Newark, New Jersey

Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 311,549.

Settled in 1666 by Puritans from New Haven Colony, Newark is one of the oldest cities in the United States. Its location at the mouth of the Passaic River, where it flows into Newark Bay, has made the city's waterfront an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Port Newark–Elizabeth is the primary container shipping terminal of the busiest seaport on the U.S. East Coast. Newark Liberty International Airport was the first municipal commercial airport in the United States and has become one of the busiest. The majority of black residents reside in the South, Central, and West Wards of the city, while the North and East Wards are mostly populated by Latinos. Ras Baraka has served as Mayor of Newark since 2014.

History

thumb|upright=1|[[Krueger Mansion, owned by African American beauty entrepreneur Louise Scott, Newark's first female millionaire, and previously by German brewer Gottfried Krueger, co-founder of Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company|left]]

Newark was settled in 1666 by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat from the New Haven Colony. It was conceived as a theocratic assembly of the faithful, though this did not last for long as new settlers came with different ideas. On October 31, 1693, it was organized as a New Jersey township based on the Newark Tract, which was first purchased on July 11, 1667. Newark was granted a royal charter on April 27, 1713. It was incorporated on February 21, 1798, by the New Jersey Legislature's Township Act of 1798, as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships. During its time as a township, portions were taken to form Springfield Township (April 14, 1794), Caldwell Township (February 16, 1798; now known as Fairfield Township), Orange Township (November 27, 1806), Bloomfield Township (March 23, 1812) and Clinton Township (April 14, 1834, remainder reabsorbed by Newark on March 5, 1902). Newark was reincorporated as a city on April 11, 1836, replacing Newark Township, based on the results of a referendum passed on March 18, 1836. The previously independent Vailsburg borough was annexed by Newark on January 1, 1905. In 1926, South Orange Township changed its name to Maplewood. As a result of this, a portion of Maplewood known as Ivy Hill was re-annexed to Newark's Vailsburg.

The name of the city is thought to derive from Newark-on-Trent, England, because of the influence of the original pastor, Abraham Pierson, who came from Yorkshire but may have ministered in Newark, Nottinghamshire. But Pierson is also supposed to have said that the community reflecting the new task at hand should be named "New Ark" for "New Ark of the Covenant" and some of the colonists saw it as "New-Work", the settlers' new work with God. Whatever the origins, the name was shortened to Newark, although references to the name "New Ark" are found in preserved letters written by historical figures such as David A. Ogden in his claim for compensation, and James McHenry, as late as 1787.

During the American Revolutionary War, British troops made several raids into the town. The city saw tremendous industrial and population growth during the 19th century and early 20th century, and experienced racial tension and urban decline in the second half of the 20th century, culminating in the 1967 Newark riots, which led to an increase in white flight, with 100,000 white residents leaving the city in the 1960s, though the exodus of white residents from the city had started after World War II as housing availability was limited in the city, while white residents were able to buy homes in the western suburbs of Essex County, where the population grew rapidly.

The city has experienced revitalization since the 1990s, with major office, arts and sports projects representing $2 billion in investment. The city's population, which had dropped by more than a third from 1950 to its post-war low in 2000, has since rebounded, with 38,000 new residents added from 2000 to 2020.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of , including of land and of water (6.72%). The city's altitude ranges from 0 (sea level) in the east to approximately above sea level in the western section of the city. Newark is essentially a large basin sloping towards the Passaic River, with a few valleys formed by meandering streams. Historically, Newark's high places have been its wealthier neighborhoods. In the 19th century and early 20th century, the wealthy congregated on the ridges of Forest Hill, High Street, and Weequahic.

Until the 20th century, the marshes on Newark Bay were difficult to develop, as they were essentially wilderness, with a few dumps, warehouses, and cemeteries on their edges. In the 1920s, the city was able to reclaim of marshland for the development of Newark Liberty International Airport, and then later Port Newark.

Newark is surrounded by residential suburbs to the west (on the slope of the Watchung Mountains), the Passaic River and Newark Bay to the east, dense urban areas to the south and southwest, and middle-class residential suburbs and industrial areas to the north. The city is the largest in New Jersey's Gateway Region, which is said to have received its name from Newark's nickname as the "Gateway City".

The city borders the municipalities of Belleville, Bloomfield, East Orange, Irvington, Maplewood and South Orange in Essex County; Bayonne, East Newark, Harrison, Jersey City and Kearny in Hudson County; and Elizabeth and Hillside in Union County.

Neighborhoods

thumb|upright=1|The intersection of Broad and Market Streets as seen from the [[Prudential Plaza Building, in Downtown Newark, 2005]]

Newark is the second-most racially diverse municipality in the state, behind neighboring Jersey City. It 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 distinct. 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.

State law requires that wards be compact and contiguous and that the largest ward may not exceed the population of the smallest by more than 10% of the average ward size. Ward boundaries are redrawn, as needed, by a board of ward commissioners consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans appointed at the county level and the municipal clerk. Redrawing of ward lines in previous decades have shifted traditional boundaries, so that downtown currently occupies portions of the East and Central wards. The boundaries of the wards are altered for various political and demographic reasons and sometimes gerrymandered.

Newark's Central Ward, formerly known as the old Third Ward, contains much of the city's history including the original squares Lincoln Park, Military Park and Harriet Tubman Square. The ward contains the University Heights, The Coast, historic Grace Episcopal Church, Government Center, Springfield/Belmont and Seventh Avenue neighborhoods. Of these neighborhood designations only University Heights, a more recent designation for the area that was the subject of the 1968 novel Howard Street by Nathan Heard, is still in common usage. The Central Ward extends at one point as far north as 2nd Avenue.

