Branch Brook Park - Newark, NJ

Newark, New Jersey is a perennially underestimated and overlooked city. Despite its ranking as the highest-populated city in New Jersey and a key geographic location within the New York metropolitan area, the largest in the United States, Newark has often been disparaged and overlooked in recent decades. This largely coincided with the construction of the interstate highway system and the resulting suburbanization of America, where it became desirable for people of higher income to move outside of urban centers to outlying areas where more space, less density, and larger, newer homes were viewed as a benefit. Newark, as one of the major urban centers in the most heavily developed and industrialized region in America, certainly experienced these changes to an exceptional degree. Its declining reputation was further exacerbated by the devastating riots of 1967. As a result, the city became one heavily composed of minorities and immigrants and heavy economic investment in the city heavily decreased. However, despite all of the doom and gloom, Newark was once one of America's greatest cities with all of the grand architecture, amenities, and infrastructure associated with such a title. Many of these landmarks remain and the city has the incredible potential to at least partially reclaim its previous status.

A hallmark of a great city is usually the presence of a grand public or open space system. Throughout Newark are plazas such as Military Park where grand sculptures or statues exist. The anchor of the Newark open space system is Branch Brook Park which is located in the middle of the North Ward of the city, directly north of Interstate 280. Branch Brook Park offers a massive expanse of open space, trails, and recreation facilities, and offers an oasis from the dense and crowded nature that is characteristic of Newark life. The park is mostly flat but there are several gently rolling hills throughout. A true urban park, it is surrounded on all sides by dense city development. Therefore, there is easy access to a large population to enjoy all the benefits it offers.

The park was formally created in 1895 and in 1900 was commissioned to the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted with the mission of redesigning the park, who was the mind behind Central Park in New York City and many other well-known parks. Throughout the southern and central parts of the park, a large skinny waterway is present from which the park derives its name. The northern part of the park is dominated by meadows and a large open field where only the distant sound of traffic reminds one that they are in the middle of urban northern New Jersey as opposed to somewhere in the Pennsylvania countryside. This open space provides an invaluable outlet for people from the surrounding community to exercise, relax, and play sports.

The park is also home the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the United States located within a common boundary, with over 4,300 trees present in several varieties. They are largely located along the waterway and the various paths that wind around the park. However, the park is hardly mentioned as a major cherry blossom destination on par with the likes of the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C. Nonetheless, the park experiences its largest amount of traffic when the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

Once inside the park it is hard to ignore the presence of Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which dominates the view when looking east over the southern part of the park. It gives the park a distinguished, old-world feel. The Cathedral is a gothic-style church that is one of the largest of its kind in the entire United States.

It should be viewed as no coincidence that the Forest Hill neighborhood, which borders the eastern side of the park, is the wealthiest and one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city. Access to maintained open space of a high quality has an incredibly positive effect on the economic viability of a neighborhood and the city in which it is located. This is a topic that will be given much further attention on further posts. As for now, Branch Brook Park is a great city park with an invaluable role with the potential to be even greater. Perhaps next time one is flying through the middle of Newark on Interstate 280, time will be taken to explore this incredible civic treasure by simply exiting the highway. Here is one more view of the park with the cherry blossoms in bloom: