Essex County, New Jersey

Essex County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population was 793,633, ranking it second in the state after Bergen County. Its county seat is Newark ⁶. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area.

Overview

Like many of the counties of Northern New Jersey near New York City — which tend to have sharp divides between relatively rich suburban neighborhoods and less wealthy, more densely-populated cities nearby — the eastern region of Essex County tends to be poorer and more urbanized, while the western parts tend to be more affluent and surburban.

Essex County is the second most densely populated county in the state, after Hudson County. Newark, with a population density of 11,400 people/square mile, is the largest municipality in the county both in terms of area (24.14 square miles) and population (280,000). At the opposite end, Caldwell is the smallest in area (1.2 square miles) and Roseland is smallest in population (5,298); however even these small towns have population densities (6,396 people/square mile and 1,464 people/square mile, respectively) that rival many big cities, and are well above the state's average, which is the highest in the nation.

Essex County also has extreme disparities in terms of income levels. From the time of the race riots in the late 1960s until the mid-1990s, Newark was reviled for its high crime, poverty, and unemployment rates, along with low rates of educational attainment. Things have improved though as, overall crime has decreased by over 60% since 1997. The west and southwest Essex communities of Millburn, North Caldwell, and Essex Fells are three of the 100 wealthiest towns in the United States.

While many residents commute to New York City, Organon, Anheuser-Busch, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., CIT Group, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Grainger, Dun & Bradstreet and Prudential have large facilities in Essex County or are headquartered there, and there are numerous factories and large office parks scattered throughout.

Essex County was one of the quickest counties in America to become fully urbanized and was the first county in the country to create a county park system, to ensure that it did not lose all its land to development.

The various towns of the county, especially Newark, the Oranges, and the Caldwells can be seen in every episode of the HBO mob drama The Sopranos, which is set in North Caldwell.

The county is also home to Newark Liberty International Airport and Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal.

Government

Essex County's County Executive is Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. The executive, along with the Board of Chosen Freeholders administer all county business. Nine members are elected to serve concurrent terms. Five of the freeholders represent districts; four are elected from the county at-large. The Freeholder President and Vice-President serve one-year terms. The County Executive is elected by a direct vote of the electorate.

As of 2006, Essex County's Freeholders are:

Freeholder President Johnny Jones
Freeholder Vice President Patricia Sebold
Freeholder-At-Large Blonnie R. Watson
Freeholder-At-Large Donald M. Payne, Jr.
Freeholder District 1 Samuel Gonzalez
Freeholder District 2 D. Bilal Beasley
Freeholder District 3 Carol Y. Clark
Freeholder District 4 Linda Lordi Cavanaugh
Freeholder District 5 Ralph R. Caputo

Seccession?

Essex County also has the highest property taxes in the state of New Jersey, which is the state with the overall highest level of property taxes in the nation. This has been an issue of contention for some time between the county's more conservative, upper-class west and its Democratically controlled, lower-income east.

In 2003, the towns of Millburn, Roseland, and Montclair had all voted to secede from Essex County if something was not changed about the towns' taxation. In 2004, the towns of Verona and Cedar Grove followed suit, with the secession bill passing overwhelmingly. However, people in favor and opposed to the secession alike stated that the bills were mostly symbolic, as it would take a lot of work for the towns to actually secede from Essex County. Some critics even claimed that the desire to secede was inspired by racism (due to the fact that Newark and surrounding cities are mostly black, and West Essex's towns are mostly white).

If they were to form their own new county, "West Essex County," they would have to have support from several of the county's towns because what would remain Essex County and what would become West Essex County would each need contiguous borders. There was also talk that the towns who wished to secede might choose to become part of Morris County to their west, Passaic County to their north, or Union County to their south. But similarly there would be difficulties if the towns could not all agree on contiguous borders and coordinate the secession with their new county's government.

The issue of secession was mainly forgotten for a while until in 2005, representatives from the nineteen suburban Essex towns of Caldwell, West Caldwell, North Caldwell, Fairfield, Essex Fells, Roseland, Livingston, Maplewood, Millburn, Cedar Grove, Verona, West Orange, South Orange, Orange, Montclair, Glen Ridge, Nutley, Bloomfield, and Belleville decided to get together and form a committee. They began to discuss a way that they could potentially all agree to either fight the Essex County government to allow them lower tax rates, or to coordinate a breakaway from the cities of Newark, East Orange, and Irvington, which would alone remain as Essex County.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 336 km² (130 mi²). 327 km² (126 mi²) of it is land and 9 km² (3 mi²) of it (2.54%) is water.

The county rises from generally flat in the east to the twin ridges of the Watchung Mountains in the western half, beyond which the land lowers again into the Passaic River valley.

The highest elevation is found at four areas scattered between Verona, North Caldwell and Essex Fells, all of which reach at least 660 feet (201 m) above sea level. The lowest point is sea level, at Newark Bay.

Demographics

Census 2000 data

As of the census ² of 2000, there were 793,633 people, 283,736 households, and 193,507 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,427/km² (6,285/mi²). There were 301,011 housing units at an average density of 920/km² (2,384/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 44.46% White, 41.24% Black or African American, 0.23% Native American, 3.71% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 6.88% from other races, and 3.42% from two or more races. 15.42% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 283,736 households out of which 33.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.30% were married couples living together, 20.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.80% were non-families. 26.70% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.30.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.10% under the age of 18, 9.40% from 18 to 24, 31.10% from 25 to 44, 21.50% from 45 to 64, and 11.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 90.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.40 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $44,944, and the median income for a family was $54,818. Males had a median income of $41,374 versus $32,052 for females. The per capita income for the county was $24,943. About 12.80% of families and 15.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.50% of those under age 18 and 12.20% of those age 65 or over.

The county has a high Italian population, with significant percentages of residents (over 25%) in several communities, of the West Essex area and elsewhere in the county, being of Italian descent. This includes the communities of Belleville (30.9%), Bloomfield (26.4%), Caldwell (26.3%), Cedar Grove (34.8%), Fairfield (45.8%), Nutley (44.5%), Roseland (38.7%), Verona (34.3%) and West Caldfwell (35.2%). 2000 Census data for Essex County, New Jersey county subdivisions: Ancestry profile, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 11, 2006