Alpine, New Jersey

Alpine is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 2,183. Alpine tied with Miami Beach, Florida, ranking number one on Forbes Magazine's "Most Expensive ZIP Codes 2007" list, with a median home sale price of $3.4 million dollars.

For the period between July 2006 and June 2007, Alpine ranked #1 in a tie with Fisher Island, Florida on the ABC News list of most expensive zip codes, with a median home sale price of $3.4 million.

New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Alpine as its 15th best place to live in its 2008 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey.

Alpine was formed by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 8, 1903 from portions of Harrington Township. The borough gained a portion of Cresskill in 1904.

Geography

Alpine is located at (40.954346, -73.930472) less than 9 miles from Manhattan.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 9.2 square miles (23.8 km²), of which, 6.4 square miles (16.5 km²) of it is land and 2.8 square miles (7.3 km²) of it (30.75%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,183 people, 708 households, and 623 families residing in the borough. The population density was 343.5 people per square mile (132.5/km²). There were 730 housing units at an average density of 114.9/sq mi (44.3/km²). The racial makeup of the borough was 77.37% White, 1.51% African American, 0.23% Native American, 19.10% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.32% from other races, and 1.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.52% of the population.

There were 708 households out of which 36.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.8% were married couples living together, 4.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.0% were non-families. 9.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.08 and the average family size was 3.24.

In the borough the population was spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 20.9% from 25 to 44, 34.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 102.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.8 males.

The median income for a household in the borough was $130,740, and the median income for a family was $134,068. Males had a median income of $87,544 versus $45,536 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $76,995. About 5.4% of families and 6.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.5% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Alpine is governed under the Borough form of New Jersey municipal government. The government consists of a Mayor and a Borough Council comprising six council members, with all positions elected at large. A Mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office. The Borough Council consists of six members elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats coming up for election each year.

The current mayor of Alpine is Paul H. Tomasko (D, term ends December 31, 2010. Members of the Alpine Borough Council are Council President Vicki Frankel (D, 2009), Michael Cacouris (D, 2009), Paul Garjian (D, 2008), Gayle Gerstein (D, 2010), Sidney Merians (D, 2010) and Ronny Siegel (D, 2008).

In elections held on November 6, 2007, incumbent Democrats Gayle Gerstein and Sidney Merians ran unopposed and were re-elected to the council to a second and third term respectively.

On Election Day, November 7, 2006, Democrats swept all three open seats unopposed, with Paul H. Tomasko (443 votes) reelected as Mayor, and Michael Cacouris (412) and Vicki Frankel (399) winning additional terms on the Borough Council.

Federal, state and county representation

Alpine is in the Fifth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 39th Legislative District.

Politics

As of April 1, 2006, out of a 2004 Census estimated population of 2,340, there were 1,359 registered voters (58.1% of the population, vs. 55.4% in all of Bergen County). Of registered voters, 184 (13.5% vs. 20.7% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 380 (28.0% vs. 19.2% countywide) were registered as Republicans and 794 (58.4% vs. 60.1% countywide) were registered as Undeclared. There was one voter registered to another party.

On the national level, Alpine leans toward the Republican Party. In the 2004 presidential election, Republican George W. Bush received 56% of the vote here, defeating Democrat John Kerry, who received around 43%.

Education

The Alpine Public School, is a K-8 community school district serving a total of 134 students at the Alpine School, as of the 2005-06 school year. Public school students attend Tenafly High School in Tenafly for grades 9 - 12, as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Tenafly Public Schools.

Transportation

U.S. Route 9W, the Palisades Interstate Parkway and County Route 502 all pass through Alpine.

Media

Alpine is home to the tower and laboratory built by Edwin Howard Armstrong after RCA evicted him from the Empire State Building. Armstrong's experimental FM station, W2XMN, broadcast from various locations on the tower, first on 42.8 MHz; later on 44.1 MHz; and finally on 93.1 MHz in the modern FM band. The laboratory building and the tower still stand; the 400-foot (122-m) tower is home to many two-way radio users, one modern FM station (Fairleigh Dickinson University's WFDU), and backup transmitters for several of New York's television stations. The tower served as a primary tower for the stations after September 11 when the World Trade Center was destroyed. There was some local opposition to this scheme, but the move was temporary, as the stations affected moved their primary broadcast facilities to the Empire State Building. The original lab building is home to a static display of historic communications equipment and offices; the USA Network cable channel operated from this building in the late 1970s.

