Executive Summary

The Great Falls Neighborhood of Paterson, New Jersey is a community of 13,423 people who reside in the blocks to the east and the west of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park. The neighborhood has a rich history: It was a planned industrial city, envisioned by the first U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. During the 19th and early 20th century, its manufacturing mills were powered by water diverted from the Passaic River above the Falls which ran through its raceway system—an engineering marvel in its time. The neighborhood was the home to waves of immigrants who labored in the mills—and who stood up, through labor organizing and strikes, to demand respect and their fair share of the abundance they helped produce.

Today, the people and families who make up the neighborhood are diverse—59% Hispanic, 17% Asian, and 14% African American—and young, with more than one in four residents under the age of 18, and with roughly as many residents under the age of 5 as residents age 65 and older. Nearly half of the population is foreign born, coming from countries like Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, and Peru. Half of the population speaks Spanish in their household, and one in five residents speaks Bangladeshi.

Despite high rates of employment, the neighborhood is poor, with a 30% poverty rate and a median annual household income of between $35,000 and $40,000. 84% of households rent their homes, and, despite nearly 20% of households receiving some form of housing subsidy, residents face issues related to housing quality and affordability.

Notwithstanding these challenges, the neighborhood community today, like its predecessors, has fought its way forward—building community, advocating for itself, and creating opportunities for improvement.

The Great Falls Neighborhood is a one-square mile area located in the central-western section of Paterson, NJ. The neighborhood straddles both sides of the Passaic River, with the Great Falls National Historic Park functioning as the neighborhood’s center. In addition to the National Historic Park, the neighborhood includes the western edge of downtown Paterson, the Great Falls Historic District, with its historic mill buildings and raceway infrastructure, S.U.M. Island, and a number of commercial and residential areas.

Irregular in shape, Union Avenue serves as the neighborhood’s northwestern border and West Broadway serves as its northeastern border. The neighborhood’s eastern edge continues south down Main Street until reaching Grand Street, at which point the boundary continues further East until arriving at the railroad tracks and continuing southward. Interstate 80 serves as the neighborhood’s southern border east of the Passaic River until New Street. The riverfront itself serves as the southern border for the neighborhood’s western half.

For over 28 years, New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC) has embraced the Great Falls Neighborhood and has been working hand-in-hand with local residents to improve conditions. As a local non-profit organization focused on the neighborhood and serving more than 4,000 children and families each day through a variety of programs and services, the Great Falls Neighborhood is NJCDC’s home. Throughout its history, NJCDC has worked with community residents and stakeholders to develop housing, community facilities, parks, schools, workforce programs, and— most importantly—community leaders.

In 2008, NJCDC convened a resident-driven neighborhood planning process to develop the neighborhood’s first neighborhood plan. Over the past fifteen years, NJCDC and residents have made significant progress implementing this neighborhood plan, building over 200 units of housing; hosting numerous block parties and community events; beautifying the neighborhood with murals and gardens; improving parks and building playgrounds; launching the Neighborhood Help Center for educational and know-your-rights training; and enhancing leadership-development efforts.

In 2020, NJCDC launched a new communitydriven neighborhood planning process to develop a renewed set of strategies and activities and build on the foundation that had already been set. Key to this foundation were the community leaders who worked with NJCDC and who formed the backbone of this planning effort.

Over the course of 18 months in 2020 and 2021, in the midst of the COVID pandemic—NJCDC and community leaders met to discuss priorities and key issues, and to develop proposed strategies and activities to advance the neighborhood. These community leaders also incorporated other stakeholders into the process—including local business owners, public officials, non-profits serving the community—to obtain their unique insight. Supported by NJCDC, residents also surveyed a representative sample of neighborhood households and the property conditions of every single parcel in the neighborhood. All told, over 600 neighborhood residents participated in this planning process, which included 17 community meetings and stakeholder focus groups.

This neighborhood plan arrives at a particularly opportune time for the Great Falls Neighborhood. The neighborhood is riding a wave of hundreds of millions of dollars in private and public investment. This investment is further enhancing an already asset-rich environment. There is political will across levels of government to support the neighborhood’s improvement, and strong community leadership, honed through over a decade of NJCDC led neighborhood revitalization work and an intensive, community-driven planning process. With a track record of getting things done, NJCDC has shown its capacity and effectiveness as a lead organization in these revitalization efforts, and has formed a budding partnership with St. Joseph’s Health that promises to improve the health of the community in more ways than one.