The City of Newark. Geographical Location
The City of Newark was founded in 1666 by the Connecticut puritans who came from the New Haven colony, the City experienced rapid growth in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. Toward the end of the 20th century, the City experienced tremendous decline and racial tension especially the riots that took place in 1967. From the 1990s to the present the City has experienced a great rejuvenation (Turner & Koles, 1997). Newark in New Jersey is among the biggest cities in New Jersey, it is ranked to be the 65th largest town in the whole of America and is considered to be the home of many giant corporations like Prudential financial. On 1st January 1905, it had taken over Vail burg borough which had been independent. At present the Newark City has got following Wards; The North Ward, The East Ward, The South Ward, and The West Ward (Edge, 2007).
Geographically, Newark City sits on an area of approximately 24.14 square miles making it the second-smallest city in terms of area in the list of the 100 most popular cities in America. Newark is located 400 44’ 14” north and 740 10’ 55” south with an average altitude of 17meters. Newark City contains a sloping large basin which is slanting towards the Passaic river with some few valleys formed as a result of its meandering rivers with much of its part is covered with water marshes making it hard to expand the City. Newark is considered the gateway of New Jersey City in terms of economic Activities (Turner & Koles, 1997).
Newark’s closeness to the Atlantic Ocean makes the City experience warmer winters compared to other cities which fall in the same latitude. As per the Koppen climate classification, Newark City’s climate is the humid subtropical one. Newark enjoys all four seasons; summer, winter, spring, and autumn. It snows during winter but the snow does not remain on the surface for long periods due to temperatures averaging at 3-6 during this period. Newark experiences mild springs which occur from March to early June. March receives the lowest temperatures of 4c during this spring period and they keep increasing to 21c in June. Summers are characterized by high levels of humidity and temperatures ranging from 27-34 during the day. July and August are considered to have a high level of humidity and hottest temperatures reaching 38c. During autumn the City the temperature reduces again to an average of 15c. Newark receives 75mm to 110mm of rain per month which is sufficient for agriculture (Turner & Koles, 1997).
The Newark economic Activities during the colonial period were based majorly on agriculture; they grew cash crops like cotton, tobacco, rice, and wheat among others because Newark had flat marshy land and sufficient rainfall accompanied by rich soils. Newark has a growing season that is longer than in other cities which lie in the same latitude (Immerso, 1999). Due to the short period of snow and the warm climate, they were able to grow a lot of varieties of vegetables, fruits, grains like a con, and reared livestock. They were able to manufacture things using bare hands or simple machines. There existed master craftsmen who were skilled to manufacture things like guns and wagons and had an obligation to teach the young generation or apprentices how to read, write and do mathematics. This they did according to the demands of the colonial society which dictated that traditions and customs should be passed down to the younger generations to ensure continuity of the expertise (Mumford, 2007).
History of the City
The Newark town is considered the gateway of New Jersey since the colonial period. They practiced trade by exporting mainly farm produces and other natural resources to Europe while they imported manufactured goods from the latter. Taxation was closely related to war, when the town was at war, the tax increased to meet the war expenditures. The greater the war the greater amount of tax levied especially during the war between the Indian natives and the French which occurred between 1754 and 1763 Newark citizens were taxed heavily which led to American Revolution. Excises and other indirect taxes were levied to meet the civil administration expenditures, especially during the peaceful moments. People of Newark were directly taxed on their income and property during the war periods. During peaceful days Newark people were able to drive tax rates to a very small level by the issuance of paper money to people. The government provided the mortgage to people and collected interests from the loans which turned out to be the main resource of colonial revenue. The colonial system also issued bills that were supported by the oath of future taxation. During the colonial period, Newark was a big town famously known for its quality beer, tanned leather (Turner & Koles, 1997).
