From Contaminated Land to Promised Remediation: The Prolonged Cleanup of a Toxic Waste Site at Perth Amboy, NJ’s Future Borinqueneer Park (2003-Present)

This video tells the story of Perth Amboy’s 2nd St. This site is being used to develop a park and is currently being cleaned through a partnership with the NJDEP and EPA. The residents of Perth Amboy, NJ, living in this area are awaiting the final production of the park, and until it is completed, a battle is still being fought here.

Introduction 

On the 23rd of September 2014, the first open house meeting for the redevelopment of 2nd Street Park was held at the Brighton Avenue Community Center in Perth Amboy, NJ. A Rutgers team member welcomed residents into a room. As they entered the room, they saw presentation boards on stands set up along the perimeter. These boards contained information, organized by stations, explaining the work to be done in this community. The very last board, the most exciting, was titled “Design your own park”. The title, written in both English and Spanish, spoke clearly to the community members present. Here, a table was set up, and markers were laid out on the table for them. The community members stood and sat around this table. A young Black man provided his suggestions at this meeting for a park that would be suitable for him. Then a young white man did the same. At the table, the community members were also Hispanic, a vital aspect of Perth Amboy’s identity. The Rutgers team member then pinned these suggestions to the board titled “Design your own park”. Colors filled the board, highlighting key elements that would suit the community members’ needs.

Preceding this meeting, the residents would go on to await the announcement of whether their design influenced the park’s progression. It is important to note that to produce a park that will succeed in the environment it is being placed in, one must understand that environment and everything that exists within it. That is exactly why this meeting took place. The Rutgers design team, chosen to produce a concept and design plans for the 2nd Street park project, realized that the residents had all the answers. In doing so, this team was able to receive feedback from more than 500 residents, students, and members of the surrounding 2nd Street site. This site, formerly a contaminated metal scrap yard, was going to finally become something more. Due to this extensive community engagement, this project became a top priority for the NJDEP (CCI).[1] In 2021, the design was finally approved by the city, and the park was publicly announced to the community with a name, Borinqueneer Park, commemorating the Hispanic heritage that exists in the city.[2] This must have made the Hispanic and Black community feel overjoyed to hear that their words and input truly mattered. Unfortunately, that effort did not seem to prevail. Twenty-one years have passed, and there is still no park at the 2nd Street site for the neighborhood to enjoy.

This lengthy remediation process raises the following questions: Why is cleanup still ongoing? How are residents being affected by the contamination during this time? And what is causing this area of Perth Amboy to be disregarded in terms of redevelopment? It will be argued that this delay is taking place because of the Perth Amboy residents’ status as a low-income minority. Due to this delay in progressing the redevelopment of the brownfield site into a park, prolonged physical, social, and economic damage is being done to this community, leading to a higher risk of pollutant-related diseases, social isolation, and the financial burden of undeveloped land. 

To further understand how the 2nd Street site became a metal scrap yard, key historical events will be discussed. An understanding of the people who live here will be given. Then the timeline of the site’s development will be discussed. The failure to produce the park promptly is an issue that can begin to be understood from this context. A low-income community experiencing a slight disregard for something that would heighten their quality of life. I will then explain how the people are being affected by the park’s absence through the description of physical, social, and economic effects that the surrounding community is experiencing. Then, an analysis of the event that became the key to ending these issues will be provided. This will bring us back to the argument, allowing one to understand its significance in this case. Until this community receives the change they have been battling for, they remain tied to their distant past of racial discrimination and disregard. A community, unable to obtain their needs as residents of Perth Amboy. This community’s status as low-income and majority Latino and Black will be emphasized to argue how these demographics seemingly weigh on the city’s decision to give the people what they have been asking for since 2014.

