Glen Ridge, New Jersey

Glen Ridge, New Jersey
—  Borough  —
Map of Glen Ridge in Essex County. Inset: Essex County highlighted in the State of New Jersey.
Census Bureau map of Glen Ridge, New Jersey
Coordinates: 40.804798°N 74.204569°W / 40.804798; -74.204569
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Essex
Incorporated	February 13, 1895
Government
• Type	Borough
• Mayor	Peter A. Hughes (term ends 2011)
• Administrator	Michael Rohal
Area
• Total	1.287 sq mi (3.332 km2)
• Land	1.282 sq mi (3.320 km2)
• Water	0.005 sq mi (0.012 km2)  0.36%
Elevation	197 ft (60 m)
Population (2010 Census)
• Total	7,527
• Density	5,872.8/sq mi (2,267.5/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	07028
Area code(s)	862/973
FIPS code	34-26610
GNIS feature ID	2390559
Website	http://www.glenridgenj.org

Glen Ridge is a borough in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,527. In 2010, Glen Ridge was ranked as the 38th Best Place to live by New Jersey Monthly magazine.

Glen Ridge was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 13, 1895, from portions of Bloomfield Township, based on the results of a referendum held the previous day. In 1981, the official name was changed to the "Township of Glen Ridge Borough" to take advantage of federal revenue sharing policies. Effective May 1993, the borough's original name of "Glen Ridge Borough" was restored.

Of the many legacies left to the town by its founders, the one that has become its trademark is the gas lamps. With only 3,000 gaslights remaining in operation in the entire United States, Glen Ridge has 665 such lamps lighting its streets. In 1924, Glen Ridge became the first municipality in New Jersey to establish a zoning ordinance.

Geography

Glen Ridge borough is located at 40°48′17″N 74°12′16″W (40.804798,-74.204569). According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 1.287 square miles (3.332 km²), of which, 1.282 square miles (3.320 km²) of it is land and 0.005 square miles (0.012 km²) of it (0.36%) is water. It is bounded by Bloomfield, Montclair and East Orange.

Glen Ridge at the most six blocks wide. In the borough north of Bay Avenue, "the Panhandle", it is only three or two blocks wide.

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1900	1,960		—
1910	3,260		66.3%
1920	4,620		41.7%
1930	7,365		59.4%
1940	7,331		−0.5%
1950	7,620		3.9%
1960	8,322		9.2%
1970	8,518		2.4%
1980	7,855		−7.8%
1990	7,076		−9.9%
2000	7,271		2.8%
2010	7,527		3.5%
Population sources:1910-1930 1930-1990 2000 2010

2010 Census

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 7,527 people, 2,476 households, and 2,033 families residing in the borough. The population density was 5,872.8 inhabitants per square mile (2,267.5 /km²). There were 2,541 housing units at an average density of 1,982.6 per square mile (765.5 /km²). The racial makeup of the borough was 86.21% (6,489) White, 5.04% (379) African American, 0.04% (3) Native American, 4.65% (350) Asian, 0.00% (0) Pacific Islander, 1.37% (103) from other races, and 2.70% (203) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.01% (377) of the population.

There were 2,476 households out of which 49.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 70.9% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.9% were non-families. 14.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.03 and the average family size was 3.39.

In the borough the population was spread out with 32.2% under the age of 18, 4.7% from 18 to 24, 22.3% from 25 to 44, 31.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.2 years. For every 100 females there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.0 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $160,511 (with a margin of error of +/- $11,073) and the median family income was $173,466 (+/- $25,554). Males had a median income of $111,968 (+/- $11,975) versus $85,938 (+/- $24,626) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $64,222 (+/- $8,487). About 1.1% of families and 2.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.9% of those under age 18 and 0.0% of those age 65 or over.

2000 Census

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,271 people, 2,458 households, and 1,978 families residing in the borough. The population density was 5,695.0 people per square mile (2,193.2/km²). There were 2,490 housing units at an average density of 1,950.3 per square mile (751.1/km²). The racial makeup of the borough was 89.18% White, 4.98% African American, 0.15% Native American, 3.34% Asian, 0.99% from other races, and 1.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.45% of the population.

There were 2,458 households out of which 46.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 69.9% were married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.5% were non-families. 16.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.95 and the average family size was 3.33.

