Submitted by Klutzy-Tackle- t3_100fxv2 in Newark
I'm coming to newark for college as an international student from India. How is newark as a community toward foreigners? I'm a little nervous, this is my first time traveling outside my country. Are there any South Indians there?
Newark per say does not have a large Indian population. I assume you are either attending Rutgers or NJIT; if you are and you are staying in the dorms, the neighborhood where you will be living is primary occupied by students. As a whole that area is safe.
You will see some comments on here about Newark being “unsafe”. Relatively speaking, that is true. Statistically, the crime rate in Newark is higher vs surrounding suburbs. However, Newark is a large city and most of the crime is concentrated is a handful of neighborhoods. The campus and dorm areas don’t fall into that category neither are the areas surrounding the campus. Not sure which part of south India you are from; if you have experience living in large Indian cities ( Chennai, Bangalore etc.) same rules apply, be self aware and keep your wits about you. Don’t go looking for trouble / drugs and you will be perfectly fine.
As for Indian communities. Harrison has a good number of younger Indian immigrants. Mostly IT and other tech related professionals. Proximity to the path station is a big attraction.
Journal square ( 2 path stations away) has a designated little India. You can get pretty much any ethnic item you want there. Also a huge Indian immigrant population.
More established south Asian immigrants and those with families typically move out to Edison and the townships surrounding that city but you should be able to find everything you need in Journal Square.
If you are an observant Hindu, there is a temple in Kearny, close to Harrison. Few more temples in journal square as well.
Welcome to Newark!!
There's also a OM temple at the Belleville area at the intersection of Joralemon and Washington Avenue. Right behind laundry Warehouse laundromat. Washington Avenue and Broadway are the same artery. Just take Broadway north and it becomes Washington Ave over the second River Bridge.
My wife went to NJIT. The Desi student community was vibrant and active back then and it's probably the same now. If you want a taste of home, take the train to Metropark and head to Oak Tree Road or PATH to Journal Square and head to Newark Avenue. Both are huge South Asian communities with a great variety of restaurants from all over the subcontinent.
Within Newark itself I haven't heard of any instances of discrimination or such, just keep your wits about you and you will do fine.
NJIT has a large (proportionately) south Indian community and Rutgers Newark is one of the most diverse campuses in the country.
Go to the Edison area for a huge Indian community complete with Indian department stores, markets and the best Indian food in the US. It’s a short train ride away.
Right on Oak Tree Road, a short walk from the Metro Park train station.
I assume you’re either going to NJIT or Rutgers Newark. Both have a very diverse population of students including a lot of Indian (Indian and Indian -American students). Both campuses are basically next to each other. Newark has some sketchy areas, but that area and downtown are safe. There are security guards everywhere, Prudential, which is one of the largest insurance companies in the world, is headquartered in Newark. You are also very close to NYC, regular train (NJ Transit or PATH train) right into Manhattan. You can’t beat the location in that regard.
There have been a fair amount going to NJIT for a while. One of my best friends I met in college is Pakistani, and I don't remember any incidents happening relating to him being desi but maybe someone who is actually Indian can speak to it.
You are a short ways away from Jersey City and NYC, so there is plenty to do as a college student in the area.
I spent a lot of time in the arcade and anime club in college, I wish I had gotten out and explored and had more fun.
There are lots of Indians in NJ. Gujarati is something like the third-most spoken language in the state. Edison is great and if you are interested in attending a Hindu temple there is the absolutely massive one in Robbinsville. It is not the only Hindu temple in the area.
If you are taking the NJ Transit train semi-regularly in and out of Newark (like for an internship or something?), the Flex Pass may be worth it. Otherwise buying tickets individually is fine and easy enough to do on your phone.
Am Indian and live in Newark near Rutgers. People are pretty friendly overall and Indians fit right in. As long as you’re polite and respectful to others, they will show you the same respect and kindness. It’s an incredibly diverse area. The local stores don’t have a ton of Indian stuff but there’s pretty easy transit options to go get Indian stuff.
Cholie le ke peachi ka hay
Besides njit or rutgers theres no indians
America is a beautiful country, but Newark is one of the highest crime cities in New Jersey. It is a very poor representative of the country as a whole, and you must mentally prepare yourself for that. There are hundreds of geopolitical, economic, and cultural reasons for the way things are, but unfortunately, that's the current reality.
The good news is that right outside of newark (and irvington and east orange) is a completely different world. You're a shoethrow from NYC/manhattan, one of the top 20 greatest and most powerful cities on earth.
NJ has many indian communities, restaurants, mosques, and temples. Some are gigantic incase you ever get homesick. Try to get a cheap used car, or rent a car every now and then, and get around a little.
it’s literally a lie that it’s one of the highest crime cities. I don’t understand why people say stuff like this just to say it
It's still top 10 in NJ in terms of crime. Why bullshit a foreign visitor? that's cruel.
OP, please ignore these nutbags.
Your "source" links to a non-government website that provides no source for anything it is saying. It cites data that (if it is accurate at all) is 12 years out of date. It does not compare Newark to other cities, much less compare crime to other cities on a per capita basis. So your argument isn't supported by anything other than prejudice.
Crime stats have dramatically improved in Newark in recent years especially. It largely escaped the uptick in violent crime seen in other large cities. I live and work downtown and the notion that this is some kind of dystopian hellhole is just a lie. Newark has a lot of challenges but it is a great city and it is generally moving in the right direction.
