Fair Lawn, New Jersey

A small city (or large town, depending on your point of view) in New Jersey, Fair Lawn may ring a bell if you're a film buff, as Robert DeNiro gives a false address there to a Secret Service agent in Taxi Driver. (If you're wondering, yes, Hopper Avenue does exist. Are you talking to me?)

Fair Lawn contains several 24-hour businesses, but not nearly enough. Specifically, it's lacking in the late-night pizza and Chinese food departments, despite that there is no shortage of such establishments that are open during the day. Our IHOP isn't even 24-hour.

Instead of a 7-Eleven, we get a CVS, which is 24-hour, but it's still only a CVS. To get a 7-Eleven you have to go into beautiful, sunny Elmwood Park. To add insult to injury, a location that's pretty much right across the street from that CVS was recently made available when a local supermarket shut down, and they're going to put an Eckerd's drugstore there. What a redundant waste of space.

On top of all this, we have a largely useless police force, and some of the worst designed streets I've ever seen. If you're going to come to New Jersey for some reason, do yourself a favor and avoid Fair Lawn like the fucking plague. You'll thank me later.

History
Suburb of New York City, across the Passaic River from Paterson, New Jersey. Founded and settled by the little-known Lenni-Lenape Indians, it was established as a farming community. It was originally a part of nearby Saddle Brook, New Jersey until it gained sovereignty from the agricultural town (mainly for financial reasons) in 1924. Its structure became most familiar to todays in the 1940’s, when farms began to dissolve in favor of creating single-family homes. This housing boom also helped to create the unique city-within-a-city concept of Radburn, New Jersey that is a revolutionary concept in urban planning. Radburn served as the basis for Long Island’s famous post-war Levittown.

Population
According to the last census in 2000, Fair Lawn’s population is 31,637. It has a relatively large Jewish population, including several synagogues, in addition to a large Russian population. In some areas, storefronts and signs are entirely in Russian.

Pop Culture References
Aside from the previously mentioned Taxi Driver, Fair Lawn has also been referenced more recently in The Sopranos, where Tony tells Chris to pay a visit to a Russian man who lives, coincidentally, also on Hopper Avenue.

Politics
Fair Lawn is part of the 9th Congressional District, represented as of November 2010 by Steven Rothman, a resident of Fair Lawn. In local politics, our mayor, David Ganz, is a professional coin collector. Our borough council is composed of five members that are elected every four years.

Corporate Residents
The borough is also home to a Nabisco factory that you can smell if the wind is blowing in a certain way, and a Kodak factory. The later shut down its operations in spring 2004, as part of Kodak's job outsourcing policy.

All things considered, its a fine place that has great public schools and a public library system that is extraordinary. This is all in addition to a low crime rate and its own community television station.