The municipalities with the highest
density of ethnic
Koreans in the
Western Hemisphere and the home of both the
highest Korean-American density and percentage are in
Bergen County.[12] The per capita Korean American population of Bergen County, 6.3% by the
2010 United States Census,[13][14] (increasing to 6.9% by the 2011
American Community Survey),[15] is the highest of any county in the United States,[14] with an absolute total of 56,773 Korean Americans (increasing to 63,247 by the 2011 American Community Survey).[15][13][16] Along with Palisades Park, where Korean-Americans constitute the majority of the population,[17][18][19][20] abutting towns also have high percentages:
Leonia (26.5%),
Ridgefield (25.7%),
Fort Lee (23.5%).
Chusok Korean Thanksgiving
harvest festival has become an annual tradition in Bergen County, attended by several tens of thousands.[21][22] In the 1990s, a continuous stream of
Korean immigrants moved into Palisades Park and purchased most businesses;[23][24] It became one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic
Koreanenclaves outside of
Korea (and has been called Koreatown on the Hudson[25] and Little Korea[26][27]). Broad Avenue is the biggest and densest Korean commercial district in Bergen County, the heart of the Korean American community,[9] and growth of the community has been accelerated by zoning laws which allow
duplex homes on land previously containing a single home.[28]
Cuisine and culture
Broad Avenue in Koreatown has been referred to as a "Korean food walk of fame",[11] with diverse offerings.[29] Palisades Park's Koreatown now incorporates the highest concentration of Korean restaurants within a one-mile radius in the United States,[30] and Broad Avenue has evolved into a
Korean dessert destination as well.[31][32]Korean Chinese cuisine is now also available in Koreatown, as is
misugaru.[33]Bulgogi and
galbi are staples on Broad Avenue in the Palisades Park Koreatown.[25] Korean
cafés have become a major cultural element within Palisades Park's Koreatown, not only for the coffee, bingsu (shaved ice), and
pastries, but also as communal gathering places.[34]
Koreatown in Palisades Park has emerged as a dominant nexus of Korean American culture.[29] The Palisades Park Senior Citizens Center provides a popular gathering place where even Korean grandmothers were noted to follow the dance trend of the worldwide viral hit Gangnam Style by South Korean "
K-pop" rapper
Psy in 2012.[35] Palisades Park High School has hosted national
Kumdo martial arts tournaments.[36][37] A
jjimjilbang offers
saunas and
bibimbap in Palisades Park's Koreatown.[38] Approximately 120 Korean stores were counted in Palisades Park in 2000,[19] a number which has risen significantly since then, featuring restaurants and
karaoke (noraebang) bars, grocery markets, education centers, book stores,
financial institutions (such as
Shinhan Bank and
Woori Bank), offices, electronics vendors, apparel boutiques, and other commercial enterprises. Koreatown has also grown in and introduced Pocha to the community, which is just another word for a bar, but pochas have a different style.
