FYI: Jersey City’s City Council has passed a law that requires all developers who get tax breaks to also donate to an affordable housing trust fund, according to the local ACORN chapter. Ever since he made a campaign promise in 2001 to get behind the idea – known as “linkage” — ACORN has pushed Mayor Glenn Cunningham, the city’s first black mayor, to make good on his word. In recent years, Jersey City has seen increasing development, both commercial and luxury housing. Community development and housing advocates, while opposing tax abatements for such development, calculated that the best way to get an affordable housing trust fund codified was by tying the two together. In the early 1980s, Jersey City was a pioneer in “linkage.” At the time, the policy’s legality wasn’t clear, so the city crafted informal relationships with developers to win affordable housing donations. [10/1/03]