Ernest Erber became a member of the American Institute of Planners. He assisted in the formation of the organization's New Jersey Chapter. He was also a member of the New Jersey Economic Roundtable, the American Institute of Urban and Regional Affairs. He served on the Board of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing (on the staff from 1969 and after until 1980 served as director). Erber was a member of Newark's Committee of Concern, an organization formed in the wake of the 1967 riots seeking ways to rebuild the framework of community life. He also founded and assisted in chairing the Urban Problems Luncheon Group, composed of professional staff personnel from private corporations and public agencies.

Since leaving RPA Mr. Erber has acted as consultant to government and private agencies in urban affairs.

1Newark Evening News, November 18, 1964 and September 30, 1966.