ZIP Code 08904

Highland Park is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States in the New York City metropolitan area. The borough is located on the northern banks of the Raritan River. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the borough's population was 15,072, reflecting an increase (7.28%) from the 2010 United States Census. The earliest settlers of the land that would become Highland Park were the Lenape Native Americans, who hunted in the hills along the RAritan River and had trails that crisscrossed the area. In the late 17th century, Henry Greenland became one of the area's first European settlers; he owned nearly 400 acres (1.6 km²) of land on the Mill Brook section of the Assunpink Trail, where he operated an inn for travelers. Others early settlers included Captain Francis Drake and other members of the Drake family, relatives of the famous explorer. The present day seven-span stone arch road bridge was built in 1892 and stretches 595 feet (181 m) across the Rritan River to New Brunswick. It became the Lincoln Highway Bridge in 1914 and was widened in 1925. In 1918, Robert Wood Johnson was appointed to the Highland Park Council and became mayor in 1920. Since its establishment as a borough, Highland Park's lands have been parceled into a parceling of land called Wood Johnson lands, which have been used as a golf course since the early 20th century.

History

Highland Park is the primary city name, but also New Brunswick are acceptable city names or spellings. The official name is Borough of Highland Park. The earliest settlers of the land that would become Highland Park were the Lenape Native Americans. In 1685, John Inian bought land on both shores of the Raritan River and built two new landings downstream from the Assunpink Trail's fording place. In the early 18th century, a few wealthy Europeans including the Van Horns and Merrills settled on large tracts of land establishing an isolated farmstead pattern of development that would continue for the next 150 years. The present day seven-span stone arch road bridge was built in 1892 and stretches 595 feet (181 m) across the Rritan River to New Brunswick. The Livingston Homestead, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was owned by the Waldron family throughout most of the 20th century. In 1918, Robert Wood Johnson II was appointed to the Highland Park Council and became mayor in 1920. Since its establishment as a residential borough in 1905, Highland Park's lands have been parceled into ever more suburban plots. The borough's industrial development in the 19th and 20th centuries included such businesses as a brewery, Johnson Johnson & Johnson, Tubes, and J.W. Turner & Company. It has taken years of continuously constructing houses and apartment buildings to create the residential neighborhood of Orchard Heights in the Orchard Park section of the borough. The 1905 New Jersey census counted 147 dwellings in the new borough. Highland Park had its own school district and on March 15, 1905, the Borough of Highland Park was formed.

Geography

The borough received its name for its "park-like" setting, on the "high land" of the banks of the Raritan River, overlooking New Brunswick. Highland Park borders the Middlesex County municipalities of Edison, New Brunswick, and Piscataway. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 1.83 square miles (4.74 km²) of land and 0.01 square miles of water (0.44% of the total area) The borough's total population was 1,071. The borough has a population of 1,081. It is located on the banks of the Raritan River, overlooking New Brunswick, New Jersey. Its population is 1,091, according to the United States Census Bureau. Its total area is 1.82 sq miles (4.72 km²), including 1.01 sq miles of land (0,02 km² of water) and 0.01sq miles (0, 02 sq miles) of water. It has an area of 0.02 square miles, or 0.04 km², of which 0.03 sq miles is water. Its name comes from its location on the high land, overlooking the New Brunswick River. It also means "highland" or "park" in English. It was named for its location near the river's banks, which is known as "Highland Park" and "Highlands Park".

Demographics

The 2010 U.S. census counted 13,982 people, 5,875 households, and 3,267 families in the borough. The median household income was $78,821 (with a margin of error of +/ $8,312) and the median family Income was $103,316 (+/ $6,807) The racial makeup of the borough was 68.26% (9,544) White, 7.83% (1,095) Black or African American, 0.14% (20) Native American, 17.84% (2,495) Asian,0.03% (4) Pacific Islander, 3.28% (458) from other races, and 2.62% (366) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.95% (1,252) of the population. Of residents reporting their ancestry, 9.8% were of Italian, 9,1% Irish, 8.1% German, 78% Russian and 7.5% Polish. 66.2% spoke English, 6.4% Chinese, 2.2%, Hebrew, 1.8%, Hungarian and 1.1%, Hindi as their language spoken at home. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 3.10. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 91.0 males. The per capita income for the borough in 2010 was $41,300.

Community

Highland Park has at times been a bedroom community for nearby Rutgers University and Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick. Nobel laureate Selman Waksman (Medicine, 1952) lived in the borough until he moved to Piscataway in 1954. In 1978, Highland Park became the first municipality in New Jersey to have an eruv, a symbolic enclosure that allows Orthodox Jews to perform certain activities outdoors on the Sabbath that would be otherwise prohibited. There is a new state-of-the-art environmental center on River Road, just a few hundred feet upstream from the Albany Street Bridge. The borough's Environmental Commission envisions this center as a stop along a riverbank walking trail that would link Johnson Park with Donaldson Park and beyond, to the Meadows environmental area on the Edison border. When intact, this eruv satisfies most Orthodox Jewish religious requirements allowing residents to carry objects during the Sabbath. The wires are inspected every Friday to ensure that the connections are complete. The township is home to the New Jersey State Museum, which is open to the public on weekdays and closed on weekends. The town is also home to New Jersey's oldest public library, the Bergen County Public Library, which was founded in 1872. It is located in the historic Edison section of the borough. The community is home of the New York-Newark International Airport, which opened in 1875. It was the first airport in the U.S. and is now one of the busiest airports in the world.