Site History/ Background of Perth Amboy Residents

In the 1930s, redlining was a prevalent practice in the United States. Its name correlated with its infamous use of a color grading system, which identified high and low-risk areas on a residential security map. The risk factor was based on the financial insecurity of these areas, typically tied to the social and racial status of the people in them, which stopped banks from issuing loans to these “redlined” neighborhoods. Every neighborhood received a letter ranging from A to D, along with a corresponding color code. The highest-risk neighborhoods were graded D and highlighted in red. Redlining allowed financial institutions to target these mixed-race, low-income neighborhoods.[3] This racial mapping was initiated by the HOLC (Home Owners’ Loan Corporation), with its headquarters located in Washington, D.C., and its practice continued through the FHA (Federal Housing Administration). These two government organizations would go on to decrease the residential desirability of numerous neighborhoods across the United States, leaving minorities in them stranded in unhealthy and neglected conditions. Perth Amboy became one of these neighborhoods in 1937.

In the residential security map of Perth Amboy, NJ, the 2nd Street Park site is a C grade, highlighted in yellow.[4] A grade C on a residential security map is used to indicate a neighborhood in decline, which is what most of the city is labeled as. The rest of the map, however, is highlighted red, indicating a D grade that distinguishes the area as a hazard for financial lenders. The area above the site is a business and industry zone, and a small area to the right of the site is designated as a grade B. This is the only area marked higher than a grade C, which strongly indicates that this city was racially targeted. This makes it clear that Perth Amboy, NJ, was a city that faced injustice through this mapping. Although this residential security map is no longer used, it continues to cause injustice to this city. It’s one of the reasons many residents, mostly people of color, continue to live in this area of Perth Amboy without the financial freedom to leave.

The occupier of this site from 1904 to 1994 was the Harry Goldberg & Sons Scrap Yard. This facility recycled metals that polluted the land with Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), and metals (including lead).[5] This 90-year operation severely damaged the soil and posed a threat to nearby neighborhoods. Once the facility shut down, it left the city of Perth Amboy with a polluted plot of land that was inaccessible to the community. This would be known as a “brownfield” site. The process of cleaning up a brownfield site is called site remediation.[6] This process involves various steps from investigating the land for its contaminants to proposing a cleanup plan. This cleanup process can take as long as five years, or more, depending on the level of pollution.

In 1997, 3 years after the facility shut down, the Brownfields and Contaminated Site Remediation Act was passed in New Jersey.[7] This new legislation focused on the remediation standards needed to grant the protection of public health and ensure the brownfield clean-up process would be finalized. If anyone were to encounter the land during this time, it would pose potential health risks due to the contaminants present. In May 1997, that same year, NJDEP and Goldberg agreed to begin the lengthy process of remediation.[8] This involved testing the soil and groundwater to determine what contaminants were present and how to best clean them up for the land’s anticipated use. During this period, from 1997 into the early 2000s, it is important to note that the residents of Perth Amboy, NJ, were predominantly Hispanic.

More specifically, 70% of the population was Hispanic; the remainder of Perth Amboy’s population consisted of Black and white residents.[9] This is important to consider based on what was taking place at this time. A Hispanic community located at this 2nd Street site is surrounded by toxic waste. These demographics are essentially proving the injustice that was taking place here. This pollution is degrading their quality of life until something is worked out by the city and remediation is completed. Fortunately, a plan for clean-up was being worked on with the owners of the metal scrap yard and the NJDEP in 1997, but nothing had been finalized. Three years later, in 2000, Perth Amboy designated the site as an area in need of redevelopment. After another three years had gone by, Perth Amboy, NJ, finally acquired the site and gained access to resources that would provide guidance in the redevelopment plan.

In 2003, the city of Perth Amboy acquired the former six-acre metal scrap yard through eminent domain. From this transfer of ownership, the redevelopment project became remediating this former toxic waste site into a park for the residents. The city continued to investigate the site through a partnership with the NJDEP and communication with the former owner of the facility. This investigation allowed the city to study the pollutants here more closely and keep developing a plan to rid the soil of them. Six years later, in 2009, a very important grant was given to the Middlesex County Improvement Authority from the EPA. This grant gave the county the ability to advise Perth Amboy on environmental issues, perform additional site testing, if necessary, and help develop a plan for cleaning up the former Goldberg brownfield site. This cleanup plan had not yet been finalized, despite the twelve years since the initial collaboration between the NJDEP and Goldberg.