In the 19th century, the Central Ward was inhabited by Germans and other white Catholic and Protestant groups. The German inhabitants were later replaced by Jews, who were then replaced by African Americans. The increased academic footprint in the University Heights neighborhood has produced gentrification, with landmark buildings undergoing renovation. Located in the Central Ward is the nation's largest health sciences university, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. It is also home to three other universities – New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Rutgers University – Newark, and Essex County College. The Central Ward forms the present-day heart of Newark, and includes 26 public schools, two police precincts, including headquarters, four firehouses, and one branch library.

The North Ward is centered around Branch Brook Park. Its neighborhoods include Broadway, Mount Pleasant, Upper Roseville and the affluent Forest Hill section. Forest Hill contains the Forest Hill Historic District, which is registered on state and national historic registers, and contains many older mansions and colonial homes. A row of residential towers with security guards and secure parking line Mt. Prospect Avenue in the Forest Hill neighborhood. The North Ward has lost geographic area in recent times; its southern boundary is now significantly further north than the traditional boundary near Interstate 280. At one time, there was a significant Italian American community in the district. Little Italy was centered on Seventh Avenue and the area of St. Lucy's Church. Demographics have transitioned to Latino in recent decades, though the ward as a whole remains ethnically diverse. Relative to other parts of the city, the West Ward has for many decades struggled with elevated rates of crime, particularly violent crime.

The South Ward comprises the Weequahic, Clinton Hill, Dayton, and South Broad Valley neighborhoods. The South Ward, once home to residents of predominantly Jewish descent, now has ethnic neighborhoods made up primarily of African Americans and Hispanics. The city's second-largest hospital, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, is in the South Ward, as are seventeen public schools, five daycare centers, three branch libraries, one police precinct, a mini-precinct, and three fire houses.

The East Ward consists of much of Newark's Downtown commercial district, as well as the Ironbound neighborhood, where much of Newark's industry was in the 19th century. Today, the Ironbound (also known as "Down Neck" and "The Neck") is a destination for shopping, dining, and nightlife. A historically immigrant-dominated section of the city, the Ironbound in recent decades has been termed "Little Portugal" and "Little Brazil" due to its heavily Portuguese and Brazilian population, Newark being home to one of the largest Portuguese speaking communities in the United States. In addition, the East Ward has become home to Latin Americans (especially Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Colombians), Puerto Ricans, African Americans, as well as commuters to Manhattan. Public education in the East Ward consists of East Side High School and six elementary schools. The ward is densely packed, with well-maintained housing and streets, primarily large apartment buildings and rowhouses.

Climate

Newark lies in the transition between a humid subtropical and humid continental climate (Köppen Cfa/Dfa), with cold winters and hot humid summers. The January daily mean is , sub- readings are rare; conversely, some days may warm up to . The average seasonal snowfall is , though variations in weather patterns may bring sparse snowfall in some years and several major nor'easters in others, with the heaviest 24-hour fall of occurring on December 26, 1947.

|footnote=Population sources: 1810–1920 1810–1910 1840 1850–1870 1850 1870 1880–1890 1890–1910 1840–1930 1940–2000 2000 2010 2020 * = Territory change in previous decade.

From 2000 to 2010, the increase of 3,594 inhabitants (+1.3%) from the 273,546 counted in the 2000 U.S. census marked the second census in 70 years in which the city's population had grown from the previous enumeration. This trend continued in 2020, where Newark had an increase of 34,409 (12.4%) from the 277,140 counted in the 2010 census, the largest percentage increase in 100 years.

After reaching a peak of 442,337 residents counted in the 1930 census, and a post-war population of 438,776 in 1950, the city's population saw a decline of nearly 40% as residents moved to surrounding suburbs. White flight from Newark to the suburbs started in the 1940s and accelerated in the 1960s, due in part to the construction of the Interstate Highway System. The 1967 riots resulted in a significant population loss of the city's middle class, many of them Jewish, which continued from the 1970s through to the 1990s. On net, the city lost about 130,000 residents between 1960 and 1990.

At the 2010 census, there were 91,414 households, and 62,239 families in Newark. There were 108,907 housing units at an average density of .

The median income for a household in 2000 was $26,913, and the median income for a family was $30,781. Males had a median income of $29,748 versus $25,734 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,009. 28.4% of the population and 25.5% of families were below the poverty line. 36.6% of those under the age of 18 and 24.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. The city's unemployment rate was 8.5%.

!Pop 2000

!Pop 2010

!% 1990

!% 2000

!% 2010

|White alone (NH)

|45,344

|38,950

|32,122

|style='background: #ffffe6; |24,916

|16.48%

|14.24%

|11.59%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |8.00%

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|153,703

|142,083

|138,074

|style='background: #ffffe6; |147,905

|55.85%

|51.94%

|49.82%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |47.47%

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|502

|529

|713

|style='background: #ffffe6; |572

|0.18%

|0.19%

|0.26%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.18%

|Asian alone (NH)

|2,826

|3,138

|4,318

|style='background: #ffffe6; |4,871

|1.03%

|1.15%

|1.56%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.56%

|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|N/A

|69

|68

|style='background: #ffffe6; |63

|N/A

|0.03%

|0.02%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.02%

|Other race alone (NH)

|1,085

|2,034

|3,899

|style='background: #ffffe6; |7,379

|0.39%

|0.74%

|1.41%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2.37%

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|N/A

|6,121

|4,200

|style='background: #ffffe6; |12,469

|N/A

|2.24%

|1.52%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |4.00%

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|71,761

|80,622

|93,746

|style='background: #ffffe6; |113,374

|26.07%

|29.47%

|33.83%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |36.39%

|Total

|275,221

|273,546

|277,140

|style='background: #ffffe6; |311,549

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

From the 1950s to 1967, Newark's non-Hispanic white population shrank from 363,000 to 158,000; its black population grew from 70,000 to 220,000. The percentage of non-Hispanic whites declined from 82.8% in 1950 to 11.6% by 2010.

