Tenafly (pronounced ) is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the borough population was 13,806.
The first to settle in Tenafly were the Dutch in the late 1600s. The name “Tenafly” is derived from the Dutch words “Tiene Vly” or “Ten Swamps” which was given by Dutch settlers in 1688.<ref name=Thinking>O’Connor, Ian. If You’re Thinking of Living in: Tenafly, The New York Times, April 24, 1988. Accessed September 7, 2006.</ref>
Tenafly was incorporated as a borough on January 24, 1894, under an Act of the New Jersey Legislature from portions of the now-defunct Palisades Township, based on the results of a referendum held the previous day, at the height of the Boroughitis phenomenon sweeping through Bergen County at the time.<ref name=Story>”The Story of New Jersey’s Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968″, John P. Snyder, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 87.</ref><ref>About Tenafly, accessed September 7, 2006.</ref>
Geography
Tenafly is located at (40.922139, -73.963772).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 13.5 km² (5.2 mi²). 11.9 km² (4.6 mi²) of it is land and 1.5 km² (0.6 mi²) of it (11.15%) is water.
The eastern half of the town is known as the “East Hill” for its higher elevation in relation to the rest of the borough. The terrain rises rapidly to the east of the downtown area, ending at the spectacular New Jersey Palisades, overlooking the Hudson River. From atop the cliffs, Tenafly residents have a wide-ranging view of New York City. The Tenafly Nature Center is located at 313 Hudson Avenue.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 13,806 people, 4,774 households, and 3,866 families residing in the borough. The population density was 1,156.3/km² (2,993.4/mi²). There were 4,897 housing units at an average density of 410.1/km² (1,061.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough was 76.79% White, 0.96% African American, 0.09% Native American, 19.08% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.40% from other races, and 1.67% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.65% of the population.
There were 4,774 households out of which 43.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 70.6% were married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.0% were non-families. 16.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.86 and the average family size was 3.21.
In the borough the population was spread out with 28.3% under the age of 18, 4.7% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 26.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.5 males.
The median income for a household in the borough was $90,931, and the median income for a family was $111,029. Males had a median income of $79,641 versus $50,617 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $53,170. About 3.5% of families and 5.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.7% of those under age 18 and 3.3% of those age 65 or over.
Government
Local government
Since it became a Borough, Tenafly has been governed by a Mayor and Council who are chosen through partisan elections held in November annually. The Mayor is the chief executive officer and the six Council members handle legislative functions. A full-time Administrator assists the Mayor and Council and coordinates the operations of government departments.
The Mayor of Tenafly is Peter Rustin, whose term of office ends December 31, 2007. The Mayor is elected to a four-year term and is eligible for re-election. The Mayor presides over all meetings of the Council but may vote only in case of a tie. The Mayor has veto power, which may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the Council.<ref name=MayorCouncil>Tenafly Mayor and Council, Borough of Tenafly. Accessed March 5, 2007.</ref>
The Borough Council consists of six members, who are elected at large for three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats up for election each year. As the legislative body, the Council adopts ordinances and resolutions, decides on appropriations, approves appointments made by the Mayor, determines policy, and establishes the functions of the various departments of the local government. Each Council member is chairperson of one of the six standing committees.<ref name=MayorCouncil/>