In the borough, the population was spread out with 30.7% under the age of 18, 4.5% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 24.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 94.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.3 males.

The median income for a household in the borough was $105,638, and the median income for a family was $120,650. Males had a median income of $91,161 versus $51,444 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $48,456. About 1.9% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.3% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Local government

Glen Ridge is governed under the Borough form of New Jersey municipal government. The government consists of a Mayor and a Borough Council comprising six council members, with all positions elected at large. A Mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office. The Borough Council consists of six members elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats coming up for election each year.

As of 2012, the mayor of Glen Ridge is Peter A. Hughes. The members of the Glen Ridge borough council (with their committee chairmanship listed in parentheses) are Council President Elizabeth K. Baker (Planning & Development), Arthur D. Dawson (Public Works), David Lefkovits (Community Affairs & Public Relations), Paul A. Lisovicz (Public Safety), Stuart K. Patrick (Finance & Administration) and Jeffrey Theodorou (Parks & Recreation).

The Glen Ridge Civic Conference Committee (est. 1913), made up of delegates from the community and from local civic organizations, provides a non-partisan method of candidate selection for Borough elections. The CCC endorsement is very significant; in most elections, the CCC's candidates are unopposed. The eight organizations currently sending delegates to the CCC are: The Democratic Club, Freeman Gardens Association, Friends of the Glen Ridge Library, The Glen Ridge Historical Society, The Northside Association, The Republican Club, The Golden Circle, The South End Association and the Women's Club of Glen Ridge.

Glen Ridge Borough Hall in early spring (currently under extensive renovation)

In recent years, the CCC has been weakened both by changing attitudes in the town, the actions of a number of town residents, and internal conflicts within the CCC itself. The previous mayor, Carl Bergmanson, was the first mayor since the establishment of the CCC in 1913 to be elected without seeking (or receiving) the Committee's endorsement. A member of the council for three terms, he ran for mayor in 1999, losing to the CCC candidate Steven Plate. When Plate was appointed as the CCC candidate again in 2003 (violating the committee's precedent of one term per mayor), Bergmanson ran again, and won, gaining the majority in all but one of the town's districts. However, the CCC is still firmly in control of the town's political structure - all 16 of the elected officials currently serving Glen Ridge were nominated by the CCC. Generally, when non-CCC candidates run, they run as independents. The Democratic and Republican parties are not forces in local elections.

Federal, state and county representation

Glen Ridge is in the 8th Congressional district and is part of New Jersey's 28th state legislative district.

New Jersey's Eighth Congressional District is represented by Bill Pascrell (D, Paterson). New Jersey is represented in the United States Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Bob Menendez (D, Hoboken).

The 28th District of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Ronald Rice (D, Newark) and in the General Assembly by Ralph R. Caputo (D, Belleville) and Cleopatra Tucker (D, Newark). The Governor of New Jersey is Chris Christie (R, Mendham). The Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey is Kim Guadagno (R, Monmouth Beach).

Essex County's County Executive is Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. The executive, along with the Board of Chosen Freeholders administer all county business. The county's Board of Chosen Freeholders consists of nine members, four elected on an at-large basis and one from each of five wards, who serve terms of office on a concurrent basis. As of 2011 Essex County's Freeholders are Freeholder President Blonnie R. Watson (at large), Freeholder Vice President Ralph R. Caputo (District 5), Rufus I. Johnson (at large), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (at large), Patricia Sebold (at large), Samuel Gonzalez (District 1), D. Bilal Beasley (District 2), Carol Y. Clark (District 3) and Linda Lordi Cavanaugh (District 4).

Politics

In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 62.9% of the vote here (2,583 ballots cast), over Republican John McCain, who received 35.2% of the vote (1,444 votes), with 4,104 of the 5,185 registered voters participating, for turnout of 79.2%. In the 2004 election, Democrat John Kerry received 59.1% of the vote here (2,381 ballots cast), over Republican George W. Bush, who received 39.9% of the vote (1,608 votes), with 4,031 of the 4,967 registered voters participating, for turnout of 81.1%. In the 2009 Gubernatorial Election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 51.0% of the vote (1,388 votes), outpolling Republican Chris Christie, who received around 39.3% (1,071 votes), with 2,722 of 5,144 registered voters participating for a 52.9% turnout.

