For the first time since industry claimed the banks of the Passaic River in the 19th century, residents of Newark, New Jersey, are regaining access to a significant stretch of their hometown riverfront. This year will see the opening of 15 acres of parkland along the river adjacent to the historic Ironbound neighborhood: a new Essex County Riverfront Park and, adjacent to it, the Newark Riverfront Park, developed by the city under Mayor Cory Booker in partnership with The Trust for Public Land. TPL’s role in the waterfront park builds on a long history of success in creating neighborhood parks and play- grounds in Newark. In a city where only 5 percent of land is devoted to parks, TPL and its nonprofit partners have created or rebuilt ten parks and playgrounds since 1995. Together the partners have raised nearly $10 million to build the first phase of Newark Riverfront Park. Funds came from Trust for Public Land donors, the city, Essex County, New Jersey’s Green Acres Program, a state brownfield remediation program, and other sources. In public meetings spanning a year, residents forged a vision of what they wanted in the new park: trails along the river for walking and biking, a floating dock, a boardwalk, a river overlook, a performance pavilion, and educational signs about local history and the environment. A team led by noted landscape architect Lee
Weintraub developed a design based on this vision. The Trust for Public Land contracted for the design and is overseeing cleanup of the park site and construction.
Marni Horwitz
Even before park construction got under way, the city launched the Newark Riverfront Revival to reunite residents with the river. Key features of the effort are walking and boat tours that bring residents from deep within the city to experience the river, often for the first time. And as construc- tion winds down, the county, city, Ironbound Community Corporation, and TPL have launched the Friends of Newark Riverfront Park, which will continue the tours and sponsor regular concerts and other performances at the park. For more information on the Newark Riverfront Park and all of The Trust for Public Land’s work in Newark, go to tpl.org/newark.