Worst towns in NJ (Newark, Jersey City: house, condo, rent)

[NJBrickCityLoveIt]

Orange, West Orange, and East Orange are inner city areas...they are not as bad as people make them seem. Orange has very nice areas as does West Orange. I know many people who live in West Orange and live in nice residential areas. East Orange is not as bad as people make it seem. I live in Newark, but where i live is right next to the East Orange line, and I go to EO sometimes, it's not that bad at all. Really, it isn't. Newark is great, it's beautiful and its home, so of course im going to be kind of biased and praise it. And Camden......Camden is the truth........If i couldn't live in Newark anymore, I would definitely go to Camden.

[Hope002]

i've lived in NJ most of my life. But I lived in PA for 9 yrs and I recently came back to NJ. Even though I could afford ALOT more in PA, I couldn't stand the narrow mindedness, segregation, ignorance, and racism. Of course that all exists everywhere, but it's not as prominent in NJ. OVerall, people seem alot more educated and less ignorant. I'd be willing to pay more $ to raise my family in a state that is alot more accepting of everyone's differences. You just can't put a price tag on that.

[MayMove]

There are many informative posts on this thread.

Unless I missed it.......was there mention of Montgomery Township in Central NJ? Montgomery/Skillman/Rock Hill to be specific. Considering relocation. Homes are expensive. Schools are a #1 priority so we may have to bite the bullet. Commute to Manhatten via rail through Princeton I suspect?

From what I can gather online.....it's a nice area with much green space. We are in to horses. See Skillman and Princeton have a good number of stables.

Would apprecaite any info offered.

TY

[MayMove]

PS......how about Princeton Junction? The train access to NYC is appealing. Schools look great. Concerned with the white/asian demo. Which is fine...don't get me wrong. Diversity is a part of life. Just want to make sure my childern would not feel uncomfortable or out numbered. They are good students....so should be able to keep up the the program. We have found that the asian populated school disticts have higher standards and test scores.

[jm2jm3jm4jm5]

Originally Posted by MayMove

PS......how about Princeton Junction? The train access to NYC is appealing. Schools look great. Concerned with the white/asian demo. Which is fine...don't get me wrong. Diversity is a part of life. Just want to make sure my childern would not feel uncomfortable or out numbered. They are good students....so should be able to keep up the the program. We have found that the asian populated school disticts have higher standards and test scores.

I like Montgomery better then Princeton. Princeton does have a lot of Asians, but I don't think it's to the point that they are anywhere close to the majority.

[biwidjy]

I really like the way you talk about jersey i lived in bloomfield for a couple moths back in 02 it was bad every morning people usually be talking about someone found dead at some alley somewhere. i also visited Passaic, clifton bad and not bad. but cadwell is good very quiet neighborhood. west orange is good too.

Originally Posted by 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...

[tjb1970]

wow, way to take one piece of information and turn it into an overly generalized, sweeping dismissal of an entire state. yes, irvington's murder numbers are bad, it has never been a very safe town. yes, some of the other towns you mention have crime issues, but you cannot just lump all of them together as if they are the same. and you cannot ignore the fact that there are quite diverse neighborhoods within many of those cities, with quite varying degrees of crime (like jersey city for instance)

there are also some very nice areas of union, bloomfield, south orange and maplewood. there's a reason people are willing to pay so much for homes in those towns.

nj may not be perfect, but to make a mass judgement of essex/union and surrounding counties is absurd. have you even been anywhere else in the country? you'd be amazed at what you see (both bad and good). just like nj.

Originally Posted by 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...

[CrazyJerzyKidUNO]

Originally Posted by tjb1970

wow, way to take one piece of information and turn it into an overly generalized, sweeping dismissal of an entire state. yes, irvington's murder numbers are bad, it has never been a very safe town. yes, some of the other towns you mention have crime issues, but you cannot just lump all of them together as if they are the same. and you cannot ignore the fact that there are quite diverse neighborhoods within many of those cities, with quite varying degrees of crime (like jersey city for instance)

there are also some very nice areas of union, bloomfield, south orange and maplewood. there's a reason people are willing to pay so much for homes in those towns.

nj may not be perfect, but to make a mass judgement of essex/union and surrounding counties is absurd. have you even been anywhere else in the country? you'd be amazed at what you see (both bad and good). just like nj.

Actually before the late 70's Irvington was a very wealthy neighborhood. Actually one of the more wealthy areas in NJ. Kind of like Paterson. (used to be the richest city in the USA with that population density)

[tjb1970]

i realized after i posted that i should have been more specific about irvington. my point was that it has been a rough area for some time now, but i appreciate the follow up post. keeps me honest.

[biwidjy]

.all i have to say is thanks. these people are telling other people to stay away from their home town like its a freaking good thing. but i read alot of their stories some of them are true. you have to shine the light where it needed. I live inthe subshine stae check it out as bad as most of the other ones.www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004912.html[/url]

Originally Posted by SilkCity0416

Do you people have anything else better to do, then trash cities on this forum? I live in Paterson, and yes, it is a tough town, but that doesn't mean that everyone in this city, or the whole city for that matter, is one giant slum. Paterson is a large and diverse city, where people are just trying their best to get by in life. We have to remember that New Jersey really doesn't have a classic big city, like some states. I lived in Ohio for sometime, and if Newark (our state's biggest city) was in Ohio, it would be the the 5th biggest city (behind Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo) I lived in Cleveland, and I can say, that it will make any city on this list, look like Disneyland. You haven't seen bad into you walk in some parts of Cleveland. That being said, you have to remember, that NJ has a HORRIBLE reputation in this country. We are seen as being nothing but a toxic, urban hell, where there is nothing but pollution, traffic, and urban sprawl throughout the place. Also, let's not forget, NYC's dumping ground. I tell people all the time that NJ is a wonderful place, but they just laugh it off. (New Joisey is nasty!) While I try my best to change people's feelings about NJ, would you please just take a second to realize that people do call these places home, and I'm sure no one wouldn't like to hear that their hometown (or state) made a top-ten list for a negative reason. I know these places could be dangerous, but that doesn't mean we have to knock them. Jersey City is nice! They don't call it's downtown "Wall St. West" for nothing. Newark is getting there. It has a great history going back to 1666 (making it older than Philadelphia) Soon we New Jerseyans will be proud to say Newark is the city of NJ. Paterson has history like no other place in this country. Alexander Hamilton founded this city, as the first planned industrial city in America. America's industrial power was born at the Great Falls of the Passaic. So lets just realize that NJ and it's cites are one with each other. Talking trash about them, is the same as downing New Jersey (your home) as a whole.