Members of the Tenafly Borough Council are Council President Patrick J. Rouse (Police Commission; 2007), Carol Hoernlein (Building & Grounds Committee; 2009), Nadia LaMastra (Administration & Personnel Committee; 2009), Michael Lattif (Finance Committee; 2008), Robert Thompson (Fire Committee; 2007) and Jon Warms (Streets, Sanitation, Drainage & Parks Committee; 2008).<ref name=MayorCouncil/>
In November 2005, Councilman Jeffery Romano was arrested in Newark following a drug bust that uncovered forty bags of heroin in his car.<ref>Tenafly Councilman Arrested, The New York Times, accessed September 7, 2005.</ref> Romano resigned from the council in June 2006 after pleading guilty to heroin possession and was replaced, then temporarily, by Jon Warms, who has since been elected to his own full term (November 2006).<ref>Bergen County Briefs, The Record (Bergen County), accessed September 7, 2006.</ref>
On Election Day, November 7, 2006, voters filled two three-year terms on the Borough Council held by Republicans Charles M. Lipson and Joseph Salvatore, and the unexpired two-year term that had been filled by Jon Warms to replace Jeffrey Romano. As of Election Day, the council was split 3-3 between Democrats and Republicans, in a community in which registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 5-4 margin. The Democrats swept all three seats, with challengers Carol Hoernlein (2,768 votes) and Nadia LaMastra (2,718) elected, defeating incumbents Salvatore (1,769) and Lipson (1,746). Jon Warms (with 2,830 votes) was elected to serve the balance of the two-year term, defeating Republican challenger (and longtime former Councilman and one-time Republican Mayoral primary candidate) William S. Saunders (1,629). As of January 1, 2007, when Hoernlein and LaMastra took office, the Democrats have a 5-1 edge.<ref>Tenafly Election Guide, The Record (Bergen County), November 1, 2006.</ref><ref>Tenafly election results, The Record (Bergen County), November 8, 2006.</ref><ref>Bergen County 2006 General Election Results, accessed February 1, 2007.</ref>
Federal, state and county representation
Tenafly is in the Fifth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey’s 37th Legislative District.<ref>2006 New Jersey Citizen’s Guide to Government, New Jersey League of Women Voters, p. 65. Accessed August 30, 2006.</ref>
Politics
As of April 1, 2006, out of a 2004 Census estimated population of 14,214 in Tenafly, there were 8,633 registered voters (60.7% of the population, vs. 55.4% in all of Bergen County). Of registered voters, 1,769 (20.5% vs. 20.7% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 1,407 (16.3% vs. 19.2% countywide) were registered as Republicans and 5,454 (63.2% vs. 60.1% countywide) were registered as Undeclared. There were three voters registered to other parties.<ref>”County of Bergen: Voter Statistics by Municipality, Ward & District,” dated April 1, 2006.</ref>
On the national level, Tenafly leans towards the Democratic Party. In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 61% of the vote here, defeating Republican George W. Bush, who received around 38%.<ref>2004 Presidential Election results: Bergen County, New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, Division of Elections, dated September 7, 2006.</ref>
Education
The Tenafly Public Schools serve students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade. Schools in the district are four K-5 elementary schools (Mackay School,
Maugham School,
Smith School and
Stillman School),
Tenafly Middle School for grades 6-8 and
Tenafly High School for grades 9-12. Students from Alpine attend Tenafly High School as part of a sending/receiving relationship.
Tenafly High School was awarded the prestigious Blue Ribbon School Award, awarded by the United States Department of Education at a special assembly to the Tenafly High School Community on September 20, 2005. Tenafly was the only high school in New Jersey and one of 38 public high schools in the U.S. to receive the 2005 Blue Ribbon School Award.<ref></ref>
Tenafly High School was the 2nd ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine’s September 2006 cover story on the state’s Top Public High Schools.<ref>Top Public High Schools in New Jersey, New Jersey Monthly, September 2006</ref>
Transportation
New Jersey Transit bus route 166 serves Tenafly.<ref>New Jersey Transit Bus Schedules. [[[New Jersey Transit]]. Accessed August 30, 2007.</ref>
County Route 501, U.S. Route 9W, and the Palisades Interstate Parkway all pass through Tenafly.
