Worst towns in NJ (Newark, Irvington: real estate, property taxes, house)

[Hustla718]

Wow, impressive list above.

Originally Posted by Hustla718

I can't find my old post (Thread too long) but just incase here are my picks.

Parts of:

Newark
East Orange
Camden
Trenton
Elizabeth
Paterson
Atlantic City

Forgot Jersey City Dammit!

[forest drive]

Originally Posted by Walkertexpre

I am 44 years old and used to live in Browns Mills N. J.
I now live in Northeast Texas and I love it. My dad was
from Dallas and my mom from Freehold. I hate to hear
about how bad it is in New Jersey. I haven't seen Browns
Mills for about 35 years. I was nine when we moved from
Browns Mills. I read where many said they would not
be moving "south", and I don't know what that means.
But...MayBerry folk are ok in my book. We've got problems too, but being in the Bible Belt ain't too bad!
Ain't is a word down here. Well, just want to let you
know, that you good folks of the North are welcome
down here! We've love to have you. We've even got
some folks that go to the church I pastor, and believe it or not, they're from Philly and like the Eagles. Guess what?
They fit in pretty good down here. Thanks for allowing me
to ponder good memories from my past and present!

I was born and raised in NJ and yes I can say Texas is great the people ask no questions about where your from and then insult you because you said you are from nj.

I moved here from Pa a small Town and in that small Town the people hate nj and the people in it.

So what does that tell you? You do not have a chance....The people in pa keep the people from nj at an arms length.

People from Nj that live in pa now want to say things about Nj to the people in pa...Well I did not because that is being a Trader...I was born in Nj and proud of it...

But if you want to move I live in South Texas and let me tell you? The people are nice and they love us from NJ...and that's what I care about..


NC is also another State that I lived in for a short time and the locals could not stand people from NJ....The problem is these people just didn't want to get to know us???

Tough s$$$ get to know us and we are just like everybody else.

[Dion1usa]

Originally Posted by patty nj

I remember Union Beach being somewhat trashy years ago, But they have really built it up quite nice. With the incredible housing price increases has pushed out many of the "undesireables". Have you seen the new waterfront area? For now, I'll stay in Ocean County. Anyone want to buy a house???

I have a cousin that lives in Union Beach... and I find it quite trashy as well. I think Keansburg's waterfront is 100 times better than Union Beach. They are building luxury condo's on both sides of the amusement park starting at nearly $500g. You have a nice beach, fine dining and retail shopping moving in, plus you have a boardwalk and amusements. Yes its an old town, but lots of things are changing and I find people very friendly and very safe here. Keansburg has its trash too, but I find it a lot better than Union Beach.

[Dion1usa]

Originally Posted by mikef973

Ive seen ALOT of towns and cities mentioned that are not bad. For example, Edison???? Theres 100,000 people in edison and there were NO MURDERS there in 2005. And the crime rates are not bad either. Outside of a few spots in New Brunswick and Perth Amboy, ive never seen ANY bad areas in all of middlesex county.

And Bayonne??? Are you serious? Bayonne??? Whoever mentioned Bayonne, CANNOT possible ever have been there. OR maybe they just assume ALL urban areas are "bad". Bayonne is roughly 65% hardworking middle-upper class irish, italian, and polish people who go to work every day and take care of their property. The crime rate is the lowest in hudson county (except for maybe hoboken which is all rich people anyway). Alot of the houses in Bayonne are similar in structure to housing in Newark, Queens, Brooklyn, Jersey City, BUT look at the difference!! Most the lawns are well manicured. No homes are disheveled or rundown in appearance. They are all updated and well taken care of. Obviously clear that a higher class of people live there.

It is very annoying when people post saying certain places are "bad" just because they are either urban or have a large population.