The towns consisted of small streets which were starting at the harbor and ended in the villages. A year after there was the decree issued to all landowners to elect a solid fence within twelve months or get reliable or the penalty after the purchase of lands by the settlers, the original Indian street was left in place although they were widened a bit. Towards the end of the seventeen century, they built a new street which is the present Brad Street to intersect other roads and to improve the stability and the flexibility of the town. Basically what the settlers did is that they gave the muscle the skeletal architecture of Newark town. In 1809, three commissioners were appointed to take care of the streets by executing laws relate to the streets. Newark was a collection of crowded small houses and elevated structures that were encircled by pastures, grassing lands, and planting fields with were either surrounded by thick forests or wetlands
The development of Newark town was not as a model City but as City whose design was based on the common knowledge that the planters had acquired in New England. Within the period between 1620 and 1845, the people of New England town wanted to establish a new town in terms of architecture. Planned and built roads, bridges, public ways, stokes, and livestock pounds which resulted in the development of seven streets with the width of approximately 730 feet each. The structure of the town as a result of the older organization which was deeply rooted in his culture and agriculture. Rather, the new ark‘s architecture could be summed as a four-cornered town which consisted of one brad street and triangular commons whose purpose was to serve as parks(Immerso, 1999).
Originally, Newark was a small town with structures cluttered together. It was the cradle land for the Lenape Indians. With the advent of the white settlers in 1666, the population started to increase drastically as there were good farming methods that increased food production. At first, all the people never owned land. It was free to all making the Indians be in the same social class. The advent of the settlers started buying lands and owning properties which resulted in social classes of the rich and the poor. The population of the City had tripled to 48000 people by 1853 (Turner & Koles, 1997).
On 31st October 1666, Newark became a Township based on the Newark Tract; it was rather awarded a Royal charter on the 27th date of April 1713(Mumford, 2007). Rather, on 21st February 1798, it was included in a list of New Jersey’s 104 towns by the New Jersey Legislature Act. Some parts of the town were separated to start new towns. This led to the formation of towns like Springfield Township, Orange Township, Caldwell Township, Bloomfield Township, and Clinton Township. It became a City on 11th April 1836 based on the referendum that was passed on 18th March 1836(Immerso, 1999).
The native Indians always attributed everything to their deity. The leadership was under the kingdom style and was headed by King Charles II who controlled the greater region of New Jersey including Newark town. In 1664, New Jersey was under the control of James the duke who was the brother of Charles II. He gave the duke the power to create Governments and create laws. This led to the creation of municipalities by the legislation. In 1702 there was the change of governance from the legislative grant to royal charter following the joining of the west and east New Jersey top form the New Jersey. The powers to corporate municipalities were later given to the legislature following the American Revolution which resulted in the passing of the Township form of municipal Governance. Under this Township form, all-male whites who were above 21 years old were supposed to vote annually to elect a presiding officer, town clerks, tax collectors, surveyors, among others (Lassiter, 2007)…
Basically, the chief economic activity was agriculture, they planted maize, pumpkins, and tobacco, and also they reared turkeys. They were also hunters. They didn’t own the lands as they felt that the lands and the natural resources belonged to the gods. The advent of Europeans started the plantation of apples.
The period between 1865 and 1900 was called the gilded age was the era after the civil war. It led to an explosion in inventions including the invention of phonographs, the typewriter among others also a lot of discoveries were witnessed including the discovery of coal, sand, and Gravel, Gypsum, clay, and oil regions. Many saw it as the second industrial revolution. There was a tremendous increase in railways and other transport infrastructure leading to easy transportation of goods and people. This is a time that the horse-drawn carriages were being replaced by cars (Joseph, 2010). Newark got much of its finances from taxing the agricultural sector which was booming by now due to the modernization of farming methods. They also financed themselves from the sale of manufactured goods and oil, personal income was also taxed by the Government with 3-5% rates it was later abolished by the Government till 1872. all this time the Government relied on import and export duties and excise taxes. This duty to levy taxes was given to the internal revenue service (IRS) (Mumford, 2007).
Newark introduced local Government in 1954 which was formerly the Faulkner Act plan C. This local Government consisted of a mayor and other nine members who were elected during an election for a term of four years. The local government was responsible for putting into place laws and statutes which were to govern the people of the City (Lassiter, 2007).
The design and architecture of Newark City still took on the shape of the ancient streets that were constructed by the Indians. The only difference was to broaden the streets and make them modern. Since this era occurred during the industrial explosion, the City was designed to incorporate modern infrastructure in terms of roads and railways. There was the construction of megastructures changed the appearance of Newark completely (Joseph, 2010).
