Worst towns in NJ (Newark, Jersey City: dangerous, mall, safety)

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by mike0421

I just discovered this board, and would like to give some feedback. I lived in New Jersey my entire life until 2 years ago, when I relocated my family to New Mexico. I've lived 30 + years in Northern NJ, and 4 in Southern NJ. New Jersey's worst are probably among the nation's worst cities, conversely, the smaller suburban towns in proximity to the worst cities are some of the highest quality in the nation. This is paradoxical, but for anyone who has lived in the state for any length of time, one can attest to what I say. In no particular order, the following, to me, are some of the most undesirable places:
Camden, Irvington, Newark (in most places), East Orange, Paterson, Jersey City (in many neighborhoods, but not all), Perth Amboy, Trenton, Vineland (the strangest in this list, and right near the top, feels more like the south) Bridgeton, Pennsauken, Atlantic City, Pleasantville, Chiselhurst, Asbury Park, Paulsboro, Belleville, Passaic, Elizabeth, Linden,Plainfield, Rahway, Woodbridge, Port Reading, Edison (most of), Bayonne.
However, for every hideous town I've named here, I can probably do a 1:1 match with an equally desirable place, and most are within a small distance of these places. What that translates to me is that New Jersey is losing its middle class. Most who have a favorable opinion of the state are probably paying their bills. Many who don't like NJ feel the same way because they were priced out of the market. Like I said at the beginning, I now live in New Mexico, because I believed moving here made the most financial sense, given that raising a family was top priority. Growing up, I disliked most of New Jersey for the reasons most people do: congestion, traffic, and for me, cold weather. I despise winter. The winters of 1993 and 1996 were partially the impetus for my move. I guess what I am saying is that everyone has a different criteria. One person's poison is another person's cure. I can equate to and understand those who do like living in NJ, because undeniably, some of the best communities in the country are located there. I realize that more now living in a state that is either the 5th or 6th poorest. That said, I couldn't move back, like others desire to, because my priorities are different. For example, my last 4 years living in Medford NJ, my taxes went from 3700 to 6100, without explanation. That offended me. I find that those who are comfortable living there in the first place will accept that higher cost of living, and convince themselves that all is good. For me, such was not the case. I miss the food, and to some extent the foilage (I do miss a drive down the Delaware Valley in the summer, for instance) but these are not adequate payoff for what really matters, my family.

Mike
I moved to Rahway From Brooklyn in 1998
i was just wondering what it is that you know about Rahway That i do not
and woodbridge and edison? what do you know about those towns
Please give me a little insight on these towns

[INeedAChange]

I lived in Jersey City for a year. The place was a decaying dump but the people were generally pretty nice. Fort Lee and Bergen County in general I could not stand though--there is something about the people there, they all seem miserable and rude. I would never live in Bergen again.

[hallidae]

i dont know why people are so ignorant when it comes to threads like these. do you ACTUALLY THINK most of NJ is bad? let's be serious? WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER ''BAD''?

for the most part... let's REALLY consider the BAD parts of NJ... im from JERSEY CITY, GREENVILLE SECTION... and to me, it's HOME.

now... the worst cities in NJ in no particular order:

jersey city
newark
irvington
east orange
paterson
camden
trenton


any other town/city in NJ is NOT BAD! stop trying to make the whole of NJ look like ****. look @ englewood cliffs, cherry hill, hoboken, downtown jersey city, palisades, little ferry, atlantic city, etc. have some good recognized areas.

they might be "bad" but they also have good parts to them. unfortunately, most people dont get to see both sides to a city! now when we talk about drugs and murder and car theft (crime in general) jersey city, newark and paterson are the biggest cities in NJ.

[deborah ann]

i know this thread is about north Jersey, but I am moving to South Jersey and need to find a place to live cheaply and a job, can any of you tell me something about Deptford or West Deptford as that is where I was thinking about moving, and was wonderng if it is a nice place, and perhaps something affordable in my price range.
I would appreciate any help that you could give me.
you can either reply in post or emails are welcomed.
Thanks ahead of time for your reply.
Debby

[sussex girl]

Come on Dover is a dump. No one will go there alone needless to say or in the dark. This is Drug central and drug violence is rampent all over the pest hole that is called Dover New Jersey. Dover at one time was a nice little town
it had every thing a growing population needed and it has some real charm. Some of the nicest homes and buildings that one would ever want to see, but now the town is full of junkies and welfare types. They even had to close down one of the local hospitals becuse the Welfare and Illigal population of people had over run it and since most did not have insurance or a way to pay, the hospital could not pay it's own bills and had to close it's doors... How sad . This is one town that it is best to lock your doors when passing thru and DO NOT STOP FOR ANY REASON. That is unless you have a death wish.