Through this funding, the city of Perth Amboy determined it would be working with a team of community planning specialists and landscape architects from Rutgers University. Their task was to develop a concept design that would convert the contaminated site into a community park that meets the needs and interests of the surrounding neighborhood residents. The Rutgers team was then charged with conducting a community outreach effort, and with those findings, they developed a concept plan for the City’s new 2nd Street Park. This final design took into consideration the residents located in this area of Perth Amboy. It brought their needs to life and offered them something they’d been wanting for years. This park would finally provide an accessible means of recreation for both young and old generations. This is the community outreach event that took place in 2014. Seven years after the submission of this concept design to the city, in 2021, the park was officially announced to Perth Amboy with a name, “Borinqueneer Park”.[10] From this moment, the site would begin its remediation, and the park would be completed, or so one would believe. It is now 2025, and the 2nd Street site for Borinqueneer Park still sits empty.

The Failure

It has been four years since the public announcement of the park and eleven years since the completion of the design phase. The last public announcement to the residents of Perth Amboy, NJ, regarding Borinqueneer Park was in 2024. In the summer of 2024, the city provided details regarding a new phase of cleanup issued by the EPA[11]. This brief newsletter via the city’s community news outlet would inform residents of the removal of concrete from the site. It would offer a warning to residents about noise, traffic, and contaminants to be aware of, as many residents live in proximity to the site. This is the last news published regarding the park. Images of the site from this year reveal a still unfinished park. It is filled with machines that would aid in the cleanup and removal of material on this land. Yet there is no evidence of construction or further progress for the residents of Perth Amboy, NJ, to receive this park anytime soon.

Perth Amboy’s failure to provide this park promptly proves a disregard for this community. It has been well over twenty years since the first efforts of developing a remediation plan between the NJDEP and Goldberg. Even after finalizing a remediation plan and putting forth a beautiful park design for the residents, there is no further effort to produce the park that was promised. As of this time, this area of Perth Amboy, NJ, consists of 88% of residents who are of color and 41% who are low income.[12] Based on these demographics and the current timeline of the park’s remediation and construction, there is a correlation between the two. There continues to be a disregard for this community due to its status as a low-income minority. Despite the countless acts to break this tie between race and the living conditions experienced, this issue persists. It was evident in the past, and it is still evident now despite efforts to keep these issues hidden from the public. This issue cannot be hidden behind the promise of the park. Until this community receives the park they have been waiting for, they are still undergoing an internal battle. One of the ways this community is being affected today is physically, specifically by the harm the contamination of the site can cause.

Physical Effects of the Site’s Pollutants

As stated previously, the initial contaminants found on the site were Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), and metals (including lead). It is important to recognize the most recent contaminants identified on the site in 2024 for the future Borinqueneer Park. The contaminants were polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), military munition materials, and white phosphorus.[13] In this specific area of Perth Amboy, NJ, there is also a high percentage of air pollution. Due to this long history of contamination and pollution, the people here are severely affected. Prolonged exposure to these contaminants can cause serious health issues. Ranging from typical illnesses to cancer.

For instance, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are known to increase the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and reduce cognitive function.[14] This is a more severe issue for Hispanics because they are commonly known to be susceptible to illnesses such as diabetes, and this, in turn, can cause issues in the heart. Increasing the chances of experiencing these diseases can lead to someone requiring hospitalization, depending on the severity of their condition. Considering the timeline of cleanup, residents have been exposed to these contaminants since the early 1900s, and the exposure continues as cleanup is prolonged. Another contaminant here is white phosphorus, known to exist in military equipment. This contaminant is highly reactive with oxygen and can cause severe damage to one’s respiratory system, skin, and eyes, depending on the duration of exposure. In severe cases of exposure, this contaminant can cause death.[15] These are the types of pollutants that are present in this city and have been for many years. Due to the language barrier that exists for some of these residents, given their Hispanic background, there are individuals unaware of what these contaminants are doing to their community. Despite this, there have been some efforts, both past and present, to keep residents away from the site.