At the American Community Survey's 2018 estimates, non-Hispanic whites made up 8.9% of the population. Black or African Americans were 47.0% of the population, Asian Americans were 2.1%, some other race 1.6%, and multiracial Americans 1.1%. Hispanics or Latinos of any race made up 39.2% of the city's population in 2018.

In 2010, 35.74% of the population was white, 58.86% African American, 3.99% Native American or Alaska Native, 2.19% Asian, .01% Pacific Islander, 10.4% from other races, and 10.95% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race made up 33.39% of the population at the 2010 U.S. census. There is a significant Portuguese-speaking community concentrated in the Ironbound district. 2000 census data showed that Newark had 15,801 residents of Portuguese ancestry (5.8% of the population), while an additional 5,805 (2.1% of the total) were of Brazilian ancestry.

In advance of the 2000 census, city officials made a push to encourage residents to respond and participate in the enumeration, citing calculations by city officials that as many as 30,000 people were not reflected in estimates by the Census Bureau, which resulted in the loss of government aid and political representation. It is believed that heavily immigrant areas of Newark were significantly undercounted in the 2010 census, especially in the East Ward. Many households refused to participate in the census, with immigrants often reluctant to submit census forms because they believed that the information could be used to justify their deportation.

Religion

thumb|[[St. Lucy's Church (Newark, New Jersey)|St. Lucy's Church in the Old First Ward is home to the National Shrine of St. Gerard where followers continue to seek the Catholic saint's intercession on fertility and safe delivery in childbirth.]]

thumb|upright=1|Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church|left

thumb|upright=1|Congregation Ahavas Sholom, a Newark [[synagogue]]

Roughly 60% of Newarkers identified with a religion as of 2020. The largest Christian group in Newark is the Catholic Church (34.3%), followed by Baptists (5.2%). The city's Catholic population are divided into Latin and Eastern Catholics. The Latin Church-based Archdiocese of Newark, serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties, is headquartered in the city. Its episcopal seat is the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Eastern Catholics in the area are served by the Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark, an eparchy of the Syriac Catholic Church, and by the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Baptist churches in Newark are affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, Progressive National Baptist Convention, the National Baptist Convention of America, and National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

Following, 2.4% identified with Methodism and the United Methodist Church and African Methodist Episcopal and AME Zion churches. 1.6% of Christian Newarkers are Presbyterian and 1.3% identified as Pentecostal. The Presbyterian community is dominated by the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Presbyterian Church in America. The Pentecostal community is dominated by the Church of God in Christ and Assemblies of God USA.

0.9% of Christians in the city and nearby suburbs identify as Anglican or Episcopalian. Most are served by the Newark Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States. The remainder identified with Continuing Anglican or Evangelical Episcopal bodies including the Reformed Episcopal Church and Anglican Church in North America. ACNA and REC-affiliated churches form the Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

0.6% of Christians are members of the Latter Day Saint movement, followed by Lutherans (0.2%). 3.0% of the city's Christian populace were of other Christian denominations including the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, Independent sacramental churches, the Jehovah's Witnesses, non-denominational Protestants, and the United Church of Christ. The largest Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions in Newark include the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (Ecumenical Patriarchate) and the Diocese of New York and New Jersey (Orthodox Church in America). The largest Oriental Orthodox bodies include the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Judaism and Islam were tied as the second-largest religious community (3.0%). Up until 1967, Jewish Americans formed a substantial portion of the middle class. Currently, Sunni, Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims are the largest Islamic denominational demographic, though some Muslims in the area may be Quranists. Most Sunni mosques are members of the Islamic Society of North America. The Nation of Islam had a former mosque in Newark presided by Louis Farrakhan.

A little over 1.2% practiced an eastern religion including Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The remainder of Newark was spiritual but not religious, agnostic, deistic, or atheist, though some Newarkers identified with neo-pagan religions including Wicca and other smaller new religious movements.

Economy

alt=|thumb|upright=1|[[Downtown Newark at sunset]]

thumb|upright=1|[[NJ Transit headquarters in Newark]]

More than 100,000 people commute to Newark each workday, making it the state's largest employment center with many white-collar jobs in insurance, finance, import-export, healthcare, and government. Downtown Newark has more than of Class A office space and over of total office space. As a major courthouse venue including federal, state, and county facilities, it is home to more than 1,000 law firms. The city also has a significant number of college students, with nearly 50,000 attending the city's universities and medical and law schools. Its airport, maritime port, rail facilities, and highway network make Newark the busiest transshipment hub on the U.S. East Coast in terms of volume.

Though Newark is not the industrial colossus of the past, the city does have a considerable amount of industry and light manufacturing. The southern portion of the Ironbound, also known as the Industrial Meadowlands, has seen many factories built since World War II, including the former Anheuser-Busch brewery that opened in 1951 and distributed 7.5 million barrels of beer in 2007. The brewery closed in January 2026 and will be demolished and replaced with a logistics and manufacturing center. The service industry is also growing rapidly, replacing those in the manufacturing industry, which was once Newark's primary economy. In addition, transportation has become a large business in Newark, accounting for more than 17,000 jobs in 2011.

Newark is the third-largest insurance center in the United States, behind New York City and Hartford, Connecticut. Prudential Financial, Mutual Benefit Life, Fireman's Insurance, and American Insurance Company all originated in the city, while Prudential still has its home office in Newark. Many other companies are headquartered in the city, including IDT Corporation, NJ Transit, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), Manischewitz, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey, and Edison Properties.

After the election of Cory Booker as mayor, millions of dollars of public-private partnership investment were made in Downtown development, but persistent underemployment continue to characterize many of the city's neighborhoods. Poverty remains a consistent problem in Newark. In 2010, roughly one-third of the city's population was impoverished and as 2024, a quarter of Newark residents live in poverty, more than double the national rate, and the city is one of the poorest cities with over 100,000 people in the United States.