My Dangerous Areas list-

Class 1 (Overall Worst Areas with Most Murder)
-Irvington
-Camden
-Newark
-Trenton
-East Orange
-Greenville section of Jersey City
-Paterson
-Asbury Park
-Plainfield

Class 2 (Crime-Drug ridden areas but not as dangerous as Class 1)
-Atlantic City
-Orange
-Bridgeton
-Passaic
-Elizabeth
-Hillside
-Linden (mostly 1-9 and Eliz. border)
-Vauxhall section of Union
-Union City
-West New York
-New Brunswick
-Vineland
-Pleasantville
-Harrison (ALOT of mob activity)

Class 3 (Areas on the Down-turn with rising crime/drug activity)
-Roselle
-Pennsauken
-Perth Amboy
-Morristown (nice area but the crime rate is unusually high, go check it out)
-Deptford
-Union
-Woodbury
-Pennsgrove
-Ewing
-Montclair (East Orange border)
-Maplewood (Between Irvington and Vauxhall)
-South Orange (Vailsburg Newark, Orange border)
-Bloomfield (Newark border)
-Keansburg

Im sure many other towns can be added to the Class 3 list as drug activity takes over suburbia lol.

I would not walk the streets of certain areas of Carteret and South River at night! Carteret is a bad town. There are some high crimes areas of Sayreville... Winding Wood Apartments... always crime there! Jamesburg, South Plainfield have there smaller share. Keansburg is a lot safer than those towns! Keansburg is definitely improving, must have aquired a bad image at one time. I moved here a year and half ago and its very safe here. My best friend just moved here and his daughter loves it here... and she is an honors student in case anyone was wondering.

[jrogers345]

Originally Posted by najaca

A cheap mediocre house, doesn't replace the character you find in our homes. The blandness, and the sameness found in other places, is mind numbing. For those that have a desire to leave, have fun shopping at Wal-mart and Home Depot. Have fun driving down streets that are NOT lined with trees. Have fun reading all those Christian fundamentalist billboards with fetuses...LOL Maybe I'm crazy, but I enjoy my twenty minute drive to work, or eating dinner with my cousins that live a couple of towns away. I think for all you miserable people, how could you even think of leaving all this culture and nearby family??? That's pathetic.

Have to agree with you. Even though I will be moving out in a couple of years to North Carolina. (Love those Billboards! )

As far as crime, I have to tell you of a recent experience. I was down in Myrtle Beach, SC to attend the murder trial of my nephew who was killed there over a $2 spilled drink. Besides dealing with that family tragedy, while we were there during 4 days we saw on local news that a guy who worked at one of the beach stores shot and killed this customer (in front of his wife and 2 small kids) over an argument cause the customer's son was running around the store. A knifing and a shooting at a bar. A tourist was carjacked and beaten. There was an attempted lynching! and 4 guys attempted to kill a guy with a poisonous snake!!!! Oh year, a girl was raped by 4 guys. Now we have crime in NJ but not this kind of wacko stuff... snakes, lynchings...

[30yrsNJ]

I've lived in JC NJ for 30 yrs now. It WAS the best, for the first 15 or so years.. the last 15 has been nothing but a downward spiral. Just a few of the things that have happened in my personal life:

this all in JC heights-
mugged walking home from high school
house broken into 2wice, once when family was sleeping.
aunts house broken into 3 times.
my car window broken 6 different times (3 different cars)
my car stolen
witnessed a murder 4 houses down from where I live
Our tenant was shot in the leg coming home from grocery store
car jacking w/ woman being shot who lived directly across the street
2 other shootings on my block
family of 4 murdered in their home during botched robbery. 2 of them children. they lived 2 blocks away. this was last year.

that's about half of it..

There are a lot of good things about JC and other places in NJ. But the bad in my experiences have out-weighed the good. And the only change I've seen is prices have gone up, and so has the crime...

The 'worst' towns have pretty much all been tagged. And so have the good. If it wasn't for the high prices, I might have considered south jersey.

Looking west now, past pa probably. With recently being blessed with 2 kids, it's time to think about them -

[BeyondSoundClash]

Originally Posted by 30yrsNJ

I've lived in JC NJ for 30 yrs now. It WAS the best, for the first 15 or so years.. the last 15 has been nothing but a downward spiral. Just a few of the things that have happened in my personal life:

this all in JC heights-
mugged walking home from high school
house broken into 2wice, once when family was sleeping.
aunts house broken into 3 times.
my car window broken 6 different times (3 different cars)
my car stolen
witnessed a murder 4 houses down from where I live
Our tenant was shot in the leg coming home from grocery store
car jacking w/ woman being shot who lived directly across the street
2 other shootings on my block
family of 4 murdered in their home during botched robbery. 2 of them children. they lived 2 blocks away. this was last year.

that's about half of it..