You're entitled to your own opinion (even if based on prejudice), but you are not entitled to your own facts. I would encourage the OP to research the publicly available data, and not listen to bigots and haters.
what’s cruel is you writing off a city of 300+ thousand people because idk you saw a homeless person at Penn station
these suburban boogeyman takes don’t do anything to help bud
if this city makes you clutch your pearls so hard, what are you even doing in this subreddit
I lived and worked there over a decade. Every part. If you think newark truly offers everything there is to offer in NJ, you need to get out more. Newark only offers a shitty quality of life except for the most expensive upscale buildings, you need to travel A LOT more.
This is the time when he's supposed to make meaningful connections. It's not going to happen in any affordable part of newark. But also lack of sleep due to noise at night.. lack of safety... not knowing if your place is going to get robbed... not knowing if you're going to get mugged going out for milk. Whole city smells like trash. The litter.. bars on windows... it's all just shitty depressing environments.
yea I live here and I don’t worry about any of that stuff. It just seems tough living life so scared and paranoid.
i like where i live and I’m sure you like where you do, so maybe avoid calling people nutbags for that
I don't think that's paranoid for someone that is out of place. I think it's realistic caution. Seen it happen, happened to me a few times. It's just part of the gig when you're walking around places alone at different hours and stick out for invariable reasons.
I'm not calling people nutbags for living there. I had my reasons for living there too.
I'm calling people nutbags for acting like it's a totally average run of the mill part of New Jersey or America. To this dude from India whose only knowledge is basically movies and TV shows, that's just not what he's expecting.
Newark is anything but-.
Love it or hate it, the sht is fked up... by all measures.
Homicides are at a 60 year low. Stfu if you don't know what you're talking about
Irrelevant to my statement. Still high crime compared to the rest of the state. He doesn't sound like he can afford the $2000/mo+ to live in any nice area, so kindly stfu right back 🙄
You can live in one of the half a dozen rent controlled buildings in a 600+ sq ft studio in the north ward for 1200/mo including everything but internet. Stfu if you don't know what you're talking about. You're just a fear mongerer talking about things outside of your knowledge base. Go swim in the Passaic
The north ward is shitty too.
I'm just saying if the dude is going to travel thousands of miles across oceans to experience something new, Newark is a crappy place to start. Any other City in NJ is better.
He's going to figure it out by himself sooner or later. And then, this guy will think you guys are a bunch a dicks.
But he's going to college in Newark. Furthermore, broad st to springfield and the hill from NJMS down to military park is fine, and heavily patrolled by NJIT and Rutgers police. So the pavilion would be right there. Sit your unqualified to speak on this topic self down. Your knowledge is musty at best.
Granted, but it's still shitty. He's coming to the free world... not to live somewhere where windows are barred up and patrols have to keep strangers from mugging him... like this is not a good environment to enjoy this new part of the world... fkin hell.. too bad he can't go to like some nice place in central jersey or like bergen co or more rural north or south counties.. or even lancaster PA.. there are SO many nicer places, where ppl are not so despondent and broke down, and things are nicer and friendlier, ppl are more gentle and easy going... he's trading one messy socially dysfunctional overcrowded place for another. They done sent this kid straight to the hood smh, like why tho?
That is not where he got accepted to college, get it through your cheese filled brain. You're crossing from uneducated to racist in this comment. Mods here are aggressive, you'll likely be gone soon.
Ad Hominem. This has nothing to do with race.
He could buy a used car and just drive 20 minutes. It would be the smarter thing to do. He can sleep easy and not worry about craziness waking him up every other night.
I'm 35, "ad hominem" just outs you as a highschooler. Your solution to the kid coming here for the first time is to have them buy a car and drive 20 minutes in New Jersey to get to Newark? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
In this case, it's what most smart people would do.
Thousands of people who work in Newark and go to schools in newark, don't live in Newark. Heck, I even know city workers who keep a cheap rental room in newark for official address, but live outside of Newark too.
Quit acting like it's far fetched.
>who keep a cheap rental room in newark for official address
So there are cheap enough rooms to rent that this makes economic sense and yet you believe they need to spend over $2k per month on rent? To be clear, your solution is to have someone who has never seen the US to move to NJ and use a car to commute, do you have any idea how expensive their auto insurance would be? Isn't your mom calling from upstairs for lunch or something ?
I lived in 3 different apartments from studio to 3 bedroom over 8 years living in Newark where I earned my grad degree and still work for the state government. Salaries for public employees are public. Almost no positions would make fiscal sense to do this over.
He is likely going to NJIT, a very good school. That area is safe. Any city has shitty areas, a lot of suburbs do as well. Unless he is going on some drug buy in a housing project, he should be fine.
UPenn is in a bad area of Philadelphia, it’s still a good school. Parts of New Haven are bad, should people not go to Yale. Columbia is in Morningside Heights which is basically Harlem. Should people not go there.
Newark has great transit options right into Manhattan., he can jump on Amtrak to Philadelphia, DC, Boston, etc. He has Newark Airport right there to go most anywhere. I think for an international student, Newark is a better option than some rural campus in the sticks, you saw 4 students murdered in Moscow Idaho recently, but just my opinion
Javesther t1_j2hjehf wrote
Newark has everything. Jersey city is more known for their Indian Community. But there are large Indian communities and populations throughout New Jersey