Worst towns in NJ (Newark, East Orange: crime rates, house, best schools)

[exhdo1]

Originally Posted by HerkJason

To quote a cheesy song, "I've been to many places seen pictures of the rest, but of all the places I can think of I like Jersey Best."

Although many of the cities in New Jersey are filled with crime, most of the state does not live in those cities. I should also note that many of the cities are up and coming; the Newport/Pavonia section of Jersey City is beautiful and was built basically in the last 10 years.

Anyway though, there are a lot of misconceptions about New Jersey. It is not all industrial and disgusting like Exit 14 on the turnpike (although that section does help the economy a great deal). I went to college in Atlanta and couldn't even believe how people from places as underwhelming as Columbia, SC would make fun of New Jersey.

Most of the state is beautiful and has a lot of character. I went to school in Atlanta and believe me you might think of "Gone with the Wind" but 95% of everything in Atlanta is characterless. It is sprawl and strip malls.There's no reason to even go from one suburb to another they are all just the same sprawl. Because New Jersey was settled so early on, many of New Jersey's towns and cities have history, character and historical downtowns. I don't know anywhere that has so much of this other than maybe parts of New England. For such a small state, New Jersey is tremendously varied. Yes there are condos, strip malls, and office buildings, but much more than most places there is a sense of place. There are mountain towns in Sussex such as Vernon, varied Jersey Shore towns such as Spring Lake, Cape May, Stone Harbor, Ocean Grove and Barnegat Lighthouse, quite rugged towns near the pinelands, beautiful horse country areas such as Bernardsville, Bedminster and Far Hills (yes New Jersey has more horses than even Kentucky).

Even most of the Philadelphia and New York suburbs have character. How many suburbs in the nation are as unique architectually as Westfield or or Mountain Lakes or Haddonfield, Princeton or Ridgewood or Summit? I have been from here my entire life and I enjoy just driving up and down the 3 digit county roads and I am amazed at what I always find off the beaten track. Such tremendous varied places and interesting mom and pop businesses. I've driven around other states such as Georgia, Florida, Indiana there is nothing to see off the beaten track in most of those states in comparison.

In New Jersey you are near so much: skiing, the shore, 2 world class cities and most of the state is nice, varied and has a sense of character, I don't see what is so horrible about it other than the high cost of living. Even this though is misleading since salaries are the highest in the nation. If you are a non-believer of how beautiful and varied NJ can be look at these pictures:

http://community.webshots.com/user/dbeards3

Jason

Like Onizuka said and you will also learn there are a number of people that like to troll the NJ tread and basically hammer away. I for one will point out any idiotic or uniformed statements to them. Some people handle things a bit softer, like "Oh it's not so bad", or "I know I should move" blah, blah, blah. I say call a spade a spade. Also you will be quickly introduced to the dead horse syndrome. Basically one fool will make an ignorant statement and then some of the jacka**s' will come crawling out of the woodwork to echo. Case in point. This thread "Worst towns in NJ" scroll through all the posts and see how many needed to point that Camden is the worst followed by East Orange then Newark and so on. I guess they just don't get it that we live here and we know that already. Anyway good post by you so let me give you your first rep. points.

[Destroy2000YearsOfCulture]

Ummm... I'd like to know why my post about Dover was deleted?!?! It was far from being racist! First off i have plenty of hispanic friends. Secondly i am Hispanic! I just don't appreciate how most of my people in Dover NJ are so one track minded. Maybe my opinion was too harsh but i wouldn't consider it being racist! I go by what i see. So to better describe the matter without offending anyone i'm gonna make it short and simple. Dover is a place of repressed people who only go by one style of music and street styled clothing. The school system is horrible mainly because of the children that attend these schools think they come from the ghetto and act out and commit crimes to gain popularity.

[camay1960]

Asbury Park is one of the worst and also ine of the best.......

[Debra]

I have lived in NJ all of my life and have watched it rapidly decline. It is over ly congested, people are extremely rude[I think New Yorkers get a bad rap in that area] plus the high property taxe, crime and dirty highways...hmmm..we can't wait to ge the heck out of here. The only places we like we can't afford, Montclair, Hohokus, Madison, Princeton, Cape may...We live 20 minutes outside of Manhatten and have noticied tons of new town houses going up in Edgewater over looking Manhatten. Living there with that view would be the ONLY thing that would make me stay in Jersey . Again--out of our price league so we're looking in Delware, MD, NC or Virginia..where we can afford a decent, single family home, less congestion,
And hopefully much nicer people.

Good luck!! I really do wish you the best. It's not an easy state to manouver.
We live right next to Paterson--stay away at allll costs!!!

[CrazyHands]

We all forgot about Passaic. Wouldn't drive through there on a weekend morning nevermind at night (did that accidently once).

[Debra]

AGH!! Passaic! Not too far from me. We'd gotten lost there in the afternoon and it was terrifying.

Out of sight out of mind I think!

[njguy]

Originally Posted by CrazyHands

We all forgot about Passaic. Wouldn't drive through there on a weekend morning nevermind at night (did that accidently once).

They should rename that place "Pissaic" - it would be more accurate.

[matlb820]

in regards to newark...yea its a city..and largest in the state. its gonna have good parts and bad parts. yes theres a lot of crime west of downtown..still but its come along way since its worst days. lots a new housing all over the place and downtown is getting a little bigger n better too with the arena, riverfront, and downtown apartments in the works.


camden....it really is a wreck. only ok part is the waterfront

[mikef973]

i live in union county and can definitely say union and essex county are not only the 2 worst crime/gang/drug ridden counties in NJ, but also the country especially essex. Irvington has replaced Camden as the murder capital of Jersey, rated at 46.8 with Camden at 41.2 and Newark at 34.5. Its an absolute JUNGLE, Irvington, Newark, East Orange, Orange, Elizabeth, Plainfield, Hillside, Roselle, Linden, Vauxhall are all horrible, and some cities that arent too far behind are Union, Bloomfield, Rahway, Roselle Park, South Orange, Maplewood......i know south jersey has Atlantic City, Trenton, and Camden, but this WHOLE AREA is just disgusting from town to town.

People definitely forgot about Plainfield. I went to private school over there and i knew it was bad then, but now they have a murder rate almost the same as Newark.

Then neighboring Jersey City, Union City, Paterson, Passaic, and the rest just add to the mix to make northeast jersey one of the worst metropolitan area in the country aka the 6th boro of nyc.

And some ppl quote Cleveland Ohio as being bad? and like Willingboro NJ? Cmon, have you ever actually been to newark? lets be honest...its a different world were subjected to here. cant wait to move to uppder hudson county (north bergen) or something. its urban but the crime doesnt even compare to here. you dont see groups of middleschoolers walking aorund the streets dressed in red at 2;00 am over there...

[JamalJohnson]

i live in camden for some time now, it worser than most u.s. cities i imagine, but nah the worse, i grew up in watts. This a picture of my old street in watts i used to live on 113st. Most of the neighborhood people streets dont have sement
how do i post flick on here? i have pictures of my old watts neighborhood.