Noted residents
Noted residents of Tenafly and those of note who were born in the borough include:
- Hiroaki Aoki, founder of Benihana Japanese Steakhouses.<ref>Aoki Will Leave Powerboat Racing, The New York Times, February 7, 1983.</ref>
- Jesse Barfield, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees Outfielder, lived in Tenafly during part of his career as a Yankee.<ref>Rowe, John. “Barfield’s Injury Stalls Trade Talk”, The Record (Bergen County), May 25, 1992. Accessed May 29, 2007. “Put all those Jesse Barfield trade rumors on hold…. The veteran outfielder told Yankees manager Buck Showalter that he had fallen in the sauna in his Tenafly home on Saturday night.</ref>
- Gregg Berhalter, member of the United States men’s national soccer team.<ref>Galarcep, Ives. “Injury replacement wasn’t sure if he deserved to play”, Herald News, June 20, 2006. Accessed May 29, 2007. “As he stood on the sideline watching the U.S. national team’s gutsy effort in its 1-1 draw against Italy on Saturday, Gregg Berhalter cheered his teammates on and congratulated them as they laid on the field after the 90 brutal minutes…. The Tenafly native wasn’t sure what to make of the news, which he received while on vacation at Disney World with his family.” </ref>
- Yogi Berra, New York Yankees
- Orestes Cleveland, Mayor of Jersey City 1864-1867; 1886-1892, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey’s 5th congressional district from 1869-1871.<ref>Orestes Cleveland biography, United States Congress. Accessed June 12, 2007.</ref>
- Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty, inventors of VoIP technology
- Hope Davis, actor.<ref>Hope Davis: the always-true actress talks toppling expectations and taking the offbeat path with a fellow traveler, Interview (magazine), February 2005.</ref>
- Jimmy Dean, singer turned breakfast meat entrepreneur.<ref>”Walter Jones Taylor Wed To Connie Elizabeth Dean”, The New York Times, November 8, 1987. Accessed May 29, 1987. “At the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York yesterday Connie Elizabeth Dean, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Dean of Tenafly, N.J., was married to Walter Jones Taylor, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Zachary Taylor Jr. of Jackson, Miss…. Her father, the country and western singer, is chairman of the Jimmy Dean Meat Company in Dallas.”</ref>
- Tate Donovan, actor.<ref>Edel, Raymond A. “People, The Record (Bergen County), June 21, 1997. Accessed May 29, 2007. “Tate Donovan is not as combative as Hercules, the hero whose voice he supplies in the new Walt Disney film. “It was really devastating,” says Donovan, 34, a Tenafly native who has been seen on TV’s Partners,…”</ref>
- Reuven Frank, former NBC News president and pioneer of Vietnam War-era news coverage.<ref>Shales, Tom. “The Man Who Sharpened TV News’s Vision: Reuven Frank, NBC’s Pioneering Exec, Made Sure Viewers Got the Picture”, The Washington Post, February 12, 2006. Accessed May 29, 2007. “Brokaw was among those attending a memorial service Wednesday near Frank’s home town of Tenafly, N.J.”</ref>
- Alexander Gemignani, Broadway performer.<ref>Rohan, Virginia. ” He brings it home in ‘Miz’”, The Record (Bergen County), November 5, 2006. Accessed May 29, 2007. “Alexander Gemignani, the Tenafly native who stars in Broadway’s new revival of “Les Miserables,” knows that, at 27, he’s “certainly on the young side” to be portraying Jean Valjean — the tortured, tragic hero who did 19 years of hard labor in prison for stealing bread.”</ref>
- Lesley Gore, singer.<ref>Radar Report: Sixties teen icon and singer-songwriter LESLEY GORE records her first album in 30 years, ASCAP, accessed December 18, 2006. “Lesley Gore, one-time Tenafly, New Jersey high school junior who catapulted to becoming 1963’s version of Avril Lavigne or Britney Spears”</ref>
- Anthony Gotusso, guitarist, played in the Peter Duchin Orchestra
- Rusty Hamer, actor
- Ed Harris, actor.<ref>”Ed Harris leaves the sidelines”, BBC News, March 12, 2001. Accessed June 28, 2007. “Harris, 50, grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey where he was a baseball and American football hero and captained the school team.”</ref>
- Jon-Erik Hexum, actor
- John Huyler (1808-1870), represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1857-1859.<ref>John Huyler, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Accessed September 2, 2007.</ref>
- Ron Insana, CNBC anchor and senior analyst.<ref>Englewood Hospital and Medical Center Elects New Members To Board of Trustees and Medical Center Foundation, Englewood Hospital press release, dated January 23, 2003. ” Englewood Hospital and Medical Center’s Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the election of two new board members, Ron Insana of Tenafly, and Barry Sussman, MD, of Englewood who were recently elected to one-year terms.”</ref>
- Richard Levao, President of Bloomfield College.
- Sarah Lewitinn alias Ultragrrrl, author, Spin assistant editor, blogger, downtown socialite.<ref>Anderman, Joan, “Power trio: Meet three examples of a new breed of record company talent hunter. In a downsized, downloading industry, they need more than good ears to put out great music.”, The Boston Globe, November 5, 2006. Accessed July 8, 2007. ” “When she was 21 the Tenafly, N.J., native was managing an unknown Jersey band called My Chemical Romance, and two years later she turned Stevenson on to the Killers, whom he signed to Island.”</ref><ref>Spitz, Marc. “Grrrl’s Got Rhythm”, Vanity Fair (magazine), November 2006. Accessed July 8, 2007. “An Orthodox Jew, Lewitinn recently abandoned a recording session on the West Coast to fly to her parents’ home in Tenafly, New Jersey.”</ref>
- Eric Maskin, co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics.