One of the ways the city kept residents away from the site was by blockading it with a fence. This would ensure that residents don’t trespass onto the contaminated land. During the removal of concrete from the site, the road was closed, which was meant to protect residents from the particles entering the air. Another way in which the city ensures residents’ safety during this time is through public announcements and the park’s official webpage.[16] The details provided by the city explain that exposure can cause symptoms such as irritation, while long exposure can cause more severe health issues. These issues can range from risk of cancer to damage to the central nervous system. All residents must have access to this information, but it is not guaranteed. The webpage for the park was last updated in 2014, which emphasizes the disregard that is taking place here. Perth Amboy should be keeping this community up to date, but this has not been the case. For these reasons, the city of Perth Amboy continues to be damaged by these pollutants, and its residents continue to be ill-informed. And until these contaminants are completely removed from the site, these dangers will persist for the community that lives here. Along with these physical effects, the community is experiencing social effects.

Social Effects on the Surrounding Community

After the public announcement of the park in 2021 through the city’s community news, it was also established why this park was being built here. This city exclaimed that this new park would create opportunities for programming and activities for the entire community and restore part of the City’s natural coastline. The strong growth, attractiveness, and demand for the City of Perth Amboy’s open space will be enhanced with cutting-edge technology to help promote the health and safety of all users.[17] These words promote hope, a hope for this community to develop a stronger value based on their needs. The city made sure to exclaim the efforts necessary to make this park a possibility. Shedding light on the eight-month community engagement performed by the Rutgers team. Then, providing details on the over 7 million dollars in funding the city received to perform the remediation of the site and construction of the park. The residents were finally assured of a park that would brighten their community and provide a means of accessible open space they were in dire need of. Design submissions would entail the exact spaces that would be brought to this site for these Perth Amboy residents.

The final concept design submission that was approved by the city consisted of five different areas that meet the needs of the community. The first section of the park was labeled, Food Kiosk and Seating Area. This would give residents space to sit, eat, and enjoy the presence of their neighbors. The second section, Community Green Hills, provides ample open space for community members to walk around. The third section, Park Center, consists of playgrounds and a beautiful community garden. This would allow space for children to play and for the community to develop healthy habits of growing plants and even food that can be locally sourced by the residents. Its fourth section, Park Sports, is made up of a soccer field and a skate park. Providing another space for children and teenagers to collaborate and engage in positive physical activity. The last section, Flexible City, would have a movie section, basketball court, and seating area, allowing even more space for this community to grow and engage in events that would encourage residents to be together. Despite this very thoughtful design, it fails to exist for the residents to use. And without any updates on progress, the community is blind to when this park will be done for them.

The absence of the Borinquineer Park has contributed to social isolation within this community. Certain factors of this community can contribute to this social isolation, such as language barriers, being marginalized, being low-income, immigrant, etc. Without an area for these residents to come together, they continue to be isolated in their homes. Social isolation can cause a heightened risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, and earlier death. Coupling this with the dangers of the pollutants located in this community, these residents are at serious risk of damage to their mental and physical health.[18] These communities do not want to be isolated. In the year 2000, a survey was conducted in the city. This survey measured the residents’ desire to be involved in the development of brownfields. The majority of Perth Amboy answered that they did want to be involved, often emphasizing their need for recreational spaces and areas for communal engagement.[19] This survey, along with the community engagement event that took place fourteen years later, shows that the residents care for the area they reside in, despite its condition. Yet disregard for these areas persists, and as long as they do, these effects will keep damaging the people who live here. This minority community does not deserve to be kept in the dark and pushed aside by the city’s failure to inform and include them in this park’s progression. Another troubling issue that continues to limit this community is its economic status, and the park’s prolonged completion adds to it.