Portions of Newark are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone. The city was selected in 1983 as one of the initial group of 10 zones chosen to participate in the program. In addition to other benefits to encourage employment within the Zone, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the % rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants. Established in January 1986, the city's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in December 2031. In May 2018, Governor Phil Murphy signed a law that reinstated the program in these five cities and extended the expiration date in other zones. Newark's UEZ status was set to expire in November 2023 but was extended by the state in 2021 for 10 additional years.

From 2008 to 2013, Newark was one of nine cities in New Jersey designated as eligible for Urban Transit Hub Tax Credits by the state's Economic Development Authority. Developers who invested a minimum of $50 million within of a train station were eligible for pro-rated tax credit.

Technology industry

The technology industry in Newark has grown significantly after Audible, an online audiobook and podcast company, moved its headquarters to Newark in 2007. The company was later acquired by Amazon. Panasonic moved its North America headquarters to the city in 2013. Other technology-focus companies followed suit. In 2015, AeroFarms, a developer of an aeroponic technology for farming moved its headquarters from the Finger Lakes to Newark. By 2016, it had built the world's largest vertical farm in a Newark warehouse. The company was recognized in 2019 by Fast Company as one of the world's most innovative companies in data science. Broadridge Financial Solutions, a public FinTech company, announced a relocation of 1,000 jobs to Newark in 2017. In 2021, WebMD, an online publisher, announced that it will relocate and create up to 700 new jobs in the city.

In 2018, Newark was selected as one of 20 finalists for the location of Amazon HQ2, a new headquarters of Amazon. The advantages of Newark included proximity to New York City, lower land costs, tech labor force and higher education institutions, a major airport, and fiber optic networks. The extensive fiber optic networks in Newark started in the 1990s when telecommunication companies installed fiber optic network to put Newark as a strategic location for data transfer between Manhattan and the rest of the country during the dot-com boom. At the same time, the city encouraged those companies to install more than they needed. A vacant department store was converted into a telecommunication center called 165 Halsey Street. It became one of the world's largest carrier hotels. As a result, after the dot-com bust, there were a surplus of dark fiber (unused fiber optic cables). Twenty years later, the city and other private companies began utilizing the dark fiber to create high performance networks within the city. VentureLink@NJIT, the state's largest startup incubator, is located in New Jersey Institute of Technology campus. It has partnerships with international organizations such as National Association of Software and Services Companies of India.

Newark Retail Reactivation Initiative

In the fall of 2023, in an effort to stimulate rental of empty storefronts along a parallel strip of Broad, Halsey Street and Washington streets, the city launched the Newark Retail Reactivation Initiative. The program makes monetary grants to certain qualifying businesses opening on Halsey and on other streets within the zone bordered by Broad Street to the east, Washington Street to the west, Washington Place to the north and William Street to the south. The district has a mix of residential, commercial and office spaces.

Port Newark

thumb|upright=1|[[Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal with the New Jersey Turnpike in the foreground]]

Port Newark is part of the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal and is the largest cargo facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey. On Newark Bay, it is run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and serves as the principal container ship facility for goods entering and leaving the New York metropolitan area and the northeastern quadrant of North America. The Port moved over $100 billion in goods in 2003, making it the 15th busiest in the world at the time, but was the number one container port as recently as 1985. Plans are underway for billions of dollars of improvements–larger cranes, bigger railyard facilities, deeper channels, and expanded wharves.

Property taxes

In 2018, the city had an average property tax bill of $6,481, the lowest in the county, compared to an average bill of $12,248 in Essex County and $8,767 statewide.

Arts and culture

Architecture

thumb|upright=1|The [[Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Newark)|Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, currently headed by Cardinal Tobin. The structure is roughly the size of Westminster Abbey. The circular Great Rose Window is the largest of any Catholic church in the Western Hemisphere.]]

thumb|upright=1|The base of the [[Wars of America monument at Military Park, created in 1926 by the sculptor of Mount Rushmore to honor America's war dead. "The design represents a great spearhead. Upon the green field of this spearhead we have placed a Tudor sword, the hilt of which represents the American nation at a crisis, answering the call to arms." – sculptor Gutzon Borglum]]

There are several notable Beaux-Arts buildings, such as the Veterans' Administration building, The Newark Museum of Art, the Newark Public Library, and the Cass Gilbert-designed Essex County Courthouse. Notable Art Deco buildings include several 1930s era skyscrapers, such as the National Newark Building and Eleven 80, the restored Newark Penn Station, and Arts High School. Gothic architecture can be found at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart by Branch Brook Park, which is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the United States. It is rumored to have as much stained glass as the Cathedral of Chartres. Moorish Revival buildings include Newark Symphony Hall and the Prince Street Synagogue, one of the oldest synagogue buildings in New Jersey.

Performing arts

thumb|upright=1|[[New Jersey Performing Arts Center]]

thumb|upright=1|[[Newark Symphony Hall]]

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, near Military Park, opened in 1997, is the home of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey State Opera, the center's programs of national and international music, dance, and theater make it the nation's sixth-largest performing arts center, attracting over 400,000 visitors each year.

Prior to the opening of the performing arts center, Newark Symphony Hall was home to the New Jersey Symphony, the New Jersey State Opera, and the Garden State Ballet, which still maintains an academy there. The 1925 neo-classical building, originally built by the Shriners, has three performance spaces, including the main concert hall named in honor of famous Newarker Sarah Vaughan, offering rhythm and blues, rap, hip-hop, and gospel music concerts, and is part of the modern-day Chitlin' Circuit.

The Newark Boys Chorus, founded in 1966, performs regularly in the city. The African Globe Theater Works presents new works seasonally. The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival took place in Newark for the first time in 2010.