Signage & dual-naming Broad Avenue
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2021)
In 1996, an ordinance was passed that storefront signage be same size in English as in Korean.[39] It was one of seven towns in Bergen County to do so.[40]
In mid-2015, a proposal was submitted by the Korean-American Association of Palisades Park to the mayor and council of Palisades Park to add a second name to Broad Avenue, such as "Korean Market Street" (Meokjagolmok) or "
Korea Way".[41] The mayor's response was to request a public vote on implementing this addition.[42] As of 2018, it remained controversial.[43]
Monuments and memorials
In 2010, in a public park near the public library a
brass plaque on a block of stone, was dedicated to the memory of
comfort women, tens of thousands of women and girls, many Korean, who were forced into
sexual slavery by
Japanese soldiers during
World War II.[6][44] In May 2012, borough officials in Palisades Park rejected requests by two
diplomatic delegations from
Japan to remove a small
monument from the park.[45][46] Days later, a
South Korean delegation endorsed the borough's decision.[47] The first Japanese delegation cited apologies offered by their country's government for its involvement as justifying the removal of the monument, while officials from the second delegation controversially claimed that "comfort women were a lie". In 2017 the monument, the
first of its kind in the United States, was relocated to more prominent location.[48] A similar memorial in nearby
Hackensack was raised behind the
Bergen County Courthouse, alongside memorials to the
Holocaust, the
Great Famine of Ireland, and the
Armenian genocide,[49] and unveiled in March 2013.[50][51] An annual cross-country
bicycle ride dedicated to the honor of the comfort women ends at the Palisades Park memorial, following a penultimate stop at the memorial in
Hackensack.[52]
A memorial dedicated to the victims of the tragic
sinking of the Sewol ferry off the South Korean coast on April 16, 2014, was unveiled at the public library in May 2014.[53]
Korean language in civic affairs
Ballots are printed with the Korean language since 2012.[18] Jason Kim was serving as
deputy mayor of the borough of Palisades Park in May 2012.[54] As of May 2014, Korean Americans had garnered at least four borough council seats in Bergen County.[55] In July 2015, Shawn M. Lee was sworn in as Palisades Park's first Korean-American police sergeant and Gina S. Kim was sworn in as the borough's first municipal clerk, reflecting the growing political influence of the Korean American population in Palisades Park.[56] In November 2015, Palisades Park hired two more Korean-speaking police officers, bringing the total to four.[57] In January 2019, Christopher Chung was sworn in as the first Korean-American mayor of Palisades Park.[58] Korean Americans have attended town meetings in large numbers, requested
Korean language interpreters to be present at these meetings as of August 2016.[59][26] In 2019 the town created a Korean language version of its website.[60]
^Morgan, Arlene Notoro; Pifer, Alice Irene; Woods, Keith (2006).
The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity. Columbia University Press.
ISBN9780231132893. Broad Avenue is the fulcrum of something larger: a parallel universe - that re-creates American traditions in Korean style. Koreans call it "Koreatown".
^Cho, Young-mee Yu; Jung, Ji-Young; Ha, Jeeyoung Ahn (2020),
Integrated Korean: Accelerated 1, University of Hawaii Press,
ISBN9780824889463, The following is a map of restaurants in Palisades Park, NJ Koreatown
^Pyong Gap Min (August 5, 2012).
"Population Growth and Racial Composition in Korean Enclaves in the New York-New Jersey Area, 1980-2010"(PDF). RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE KOREAN COMMUNITY QUEENS COLLEGE OF CUNY. Retrieved May 20, 2021. the Korean business district in Palisades Park: on ten blocks along Broad Avenue, on a few blocks along Grand Avenue, and a few blocks along Bergen Boulevard. This business district created in a very suburban Korean enclave has no high buildings and no major shopping malls
^Lee, Jinsok (2015), Language, Ethnicity and Identity in a New Jersey Korean-American Community, Washington, D.C.: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University, Broad Avenue, the street running through the center of the borough is considered to be the heart of the Korean American commercial district in Bergen County. The avenue is full of Korean businesses for 13 blocks (between Harriet Avenue and Oakdene Avenue, southwest to northeast, respectively). Almost all the store signs are in Korean only or English/Korean bilingual, and there are also a lot of chain stores which came directly from Korea such as 'Paris Baguette' (popular Korean bakery chain) and 'Caffe Bene' (popular Korean coffee shop chain). Broad Avenue of Palisades Park provides the biggest and densest Korean commercial district among the Korean American commercial districts in Bergen County.
^
abSobko, Katie (February 9, 2018).
"In Palisades Park's Koreatown, hope and pride running high".
North Jersey Media Group. Archived from
the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2021. Bergen County has the nation's highest concentration of people of Korean heritage. Edgewater, Fort Lee, Leonia and other Bergen County towns are also rich in Korean culture. but Palisades Park, with its strip of shops and restaurants on Broad Avenue dubbed 'Koreatown,' is the heart of the community.