Economic Effects on the Surrounding Community

This community in Perth Amboy, NJ, has been known for its discriminatory background. In the late 1930s, the community experienced redlining. The event of an area being racially mapped by financial institutions, so its residents were not granted loans. This ensured that these individuals could not leave these areas because of their financial insecurity and status as mixed-race individuals. This was meant to “protect” banks, but in turn, it discriminated against these communities and segregated them from good housing. It caused these communities to be trapped in poorly conditioned areas of cities that were not fully developed or brought to their potential. This type of mapping ended, but it left these communities in similar conditions, often disregarded by their governance. In this case, the surrounding neighborhood of the 2nd Street Park had been enveloped by industrial institutions and sites known to cause various amounts of pollution. Despite this mapping being issued over eighty-eight years ago, the surrounding community is still facing its effects.

The residents located here are still immobilized by their status as low-income. Recent reports indicate that, although years have gone by, the relationship between race and income has not changed. These demographics should not paint the picture of this community. Although historically these communities were known to be disregarded and uncared for by the officials who managed them, this pattern should not persist in 2025. Unfortunately, this pattern is continuing here. A minority, low-income community is being kept from what it could be. The city made a promise to provide a missing aspect of this community, yet there is nothing to show for this promise. A year-old announcement is what’s left of the park’s progression. The city needs to step forward and announce further progress. A completion date should be issued to the community, something that would provide a sense of care that was once provided in the early stages of this project. Until that is done, this low-income status continues to disadvantage residents, especially with the undeveloped land nearby.

An individual’s status as low-income often limits what they can have. Unfortunately, this exceeds a person’s wants and limits the access one has to common needs such as food, housing, and health insurance.[20] Many residents living in Perth Amboy, NJ, cannot leave because it is not affordable. The addition of a park to their neighborhood would increase their quality of life. It would provide a sense of security that is not yet evident. One of the key aspects of the park was a community garden. In many communities, this often lifts the burden of food insecurity. This has become a large issue in low-income communities as the prices of groceries increase over time. One cannot sustain a healthy quality of life if their income remains consistent, but all costs begin to increase. At one point, the imbalance becomes too great, and access to common needs such as housing or food becomes out of reach. The city of Perth Amboy has the power to create a park here that would lighten up some of these issues, but until that is done, this community will continue to be economically disadvantaged.

Community Engagement

Perth Amboy residents participate in the first 2nd Street Park Open House meeting on September 23, 2014, at Brighton Avenue Community Center.

The image, taken on September 23, 2014, portrays the first open house meeting for the redevelopment of 2nd Street Park. This event took place at the Brighton Avenue Community Center in Perth Amboy, NJ, about three blocks away from the chosen site for the park. Members of the Rutgers design team invited Perth Amboy residents to attend and receive information about the park planning process, urging them to share their ideas. The 2nd Street Park site is located at 45-93 2nd St. This site has been contaminated from its previous use as a metal scrapyard. After being marked for redevelopment by the city, the decision was made to turn it into a park. So once funding was received, Rutger’s team members formed a plan to conduct community research. This communal event marks the initial steps of the Rutgers team’s research process and the steps towards the park’s final design, utilizing the suggestions from residents. From this image, I aim to highlight the importance of community involvement in this redevelopment project.

The man at the central point of the image signifies leadership and importance, indicating that without him, a key component of the event would be missing. This man is dressed very differently from the community members in the room. He is wearing a suit, while the community members are wearing casual clothing such as t-shirts and hats indoors, indicating a sense of informality that is not shared. This reveals to anyone seeing this image that the individuals surrounding this man understand his position of power. Using this information, it is safe to conclude that he is the Rutgers team member leading this community meeting. Aside from the positioning of the Rutgers team member in the image, his race suggests he is not from the community of Perth Amboy, NJ. The community members in the room have a darker skin tone than he does, besides the one community member at the top left of the image, who appears to be white. The darker skin tone of the other community members suggests that they are of either Hispanic or Black background, which helps to determine which individuals in the image are community members. Despite the man’s professional position, at this moment, he is collecting papers from the two community members to his left, the white and the black young man. It’s vital to notice that the community members are acting in relation to the man in the center; they are the second section of the image that one’s eyes may be drawn to. This suggests that the community members present also hold an important position at this event. Although they are not dressed professionally, their presence at this community meeting is important.