History

Glen Ridge traces its beginning to 1666 when 64 Connecticut families led by Robert Treat bought land from the Lenni Lenape Native Americans and named it New Ark to reflect a covenant to worship freely without persecution. The territory included the future towns of Bloomfield, Montclair, Belleville and Nutley. When Bloomfield seceded in 1812, Glen Ridge was a section "on the hill" composed mostly of farms and woodlands with the exception of a thriving industrial area along the Toney's brook in the Glen. For most of the nineteenth century, three water-powered mills produced lumber, calico, pasteboard boxes and brass fittings. A copper mine and a sandstone quarry were nearby.

Toney's Brook

With the arrival of the Newark and Bloomfield Railroad in 1856, and the construction of the Glen Ridge Train Station, and also the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway in 1872, Glen Ridge began its transition to a suburban residential community. Stately homes slowly replaced orchards and wooded fields.

In 1891 Mountainside Hospital, a local hospital with more than 300 beds, was founded.

Residents "on the hill" became unhappy with their representation on the Bloomfield Council. In spite of repeated requests to Bloomfield officials, roads remained unpaved, water and sewer systems were nonexistent, and schools were miles away. Area residents marked out the boundaries of a 1.45-square-mile (3.8 km²) area to secede from the adjoining town. At the February 12, 1895, election, the decision to secede passed by only 23 votes. Robert Rudd was elected the first mayor of Glen Ridge.

In 1989, athletes from the high school were involved in the sexual assault of a mentally handicapped student. Three teenagers were found guilty of first-degree aggravated sexual assault; a fourth was convicted of third-degree conspiracy. Author Bernard Lefkowitz wrote about the incident in the 1997 book Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb. Lefkowitz's book was adapted into the 1999 TV movie Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge.

Education

Ridgewood Avenue school

The Glen Ridge Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Schools in the district (with 2009-10 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Linden Avenue School (grades PreK-2; 282 students), Forest Avenue School (PreK-2; 258), Ridgewood Avenue School (3-6; 568) and Glen Ridge High School (7-12; 801).

Ridgewood Avenue School offers an academic curriculum in the major disciplines of language arts literacy, mathematics, social studies, and science, and students are exposed to art, instrumental and vocal music, physical education, health, library skills and Spanish. All students at Ridgewood Avenue School are required to move through the stations of the Synergistics Lab, solving real world problems through the study of mathematics, science, and technology.

As of the 2009-10 school year, Glen Ridge High School had a school population of 801 students, grades seven through twelve, with an average class size of 22.2 students. (Compared to the state average class size of 18.2 students.) The length of a normal school day is 6 hours and 47 minutes, with 6 hours and 20 minutes of it dedicated to instructional time. The school has 261 computers, which are all connected to the internet, making the Student/Computer Ratio 3.1 (which is the same as the state average). Over the past four years the graduation rate has been approximately 99%, while 100% of students pass the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

Glen Ridge High School's standardized test scores exceed both the state and national averages. The graduates from the Class of 2010 had 91.4% go on to study at four-year colleges and 3.9% at a two-year college, with remaining graduates continue their education in trade or technical schools, or in the armed services, while others find employment. The Class of 2010 average SAT scores were 584 on the math section, 571 on the verbal section and 571 on the essay portion. (Compared to a New Jersey average of 520 math, 496 verbal and 499 essay.) The school offered 15 Advanced Placement classes with 36.9% of students in grades eleven and twelve participating. Of these 205 students that took the AP tests, 188 scored a three or higher on the exams.

The school was the 4th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 322 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2010 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 5th in 2008 out of 316 schools.

Christ Church Episcopal

Housing

The median price for a house in Glen Ridge was $260,900, which was double the national average. Out of the 2,549 houses in the borough, 84.7% of them were single units (detached) and had a median of 7.7 rooms. Glen Ridge is known for its old town charm, with 72.8% of its houses having been built before 1939. In 1895, when the town was chartered, Glen Ridge became one of the first communities to hire a town planner which caused the town to have late Victorian and Edwardian elements. The pristine condition of the town is due to the building codes that were established, the creation of the Building Department which included a Building Inspector, and a zoning ordinance (the first in the state of New Jersey).