Venues at the universities in the city are also used to present professional and semi-professional theater, dance, and music. Since its opening in 2007, the Prudential Center has presented Diana Ross, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, The Eagles, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, Bruce Springsteen, Spice Girls, Jonas Brothers, Metro Station, Metallica, Alicia Keys, Fleetwood Mac, Demi Lovato, David Archuleta, Aerosmith, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, and American Idol Live!, among others. The Rolling Stones broadcast their last show on their 50th anniversary tour live on pay-per-view from the arena on December 15, 2012. Bon Jovi performed a series of ten concerts to mark the venue's opening.

Newark is known as an innovator in the house music and garage house genres and scene. Newark's Club Zanzibar, along with other gay and straight clubs in the 1970s and 1980s, was famous as both a gay and straight nightlife destination. Famed DJ Tony Humphries helped "spawn the sometimes raw but always soulful, gospel-infused subgenre" of house music known as the New Jersey sound. The club scene also gave rise to the ball culture scene in Newark hotels and nightclubs. Brick City club, a dance-oriented electronic music genre, is native to the city.

Museums, libraries, and galleries

thumb|Three buildings of [[The Newark Museum of Art, the largest museum in New Jersey]]

The Newark Museum of Art, formerly known as the Newark Museum, is the largest museum in New Jersey. Its art collection is ranked 12 among art museums in North America with highlights on American and Tibetan art. The museum also contains science galleries, a planetarium, a gallery for children's exhibits, a fire museum, a sculpture garden and an 18th-century schoolhouse. Also part of the museum is the historic John Ballantine House, a restored Victorian mansion which is a National Historic Landmark.

The city is also home to the New Jersey Historical Society, which has rotating exhibits on New Jersey and Newark. The Newark Public Library has eight locations. The library houses more than a million volumes and has frequent exhibits on a variety of topics, many featuring items from its Fine Print and Special Collections. The library also hosts daily programs including ESL classes, yoga classes, arts and crafts, history talks, and more.

Since 1962, Newark has been home to the Institute of Jazz Studies, the world's foremost jazz archives and research libraries. Located in the John Cotton Dana Library at Rutgers-Newark, the Institute houses more than 200,000 jazz recordings in all commercially available formats, more than 6,000 monograph titles, including discographies, biographies, history and criticism, published music, film and video; over 600 periodicals and serials, dating back to the early 20th century; and one of the country's most comprehensive jazz oral history collections, featuring more than 150 jazz oral histories, most with typed transcripts.

The Jewish Museum of New Jersey, located at 145 Broadway in the Broadway neighborhood, opened in December 2007. The museum is dedicated to the cultural heritage of New Jersey's Jewish people. The museum is housed at Ahavas Sholom, the last continually operating synagogue in Newark. By the 1950s there were 50 synagogues in Newark serving a Jewish population of 70,000 to 80,000, once the sixth-largest Jewish community in the United States.

The Grammy Museum Experience was an interactive, experiential museum devoted to the history and winners of the Grammy Awards at the Prudential Center that operated from 2017 to 2023.

Newark is also home to numerous art galleries including the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University–Newark, as well as Index Art Center, Project Empty Space, Akwaaba Gallery and Sumei Arts Center. Newark lost two prominent art galleries recently with the closure of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art and City Without Walls in 2018. Seed Gallery and Gallery Aferro also closed in the following years.

Public art

Newark has four public works by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum in Newark, which include Seated Lincoln (1911), Indian and the Puritan (1916), First Landing Party of the Founders of Newark (1916), and Wars of America (1926).

Newark Murals

Since 2009, the Newark Planning Office, in collaboration with local arts organizations, has sponsored Newark Murals, and seen the creation of dozens of outdoor murals about significant people, places, and events in the city.

The Portraits mural, a massive multi-artist painting the length of 25 football fields created in 2016, is the longest continuous mural on the East Coast, and the second longest in the country. Seventeen artists contributed sections to the mural, including Adrienne Wheeler, Akintola Hanif, David Oquendo, Don Rimx, El Decertor, GAIA, GERA, Kevin Darmanie, Khari Johnson-Ricks, Lunar New Year, Manuel Acevedo, Mata Ruda, Nanook, Nina Chanel Abney, Sonni, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, WERC and Zeh Palito. "Portraits" begins roughly at the intersection of Poiner Street and McCarter Highway in the South Ironbound district and stretches northwards along the century-old stone walls supporting the Northeast Corridor and PATH tracks facing Newark's McCarter Highway (New Jersey Route 21).

Festivals and parades

Festivals and parades held annually or bi-annually include the Cherry Blossom Festival (April) in Branch Brook Park and the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival (October, biennial) at various venues and the citywide Open Doors (October),

Music festivals include the McDonald's Gospelfest (spring) at Prudential Center, the Lincoln Park Music Festival (July) at Lincoln Park, the Afro Beat Fest (July) at Military Park, and the James Moody Jazz Festival, named for James Moody, the jazz artist raised in Newark (week-long event in November). The Weequahic Park House Music Festival takes place every September in Weequahic Park.

The Portugal Day Festival in the Ironbound section, takes place in June. St. Lucy's Church, a historically Italian parish in what was Newark's Little Italy, features an annual October procession and festival for St. Gerard Majella. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in the Ironbound hosts its annual Italian Street Festival every July.

Newark is home to a number of annual film festivals, including the Newark Black Film Festival. The North to Shore Festival, inaugurated in June 2023, featured music and other entertainment events in Newark as well as Asbury Park and Atlantic City.

