I am a holistic urbanist, affordable housing developer, charter school co-founder, and essayist. For more than 30 years, I have worked at the intersection of housing, education, history, and culture—exploring how cities grow, how communities thrive, and how the stories we inherit shape the places we build.

Through RCG Companies, LLC, the integrated platform I founded, I bring together affordable housing development, adaptive reuse, cultural strategy rooted in African American maritime and waterfront heritage, and urban research and thought leadership. I believe development is both practical and philosophical. Projects must be financially sound, but they should also strengthen communities, honor history, and expand opportunity.

I am also the co-founder and CEO of Dr. Lena Edwards Academic Charter School in Jersey City, the first private school in New Jersey to transition to a public charter school. Today, the school serves nearly 400 students in grades K–8. My work in education reflects the same conviction that guides my work in development: schools, like housing, are essential civic infrastructure. Communities flourish when they invest in both.

My work has convinced me that building thriving communities is about far more than buildings. It is about expanding opportunity, preserving memory, strengthening institutions, and creating places where people can flourish. I believe storytelling is as essential to creating thriving communities as finance, policy, or design because the stories we tell about places shape what becomes possible within them.

This is where the threads of that work come together.

Here you’ll find reflections on urbanism and equitable development, African American history and cultural reclamation, maritime heritage, public space, jazz, and the enduring relationship between people, place, and memory. Whether I am writing about affordable housing, Black waterfront communities, or the legacy of a neighborhood, I am ultimately exploring the same question:

How do we create places where people and communities can thrive?

I explore that question through a monthly essay published on Substack.

Essays delivered to your inbox: subscribe at christophergarlin.substack.com.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you’ll read, reflect, and join the conversation.