The architecture of the town makes Glen Ridge very unique since there houses representing every major style from the mid-nineteenth century onward. Some of the architecture styles witnessed include the Carpenter Gothic, the Medieval, the High Victorian Period, the “Queen Anne Cottage”, and American Georgian. Notable architects that have left their legacy in the town include Frank Lloyd Wright, Stanford White, and John Russell Pope. To maintain the historical feel of the town and protect the architectural features, the town has created a Historic Preservation Commission which reviews construction on houses in a historic district.

Transportation

Glen Ridge is located conveniently in an area where various modes of transportation exist. Approximately half of the residents in Glen Ridge own 2 carswhich allows them to access the New Jersey Turnpike, Newark Airport, the George Washington Bridge, and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels through major roads such as Interstate 80, Route 46, and Route 3, Interstate 280, Garden State Parkway and Route 21.

The town also has public transportation options for those residents who don’t own cars or who choose not to drive on the traffic-congested roads. New Jersey Transit provides bus service to Newark on the 11, 28 and 29. Buses from DeCamp Bus Lines run to and from Penn Station in Newark and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Commuters can also take trains from the Glen Ridge (formerly named Ridgewood Avenue station), where NJ Transit provides service to Penn Station in New York and to Hoboken Terminal via the Montclair-Boonton Line. The town also has a Jitney service which provides transportation to and from the Glen Ridge Station for commuters.

Notable residents

Notable current and former residents of Glen Ridge include:

• Buzz Aldrin (born 1930), member of the Apollo 11 crew.
• Horace Ashenfelter (born 1923), 1952 Olympic gold medalist, track and field.
• Dale Berra (born 1956), former Major League Baseball player and son of Yogi Berra.
• Eddie Bracken (1915–2002), character actor.
• Jon Brion (born 1963), singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.
• Mary Jo Codey (born 1955), former First Lady of New Jersey.
• Tom Cruise (born 1962), movie star, spent several years of his childhood in Glen Ridge, and graduated from Glen Ridge High School.
• Gary Cuozzo (born 1941), former quarterback who played in 10 NFL seasons from 1963-1972 for four different teams.
• Michael J. Doherty (born 1963), a New Jersey State Senator who represents the 23rd Legislative District, grew up in Glen Ridge and graduated from Glen Ridge High School.
• Lauren English (born 1989), competitive swimmer who set the United States Open Record in the 50 Meter Backstroke.
• Anthony Fasano (born 1984), tight end for the Miami Dolphins.
• Kenny Garrett (born 1960), Grammy Award-winning jazz musician, saxophonist and composer.
• Nia Gill (born 1948), represents the 34th Legislative District in the New Jersey Senate since 2002.
• Alfred Julio Jensen (1903–81), abstract painter.
• Ezra Koenig (born 1984), musician. Vampire Weekend.
• Alexander Kolowrat (1886–1927), pioneer of Austrian Cinema.
• Rodney Leinhardt (born 1970), professional wrestler, better known as Rodney from his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation.^{[citation needed]}
• Wes Miles (born 1984), musician. Ra Ra Riot.
• Edward Page Mitchell (1852–1927), editor-in-chief of The New York Sun.
• Gerry Niewood (1943–2009) jazz saxophonist.
• Joe Orsulak (born 1962), Major League Baseball player from 1983 to 1997.
• Alison Stewart (born 1966), MSNBC news personality and host of The Most with Alison Stewart.
• Henry Selick (born 1952), stop motion director, producer and writer who is best known for directing both The Nightmare Before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach.
• George Steinmetz (born 1957), exploration photographer, winner of the Picture of the Year award, Overseas Press Club, 25 stories for GEO magazine in Germany.
• Stephen S. Trott (born 1939), judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
• Don Van Natta, Jr. (born 1964), investigate reporter at The New York Times.
• Tom Verducci, sportswriter for Sports Illustrated.
• Dick Zimmer (born 1944), former member of the United States House of Representatives, Republican candidate for United States Senate in 1996 and 2008.

External links

• Glen Ridge Borough Website
• Glen Ridge Public Schools Website
• Glen Ridge Illustrated History
• Glen Ridge Schools's 2009–10 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
• Data for the Glen Ridge Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics
• Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb by Bernard Lefkowitz ISBN 0-520-20596-0
• Glen Ridge Civic Conference Committee