The community participants, closest to the lens and surrounding the man in the center, are writing and drawing ideas to design a park that meets their unique needs. When analyzing the image, the first resident to be noticed is directly to the left of the Rutgers team member, the young man in the black t-shirt who has a beard. His expression is serious and intent on completing his design, ensuring his ideas are both seen and heard. The community members are extremely engaged in this event, as evidenced by the large number of community members at the table. They are focusing on completing their design sheets. The young black man at the left end of the image is handing his submission to the Rutgers team member. And, despite being a small number, their participation will have a significant impact as their designs are being directly applied to the park’s development. This is evident in the image where the design sheets are pinned directly to the whiteboard by the man in the suit in front of the table. The presentation board they are being pinned to is titled “¡Diseña tu parque!”. This language suggests that the participants are Hispanic and speak Spanish. Without this inclusion of their language, the community members who don’t speak English would not be able to participate or understand what is being done here.

Paying more attention to the presentation boards, the language suggests that the Hispanic community living in Perth Amboy is being welcomed to this event; without their participation, there would be no design. The board highlighted in this image is the one that reads “¡Diseña tu parque!”, which translates to “Design Your Own Park”. This area marks station four, the final and most important stage of the community meeting being held. After receiving information about the park planning process from the other boards, residents are now allowed to submit their suggestions. This is also the part of the image with the most color, which immediately draws your attention to it. There is strong community involvement in the park’s design process, as evidenced by the four suggestions already pinned to the board. These submissions are colorful, primarily using blue, pink, green, and yellow markers. The markers placed on the table for the community members were used to highlight what recreational spaces would make this park unique for them. Many notes are pinned to the design pages as the community requires many spaces for different types of recreation. This suggests that without these design submissions from the community members, the Rutgers team would not understand what the community needs from this park.

All in all, community involvement is important for the redevelopment of the future 2nd Street Park site and its design. Especially in this part of New Jersey, Perth Amboy is a significant area that marks Hispanic heritage, which can be seen by the ethnically mixed community members in the image. Historically, Latinos and people of color faced environmental injustice within their communities due to low income, keeping them in highly polluted areas without the means to leave. This part of Perth Amboy, NJ, that surrounds the site has also faced environmental injustice. These neighborhoods are surrounded by industrial facilities, which significantly impact their daily lives. Due to their status as Latinos and people of color, they cannot leave these areas. This forces them to adjust to poor living conditions, and not many community members are often encouraged to speak up for anything better. This event emphasizes the need for community involvement in cases where land is being redeveloped. These individuals deserve to be well informed of the events taking place in their communities and how they can play a part in the decisions that will shape their future. Environmental injustice is still occurring here as the battle continues for this park to be built. As more time passes and the clean-up takes place, this neighborhood is still being exposed to pollution and impacted accordingly.

Conclusion

On the 23rd of September 2014, the first open house meeting for the redevelopment of 2nd Street Park was held at the Brighton Avenue Community Center in Perth Amboy, NJ. This was eleven years ago, and there is still no park at the 2nd Street site. This prolonged remediation highlights a serious issue between the residents’ demographics and the city’s regard for them. As a minority, low-income community, the city should be doing more to revitalize this area of Perth Amboy, but instead, it is being disregarded because of its status. This, in turn, has caused serious issues for the residents living here. These issues consist of physical, social, and economic impacts that continue to degrade the lives of the community. Until the park is completed, these problems persist, and the community continues to suffer from historical conditions.

Any efforts to reverse the historical conditions put into effect by events such as redlining have failed. The community’s racial and social status still places them in harm’s way, as contaminants such as PCBs and white phosphorus increase the risk of cancer and harmful diseases that commonly affect Hispanics. Without accessible means of recreation and open space, this community is socially isolated. This, in turn, increases the risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Lastly, this community remains economically disadvantaged. This prevents them from escaping the conditions they are currently experiencing. These inequalities prove that this community is being unjustly affected, and despite the city’s ability to lessen the impact of these issues, they continue to prolong the park’s development.

