Newark Riverfront Park

Newark Riverfront Park
Walking along the signature orange boardwalk at Newark's Riverfront Park
Type Urban park
Location Newark, New Jersey, United States
Coordinates 40°44′00″N 74°08′52″W / 40.7333°N 74.1478°W / 40.7333; -74.1478Coordinates: 40°44′00″N 74°08′52″W / 40.7333°N 74.1478°W / 40.7333; -74.1478
Opened 2012 (2012)
Designer Renovated and redesigned by The Trust for Public Land
Operated by Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs

Newark Riverfront Park is a park that is being designed and developed, in 4 phases, in the Ironbound neighborhood, along the Passaic River in Newark, New Jersey, United States. This park, expected to be 3 miles long altogether, is being built on a brownfield, next to the river which is a Superfund site due to decades of pollution.[1] The first phase of the park opened in 2012.[2] It is the first time residents of the largest city in New Jersey have ever had public access to the river.[1]

History of Riverfront Park

Newark Riverfront Park is being developed in four phases, and will ultimately be 30.5 acres along the Passaic River in Newark.[3] The first phase included 12 acres and opened in 2012 in the Ironbound section. It included playgrounds, fields for soccer and baseball, a boardwalk, and walking trails. This gave members of the community their first public access to the river in over a century and was initially known as Essex County Riverfront Park.[4][5] Phase 2 opened in 2013, and with it one of the more prominent visual elements of the park, a fluorescent orange boardwalk with four large orange poles, viewable from New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor just north of Newark's Penn Station.[6][7] Phase 3 opened in December 2017, with a ceremony from Newark’s Mayor Ras J. Baraka.[8] This four-acre section includes walking and bike paths, river overlooks, open exercise equipment in a Fitness Zone, seating, lighting, and flood resilience features. Ground was broken on phase 4 of the park in October 2017.[9]

The park is being developed through a partnership with the City of Newark, The Trust for Public Land, the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation, and the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.[8]

Perception of river access

The area around Riverfront Park has been industrialized and abandoned from residents and community members for many years, due in part to pollution in the Passaic River. The river is an EPA Superfund site, with projected in 2014 estimated at $1.7 billion, it will be one of the largest Superfund cleanups ever proposed.[10][11] While plans for dredging the river to remove contaminants has been planned for many years, it was only more recently that this has been seen as an urban planning opportunity to increase community parks and access to the river itself. Connecting environmental conservation and restoration with intentional park development is a relatively new way to invest in new park infrastructure, as evidenced in increasing research in this area.[12][13]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Kimmelman, Michael (2013-07-20). "Newark Revival Wears Orange Along the River". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  2. ↑ "Newark Riverfront Park – Connecting every Newarker to their river". newarkriverfront.org. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  3. ↑ "Construction Underway to Expand Newark's Riverfront Park | Jersey Digs". Jersey Digs. 2017-11-01. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  4. ↑ "This Saturday, June 17th, Newark Will Celebrate Its Riverfront | Jersey Digs". Jersey Digs. 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  5. ↑ "Riverfront Park | Parks | Essex County Parks". www.essexcountyparks.org. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  6. ↑ Kimmelman, Michael (2013-07-20). "Newark Revival Wears Orange Along the River". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  7. ↑ "Newark Riverfront Park". The Trust for Public Land. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  8. 1 2 "Newest Phase of Newark's Riverfront Park Is Open | Jersey Digs". Jersey Digs. 2017-12-21. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  9. ↑ City of Newark NJ (2017-10-26), Riverfront Park Phase 4 Ground Breaking, retrieved 2018-04-27
  10. ↑ EPA: The United States Environmental Protection Agency. "Case Summary: $165 Million Settlement to Start Cleanup Work on the Passaic River in New Jersey | US EPA". US EPA. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  11. ↑ "Massive, $1.7 billion environmental cleanup of Passaic River proposed by EPA". NJ.com. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  12. ↑ Doherty, Gareth; Waldheim, Charles (eds.). Is Landscape...? Essays on the identity of landscape. Doherty, Gareth., Waldheim, Charles. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781317450290. OCLC 923734610.
  13. ↑ Poirier, Marc R. (1998). "Introduction: Facing the Passaic". Seton Hall Law Review. 29: 1–17.
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