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The praise here strikes me as pretty overstated. NJ is endless suburbia. Not a whole lot of appeal to most of it. That said, if I were to relocate to the NYC area, though, which is something I've considered before and will likely consider again, then I'd probably pick Jersey City just to have some breathing room from the anchor city
there is a joke in 2oolander where they go to new jersey and its like crossing siberia.
I love how so many people casually s**t on New Jersey's "bad areas" all the time, as if their states don't have any (and as if they could afford to live here ). EVERY STATE has it's good and bad areas, and NJ is obviously no exception, but when you have easy access to the best city in the country (and all of the Bos-Wash corridor), one of the best public school systems in the country, beautiful areas like Alpine, Edgewater, Englewood Cliffs, basically all of Bergen/Morris county, beaches on the shore, rolling hills/mountains in North/Central Jersey, Pine Barrens and Cape May in S. Jersey, (the list goes on), it is easily one of the best states in the country.
Yeah, I'd agree that easy access to Philadelphia is one of New Jersey's selling points.
I love how so many people casually s**t on New Jersey's "bad areas" all the time, as if their states don't have any (and as if they could afford to live here ). EVERY STATE has it's good and bad areas, and NJ is obviously no exception, but when you have easy access to the best city in the country (and all of the Bos-Wash corridor), one of the best public school systems in the country, beautiful areas like Alpine, Edgewater, Englewood Cliffs, basically all of Bergen/Morris county, beaches on the shore, rolling hills/mountains in North/Central Jersey, Pine Barrens and Cape May in S. Jersey, (the list goes on), it is easily one of the best states in the country.
I will 100% throw NJ in the top 10. AS long as you throw PA in the top 10.
Deal?
The reality with NJ is this. It lacks a major, independent and successful city.
Yes you can say Newark has been making strides. But in hindsight Newark is quite small.
NJ has a major problem with its cities, and I think in large part this is a reason why it is easy to target NJ.
NJ is what it is today because of NYC and Philadelphia. For the overwhelming part. NJ really did not see significant growth until after the automobile, and therefore its whole design influence is centered around cars.
The 6 lane roads spewing off in every direction. The jug handles. The concrete barriers in the middle. I mean just drive across the bridge from Pennsylvania to Trenton. And it is AWFUL. You have this great historic city, that is totally cut off from these crazy road networks, that are 100% unnecessary. Hell HALF the NJ Capitol building is not accessible because of the crazy road networks. NJ was designed around the automobile. I think that is its biggest fault TBH.
And crazy enough I think it plays into its reputation. At least on a regional level here in Philadelphia Metro.
Last edited by rowhomecity; 01-27-2018 at 06:33 AM..
I will 100% throw NJ in the top 10. AS long as you throw PA in the top 10.
Deal?
The reality with NJ is this. It lacks a major, independent and successful city.
Yes you can say Newark has been making strides. But in hindsight Newark is quite small.
NJ has a major problem with its cities, and I think in large part this is a reason why it is easy to target NJ.
NJ is what it is today because of NYC and Philadelphia. For the overwhelming part. NJ really did not see significant growth until after the automobile, and therefore its whole design influence is centered around cars.
The 6 lane roads spewing off in every direction. The jug handles. The concrete barriers in the middle. I mean just drive across the bridge from Pennsylvania to Trenton. And it is AWFUL. You have this great historic city, that is totally cut off from these crazy road networks, that are 100% unnecessary. Hell HALF the NJ Capitol building is not accessible because of the crazy road networks. NJ was designed around the automobile. I think that is its biggest fault TBH.
And crazy enough I think it plays into its reputation. At least on a regional level here in Philadelphia Metro.