Points of interest

Rio Vista is an upscale neighborhood in the southern section of Alpine. Rio Vista is home to Devil's Tower, a stone clock tower that is claimed to be haunted. The tower was originally built by sugar baron Manuel Rionda (1854-1943) in order to allow his wife to see New York from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. The legend has it that when his wife saw him with another woman, she committed suicide by jumping off the tower. After becoming upset over his wife's death, Rionda stopped all work on the tower. In reality Harriet Rionda died of natural causes in 1922 and was interred nearby for approximately 20 years; her coffin was moved to Brookside Cemetery, Englewood. The estate was later sub-divided into 197 housing sites consisting of miles of roadway, infrastructure, and related facilities in the mid 1980s.

The New Jersey Section of the Palisades Interstate Park runs the length of Alpine along the top of the New Jersey Palisades and along the Hudson River.

The Alpine Boat Basin serves as both a public picnic area and small marina for private boats. The area is a scenic riverfront picnic area and boat basin, plus beach for car-top boat launches (canoe and kayak), with fishing, access to hiking trails and Henry Hudson Drive, restrooms, water, vending machines, and public phones. The area also has Alpine Pavilion, an open-air stone picnic pavilion built in 1934 by the Civil Works Administration (available for rental), as well as the historic Blackledge-Kearney House.

Popular Culture

In his 2008 Kill the Messenger Tour special on HBO, Chris Rock mentions that he lives in a multi-million dollar house in Alpine, New Jersey. ("Don't hate the player - hate the game!" Rock then retorts to his astonished audience). Rock then goes on to say that the only other black people that can afford to live in his neighborhood are three of the greatest living black artists, Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z and Eddie Murphy. He then asks the audience if they know what his white next-door neighbor does for a living. Rock screams, "He's a dentist... a fucking dentist! He ain't in the dental hall of fame. He ain't the world's greatest dentist?'' He's just a regular old 'pull ya teeth' dentist. If he were a black dentist, he'd have to have invented teeth!

Noted residents

Notable current and former residents of Alpine include:

• Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi and chairwoman of the Marconi Foundation.
• Damon Dash (born 1971), hip-hop entrepreneur.
• Eddie Einhorn (born 1936), part owner of the Chicago White Sox.
• Patrick Ewing (born 1962), former center for the New York Knicks.
• Fabolous (born 1977), rap artist.
• Henry Clay Frick II (1919-2007), physician and head of the Frick Collection.
• Andre Harrell (born 1960), founder of Uptown Records.
• Matt Herr (born 1976) ice hockey forward who played for part of four NHL seasons.
• O'Kelly Isley, Jr. (1937-1986), founding member of the Isley Brothers.
• Jay-Z (born 1969), rap artist.
• Lil' Kim (born 1975), rap artist, who rapped about her new hometown in her song Aunt Dot ("Come on Shanice, I'm takin' you to my house in Alpine")
• Eric Maskin (born 1950), co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
• Eddie Murphy (born 1961) comedian, actor who has appeared in the Beverly Hills Cop series and as the voice of Donkey in the Shrek series.
• P. Diddy (born 1969), rap artist.
• Joe Piscopo (born 1951), actor, best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live.
• Chris Rock (born 1965), comedian, movie star.
• Dr. Joseph Dello Russo, LASIK pioneer
• Gary Sheffield (born 1968), baseball player.
• Russell Simmons (born 1957), hip-hop entrepreneur.
• Wesley Snipes (born 1962), actor.
• Joseph A. Unanue (born 1925), President of Goya Foods from 1976-2004.
• Brian "Baby" Williams (born 1969), of the Cash Money Millionaires.
• Stevie Wonder (born 1950), musician.

Sources

• "History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1630-1923;" by "Westervelt, Frances A. (Frances Augusta), 1858-1942."
• "Municipal Incorporations of the State of New Jersey (according to Counties)" prepared by the Division of Local Government, Department of the Treasury (New Jersey); December 1, 1958.

References

External links

• Official web site
• Alpine Elementary School
• Data for the Alpine Elementary School, National Center for Education Statistics
• Tenafly High School
• Alpine Picnic Area
• Rio Vista