This type of injustice has been seen countless times across the United States, across the world. It is still happening, not just in Perth Amboy, NJ. Communities need greater access to information and more opportunities to be involved in the development of their cities. Until access to resources and a greater quality of life are granted to these communities, inequality will persist. Change can happen in these small towns, but power still lies in the hands of the government. Without communication between the people and those who govern them, there will never be a true solution to the issues being faced.

[1] NJDEP, “Christie Administration Awards Perth Amboy $7.1 Million To Transform Former Scrap Yard On Raritan River Into Community Open Space,” Dep.nj.gov, September 13, 2017, Accessed December 01, 2025, https://dep.nj.gov/newsrel/17_0088/.

[2] “Media Advisory Groundbreaking Park Dedication,” The Historic City of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, June 10, 2021, https://www.perthamboynj.org/community/news/what_s_new/media_advisory_groundbreaking_park_dedication.

[3] Ben Wright and Joseph L. Locke, The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook ; Vol. 2: Since 1877 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019).

[4] HOLC, “Mapping Inequality: Redlining In New Deal America,” Digital Scholarship Lab, accessed December 14, 2025, https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map/NJ/PerthAmboy/area_descriptions/C8#mapview=full&loc=14/40.5055/-74.2438.

[5] Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, “City of Perth Amboy 2nd Street Park Concept Design,” Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research, February 19, 2015, https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_11204924/File/Departments/OECD/2nd%20Street%20Park_Compiled%20Final%20Draft%20-%202016-01-05.pdf.

[6] Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, “City of Perth Amboy 2nd Street Park Concept Design,” Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research, February 19, 2015.

[7] Geltman, E. G. Recycling Land : Understanding the Legal Landscape of Brownfield Development (1st ed.). University of Michigan Press, 2000.

[8] Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, “City of Perth Amboy 2nd Street Park Concept Design,” Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research, February 19, 2015.

[9] “NJSDC-PH2000-2 NJSDC 2000 Census Publication,” New Jersey State Data Center, June 2001, https://www.nj.gov/labor/labormarketinformation/assets/PDFs/census/2kpub/njsdcph2.pdf.

[10] “Media Advisory Groundbreaking Park Dedication,” The Historic City of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, June 10, 2021, https://www.perthamboynj.org/community/news/what_s_new/media_advisory_groundbreaking_park_dedication.

[11] “EPA Work on 2nd Street: Concrete Demolition,” The Historic City or Perth Amboy, New Jersey, May 2024, https://www.perthamboynj.org/community/news/announcements/e_p_a_work_on_2nd_street__concrete_demolition.

[12] This information is provided by an EJSCREEN Community Report with a 0.1-mile buffer from the site, https://ejamapi-84652557241.us-central1.run.app/report

[13] “EPA Work on 2nd Street: Concrete Demolition,” The Historic City or Perth Amboy, New Jersey, May 2024.

[14] Carpenter DO, “Exposure To and Health Effects of Volatile PCBS,” Reviews on environmental health, accessed December 14, 2025, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25822318/.

[15] “White Phosphorus,” World Health Organization, accessed December 14, 2025, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/white-phosphorus.

[16] “Existing Conditions / Condicion Actual,” Perth Amboy 2nd Street Park, 2014, accessed December 15, 2025, https://2ndstreetpark.blogspot.com/p/existing-conditions.html.

[17] “Media Advisory Groundbreaking Park Dedication,” The Historic City of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, June 10, 2021

[18] “Health Effects of Social Isolation and Loneliness,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accessed December 15, 2025, https://www.cdc.gov/social-connectedness/risk-factors/index.html.

[19] Greenberg, Michael, and M. Jane Lewis. “Brownfields Redevelopment, Preferences and Public Involvement: A Case Study of an Ethnically Mixed Neighbourhood.” Urban Studies 37, no. 13 (2000): 2501–14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43196511.

[20] “Economic Stability,” Economic Stability – Healthy People 2030, accessed December 15, 2025, https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/economic-stability.

Primary Sources: