Bayonne

Bayonne (pronounced "bay-OWN") is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 71,686. Bayonne was originally formed as a township on April 1, 1861, from portions of Bergen Township. It was reincorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 10, 1869, replacing Bayonne Township, subject to the results of a referendum held nine days later. The city is located on a peninsula earlier known as Bergen Neck surrounded by Upper New York Bay, Newark Bay to the west, and Kill Van Kull to the south. A portion of the Port of New York and New Jersey is located there, as is the Cape Liberty Cruise Port. It shares a land border with Jersey City to the north and is connected to Staten Island by the Bayonne Bridge. The name Bayonne is speculated to have originated with Bayonne, France, from which Huguenots settled for a year before the founding of New Amsterdam, but there is no empirical evidence for this notion.Bayonne has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) bordering a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa) The average monthly temperature varies from 32.3°F in January to 77.0 °F in July. The hardiness zone is 7b and the average absolute minimum is 5.2 °F. The population is home to large populations of Italian Americans, Polish Americans, Dominican Americans, Egyptian Americans, Pakistani Americans, Salvadoran Americans, and Mexican Americans.

History

The Cape Liberty Cruise Port is a cruise ship terminal that is on a 430-acre (170 ha) site. It was originally developed for industrial uses in the 1930s and then taken over by the U.S. government during World War II as the Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne. Voyager of the Seas, departing from the cruise terminal in 2004, became the first passenger ship to depart from a port in New Jersey in almost 40 years. Bayonne became one of the largest centers in the nation for refining crude oil and Standard Oil of New Jersey's facilitywhich had grown from its original establishment in 1877and its 6,000 employees made it the city's largest place of employment. Significant civil unrest arose during the Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915-1916, in which mostly Polish-American workers staged labor actions against Standard Oil and Tidewater Petroleum. Four striking workers were killed when strikebreakers, allegedly protected by police, fired upon a violent crowd. The name Bayonne is speculated to have originated with Bayonne, France, from which Huguenots settled for a year before the founding of New Amsterdam. However, there is no empirical evidence for this notion. It is believed that Erastus Randall, E.C. Bramhall and B.F. Woolsey, who bought the land owned by Jasper and William Cadmus for real estate speculation, named it Bayonne because it was located on the shores of two bays, Newark and New York. The city is named after the city of Bayonne in France.

Geography and climate

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city had a total area of 11.09 square miles (28.72 km²) The city is located on a peninsula earlier known as Bergen Neck surrounded by Upper New York Bay to the east, Newark Bay, and Kill Van Kull to the south. Bayonne is east of Newark, the state's largest city, north of Elizabeth in Union County and west of Brooklyn. It shares a land border with Jersey City to the north and is connected to Staten Island by the Bayonne Bridge. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include: Bergen Point, Constable Hook and Port Johnson. The city has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) bordering a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa) The average monthly temperature varies from 32.3 °F in January to 77.0°F in July. The hardiness zone is 7b and the average absolute minimum temperature is 5.2 °F. It is located in the New Jersey Bay Area, which is home to the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island National Seashore. It has a population of about 2,000,000 (as of the 2010 Census). It is the largest city in New Jersey, followed by Newark, Jersey City and Staten Island. It also has a large percentage of water, with 5.27 square miles of water (47.50%) of land and 5.82 sq miles of land.

Demographics

The 2010 U.S. census counted 63,024 people, 25,237 households, and 16,051 families in the city. The city has a very ethnically diverse population, home to large populations of Italian Americans, Irish Americans, Polish Americans, Indian Americans, Egyptian Americans, Dominican Americans, Mexican Americans, Salvadoran Americans, Pakistani Americans, Boricua, amongst others. As of the 2000 Census, the most common reported ancestries of Bayonne residents were Italian (20.1%), Irish (18.8%) and Polish (17.9%). The median household income for the city was $53,587 (with a margin of error of +/ $2,278) and the median family income was $66,077 (+/ $5,235). Males had a median income of $51,188 (-/ $1,888) versus $42,097 (-/$1,820) for females. About 9.9% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.5% of those under age 18 and 8.4% ofThose age 65 or over. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.16. The median age was 38.4 years. For every 100 females, the population had 91.7 males. The racial makeup was 69.21% (43,618) White, 8.86% (5,584) Black or African American, 0.31% (194) Native American, 7.71% (4,861) Asian,0.03% (16) Pacific Islander, 10.00% (6,303) from other races, and 3.88% (2,448) from two or more races.

Economy

Portions of Bayonne are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), one of 32 zones covering 37 municipalities statewide. Shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the 6+58% rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants. More than 200 businesses have registered to participate in the city's UEZ since it was first established. The Bayonne Medical Center is a for-profit hospital that anchors the northern end of the Town Center, with over 1,200 employees. A 2013 study showed that the hospital charged the highest rates in the United States. The firearms manufacturing company Henry Repeating Arms moved from Brooklyn to Bayonne in 2009. On the site of the former Military Ocean Terminal, the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor includes new housing and businesses. Also found is a memorial park for the Tear of Grief, a 100-foot-high (30 m), 175-short-ton (159 t) monument commemorating the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. One of them, Cape Liberty Cruise Port, is located at the end of a long peninsula with Royal Caribbean. The city's Urban Enterprise zone status expires in December 2023. Bayonne was selected in 2002 as one of a group of three zones added to participation in the program. It was established in September 2002. It is one of the 32 zones covered by the New Jersey Department of Economic and Workforce Development. The UEZ was established to encourage employment and investment within the Zone.

Parks and recreation

Hackensack RiverWalk begins at Collins Park in Bergen Point where the Kill Van Kull meets the Newark Bay. A plaque unveiled on May 2, 2006, for the new Richard A. Rutowski Park, a wetlands preserve on the northwestern end of town that is part of the RiverWalk. In August 2014, the Bayonne Hometown Fair, a popular tourist and community attraction that ceased in 2000, was revived by a local business owner and resident. The first revived BayonneHometown Fair took place from June 67, 2015.Hudson River Waterfront Walkway is intended to run the more than 18 miles (29 km) from theBayonne Bridge to the George Washington Bridge. It is located immediately north of the Stephen R. Gregg Hudson County Park. The walkway is expected to be completed by the end of the year. It will run along the Hudson River for more than two miles (3.5 km) at its widest point. It also runs along the New Jersey Turnpike for about a mile and a half (2.4 km) along the East River. It ends at the New York-New York City Bridge, where it will run for another two miles. The Hudson River Water Front Walkway will be completed in 2018. It covers more than four miles (6.2 km) and will run from the Bayony Bridge to New York City. It begins and ends at 16th Street Park, which is located along the bay at the mouth of the Kill van Kull. The RiverWalk ends at 17th Street, at the junction of the two rivers.

Government

As of July 2022, the Mayor of Bayonne is James M. "Jimmy" Davis, whose term of office ends June 30, 2026. Members of the Bayonne City Council are Loyad Booker (At-Large), Neil Carroll III (1st Ward), Gary La Pelusa Sr. (3rd Ward) and Juan M. Perez (2nd Ward) The city is in the 8th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 31st state legislative district. Hudson County is governed by a directly elected County Executive and by a Board of County Commissioners. In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 66.4% of the vote (13,467 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 32.6% (6,605 votes), and other candidates with 1.0% (197 votes), among the 20,454 ballots cast by the city's 34,424 registered voters. As of March 23, 2011, there were a total of 32,747 registered voters in Bayonne, of which 17,087 (52.2%) were registered as Democrats, 2,709 (8.3%) are registered as Republicans and 12,928 (39.5%) wereregistered as Unaffiliated. In November 2018, the City Council appointed Neil CarrollIII to fill the 1st Ward seat vacated by Tommy Cotter. At age 27, Carroll became the youngest councilmember in city history. New Jersey is represented in the United States Senate by Democrats Cory Booker (Newark, term ends 2027) and Bob Menendez (Harrison, term end 2025).

