Mayor's Welcome Letter

Print Feedback

Font Size: + -

Hello visitor!

Highland Park is such a wonderful community in so many ways, and I encourage you to experience as much of it as you can.

We are situated between two beautiful county parks that provide us with abundant spaces for recreation and relaxation throughout the year. There are bike paths, picnic grounds, playgrounds, and riverfront event areas, plus great hills for sledding in the winter.

Our active Main Street organization hosts a series of annual public events that attract residents and thousands of out-of-towners to the restaurants and stores in our vibrant downtown. These events include our weekly spring-fall Farmers’ Market, the Spring Street Fair, a summer outdoor movie series, a fall ‘Arts in the Park’ festival, and much more.

We have a thriving music and visual arts scene, with rotating displays in our all-weather outdoor exhibit space on South 4th Ave, and large one and two story murals sprinkled through town. We also offer a free summer concert series, ParkStock, on select weeknights in Donaldson Park.

We are one of the most densely populated municipalities in Middlesex County, with approximately 15,000 residents living within 1.76 square miles. Our numerous ethnic restaurants speak of our diversity – we boast Greek, Mediterranean, Peruvian, Italian, Mexican, Turkish, Kosher, Chinese, and Japanese eateries and others. The Borough is home to over a dozen houses of worship and faith communities, whose services and activities add to the rich tapestry of our town.

Highland Park is known throughout the region for our progressive work to preserve the environment. In 2008 we became New Jersey's first Green Community and in 2013 we received the Silver Level of Sustainability from Sustainable New Jersey, a rating we maintained in 2022. The municipality was one of the first in New Jersey to pass a plastic bag ban. Highland Park also has a PSE&G Solar Storage System, located on two acres on Donaldson Street that formerly served as a dormant landfill. The solar panels in the site provide enough electricity to power about 100 homes each year and the state of the art equipment there stores power for use on the statewide PSE&G electrical grid.

Our public school system serves students from 39 different countries of origin and who speak 29 distinct languages. The Middle School received the Jefferson Award’s top honor in 2017 for its Students in Action initiative and the High School earned a U.S. News & World Report Gold Medal and was ranked 17th in NJ and 397th in the nation.

Our close proximity to NJ Transit and Amtrak train stations make it both convenient and easy to visit and to commute to New York or Philadelphia, or travel to Boston or Washington, D.C.

We invite you to explore some of the many reasons why Highland Park is known as a remarkably vibrant small town with an outsized appeal.

Mayor Elsie Foster

January 24, 2023