Parks and recreation

Colonial commons

thumb|upright=1|Wars Of America by [[Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum in Military Park]]

Military Park in Downtown Newark, the town commons since 1869 and home to the Wars of America sculpture by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum and the casual restaurant, Burg. As of 2018, the park is privately operated. Managed by a nonprofit corporation, the Military Park Partnership, which is staffed by Dan Biederman and Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, credited with transforming Manhattan's Bryant Park. The Military Park Partnership manages the programs, events, operations, security, and horticulture of the park.
Lincoln Park in the Arts District, one of three original colonial-era commons in Newark. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Lincoln Park was at the southern end of Newark's jazz and nightlife strip known as "The Coast".
Harriet Tubman Square, the northernmost of the three original colonial-era commons in Newark. Formerly known as Washington Park, the equestrian statue of George Washington by J. Massey Rhind was dedicated here in 1912. Philip Roth's narrator in Goodbye, Columbus visits the park, saying "Sitting there in the park, I felt a deep knowledge of Newark, an attachment so rooted that it could not help but branch out into affection."

Passaic River waterfront

thumb|upright=1|Orange boardwalk in Riverfront Park and [[Jackson Street Bridge]]

Riverfront Park, which stretches along the Passaic River, includes the "Orange Boardwalk" and paths with views of the water.

County parks

thumb|upright=1|Weequahic Lake in [[Weequahic Park]]

thumb|upright=1|Branch Brook Park in the North Ward of Newark

Several parks in the city are part of the Essex County Park System.

Branch Brook Park is home to Newark's annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The park is the oldest county park in the United States and is home to the nation's largest collection of cherry blossom trees, numbering over 5,000. The park also features a lake and a pond. It was designed by the Olmsted Brothers firm, who carried on the firm of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Independence Park is in the Ironbound district.
Ivy Hill Park in Ivy Hill
Vailsburg Park, covering , is in the Vailsburg neighborhood.
Riverbank Park in the Ironbound along the Passaic River.
Veterans Memorial Park is adjacent to the county courthouse complex.
Weequahic Park, also designed by Olmsted Brothers, located in the South Ward in the Dayton section, east of the formerly heavily Jewish Weequahic neighborhood. It features Weequahic Lake, an anthropogenic lake formed out of a marsh. Author Philip Roth describes the park in his historical fantasy novel The Plot Against America (2004). The non-profit Weequahic Park Sports Authority helps maintain the park.
West Side Park is a park in the West Side neighborhood.

Municipal parks and squares

Peter Francisco Park, the gateway to the Ironbound at Five Corners.
Jesse Allen Park, in the Central Ward. The Jesse Allen Park is Newark's second-largest city-owned park and is named for a former member of the Municipal Council of Newark.
The Greater Newark Conservancy maintains the Judith L. Shipley Urban Environmental Center, and the Prudential Outdoor Learning Center. It offers urban farming and gardening displays and instruction and also includes a small pond.
Mulberry Commons is a park between Prudential Center and Penn Station near what was once the heart of Newark's Chinatown.
Nat Turner Park. Dedicated in July 2009, Newark's largest city-owned park is located in the Central Ward. It is named for the famous 19th-century American slave rebellion leader, Nat Turner.

Golf and other recreational facilities

Sharpe James/Kenneth A. Gibson (Ironbound) Recreation Center.
John F. Kennedy Recreation & Aquatic Center The facility was described in 2016 by the Golf Channel as a "hidden gem". Home to The First Tee Program of Essex County and golf pro Wiley Williams, who was one of the first African-American golfers to win a major New Jersey golf event and works to introduce city youth to the sport.
Jesse Allen Skateboard Park.

Media

Newark is within the metro New York media market. The Newark Targum is a weekly student newspaper published by the Targum Publishing Company for the student population of the Newark campus of Rutgers University.

Other news outlets

TAP Into Newark is an online news site devoted to Newark.
Newark Patch is a daily online news source dedicated to local Newark news.
Local Talk is a local paper on Newark and the surrounding area.
The Newarker is a quarterly journal about culture, history, and society in Newark and surrounding areas.
The Newark Times is an online news media platform dedicated to Newark lifestyle, events, and culture.
The Newark Metro covers metropolitan life from Newark to North Jersey to New York City and is a journalism project at Rutgers Newark.
RLS Media covers breaking news from Newark and surrounding municipalities.
The City of Newark shares news and events via its official Twitter account.
The Pod, developed by Black Owned New Jersey, is a weekly podcast that helps small businesses build, grow, and maintain their business.

Radio

thumb|upright=1|With a studio on the 6th floor and showy antenna on the roof, [[Bamberger's launched WOR to sell more radios.]]

Pioneer radio station WOR was started by Bamberger Broadcasting Service in 1922 and broadcast from studios at its retailer's downtown department store. Today the building serves telecom, colocation, and computer support industries known as 165 Halsey Street.

Radio station WJZ (now WABC) made its first broadcast in 1921 from the Westinghouse plant near Broad Street Station. It moved to New York City in the 1920s. Radio station WNEW-AM (now WBBR) was founded in Newark in 1934 and later moved to New York City. WBGO, a National Public Radio affiliate with a format of standard and contemporary jazz, is at 54 Park Place in downtown Newark. WNSW AM-1430 (formerly WNJR) and WQXR (which was formerly WHBI and later WCAA) 105.9 FM are also licensed to Newark.

Telephone

In 1915, the Bell System under ownership of American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) tested newly developed panel switching technology in Newark when they cutover the telephone exchanges Mulberry and Waverly to semi-mechanical operation on January 16 and June 12, respectively. The Panel system was the Bell System solution to the big city problem, where an exchange had to serve large numbers of subscribers on both manual as well as automatically switched central offices, without negatively impacting established user convenience and reliability. As originally introduced in these exchanges, subscribers' telephones had no dials and customers continued to make calls by asking an operator to ring their called party, at which point the operator keyed the telephone number into the panel equipment, instead of making cord connections manually.

thumb|1948 telephone set from the historic Bigelow Panel exchange in Newark, the last Panel office in existence when it was dismantled in 1983.

Most Panel installations across the country were replaced by modern systems during the 1970s and the last Panel switch was decommissioned in the BIgelow central office in Newark in 1983.