Local services

The Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority (BMUA) is the second agency to use wind power in New Jersey and has built the first wind turbine in the metropolitan area. In December 2012, the autonomous agency entered into a water management agreement with the Bayonne Water Joint Venture. The 40-year concession agreement is a public-private partnership between the city and the BWJV in which the private partners pay off the BMUA's $130 million debt and take over the operations, maintenance, and capital improvement of Bayonne's water and wastewater utilities. In March 2013, Moody's Investors Service upgraded the credit rating ofBayonne from 'negative' to'stable', citing the water deal. The Bayonne Fire Dept operates a fleet of five engines, one squad (rescue-pumper), three ladder trucks, a heavy rescue truck, a large 4,000 gallon foam tanker truck, and a haz-mat truck. The department is part of the Metro USAR Strike Team, which consists of nine North Jersey fire departments and other emergency services divisions working to address major emergency rescue situations. The city has around 161 full-time professional firefighters, and operates out of five fire stations located throughout the city. The BFD was founded on September 3, 1906. Each tour is commanded by a battalion chief, and the department is also part of a MetroUSAR Collapse Rescue Strike Team. The fire department has five engines and one squad, which is also a multi-service unit, a fireboat, and spare apparatus.

Education

The Bayonne School District serves students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 202021 school year, the district, comprised of 13 schools, had an enrollment of 10,059 students and 763.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a studentteacher ratio of 13.2:1. The Yeshiva Gedolah of Bayonne is a yeshiva high school / beis medrash / Kolel with 130 students. Marist High School, a co-ed Catholic high school, announced in January 2020 that it would close at the end of the 2019-2020 school year due to deficits that had risen to $1 million and enrollment that had declined by 50% since 2008. All Saints Catholic Academy, for grades Pre-K8, was one of eight private schools recognized in 2017 as an Exemplary High Performing School by the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program of the United States Department of Education. Bayonne High School is the only public school in the state to have an on-campus ice rink for its hockey team. The Bayonne Public Library, one of New Jersey's original 36 Carnegie libraries, the Bayonne Community Museum, and the Joyce-Herbert VFW Post 226 Veterans Museum provide educational events and programs. For the 2004-2005 schoolyear, Mary J. Donohoe No. 4 School was named a "Star School" by the New Jersey Dept. of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.

Media and culture

Bayonne is located within the New York media market, with most of its daily papers available for sale or delivery. Films shot in Bayonne include the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, scenes of which were filmed at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark operates Catholic churches. Bayonne's Jewish community is served by Temple Beth Am (Reform), Temple Emanu-El (Conservative), Ohav Zedek (Orthodox), and Chabad (Or Orthodox) The annual Outdoor Art Show was instituted in 2008, in which local artists display their works. The Best Show with Tom Scharpling records near Bayonne, and the city is frequently mentioned due to Associate Producer Mike Lisk (a.k.a. AP Mike) being a Bayonne native. The 2008 Mickey Rourke drama The Wrestler, which was partially filmed in the Color & Cuts Salon and the former Dolphin Gym, both of which are on Broadway inBayonne. The ABC sci-fi comedy television series The Neighbors is about a family that moves from Bayonne into a fictional gated community, Hidden Hills, that is populated by aliens from another planet posing as humans. The November 16, 2010, episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart parodied former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's reality television series, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, in the form of a trailer for a fictional reality show called Jason Jones' Bayonne, The portrayal of the city was characterized by prostitution, drugs, crime, pollution and a stereotypical Italian-American population. The Mayor Mark Smith criticized the sketch, saying, "Jon Stewart's unfortunate and inaccurate depiction of Bayonne represents a lame attempt at humor at the expense of a rock solid, all-American community.".

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey = 14.1. 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 27. 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 Bayonne = 3.7 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 2,146 individuals with a median age of 39.9 age the population dropped by -8.42% in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 12,315.1 residents per square mile of area (4,754.9/km²). There are average 2.43 people per household in the 23,306 households with an average household income of $53,171 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 12.00% of the available work force and has dropped -4.60% 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 18.80%. The number of physicians in Bayonne per 100,000 population = 138.6.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Bayonne = 47.4 inches and the annual snowfall = 29 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 123. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 220. 85 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 23.4 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 45, 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 Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey which are owned by the occupant = 36.21%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 64 years with median home cost = $288,090 and home appreciation of -3.68%. 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 $29.69 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 $7,921 per student. There are 13.7 students for each teacher in the school, 4368 students for each Librarian and 575 students for each Counselor. 3.54% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 14.23% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 6.81% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).