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Union City Information
Union City is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the
United States 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 67,088, living on
a land area of 3.28 km (1.27 sq mi). It is the most densely populated city in
the United States, with a density of 52,977.8 per square mile.
The area of what is today Union City was originally inhabited by the Lenape
Native Americans, but was later settled by the Germans in 1851, who moved across
the Hudson River from New York in search of affordable land and open space. From
the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, German Americans and Dutch dominated the area.
They, along with Swiss and Austrian immigrants, founded the European-style lace
making industries, for which they were famous. Union City and West New York
became the “embroidery capitol of the United States”, and the embroidery
industry’s trademark is on the Union City Seal. At the turn of the 20th Century,
Irish and Italian immigrants came to the city, and dominated the city until the
late 1960s. The first Cuban immigrants arrived in 1940s, having been attracted
to the city in search of work after hearing of its famed embroidery factories.
Successive waves of immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Near East and Latin
America have contributed imagination and skill to the industry in subsequent
years. Then, as today, Union City is a destination for immigrants because it
serves as a more affordable and less congested alternative to Manhattan.
Union City was incorporated on June 1, 1925 by merging the two towns of West
Hoboken and Union Hill. Interestingly, one of the city’s two high schools, Union
Hill High School, continues to bear the name that former town to this day. After
World War II, veterans relocated to Bergen County, causing a short-lived decline
in the population. In the late 1960s, a large migration of Cuban refugees
fleeing Fidel Castro’s regime came and settled in Union City, making Union City
for many years the city with the largest Cuban population in the U.S. after
Miami, hence its nickname, "Havana on the Hudson." The Cubans have also helped
transform Union City into the city that it is today. In recent years however,
the Hispanic population has diversified. Today’s influx of immigrants comes from
the Dominican Republic, Central and South America. Middle class people from New
York City have also settled there.
The easternmost streets of Union City, in particular Mountain Road and Palisade
Avenue, boast some impressive views of neighboring Weehawken, Hoboken and the
New York City skyline, a feature which, in the aftermath of the September 11,
2001 attacks, was exploited by numerous Union City citizens, such as those who
stood in the courtyard of the Union City Boxing Club to view the event’s
aftereffects. A piece of wreckage from the attack was used to create a monument
that now stands in that courtyard.