While Newark, like all of New Jersey, had area code 201 assigned for long-distance calling since 1947, the rate center was reassigned to area code 973 in 1997, which was overlaid with area code 551 in 2001. With cellular service proliferating in Northern New Jersey in the 21st century, central office prefixes from the adjacent New Jersey NPAs (201, 551, 732/848, 908) were made available in the Newark rate center for cellular and voice over IP (VoIP) services.

Television

thumb|upright=1|NJTV transmitter at [[Montclair State University]]

New Jersey's first television station, WATV Channel 13, signed-on May 15, 1948, from studios at the Mosque Theater known as the "Television Center Newark". The studios were home to WNTA-13 beginning in 1958 and WNJU-47 until 1989.

WNET, the successor to WATV, is flagship station of the Public Broadcasting Service serving the New York market. Spanish-language WFUT-TV Channel 68, a UniMás owned-and-operated station, is also licensed to Newark. Tempo Networks, producing for the pan-Caribbean television market, is based in the city. NwkTV has been the city's government access channel since 2009 and broadcast as Channel 78 on Optimum. The company has a high-tech call center in Newark, employing over 500 people. PBS network NJTV's main broadcasting studios (NJTV is also a sister station of the Newark-licensed WNET) are also in the Gateway Center Office Complex.

Film

The Newark Black Film Festival has been held annually since in 1974. The Newark International Film Festival is an annual event that has hosted screenings, workshops and stunt exhibitions in Newark since 2015. They are held under the auspices of the North to Shore Festival.

thumb|upright=1|Film production in Newark in 2004

The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission is headquartered in the Newark. In 2011, the city created the Newark Office of Film and Television in order to promote the making of media productions.

There have been several film and TV productions depicting life in Newark. Life of Crime was originally produced in 1988 and was followed by a 1998 sequel. New Jersey Drive is a 1995 film about the city when it was considered the "car theft capital of the world". Street Fight is an Academy Award-nominated documentary film which covered the 2002 mayoral election between incumbent Sharpe James and challenger Cory Booker. In 2009, the Sundance Channel aired Brick City, a five-part television documentary about Newark, focusing on the community's attempt to become a better and safer place to live, against a history of nearly a half century of violence, poverty and official corruption. The second season premiered January 30, 2011. Revolution '67 is a documentary which examines the causes and events of the 1967 Newark riots. The Once and Future Newark (2006) is a documentary travelogue about places of cultural, social and historical significance by Rutgers History Professor Clement Price. The HBO television series The Sopranos filmed many of its scenes in Newark. The Many Saints of Newark is a Sopranos prequel by David Chase set in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Heart of Stone (2009) reflects on white flight in the heavily Jewish Weequahic section and Weequahic High School. Rob Peace (2024), a film adaptation of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, was filmed many scenes on location in Newark and East Orange, including at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark's Central Ward.

Numerous movies, television programs, and music videos have been shot in Newark, its period architecture and its streetscape seen as an ideal "urban setting". In 2012 the city hosted the seventh season of the reality show competition America's Got Talent.

Among the films shot in Newark are Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), Joker (depicting the abandoned movie palace known as the Newark Paramount Theatre), Cat Person, and the 2022 horror movie, Smile, with several locations, including Murphy Varnish Lofts and Rutgers Medical School. The movie The Perfect Find also had scenes filmed in Newark as did the movie, The Greatest Beer Run Ever. Scenes for the movie Bros were filmed throughout the city in 2021, including at the Newark Museum, exterior of the which are shown as the LGBT museum.

In 2022, the city announced that a major new film and television production studio overlooking Weequahic Park and Weequahic Golf Course, to be called Lionsgate Newark Studios, would open in 2024 on the 15-acre former Seth Boyden housing projects site in the Dayton section of the city.

Theatres

thumb|right|Newark Theatre was built in 1853 as the first theater at the location of 138 Market Street and Halsey Street. In 1880s, operated as a vaudeville house named Fred Waldmann's Opera House

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Newark had many theaters and movie houses that were vaudeville or burlesque style. As innovation occurred in film, Newark contributed to the development to the American film industry with local inventors' innovation of celluloid and its use as movie film. The Newark movie theatres during this early part of the 20th century had established a large audience, with 62 movie houses in the city by 1922. Attempts for movie theatre revivals were established in the 1990s. As of 2024, the CityPlex 12 Newark movie theatre, located off Springfield Avenue and Bergen Street, is the only theater in operation in the city. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, located at 1 Center Street, is currently operating as theatre production and concerts. The 2,800-seat Newark Symphony Hall located at 1020 Broad Street has been in operations since 1925.

Sports

Newark has hosted many teams, though much of the time without an MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL team in the city proper. Currently, the city is home to just one, the NHL's New Jersey Devils. As the second-largest city in the New York metropolitan area, Newark is part of the regional professional sports and media markets.

The Prudential Center, a multi-purpose indoor arena designed by HOK Sport, is located in downtown adjacent to Newark Penn Station. Known as "The Rock", the arena opened in 2007 and is the home of the Devils, the New York Sirens of the Professional Women's Hockey League, and the NCAA's Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball team, seating 18,711 for basketball and 16,514 for hockey.