Modernized farming methods due to the industrial revolution and other discoveries improved the living standards of the people, the City of Newark experienced an explosion in population especially those coming in to work for the industries that had been established. This created many social classes between the wealthy, the middle-class people, the poor, and the slaves and peasants (Lassiter, 2007).
Edward Steve Rankin became the man in charge of the City Engineering corps whose duty was to work on the sewerage system since the sewer was pumped into the rivers causing a lot of diseases.
Years after 1866, Newark experienced a great increase in population and industrial development pulling the interests of many Politicians into the interests of a large economy. The Government introduced easy laws and reduced taxes in 1870 which saw a rise of dummy offices in the City. This led to the introduction of an Act to abolish corruption in the City (Porambo, 2007).
In 1899, the Township Act was amended to give clear meaning to the constitution for the Township form. Although it was amended it did not change the basic structure of the Township form and still much of the powers were vested in the Township committee although it allowed the members of the committee were allowed to divide among themselves some executive powers with each member serving as a department head. However, the committee was to take those duties or responsibilities which were not given to the mayor either by the legislature and Township Act (Lassiter, 2007).
The 1878 Borough Act sought to break the New Jersey cities into boroughs. A mayor had no vote unless to break ties. The majors had extra-judicial powers even resolving criminal cases. The mayor was elected annually while the council had a three-year term. Newark City was a popular democratic region until 1896 when it continuously voted for the republicans in the national elections. The state of New Jersey rewrote its constitution in 1947 after the Second World War (Joseph, 2010). It recognized the human rights movements, made the court processes to be easier and available, human rights movements were acknowledged. This era occurred when America was gaining from the Second World War. Its economy grew drastically since the second world war due to over-dependence of oil by the industrial sector and domestic use pushing inflation rates high by the early 1970s resulting in the country plunging into depression and tough economic times for a long time(Mumford, 2007). Reagan who was the president during this time introduced economic policies that were fiscally expansive which saw cutting of federal income tax, his Government had introduced tighter interests on loans and controlled money supply (Lassiter, 2007)
The Newark City experienced greater rural-urban movement since by now many industries were operating from the City. There were social classes that were based on the economic levels: the lower and higher social-economic levels. The City depended on imports and other excise duties that were levied to finance its self. Also, there was taxation on personal income (Edge, 2007). The north Ward contains many forests and is home to many Latinos. Central Ward contains many poor classes of people majority being Africans. And it’s home to many historical sites. The west is also heavily populated by blacks, the southern Ward comprises low-income weequahic district which is a home of many crimes and poverty (Porambo, 2007).
The East Ward is home to a commercial district with the greatest population of Portuguese. There was a significant change in urban development and growth although much was affected by the tough economic times (Joseph, 2010). Currently, the City is divided into five political Wards. The airport, industrial areas, and sea lands are all located in east and southern Wards while the north, central and western Wards are for residential reasons. The central is mostly for the poor people it has distinct boundaries which seem unbroken for a long time with other Wards (Mumford, 2007). Newark is more of a democratic region since in 2008; Mr. Barrack Obama who was a Democrat candidate for the national election received 91% votes. It is a member of the tenth congregational district and a member of the thirteenth district. It is also a member of the twenty-seventh, twenty-eight, and twenty-ninth legislative districts. Still, they are using the local Government system of administration.it includes the following members: the representatives of the five Wards, two members elected at large, the council president, and his vice president (Porambo, 2007).
Reference List
Edge, W. (2007). The Newark Tradition | Politicker NJ, 2010. Web.
Immerso, M. (1999).
Newark’s Little Italy. New York, NY: Rutgers University Press.
Joseph, A. (2010). Newark, New Jersey: The Golden Age. New York, NY: Heritage Books.
Lassiter, M, D. (2007).The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South. New York, NY: Princeton University Press.
Mumford, K. (2007). Newark: A History of Race, Rights, and Riots in America. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Porambo, R. (2007). No Cause for Indictment: An Autopsy of Newark. New York, NY: Melville Publications.
Turner, J. & Koles, R. T. (1997). Newark (NJ). New York, NY: Arcadia Publishing.