Government

Highland Park is governed under the Borough form of New Jersey municipal government, which is used in 218 (of the 564) municipalities statewide. The governing body is comprised of a Mayor and a Borough Council, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis. All elected positions are part-time; the mayor and council members typically hold outside jobs, and receive small salaries from their elected offices. The borough operates through Committees of the Council: Administration, Finance, Public Works, Public Safety, Community Affairs, Public Utilities, and Health, Welfare and Recreation. The mayor can veto ordinances subject to an override by a two-thirds majority vote of the council. As of 2022, the Mayor of Highland Park is Democrat Gayle Brill Mittler, whose term of office expires on December 31, 2023. In January 2017, the Borough Council selected Matthew Hersh to fill the seat expiring in December 2019 that became vacant following the death of Jon Erickson the previous October before Election Day. Hersh had earlier been chosen to serve the balance of Erickson's previous term that expired in December 2016. In July 2018, Hersh resigned to accept a position with a state agency and was replaced by Matthew Hale. The Borough is located in the 6th Congressional District and is part of the 18th state legislative district. Prior to the 2011 reapportionment following the 2010 Census, Highland Park's congressional district was in the 4th district. The 6th district is now in the 11th state.

Education

The Highland Park Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 202021 school year, the district, comprised of four schools, had an enrollment of 1,558 students and 145.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a studentteacher ratio of 10.7:1. The community is also served by the Greater Brunswick Charter School, a K8 charter school serving students from Highland Park, Edison, Milltown and New Brunswick. The Center School serves students with learning and emotional challenges in grades K12. The Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools offers career and technical education at four high schools in the county, with no tuition charged to students for attendance. A fire in the school's building in February 2012 forced the school to relocate to Branchburg Township on an interim basis. The school moved in 1989 to a former public school building in Highland Park and moved to a new location in Bound Brook in 1989. The center school moved to its current location in 1989 and moved into a new building in 2011. The high school is located in the town of Milltown, New Jersey and serves students in grades 912 and 913. It is the only high school in the district that is not part of a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career andtechnical education at its technical high schools. The county vocational schools are located in Edison, Perth Amboy and Piscataway, and Woodbridge Township.

Transportation

As of May 2010, the borough had a total of 31.46 miles (50.63 km) of roadways, of which 27.85 miles (44.82 km) were maintained by the municipality and 2.22 miles (3.57 km) by Middlesex County. U.S. Route 1 and New Jersey Route 18 are accessible close to Highland Park, just beyond its southeastern and southwestern borders.NJ Transit local bus service is provided on the 810 and 814 routes.Atlantic City weekend service is available on Suburban Transit's 700 route. NJ Transit northbound trains to Penn Station New York, and southbound to the Trenton Transit Center can be found in neighboring New Brunswick station and Edison station. There are five main roads in Highland Park: Route 27, Route 514, Route 692, River Road, Duclos Lane and Cedar Lane. The borough is located in the New Jersey Bay Area, which is part of the New York City Metropolitan Statistical Area (NYMPA) and theropolitan region of New Jersey. The New Jersey River is a tributary of the Raritan River, which runs through the borough. The Raritans River is the main source of water supply for the borough, as well as the Tappan Zee River and the Hackensack River. It is also the source of the Passaic River, one of the largest rivers in New Jersey, which flows into the bay from the north and south.

Wildlife

White-tailed deer are common enough in and around Highland Park to be seen as a problem. A deer population survey which includes Highland Park was conducted by Raritan Valley Community College in December 2019. The borough's government was using this survey in 2020 as it made plans for deer management.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey = 26.8. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 20. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 10. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Highland Park = 3.9 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 4,500 individuals with a median age of 37.9 age the population grows by 1.78% in Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 8,276.8 residents per square mile of area (3,195.7/km²). There are average 2.43 people per household in the 5,857 households with an average household income of $65,710 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 8.70% of the available work force and has dropped -3.55% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 24.20%. The number of physicians in Highland Park per 100,000 population = 254.3.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Highland Park = 48.2 inches and the annual snowfall = 27.5 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 122. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 206. 85 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 21 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 48, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey which are owned by the occupant = 39.85%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 54 years with median home cost = $339,470 and home appreciation of -1.45%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $23.65 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $9,202 per student. There are 13.1 students for each teacher in the school, 516 students for each Librarian and 397 students for each Counselor. 4.35% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 24.28% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 35.03% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).