Downtown was also home to Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, which was a 6,200-seat baseball park built near the Passaic River to house the Newark Bears, an independent minor league baseball team, and opened in 1999. Also serving as the home stadium for Rutgers-Newark and NJIT's college baseball teams, Riverfront Stadium closed in 2014 after the Bears ceased operations. In 2016, the stadium was sold to a developer, and three years later it was demolished.

thumb|upright=1|The [[Prudential Center]]

{| class="wikitable"

!Club

!Sport

!Established

!League

!Venue

|New Jersey Devils

|Ice hockey

|1974 (Moved to East Rutherford in 1982, then Newark in 2007)

|NHL

|Prudential Center

|New York Sirens

|Ice hockey

|2023

|PWHL

|Prudential Center

|Seton Hall Pirates

|Basketball

|1908–1909

|NCAA Big East

|Prudential Center

|Jersey Express

|Basketball

|2005

|ABA

|YMCA of Newark and Vicinity

The New Jersey Nets played two seasons (2010–2012) at the Prudential Center until moving to the Barclays Center. The New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) also played there for three seasons (2011–2013) during renovations of Madison Square Garden. The center has hosted the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, the 2011 NBA draft, and the 2013 NHL entry draft. EliteXC: Primetime, a mixed martial arts (MMA) event which took place on May 31, 2008, was the first MMA event aired in primetime on major American network television.

Newark was a host city and its airport a gateway for Super Bowl XLVIII which was played on February 2, 2014. The game took place at MetLife Stadium, home of the hosting teams New York Giants and New York Jets. Media Day, the first event leading up to the game, took place on January 28 at the Prudential Center. The original Vince Lombardi Trophy, produced by Tiffany & Co. in Newark in 1967 and borrowed from the Green Bay Packers, was displayed at the Newark Museum from January 8 until March 30, 2014. Ultimate Fighting Championship's annual Super Bowl weekend mixed martial arts event, UFC 169: Cruz vs. Barao, took place on February 1 at the Prudential Center.

Government

Local

The city is governed within the Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, under the Mayor-Council Plan C form of local government, which became effective as of July 1, 1954, after the voters of the city of Newark passed a referendum held on November 3, 1953. The city is one of 79 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form of government. The governing body consists of a mayor and municipal council, who are elected concurrently on a non-partisan basis to four-year terms of office at the May municipal election. The mayor is directly elected by the residents of Newark. The municipal council comprises nine members, with one council member from each of the city's five wards and four council members who are elected on an at-large basis. The structure of the council was established after a 1953 referendum, in which more than 65% of voters approved a change from a five-member commission.

, the Mayor of Newark is Ras Baraka, who is serving a third term of office, which ends June 30, 2026. Baraka first took office as the city's 40th mayor on July 1, 2014. Members of Newark's Municipal Council are Council President C. Lawrence Crump (at-large), Amina Bey (Central Ward; elected to serve an unexpired term), Patrick O. Council (South Ward), Carlos M. Gonzalez (at-large), Dupré L. Kelly (West Ward), Luis A. Quintana (at-large), Anibal Ramos Jr. (North Ward), Louise Scott-Rountree (at-large) and Michael J. Silva (East Ward), all serving concurrent terms of office ending June 30, 2026.

The Central Ward seat that had been held by LaMonica McIver had been vacant since September 2024, when she took office to represent New Jersey's 10th congressional district; as the vacancy was not filled within 30 days after her resignation, the seat remained vacant until the November 2025 general election, when voters chose a candidate to serve the remainder of the term of office in a special election. Running with the support of McIver and Mayor Ras Baraka, Amina Bey (with 39.4% of the vote) edged out Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins (38.2%) by less than a hundred votes in the November 2025 general election to win the vacant seat.

Federal, state, and county

Newark is split between the 8th and 10th Congressional Districts and is part of New Jersey's 28th and 29th state legislative districts. Prior to the 2010 census, Newark had been split between the 10th Congressional District and the , a change made by the New Jersey Redistricting Commission that took effect in January 2013, based on the results of the November 2012 general elections.

Politics

On the national level, Newark leans strongly toward the Democratic Party. As of March 23, 2011, out of a 2010 census population of 277,140 in Newark, there were 136,785 registered voters (66.3% of the 2010 population ages 18 and over of 206,253, vs. 77.7% in all of Essex County of the 589,051 ages 18 and up) of which 68,393 (50.0% vs. 45.9% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 3,548 (2.6% vs. 9.9% countywide) were registered as Republicans, 64,812 (47.4% vs. 44.1% countywide) were registered as Unaffiliated and there were 30 voters registered to other parties.

In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 92.5% of the vote (77,112 ballots cast), ahead of Republican John McCain who received 7.1% of the vote (5,957 votes), with 84,901 of the city's 140,946 registered voters participating, for a turnout of 60.2% of registered voters. In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 95.0% of the vote (78,352 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 4.7% (3,852 votes), and other candidates with 0.4% (298 votes), among the 82,030 ballots cast by the city's 145,059 registered voters for a turnout of 56.5%. In the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton received 91.9% of the vote (69,042 cast); Republican Donald Trump received 6.6% of the vote (5,094 cast); and other candidates received 1.5% of the vote (1,139 cast). In the 2020 presidential election, incumbent Republican nominee Donald Trump doubled his share of the vote total from 6.6% to 12.3%, the biggest percentage since at least 2004. In the 2024 presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump became the only Republican, since at least 2004, to obtain over 20% of the vote in Newark with 20.5%, correlating with the rightward shift of both New Jersey and the nation as a whole. At the same time, and while still winning by a wide margin, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was the only Democrat to receive under 80% of the vote since at least that same year, with 78.3%. Trump also received the most votes out of any Republican nominee compared to all elections since 2004, including himself in 2016 and 2020. with 13,754 votes. Overall, Newark experienced an approximate 8-point shift to the right from his performance in 2020. From 2016 to 2020, the city shifted right by about 6 points. In turn, from 2016 to 2024, Newark swung about 14 points to the right.

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Democrat Barbara Buono received 80.8% of the vote (29,039 cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 17.9% (6,443 votes), and other candidates with 1.2% (437 votes), among the 37,114 ballots cast by the city's 149,778 registered voters (1,195 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 24.8%. In the 2009 Gubernatorial Election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 90.2% of the vote (36,637 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie who received 8.3% of the vote (3,355 votes), with 40,613 of the city's 134,195 registered voters (30.3%) participating.