It doesn’t matter if the state lacks its own major city. It has incredible access to two of them (you either live in the suburbs of Philly or NYC, period). The roads allow people to get around. I would rather have huge highways with less traffic than one highway with insane traffic. That is what exists in some parts of the country and in other suburban areas. NJ’s road network allows its economy to flourish and its people to reach their jobs. I think having a highway right through the middle of Philly is even worse, btw. Thank god they didn’t do that to Manhattan!!!!! It only makes sense to not have lots of large roads in urban cores. Otherwise they are necessary and work well. It is not NJ’s fault it was built like that. People wanted to live like that, and NJ became (and remains) a suburban paradise. Also, much of North Jersey does not have jughandles. Once you get north of Route 10 or so (which is a huge chunk of the state), you basically never see jughandles. Bergen County does not have them at all. And Essex County maybe has a few in its southern or western reaches. Also, the jersey Shore is great (and jughandle-free lol)! IMO, jughandles work with moving traffic and take cars off the main stretch of the road. It has been proven that jughandles are more efficient at moving large volumes of traffic.
This is kind of a weird one. Don’t think I’ve really heard negative stereotypes of San Antonians. Fat, maybe, but that just leads into a discussion about the awesome food. The city gets overshadowed by its hip neighbor to the north (not to mention Dallas and Houston), but the people don’t seem to have a negative reputation.
Anyway, lots of “redneck” reputation states have a bad reputation for being backward, uneducated, poor, etc. I’ll also nominate Philly, as a resident of the Philly area. It’s still a beloved city by many but it gets constantly trashed because of its sports fans (particularly the Eagles fans). And, of course, any city with a bad crime rate, or even a history of it, gets a bad reputation.
It doesn’t matter if the state lacks its own major city. It has incredible access to two of them (you either live in the suburbs of Philly or NYC, period). The roads allow people to get around. I would rather have huge highways with less traffic than one highway with insane traffic. That is what exists in some parts of the country and in other suburban areas. NJ’s road network allows its economy to flourish and its people to reach their jobs. I think having a highway right through the middle of Philly is even worse, btw. Thank god they didn’t do that to Manhattan!!!!! It only makes sense to not have lots of large roads in urban cores. Otherwise they are necessary and work well. It is not NJ’s fault it was built like that. People wanted to live like that, and NJ became (and remains) a suburban paradise. Also, much of North Jersey does not have jughandles. Once you get north of Route 10 or so (which is a huge chunk of the state), you basically never see jughandles. Bergen County does not have them at all. And Essex County maybe has a few in its southern or western reaches. Also, the jersey Shore is great (and jughandle-free lol)! IMO, jughandles work with moving traffic and take cars off the main stretch of the road. It has been proven that jughandles are more efficient at moving large volumes of traffic.
Access to nice cities doesn’t do much for the reputation of the places near those citie. In fact those places are often overlooked as being boring, suburban extensions of more exciting places, even if they are fine places to live. Speaking from personal experience as a Delaware resident.
It isn't so much that NJ was designed around the car so much as jeri rigged to the car. New Jersey has plenty of old, historic towns and cities and even before the suburban boom and was one of the most densely populated states.
Jersey was one of the first States to "Suburbanize" which makes sense due to the proximity to major cities. Being the first also means that it was a guinea pig of sorts to the first wave of wide scale industrial level suburbanization. With that came alot of homes that aren't very desirable anymore.
Mass produced 40s and 50s homes in my experience tend to have a lot of quality issues and lack the appeal that homes built in the 20s or 30s have for restoration. It seems at least from what I have seen that home restoration folks skipped over them on their way to mid century modern which is getting alot of love these days.
I'm not saying that Jersey doesn't have a bunch of homes built after the 50s, it has a ton, but some of the best locations were built over with some of the worst builds and the roads and auto dependency was already set in place.
Add to that Jersey damaged alot (not all) of the great older places it had in the name of progress and the car.
The result is lots of places have better (newer or older) suburbs than New Jersey it just happened to develop during probably the worst period of urban planning in America. Even places that were actually designed around the car with a (almost) blank slate (Phoenix, DFW, Houston) work alot better than a place jeri rigged for it.
Access to nice cities doesn’t do much for the reputation of the places near those citie. In fact those places are often overlooked as being boring, suburban extensions of more exciting places, even if they are fine places to live. Speaking from personal experience as a Delaware resident.
I’m not saying that this helps these place’s reputations. I am just trying to portray the truth about states like New Jersey. They are way better than most people think.
