Ivy Hill, Newark, New Jersey

History

The Ivy Hill area had been part of the South Orange Township known as Maplewood until 1890 when the city of Newark bought this land. In 1926, another 110 acre was annexed by Newark. In the 1960s, novelist Philip Roth in his 1997 book American Pastoral, described the community as family-oriented and safe.{{cite news|author=Goldway, Terry|title= URBAN MYTHOLOGY; The Newark Dream|newspaper=The New York Times |quote= In Mr. Roth's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel American Pastoral, ... It was very family-oriented, said Eileen Smith ... lived in Vailsburg's Ivy Hill Apartments in the 1960s. My parents never had a car. We walked everywhere, and it was safe. You could take a bus downtown and come back at night without having to worry about crime. |access-date= 2011-08-15}}

Schools

Mount Vernon Elementary School and Ivy Hill Elementary School are located in Ivy Hill.

Mount Sinai Congregation

Mount Sinai Congregation and Jewish Senior Center is located in Ivy Hill. Several hundred Russian Jews live in the area.

Ivy Hill Park

In 1927, the City of Newark designated 18 acres of land to establish Ivy Hill Park in order to accommodate the recreational needs of Maplewood, Newark, South Orange, and Irvington.

Due to a 25-year, no-cost lease agreement between Seton Hall University and Essex County Parks for one acre of University tennis courts, this brings the total number of courts in the park to 10. In exchange, the County rehabilitated the tennis courts and allows Seton Hall University use of the park's facilities.

The area hosts softball competitions.{{cite news

Ivy Hill Park also includes hard surface tennis courts, softball/baseball fields, a combination football/soccer field, a lighted basketball court, a playground, a shelter, and a band concert area.

Politics

The Ivy Hill Neighborhood Association was formed several decades ago and hosts forums for public debate.{{cite news|author= David Giambusso|title= Newark voters cite jobs, schools, crime as major issues in West Ward election|newspaper=The Star-Ledger|quote= Candidates faced questions prepared by the Ivy Hill Neighborhood Association, the decades-old community group that hosted the forum, and residents. Many of the themes echoed issues facing candidates throughout the city: increased police presence, job creation, failing schools, recreational facilities for children, control of the Newark watershed, and residency requirements for city employees.

Residential

The area has many well kept single-family, duplex homes and apartment buildings of various sizes.

The Ivy Hill Park Apartments consists of ten fifteen-story buildings on Mount Vernon Place and Manor Drive. It is also a nuclear fallout shelter. In 1955, the complex was sold to New York real estate investor and manager Henry Moscowitz, owner of the Argo Corporation. The Ivy Hill apartments were originally solidly middle-class. Nearly a fifth of all residents were transplants from New York City and 22% of the residents commuted into the great metropolis. Throughout the years, it became home to an extremely diverse resident base. In 2011, residents from over 40 countries were represented, totaling up to 10,000 residents, with the sense of the complex being like a mini "United Nations". There is a shopping center on nearby Irvington Ave.

Notable residents

• Rah Digga, rap music artist
• Andre de Krayewski, artist
• Teri Shields, mother of actress and model Brooke Shields, who was born in the neighborhood
• Randy Foye, NBA Guard who grew up in the Ivy Hill Apartment Complex
• Ahmad Rahami, Chelsea bomber
• [King Kerk], rap music artist

Public transportation

• The 1 or 361X connects Ivy Hill with Jersey City and Newark Penn Station. Number 1 buses run almost every half-hour starting at 4:34 am. 361X express buses run during the morning rush at 7:16, 7:23, 7:30, 7:37, 7:44, 7:51, 8:00, 8:14, 8:24, 8:40.
• Service on the 107 begins at 4:45 am on weekdays and the last bus to arrive from New York arrives at 2:49 am. It is the second stop, after the South Orange Train Station, on the number 107. bus to New York.
• The loop is the first stop on the number 37 bus to Newark Liberty International Airport, which begins at 4:04 am on weekdays. The last bus to arrive from Newark Airport arrives at 12:12 am.

Crime

The area has been plagued by high rates of crime in the past few decades, with numerous muggings and murders.{{cite news |author= Richard Khavkine

In 2007 there was a triple execution-style murder of three college-bound students behind the Mount Vernon school which generated national attention. The murdered students became known as the Mount Vernon 3. They had been bound for Delaware State University. The shooting happened in a parking lot behind the Mount Vernon School just across Manor Drive from Ivy Hill Park Apartments. It led to lawsuits against the school for inadequate security{{cite news

The Ivy Hill Park Apartment complex has had serious problems with crime, although there are conflicting reports whether the crime rate is improving. Ivy Hill Park Apts. V. GNB Park. Corp, Ivy Hill Park Apts. V Sidisin, etc.

There was a homicide victim in building 55. There is a report of residents who were "often afraid to approach their own apartments because of the gauntlet of gang members lurking around the doorways of the buildings." Some buildings were plagued by "garbage and mischief". Illegal immigrants have lived in the Ivy Hill Park Apts. According to longtime residents, the management has recently changed for the better, but it is a slow process. There are also unmarked police cars parked around the area.

According to one newspaper account:

The complex management had trouble dealing with gang members who used the extensive complex as a hideout. Security guards for the complex, including off-duty Newark police officers, gave "little resistance" to gang activity, according to one report. Evictions did not seem to matter since gang members returned to the complex to menace residents.