- Don Mattingly, New York Yankees.<ref>Thomas Jr., Robert McG. “Mattingly Lets Numbers Talk”, The New York Times, November 19, 1986. “On one hand, Mattingly said in a conference call from his home in Tenafly, N.J., that Clemens, who compiled a 24-4 record and led the league in earned-run average with 2.48…”</ref>
- Tino Martinez, New York Yankees
- Jen Maxfield, reporter for WABC-TV.
- Gil McDougald, American League Rookie of the Year winner in 1951, who played his entire career with the New York Yankees, appearing in 53 World Series games.<ref>Drebinger, John. “Will Gil Move His Bag or Baggage?; McDougald May Go to 2d, 3d or Short or to New Team”, The New York Times, March 3, 1960. “The former Californian, who now lives in Tenafly, N. J., has helped the Yankees win pennants as a star second baseman, third baseman and shortstop.”</ref>
- Glenn Miller, bandleader.<ref name=Thinking>
- Erica Piccininni, Broadway actress, Jersey Boys.[18]
- Frank C. Osmers, Jr., represented New Jersey’s 9th congressional district from 1939-1943 and 1951-1965.<ref>Frank Charles Osmers, Jr. biography, United States Congress. Accessed June 24, 2007.</ref>
- Steve Rothman, Congressman.
- Han Seung Yeon, member of Korean girl group, KARA.
- Mira Sorvino, actor.<ref>Mira Sorvino’s Barcelona, American Way, January 1, 2001. “When Mira Sorvino arrived in Barcelona in 1994 to film a movie called Barcelona, she had a past in academia and a future in acting. Raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, she was the daughter of tough-guy character actor Paul Sorvino, who raised his kids to strive for an education instead of childhood acting careers.”</ref>
- Paul Sorvino, actor.<ref>Saunders, Dusty. ” SORVINO ENJOYS ANOTHER `CHAMPIONSHIP’.”, Rocky Mountain News, June 6, 1999. Accessed June 28, 2007. ““I was raking leaves at my home in Tenafly (N.J.) when I got the call. … Joseph Papp from the Public Theater in New York City. I was requested to attend a meeting about a new play by Jason Miller, a talent I didn’t know.”</ref>
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, leading figure in the early women’s rights movement.<ref name=Thinking/>
- Lori Stokes, anchorwoman for WABC-TV.
- Thomas D. Thacher, one-time Solicitor General of the United States
Popular culture
Tenafly has influenced and been featured in many different movies and television shows, including:
- Street Trash (1987) - the movie features bottles of “Tenafly Viper”, a 60 year old wine that has “gone bad” and causes those who drink it to melt in spectacularly colorful fashions.
- Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
- Running on Empty (1988)
- Lost at Home (1996)
- Gunplay (2002)
- Garden State (2004)
- 13 Going on 30 (2004) - the town in the movie, Tamerak, is based on and made to resemble Tenafly.
- Distance (2006)
- Baby M (1988); TV
- The Sopranos
- NJ Classroom CloseUp, episode focusing on the Tenafly Middle School Music Program.
- MTV: TRL (Total Request Live), episode regarding high schools around the country; focused on Tenafly’s Technological Department.
- HBO’s Entourage (2006). The town was referred to by character Ari Gold.
- ” (2006); TV
References
External links
- Tenafly official website
- Tenafly Public Schools
- Tenafly Nature Center
- MuniNet Guide
-
- National Center for Education Statistics data for the Tenafly Public Schools
- History of Englewood, NJ’s attempted school district regionalization with Tenafly, NJ
Links
- VoIP Protocols Protocols for WAN, LAN, ATM data communications and telecommunications.
- Blueface | VoIP | Ireland's Internet Phone Service Blueface is a Dublin based VoIP, internet phone, company providing residential and business users with a phone service over an existing broadband Internet
- Voice over IP (VoIP) Articles & Tutorials How to configure and secure a VoIP network in an Enterprise environment.
- Locating Info On The Net For Voip Info on a few of the sites for voip now available on the internet, and how to find out more.
- VoIP Central: In-depth coverage of the VoIP industry, including In-depth coverage of the VoIP industry, including latest updates on applications, case studies, security, Sipphone, Skype, Vonage, and VoIP platforms.
