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Newark Information
Newark, nicknamed The Brick City, is the largest city in New Jersey, United
States, and the county seat of urban Essex County. As of the United States 2000
Census, the city had a total population of 273,546, making it the largest
municipality in New Jersey. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2004
population estimate is 280,451, an increase of 2.5% from 2000.
It is located approximately five miles (8 km) west of Manhattan and two miles
north of Staten Island (both parts of New York City). Its location near the
Atlantic Ocean on Newark Bay has helped make its port facility, Port Newark, the
major container shipping port for New York Harbor. Together with Elizabeth, it
is the home of Newark Liberty International Airport, which was the first major
airport to serve the New York metropolitan area.
Newark is New Jersey's largest and second-most diverse city, after neighboring
Jersey City. Its neighborhoods are populated with people from various
backgrounds, including African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Italians,
Spaniards, Jews, Haitians, West Africans, and various Latinos such as Brazilians
and Ecuadorians, and Newark also has a sizable Portuguese population.
The city is divided into five political wards, which are often used by residents
to identify their place of habitation. In recent years, residents have begun to
identify with specific neighborhood names instead of the larger ward
appellations. Nevertheless, the wards remain relatively homogeneous. Industrial
uses, coupled with the airport and seaport lands, are concentrated in the East
and South Wards, while residential neighborhoods exist primarily in the North,
Central, and West Wards.
The geography of the city is such that only the predominantly poor Central Ward
shares an unbroken border with the downtown area (the North Ward is separated
from the downtown by Interstate 280 and the East Ward is separated by railroad
tracks; the South and West Wards do not share a border with the downtown area).
Newark's North Ward is the ridge to the east of Branch Brook Park. The
still-affluent Forest Hill is in the North Ward, as are heavily Latino areas
west of Mount Prospect Avenue. The Central Ward is a poor, mostly black, area.
In the 19th century it was inhabited by Germans. The German inhabitants were
later replaced by Jews, who were then replaced by blacks. Newark built many
public housing projects on superblocks in the Central Ward in the 19th century;
hence, the streets in this ward are no longer arranged in a grid. The West Ward
comprises the neighborhoods of Roseville and Vailsburg. Vailsburg is largely
black, while Roseville is mainly Latino and Italian American. The South Ward
comprises poor areas and the middle-class Weequahic district. It was the last
part of Newark to be developed. At the southern end of the ward is Weequahic
Park. Finally, the East Ward consists of Newark's downtown commercial district,
as well as the heavily Portuguese Ironbound neighborhood, where much of Newark's
industry was located in the 19th century; the area was then poorer than the rest
of the city. Today, due to the enterprise of its immigrant population, the
Ironbound is the most commercially successful part of Newark.
Newark is the home of Rutgers University - Newark, the New Jersey Institute of
Technology (NJIT), Seton Hall University School of Law, the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark Campus), and Essex County College.
Most of Newark's academic institutions are located in the city's University
Heights district. Rutgers-Newark and NJIT are in the midst of major expansion
programs, including plans to purchase, and sometimes raze, surrounding
buildings, as well as revitalize current campuses. With more students'
requesting to live on campus, the universities have plans to build and expand
several dormitories. Such overcrowding is contributing to the revitalization of
nearby apartments. Nearby restaurants primarily serve college students. Well
lit, frequently policed walks have been organized by the colleges to encourage
students to venture downtown.
The Newark Public Schools, a state-operated Abbott school district, enrolls
approximately 45,000 students, making it the largest school system in New
Jersey. The city's public schools are among the lowest-performing in the state,
even after the state government decided to take over management of the city's
schools in 1995, which was done under the presumption that improvement would
follow. The school district continues to struggle with low high school
graduation rates and low standardized test scores.
The total school enrollment in Newark city was 75,000 in 2003. Pre-primary
school enrollment was 12,000 and elementary or high school enrollment was 46,000
children. College enrollment was 16,000.
As of 2003, 64 percent of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from
high school and 11 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher. Among people 16 to
19 years old, 10 percent were dropouts; they were not enrolled in school and had
not graduated from high school.
Link Community School is a non-denominational coeducational day school located
serving approximately 128 students in seventh and eighth grades. Saint
Benedict's Preparatory School is an all boys Roman Catholic high school founded
in 1868 and conducted by the Benedictine monks of Newark Abbey. Its campus has
grown to encompass both sides of MLK Jr. Blvd. near Market Street and includes a
dormitory for boarding students.