City Information

Newark is New Jersey's largest urban center and America's third oldest major city, having been founded in 1666. After decades of decline and disinvestment, Newark today is attracting national attention for its ongoing rebirth and renewal.
Crime and unemployment are both down, achieving levels unseen in decades. Also, after years of decline, the population is showing signs of growth. Neighborhoods are witnessing a boom of housing, opportunity, and hope. Businesses are relocating and expanding. Major educational reforms are underway. Bricks and mortar investment in Newark between 1995 and 2010 is estimated to total several hundred million dollars per square mile - approximately $12-14 billion for the city as a whole. While more remains to be done, the reality of Newark is of a city on the rise.
The year, 1995, marked Newark's 330th birthday. Only two other major American cities, Boston and New York, claim such a long history.
 
Newark's history is divided into four chapters. The first was its Puritan origins; the second, the rise of its industrial and commercial empire; the third, the present century and its roller-coaster ride into modem history; and the fourth, its recent reawakening now being referred to as Newark's "Renaissance."
 
Looking around the city today, it seems difficult to imagine that Newark was founded by Puritans, the same people who settled New England at the opening of the American experiment. So stern was the government of the Newark church-state that not to belong to the church meant one was actually outside the law and not subject to protection or benefits of Newark's township form of government. It was not until Colonel Josiah Ogden dared to harvest his wheat on a Sunday that Calvinism met its first challenge, and oligarchic government was ended.
 
Newark's second chapter ushers in the era of industry and commerce. At first, small homes or cottage industries began to develop along Broad Street with products for export. But it was the leather industry dating back to the origin of the old township in the 17th century, which was largely responsible for creating the industrial giant Newark became in the 19th and 20th centuries.