Fair Lawn, New Jersey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fair Lawn is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 31,637. As of 2005, the Census Bureau estimates a population of 31,408.[1] It is home to a very large Russian Jewish immigrant and first generation population.[citation needed][2]
Fair Lawn was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 6, 1924, as "Fairlawn", from portions of Saddle River Township.[3] The name was taken from Fairlawn, David Acker's estate home, that was built in 1865 and later became the Fair Lawn Municipal Building.[4] In 1933, the official spelling of the borough's name was split into its present two-word form as "Fair Lawn" Borough.[3]
Radburn, one of the first planned communities in the United States, is an unincorporated community located within Fair Lawn, and was founded in 1929 as "a town for the motor age".
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[edit] Geography
Fair Lawn is located at (40.933943, -74.116711).GR1
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 13.5 km² (5.2 mi²). 13.4 km² (5.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.96%) is water.
[edit] History
Fair Lawn had been known as Slooterdam in its earlier days, taken from a Dutch word used to describe a Native American weir used to trap fish on the Passaic River.[5] Fair Lawn was named after the Estate of David Acker which was named "Fair Lawn" and fronted onto what is now Fair Lawn Avenue. The home became the town municipal building and was later torn down when a senior citizen center was built where it stood.
[edit] Main Roads
Fair Lawn's principal artery is Broadway, going through its South Side. Broadway becomes Route 4 in Elmwood Park to the west and eventually Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Paterson. To the East, it becomes Route 4 going into Paramus.
Fair Lawn Avenue is considered the borough's main street, containing its Borough Hall, Police Station, Public Library, and Community School. The road goes west over the Passaic River into Paterson, and east into Paramus where it becomes Century Road.
Route 208 goes through the middle of the town from the northwest to the southeast, where it eventually merges with Broadway to become Route 4 not far from Paramus. Taken the other direction, Route 208 flows northwest to Interstate 287 in Oakland.
Saddle River Road goes through the eastern side of the town and into Saddle Brook, where it becomes a convenient link to both the Garden State Parkway and Interstate 80.
Fair Lawn uses a somewhat unique street address numbering system. Instead of an address being, for example, 55 Some Street, most Fair Lawn addresses are given hyphenated numbers, such as 10-13 Some Street. This numbering system is also used in Astoria and Woodside in Queens, New York City. Exceptions to this numbering system generally exist on the Glen Rock and Hawthorne sides of town. The first numbers (before the dash) correspond to block-distances from Broadway (on streets that run east-west) and to the numbered streets in town (example: 2nd Street, 17th Street, etc.) on the streets that run North-South; with the highest numbers being in the low 40's, and the lowest numbers being 0-30, etc.
[edit] Demographics
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1930 | 5,990 |
|
|
| 1940 | 9,107 | 52.0% | |
| 1950 | 23,885 | 162.3% | |
| 1960 | 36,421 | 52.5% | |
| 1970 | 37,975 | 4.3% | |
| 1980 | 32,229 | -15.1% | |
| 1990 | 30,548 | -5.2% | |
| 2000 | 31,637 | 3.6% | |
| Est. 2005 | 31,408 | [6] | -0.7% |
| Population 1930 - 1990[7] | |||
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 31,637 people, 11,806 households, and 8,901 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,362.7/km² (6,121.0/mi²). There were 12,006 housing units at an average density of 896.6/km² (2,322.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough was 91.54% White, 0.74% African American, 0.04% Native American, 4.92% Asian, 1.37% from other races, and 1.38% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.51% of the population. Fair Lawn also has a high Russian Jewish population.
There were 11,806 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.5% were married couples living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.6% were non-families. 21.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.12.
In the borough the population was spread out with 22.8% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 26.9% from 25 to 44, 25.6% from 45 to 64, and 18.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 90.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.7 males.
The median income for a household in the borough was $72,127, and the median income for a family was $81,220. Males had a median income of $56,798 versus $41,300 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $32,273. About 2.6% of families and 3.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.7% of those under age 18 and 6.9% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Government
[edit] Local government
Fair Lawn operates under a Council-Manager (Plan E of the Faulkner Act) form of Government. All policy making power is concentrated in the council. The mayor is a member of council, and simply presides over its meetings with no separate policy making power. The manager is appointed by the council to serve as the municipal chief executive and administrative official.
Members of the Borough Council are Mayor Steven Weinstein (D, term ends December 31, 2007), Jeanne Baratta (R, 2009), Marty Etler (D, 2007) Joseph Tedeschi (D, 2007) and Ed Trawinski (R, 2009) .[8]
Republicans Baratta and Trawinski received approximately 54% of the vote in November 2005 (defeating Democrats David L. Ganz and Allan Caan) despite the heavy Democratic registration and the town's landslide for Governor Jon S. Corzine. Moreover, Councilman Joseph Tedeschi is a former Republican and an avowed "traditional, conservative" Democrat.
Standard Borough Council meetings are televised on local cable TV when held in the Council chambers in the Fair Lawn Municipal Building. Work sessions, where laws are discussed and prepared for adoption, are not usually televised.
[edit] Federal, state and county representation
Fair Lawn is part of New Jersey's 38th Legislative District and is in the Ninth Congressional District.[9]
New Jersey's Ninth Congressional District, covering the southern portion of Bergen County and sections of Hudson County and Passaic County, is represented by Steve Rothman (D, Fair Lawn). New Jersey is represented in the Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Bob Menendez (D, Hoboken).
The 38th legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Joseph Coniglio (D, Paramus) and in the Assembly by Robert M. Gordon (D, Fair Lawn) and Joan Voss (D, Fort Lee). The Governor of New Jersey is Jon Corzine (D, Hoboken).
