Welcome To Newark SAFeDATA

In 2006, Newark had 106 homicides, giving it the 4th highest murder rate in the country for a city with a populus of 250,000 or greater behind Detroit, Baltimore and New Orleans respectively, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report. This is the highest since 1995 and a spike from the 83 in 2004, but a substantial decrease since the record of 161 murders set in 1981. Newark has more than 5 times the number of homicides per capita as New York City. In 1996 it was ranked "The Most Dangerous City in the Nation."

It is located approximately 5 miles (8.04 km) west of Manhattan and two miles N of Staten Island. Its location near the Atlantic Ocean on Newark Bay has helped make its port facility, Port Newark, the major container shipping port on Newark Bay and for New York Harbor. Together with Elizabeth, it is the home of Newark Liberty International Airport, which was the first major airfield to serve the New York metropolitan area.

Newark was originally formed as a township on October 31, 1693, based on the Newark Tract, which was first purchased on July 11, 1667. Newark was granted a Royal Charter on April 27, 1713, and was incorporated as one of New Jersey`s initial 104 townships by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. During its time as a township, portions were taken to form Springfield Township (April 14, 1794), Caldwell Township (February 16, 1798, now known as Fairfield Township), Orange Township (Nov 27, 1806), Bloomfield Township (March 23, 1812) and Clinton Township (April 14, 1834, remainder reabsorbed by Newark on March 5, 1902). Newark was reincorporated as a city on April 11, 1836, replacing Newark Township, based on the results of a referendum passed on March 18, 1836. The previously independent Vailsburg borough was annexed by Newark on January 1, 1905. Newark is divided into 5 wards; North Ward, South Ward, West Ward, East Ward, and Central Ward.

They sought to establish a colony with strict church rules similar to the one they had established in Milford, Connecticut and Treat wanted to name the community "Milford." However another settler Abraham Pierson said the community reflecting the new task at hand should be named "New Ark" or "New Work." The name was shortened to Newark.

Trent and the party were to buy the property on the Passaic River from the Hackensack Indians by exchanging gunpowder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty axes, twenty coats, guns, pistols, swords, kettles, blankets, knives, beer, and ten pairs of breeches.

In the middle 19th century, Newark added insurance to its repertoire of businesses; Mutual Benefit was founded in the city in 1845 and Prudential in 1873. Prudential, or "the Pru" as generations of Newarkers knew it, was founded by another transplanted New Englander, John Fairfield Dryden, who found a niche catering to the middle and lower classes. Today, Newark sells more insurance than any city except Hartford, Connecticut.