It isn't so much that NJ was designed around the car so much as jeri rigged to the car. New Jersey has plenty of old, historic towns and cities and even before the suburban boom and was one of the most densely populated states.
Jersey was one of the first States to "Suburbanize" which makes sense due to the proximity to major cities. Being the first also means that it was a guinea pig of sorts to the first wave of wide scale industrial level suburbanization. With that came alot of homes that aren't very desirable anymore.
Mass produced 40s and 50s homes in my experience tend to have a lot of quality issues and lack the appeal that homes built in the 20s or 30s have for restoration. It seems at least from what I have seen that home restoration folks skipped over them on their way to mid century modern which is getting alot of love these days.
I'm not saying that Jersey doesn't have a bunch of homes built after the 50s, it has a ton, but some of the best locations were built over with some of the worst builds and the roads and auto dependency was already set in place.
Add to that Jersey damaged alot (not all) of the great older places it had in the name of progress and the car.
The result is lots of places have better (newer or older) suburbs than New Jersey it just happened to develop during probably the worst period of urban planning in America. Even places that were actually designed around the car with a (almost) blank slate (Phoenix, DFW, Houston) work alot better than a place jeri rigged for it.
It’s laughable that you think Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix have nicer suburbs than Jersey. I don’t disagree that their urban planning is better, but Jersey’s communities are, flat out, nicer.
It doesn’t matter if the state lacks its own major city. It has incredible access to two of them (you either live in the suburbs of Philly or NYC, period). The roads allow people to get around. I would rather have huge highways with less traffic than one highway with insane traffic. That is what exists in some parts of the country and in other suburban areas. NJ’s road network allows its economy to flourish and its people to reach their jobs. I think having a highway right through the middle of Philly is even worse, btw. Thank god they didn’t do that to Manhattan!!!!! It only makes sense to not have lots of large roads in urban cores. Otherwise they are necessary and work well. It is not NJ’s fault it was built like that. People wanted to live like that, and NJ became (and remains) a suburban paradise. Also, much of North Jersey does not have jughandles. Once you get north of Route 10 or so (which is a huge chunk of the state), you basically never see jughandles. Bergen County does not have them at all. And Essex County maybe has a few in its southern or western reaches. Also, the jersey Shore is great (and jughandle-free lol)! IMO, jughandles work with moving traffic and take cars off the main stretch of the road. It has been proven that jughandles are more efficient at moving large volumes of traffic.
New Jersey has been in the shadow of the two cities that bracket it since its establishment; Ben Franklin famously referred to it as "a keg tapped at both ends."
Agreed that North (nee East) and South (nee West) Jersey are in many respects two different places.
While there are communities in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties with pedigrees dating back to before the Revolution (Haddonfield and Woodbury immediately come to mind, but there are others), most of South Jersey did not urbanize until after World War II. You will find strings of pre-WWII suburbanization along the PATCO Lindenwold Line ("Hi-Speed Line" or simply "Speedline") and the White Horse Pike (US 30) as well as the towns that lie close to the rail line running near the Delaware from Camden to Trenton (now the NJ Transit River Line), but most of the rest of the region developed with the highways that were improved as they grew, starting with the Admiral Wilson Boulevard (US 30 through Camden) and emanating from there.
South Jersey also lacked its own commuter rail network. The Lackawanna Railroad network originating at Hoboken Terminal enabled the earlier and denser suburbanization of Northern New Jersey much as the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad lines did in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Jughandles move traffic more efficiently by eliminating left turns across oncoming traffic. Instead, the left-turners are moved onto the cross road and make the turn along with traffic going through the intersection on the cross street.
The concrete "Jersey barrier" may not be all that lovely, but it has done a lot to improve highway safety.
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). EVERY STATE has it's good and bad areas, and NJ is obviously no exception, but when you have easy access to the best city in the country (and all of the Bos-Wash corridor), one of the best public school systems in the country, beautiful areas like Alpine, Edgewater, Englewood Cliffs, basically all of Bergen/Morris county, beaches on the shore, rolling hills/mountains in North/Central Jersey, Pine Barrens and Cape May in S. Jersey, (the list goes on), it is easily one of the best states in the country.
