The Bloomfield Neighborhood Guide: Bloomfield Avenue, Center, and Where Cannabis Fits In
Bloomfield Township is a densely populated, transit-linked community of roughly 50,000 residents in Essex County, New Jersey, straddling the Garden State Parkway and defined — more than anything else — by the long commercial spine of Bloomfield Avenue.
A Short History
Bloomfield was incorporated in 1812, named for General Joseph Bloomfield, a Revolutionary War officer and early New Jersey governor. The township's 19th-century economy was built on small manufacturing and the rail connection that still runs through the center of town today as NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton Line. The Bloomfield Green Historic District — a cluster of 19th-century structures and the town green — remains the civic heart.
Bloomfield Avenue
Bloomfield Avenue — the east-west corridor that runs from Newark through Bloomfield and on through Montclair — is the town's working commercial spine. It's a three-mile stretch of independent retail, restaurants, professional services, and longstanding family businesses that has survived every wave of suburban-mall consolidation. Nightjar Cannabis sits on Bloomfield Avenue at number 549, putting it on the most trafficked commercial block in the township.
Bloomfield Center
Bloomfield Center is the civic and retail core around the town green, the Bloomfield Public Library, Bloomfield Town Hall, and the NJ Transit station. Walkable, bikeable, transit-adjacent — Bloomfield Center is the part of the township that most resembles a traditional small downtown, and it's the anchor for weekend pedestrian activity.
The Neighborhoods
Bloomfield's residential neighborhoods are a mix: older streetcar-suburb housing stock close to the center, interwar and post-war single-family blocks farther from the train line, and dense multi-family buildings along and near Bloomfield Ave. Notable named neighborhoods include Brookdale Park, the Oak View section, Watsessing, and the area surrounding Montclair State University's southern edge.
Parks and Public Space
Brookdale Park, on the Bloomfield-Montclair line, is one of Essex County's largest parks — more than 120 acres with tennis courts, running paths, and a rose garden. Watsessing Park, closer to the center, hosts community events and weekend recreation. Both are cannabis-free public spaces under New Jersey law (consumption in public parks is prohibited).
Where Cannabis Fits
For Bloomfield, the opening of Nightjar Cannabis in 2024 was a quiet but meaningful shift. Bloomfield Township opted in to hosting adult-use retail under NJ's local-option legalization law — a decision made through the Bloomfield Town Council — and Nightjar became the township's first licensed adult-use dispensary. That single shop now anchors one of the higher-trafficked blocks of Bloomfield Avenue and has brought a new category of walk-in commerce to the corridor.
Township residents and weekend visitors have increasingly woven a stop at 549 Bloomfield Ave into broader Bloomfield Avenue itineraries — coffee at an independent café, a meal at one of the corridor's restaurants, a walk through Bloomfield Center, and a quick visit to Nightjar on the way home. For Bloomfield, that's exactly the kind of corridor activation that local-option cannabis retail was supposed to produce.
Getting Around
NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton Line stops at Bloomfield station, one of the easiest transit connections to Manhattan's Penn Station (via Hoboken or direct peak service). The Garden State Parkway runs through the township with Exit 148 (Bloomfield Ave) as the most useful interchange for dispensary-bound visitors. NJ Transit bus routes link Bloomfield to Newark, the Oranges, and Montclair.
If you're new to Bloomfield, a half-day on Bloomfield Avenue — from Broad Street east through Bloomfield Center to the Montclair line — is the single best way to see what the township actually feels like. It's also, not coincidentally, the stretch that includes Nightjar.