The complex was described as "rough" with an "atmosphere of fear." Criminal gangs either lived or robbed there, sometimes who slipped through apartment doors "cracked barely open by frightened residents."{{cite news |author= SERGE F. KOVALESKI |title= Wanted: A Band of Men and Boys |newspaper=The New York Times |quote= ... Carranza, 28, possessed of a temper and a growing rap sheet, appears to have directed the group of a half-dozen or more -- answered to like a boss. The group pulled off petty stickups in the elevators and parking lots of the sprawling Ivy Hill Park Apartments in the West Ward, according to interviews with relatives, friends and victims, who say the crew extorted people for quick cash, sometimes slipped through apartment doors cracked barely open by frightened residents. |date= August 15, 2007

In March 2018, the city opened the first police precinct in the neighborhood in 100 years, and the situation is improving. The area is much cleaner and tenants are not afraid to go out to the grocery store or anyplace else. Police patrols have been stepped up.

References

References

1. "[http://www.chabadofnewark.com/#about About]". ''Mount Sinai Congregation''. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
2. Bennet, J. "[http://www.newarkhistory.com/ivyhillpark.html Ivy Hill Park]". ''Newarkology''. "Mt. Sinai has been led by Rabbi Samuel Bogomilsky since 1964. Bogomilsky, a member of the Chabad movement, saw Ivy Hill as an ideal home for the thousands of low-income Soviet Jewish emigres who began arriving in the United States in the 1970s. The Jewish Federation of Metrowest agreed with Bogomilsky and began funneling Russian Jews to affordable and safe Ivy Hill. Ivy Hill's owners agreed, even hiring a special Russian Jewish renting agency to attract Russian Jewish tenants."
3. "History of Congregation Ahavas Sholom". Congregation Ahavas Sholom.
4. "[https://www.essexcountyparks.org/parks/ivy-hill-park Ivy Hill Park]". ''Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs''. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
5. [http://www.essex-countynj.org/p/index.php?section=parks/sites/iv]. In 1927 land was secured from the City of Newark for the purpose of meeting the recreational needs of the rapidly growing sections of Maplewood, Newark, South Orange, and Irvington. The original tract of land measured 18.86 acres, which was added to slightly until the final acreage of 18.96 was achieved in 1938. Those first 11 years of Ivy Hill Park saw gradual development and improvements by the Works Progress Administration.
6. [http://www.essex-countynj.org/p/index.php?section=parks/sites/iv]. Under the terms of a 1986 agreement with Seton Hall University, the County has a 25-year, no-cost lease for one acre of University property that has 6 tennis courts. This land is contiguous with the park and brings the total number of courts in the park to 10. In exchange, the County rehabilitated the tennis courts and allows Seton Hall University use of the park's facilities. Other improvements included redesign of the field area for football, soccer, baseball, and softball, and improvements to the existing basketball court and playground, along with general site work.
7. [http://www.andrewscorp.com.au/ apartment buildings] retrieved January 1, 2014
8. "Ivy Hill Park".
9. [http://www.prismpartners.net/pdf/news_njc_2008_08.pdf New Jersey & Company: "Juicy: Developers find "the Oranges" Ripe for Picking" By Katie Wagner] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-01-02 June 1, 2008)
10. "1 or 361X".
11. "107".
12. "37".
13. Chanta L. Jackson. (September 9, 2008). "Man, 26, shot dead in Ivy Hill". The Star-Ledger.
14. Star-Ledger staff. (March 22, 2011). "Authorities investigate death of woman found in apartment in Newark's West Ward". The Star-Ledger.
15. [http://blog.nj.com/ledgerarchives/2008/01/4_killed_as_a_night_of_gunfire.html The Star Ledger] {{Webarchive. link. (2009-09-15 , by Suleman Din and Claire Heininger/The Star-Ledger January 29, 2008 4:19 pm This article first appeared in The Star-Ledger on August 6, 2007.)
16. A summary action between landlord and tenant for recovery of commercial premises due to violation of lease covenants. The case raises the novel question of whether the specificity requirements of N.J.S.A. 2A:18-53(c)(4) for the notice to terminate the tenancy and quit the premises may be satisfied if such notice incorporates by reference a sufficiently specific recent notice to cease or cure the violations. This court answers the question affirmatively.
17. In this summary dispossession action brought for non-payment of rent under N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1a., the trial court determined that defendant had failed to pay as additional rent under the lease $1,640 in damages to the plaintiff's property. The court determined that defendant had flushed cat litter down the toilet, that the litter had caused a blockage in the building's sewer line and that the blockage and resulting flood had caused the damage. The court also determined that the damage was the result of defendant's negligence.
18. (22 March 2011). "Authorities investigate death of woman found in apartment in Newark's West Ward".
19. ROBERT D. McFADDEN and ANNIE CORREAL. (August 13, 2007). "A Life of Hardship, and Now, Two Fugitive Sons". The New York Times.
20. (August 11, 2008). "From Siberia to the MG Film Fest: Tatyana Z". The Star-Ledger.
21. Joan Whitlow. (August 24, 2007). "The problem is criminals, whatever their immigration status". The Star-Ledger.
22. (28 March 2018). "This neighborhood is home to about a tenth of Newark crime. It's been 100 years since a police precinct opened there".