After 25 years of working in philanthropy, and publishing his final piece in the Nonprofit Quartly two days ago, Rick Cohen is dead at 64; no cause of death has been given.

"In the early 1980s, an urban planner named Rick Cohen arrived at City Limits' tiny office on West 23rd Street with a clutch of stories about poor people being pushed out of Jersey City to make way for major government-assisted development projects . Worse, as Cohen was able to meticulously document in a steady stream of articles, the cleansing was being accomplished with the use of federal HUD grants intended to benefit low income residents. 

"Brilliant, big-hearted and tireless, Cohen was so good at what he did that when a progressive administration was later elected in Jersey City, he was hired as director of housing and economic development where he helped show that growth didn’t have to mean displacement."--Tom Robbins, CityLimits.org