There are a lot of good things about JC and other places in NJ. But the bad in my experiences have out-weighed the good. And the only change I've seen is prices have gone up, and so has the crime...

The 'worst' towns have pretty much all been tagged. And so have the good. If it wasn't for the high prices, I might have considered south jersey.

Looking west now, past pa probably. With recently being blessed with 2 kids, it's time to think about them -

I think the whole government in NJ is corrupt and these towns won't get better anytime soon. Some say the violence is stopping in Newark, but those same gangs go to neighboring towns to stir up trouble.

[mikef973]

yah i agree i could never leave the culture in nj. so many things that i have grown up with considering normal, other states dont have. where else can you find the great food we have here?? i couldnt live without real italian food especially. fake pizza no thanks. and i didnt know this until last year...u know that other states dont have bakeries???? i grew up eating pastry every sunday morning haha. in other states, a "bakery" is some fake thing inside of walmart or something. i love new jersey town to town the whole atmosphere. like tony soprano said "anywhere else you go these days its all the same...starbucks and bed bath and whatever." its really true. they dont even have sidewalks in other places. forget about walking to the corner store!! they go a half hour to the nearest walmart where they buy everything. ill pass on that lifestyle. id rather pay the expensive taxes and have all the luxuries im used to, while being close to NYC and the shore. who else has that combination??

[momto4spadas]

I have to say that AC and Pleasantville are TERRIBLE!!!! While AC does have some great places (Borgata and the Quarter at the Trop), the rest of the city gives me the heebie-jeebies. Hookers and homeless everywhere. They are really trying to turn things around though, so I'll give 'em that. And Pleasantville? There is nothing pleasant about that city/town. Run down and down right scary at nighttime. My hubby, some friends and I took a wrong turn on our way back to our hotel in Galloway (a very nice place IMO) and ended up in..."Pleasantville". People just hanging around on street corners and in the Rite Aid parking lot where we stopped. Needless to say, we went in 2 at a time for safety sake. Slummy!!!
If you want a truly beautiful, safe,and affordable area in NJ check out Warren County.a We're located on the Deleware River and could be accurately described as rural or far outlying suburban. Yes, there's Washington and Phillipsburg which aren't too nice but there isn't anywhere where an entire county is beautiful and super safe. We moved out this way because it's the last "affordable" area in NJ and not many people know that we exist. Belvidere is filled with beautiful Victorian homes and a very pretty town square. No businesses though. We moved here from Morris Cty (Chester) and everyone said we were crazy and that it's all hillbilly's out here. Yes, there are some people who've never been to NYC or out of the area but there are many more of us who are educated, well-traveled and well-paid. It's just that Jersey is so darn expensive! We, too, have considered moving to the Lehigh Valley, but it's more expensive than where we are now and the schools aren't much better if at all.

[sartois930]

This guy is right. New Jersey is actually a GREAT place to live. We have a strong economy EVEN after two sad, pathetic excuses for governors after another. We have some of the safest, cleanest neighborhoods in the nation. NJ IS NOT BORING (if you can't stay busy or entertained in Jersey, even without corrupting yourself, then you need to go make some friends). We're a stone throw away from the best and biggest city in the US. The list goes on and on. I lived in Miami for 2 years and I've been to many places around the country and I'll tell you, coming back to NJ has been a breathe of fresh air. However, I wouldn't personally live in Essex or Union counties (I'd prefer Bergen and Hudson; I live in Hudson) being that I know those areas VERY well and IT IS TRUE that unless you're willing to pay GOOD money to live in the upper scale areas then you're more likely to be a victim in one way or another. NJ does have some of the meanest streets in the country, hands down. Irvington is like something out of a movie. Newark isn't SOOOOOO bad anymore, but you WILL get robbed there eventually (someone broke into my car in the downtown not too long ago.) Camden is way down south, but it's a disgrace. And besides major cities like Trenton, Atlantic City, etc., we have a lot of relatively unknown places that are not exactly safe either. This is like any other place, but the bad neighborhoods here are really off the wall. This isn't Iowa. On a positive note, however, Jersey City, once one of the worse cities in the country, has actually become a pretty decent place to live in most parts and continues to get so much better. I'm proud of my hometown.

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.