[Obrero]

I think sussex girl is being a little dramatic about Dover. Figures someone from Sussec would think that way. It's nowhere near the point of driving through and not stopping for any reason. I might say that about Irvington, but Dover..c'mon grow up. It is a very poor town filled to the brim with hispanics with many of them being illegal. If you are talking about St Clares closing down the ER there - well it opened up again last year. They also decided to fit out an ER bus that they park on the street twice a week and all the people with no insurance go there to get taken care of. It worked out cheaper to run that bus than to have the ER filled up all the time. Even if that is totally offensive to you, it does not make the town the drug and gan infested area you suggest. The people in the town are poor but mostly hardworking.

[mryankees2]

Dear Sussex: What you have written is completely ihreprenhensible and i think you owe myself and every other good standing citizen of Dover an apology. I have resided in the town for the last 16 years and i would never even think about leaving. People are so dramatic just because the town is populated by hard working hispanics whose goal it is to make a decent living in a country that won't even accept them. I have never had / seen/ learned about any of these problems in Dover, the so-called death wish. I work for area police departments around Dover as a dispatcher and if you check their statistics, there has not been one murder there in YEARS. I cannot remember the last time we had a bad call was! Other towns have had more murders in the past month! I was successfully educated by Dover High School and i am currently at a university, as is the rest of the class i graduated with, so whats the problem with our education system? Drug violence ? You got to be ****ting me! they disbanded the Dover Police Gang Unit because there was no purpose for it after a while! Your biased and unfounded opinions appall me and i am glad that scum like you stay out of my town. Dover is a peaceful town where people are just trying to make ends meet. I ride my bike around this town for 3 miles every single day and see nothing you describe, am involved in many community organizations and i can tell you, dover is a strong community. We have even been awarded the Tree City USA award NUMEROUS times because of how clean it is (signs are hanging up downtown for each year), and it even plays host to a flee market town-wide EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY, as it has for the past 17 years. It is the most popular flee market in the area and thats according to all local newspapers. And the hospital is closed ? Thats news to me, since i am a member of the rescue squad there and i take patients to their emergency room / dialysis clinic / rehab clinic / operating room EVERY SINGLE DAY. Wow yepp sure looks closed to me. You are a arrogant ****head who probably has so much bad things to say about everyone else but yourself, but you know what? Sussex county is a piece of ****. I was a 911 dispatcher there and every day, i was getting calls about domestics, gang activity, teenage violence at the quick chek, parents abandoning their children, drunk driving and escaped convicts hiding out up there in trailer homes. You have no right to bash the town that raised me when you come from a place thats even worse. And if you don't apologize, then that also speaks for itself.

[cyntmac]

People have made some extreme generalizations on here and sometimes they are way off the mark. Occasionally these posts have some truth to them. If you read this thread w/o being familiar with these areas you would be very confused by now.
I respond to threads where straight up misinformation is posted. It is not always clear cut though. People on city-data and other forums like it are not really interested in apologies. The best thing to do is to post a really informed response and avoid/ignore the personal flame wars.
Why lower the bar on here? You can respond w/o doing the same thing that the other poster was doing can't you?
Sussex is not full of gang violence and orphans but someone who reads this who has never been in that area would have no idea. Why come on here and reignite a flame that should have already burned out?

[sussex girl]

I am sorry if you feel that my opinion of DOVER is out of line, but my opinion is just that... Mine. I come from a place were we never had to lock our door nor feel threatened when we opened our door to a stranger in need. That was before we became a Vacation destination for people from outside of our little Towns here in Sussex County. We then had an influx of your hard working Dover types and life for us became Heck every summer weekend. Loud, Foul Mouthed and ill mannered people all over the place. All forms of Crime on the rise due to your hard working dover types( One of Your Dover Types dumped his girlfriends dead body in the first town he came to as he entered our County a few years ago. Beat her to a pulp if I remember properly. Sadly two little boys had to come across this mess when they went out to play.
Thank heavens most were just passing thru on the way to the Pocanos. Now the Pocanos are a gang Haven and have such a huge Drug Problem that honest people are putting their homes up for sale at an alarming rate.
So if you think I am harsh well maybe I am just wishing for the time when we could live like normal people and not have to worrie about the bad types that pass thru and god forbid stop for a time and raise all kinds of cane.

And If you do not like Sussex County that is just fine with me... If you and a few dozen of your closest friends choose not to visit us any more then I am sure that well will not miss you much.

Sussex County may not be perfect but we as a people are hard working and honest people, we help each other in times of need and have a very strong community spirit. We care very deeply for our own and would never let our little towns turn into a haven for criminals with out a fight. You can keep the Criminal in Dover we are happy just being decent, hard working family types... not to exciting but it suits us just fine.

[cyntmac]

Too bad this thread is still alive and well. Dover can not be the only town with criminal types. Some of those other towns must have some bad residents. I can't say more because I have never been to this town but it is probably one of the lowest income towns around that area I would wager. I know NW NJ has gotten expensive so I doubt low income areas are numerous. Most people on here will say you are lucky to live in that area.