Bergen County's County Executive is Dennis McNerney (D). The executive, along with the Board of Chosen Freeholders administer all county business. Bergen County's Freeholders are Chairman Tomas J. Padilla (D, Park Ridge), Vice-Chairman Elizabeth Calabrese (D, Wallington), David L. Ganz (D, Fair Lawn), James M. Carroll (D, Demarest), Bernadette P. McPherson (D, Rutherford), Julie O'Brien (D) and Connie Wagner (D).
Other countywide elected officials are Sheriff Leo McGuire (D), Surrogate Court Judge Mike Dressler (D, Cresskill) County Clerk Kathleen Donovan (R).
[edit] Politics
As of April 1, 2006, out of a 2004 Census estimated population of 31,613 in Fair Lawn, there were 19,673 registered voters (62.2% of the population, vs. 55.4% in all of Bergen County). Of registered voters, 5,206 (26.5% vs. 20.7% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 2,773 (14.1% vs. 19.2% countywide) were registered as Republicans and 11,685 (59.4% vs. 60.1% countywide) were registered as Undeclared. There were nine voters registered to other parties.[10]
On the national level, Fair Lawn voters lean toward the Democratic Party. In the 2004 Presidential Election, Democrat John Kerry received 54% of the vote here, defeating Republican George W. Bush, who received around 45%.[11]
[edit] Education
The Fair Lawn Public Schools consist of nine schools.
- John. A. Forrest
- Lyncrest
- Milnes
- Radburn
- Warren Point
- Westmoreland
- Memorial Middle School
- Thomas Jefferson Middle School
- Fair Lawn High School
[edit] Popular culture
- In the 1976 film Taxi Driver, when Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is talking to a Secret Service agent, he gives his address as 154 Hopper Avenue, Fair Lawn, New Jersey. There is a Hopper Avenue in Fair Lawn, but 154 Hopper Avenue does not exist.[12]
- In the 1996 Mel Gibson movie Ransom, Fair Lawn was seen when Gibson is told to turn from Route 4 onto Saddle River Road (Fair Lawn) and into the Rock Quarry (which is actually located in North Haledon, New Jersey). A few days worth of filming was also done inside a home on Saddle River Road but those scenes were cut.
- In the 2004 movie Taxi, Fair Lawn can be seen on the map that Detective Washburn (Jimmy Fallon) is reading. The map is fake, since it shows a fictional uncompleted highway off the Garden State Parkway in nearby Oradell. The scene where the robbers jump off the uncompleted skyway was not filmed in New Jersey.
- In the movie Casino, two scenes were shot at the Fair Lawn Fire Dept. Company 3. The scenes were when the news lady was talking about the mob members and the scene right after that.[citation needed]
- In the television series "The Sopranos," Mob boss Tony Soprano tells protege Christopher Moltisanti to visit a Russian mobster in Fair Lawn.
[edit] Noted residents
- Jason Collins, NBA player, forward/center of the New Jersey Nets
- Jim Finn, football player with the New York Giants.[13]
- Bobby Jones, 1960s singer
- Jim Jones, rapper
- Millie Perkins, actress, who played the title role in her first film as the star of The Diary of Anne Frank.[14]
- Ron Perranoski, MLB pitcher from 1961-1973.[15]
- Billy Price, singer
- Loren Schoenberg, jazz historian, writer of liner notes, and tenor saxophonist.
- Regina Spektor, singer; attended Fair Lawn High School
Dan Cooper, "Dan the song parody man" Of Howard Stern fame
[edit] References
- ^ United States Census Bureau: Fair Lawn borough, New Jersey, accessed August 23, 2006
- ^ "In Fair Lawn, Getting to Know a New Language and a New Land; ON THE MAP", The New York Times, July 7, 1996, accessed February 3, 2007
- ^ a b "The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968", John P. Snyder, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 77
- ^ Dutch Door Genealogy - Bergen County New Jersey Municipalities, accessed February 9, 2006
- ^ History of Fair Lawn, accessed August 23, 2006
- ^ Census data for Fair Lawn, United States Census Bureau, accessed March 1, 2007
- ^ New Jersey Resident Population by Municipality: 1930 - 1990, accessed March 1, 2007
- ^ Fair Lawn Government: Borough Council - 2007, accessed January 15, 2007
- ^ League of Women Voters: 2006 New Jersey Citizen's Guide to Government, p. 57, accessed August 30, 2006, which incorrectly shows legislative district 33
- ^ "County of Bergen: Voter Statistics by Municipality, Ward & District," dated April 1, 2006
- ^ 2004 Presidential Election results: Bergen County New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety: Division of Elections, dated December 13, 2004
- ^ Trivia for Taxi Driver, from the Internet Movie Database, accessed December 20, 2006
- ^ Giants Re-Sign FB Jim Finn, New York Giants, March 28, 2005
- ^ New Picture, Time (magazine), March 30, 1959. See pg. 2 of article. "His choice was an 18-year-old model from Fair Lawn, N.J. named Millie Perkins."
- ^ Baseball All-Century Teams of the Decades, The Star-Ledger, accessed February 27, 2007
[edit] External links
- Fair Lawn official website
- Fair Lawn online guide
- Fair Lawn Public Schools
- Fair Lawn Public Schools's 2005-06 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
- National Center for Education Statistics data for the Fair Lawn Public Schools
- Radburn, New Jersey - A Town for the Motor Age
- Knights of Pythias - Benjamin N. Cardozo Lodge #163
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
