Worst towns in NJ (Newark, Jersey City: bankrupt, movie theater, legal)

[njkate]

Originally Posted by boriguapa20

what areas in sussex are the worst?

Sussex Boro itself is a little seedy.....in a time warp for sure but other then that most of Sussex County is pretty decent

[prettyria]

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 -

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Hi There
I live in jersey city heights section for 7+ years now haven't witnessed any crimes could you kindly tell me if you had a home security system installed?....As generally there are certain blocks in the heights section that are prime targets....as per my knowledge could you kindly share with us what block your previous home and your's aunt's home was where they broke into?...Have a 3 year old and concrened reading your post....
All the muggings I know of happen during winter around 7 ish in the evening on newark ave

[phillycheesesteak]

Originally Posted by emilo81

As I've always said and a lot of you are already thinking,

Any place were you have affordable housing, drugs and more than 10% minorities isn't a good place to live.

Wow...How did you determine 10%? why not 1.5678%? Is 10% the threshold for whites to move out of town?(joking and LOL)...I am a minority and I agree that most towns in NJ that are run-down and bad living carry more minorities, but looking outside of NJ or some parts of NJ for that matter, that is not a correct statement. When I lived in other parts of the U.S., there was a large minority presence, but the issue was income...my neighbors made high six-seven figure salaries...so I think its income driven in addition to the drugs and affordable housing (not to say that you can't find a nice place in NJ unless everyone makes six-seven figure salaries)...any thoughts out there?

[mike0421]

Originally Posted by phillycheesesteak

Wow...How did you determine 10%? why not 1.5678%? Is 10% the threshold for whites to move out of town?(joking and LOL)...I am a minority and I agree that most towns in NJ that are run-down and bad living carry more minorities, but looking outside of NJ or some parts of NJ for that matter, that is not a correct statement. When I lived in other parts of the U.S., there was a large minority presence, but the issue was income...my neighbors made high six-seven figure salaries...so I think its income driven in addition to the drugs and affordable housing (not to say that you can't find a nice place in NJ unless everyone makes six-seven figure salaries)...any thoughts out there?

I was speaking to a librarian in Montclair High School about 7-8 years ago. She told me there is a buzzword called "Tipping Point" at which point a school's minority % will reach a certain threshold, which triggers mass white flight. According to her, the percentage of minorities (black + hispanic) whereby white residents flee is 26-28%. Asian students are not included in this matrix, because it is the perception of the parents of white children that these students do not cause a deleterious learning environment in the school. These were her words, mind you, and she also told me that if such conversation were public and quotable, there would be public outrage. Nonetheless, this is the figure she quoted me. She went onto tell me that the Montclair school system has a very, very keen eye in tracking these statistics, along with West Orange, and a few other districts that are rare in NJ, that of truly integrated school districts. They reside mostly in Essex County. Morristown H.S. in Morris County, was another exception.

A year or so ago, there was a 5 part special report in the Star Ledger regarding this phenomenon. This was the key article that explored the concept: NJ.com: Everything Jersey

[phillycheesesteak]

I don't have children yet, but at least I know when to move with the whites...thats 25.9%...so I will still be one step ahead (lol). Honetly, this is sad, but its reality and I thank you for sharing that.

[MovingOutOfNJ]

Originally Posted by meameame12

i live in passaic, and its not that bad. just dont raise your white kids here if you have any. other than that, if you r a person of color, you will fit right in.

you know the racism on this board, and this thread, is almost to the point of sickening. its easy to tell who the white people are when they ask if the area is safe. and its obvious which demographic group they are targeting or referring to. its code talk.

stop being so scared people. every area has its rough parts and every area has its good parts. ive lived in passaic for the longest, im white, and safe. just stay away from the gangs. they dont bother you if you dont bother them.

im white.. im a young white male... and i've been every town that you guys say is bad... and really.. i've never felt threatened anywhere. I wasn't please about parking my car in camden ;-) but at no time was i worried about getting hurt.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by MovingOutOfNJ

im white.. im a young white male... and i've been every town that you guys say is bad... and really.. i've never felt threatened anywhere. I wasn't please about parking my car in camden ;-) but at no time was i worried about getting hurt.

You weren't on the right streets then- there's plenty of places in Camden where you would have been worried about getting hurt.

[MovingOutOfNJ]

Originally Posted by tahiti

yo seriously - willingboro should be on that list ahead of hackensack, rahway and carteret

one of the few redeeming things about willingboro is gaetano's.

roselvr - there are one or two sections of willingboro that are better than others. i can't remember which ones they are though (maybe rittenhouse and twin hill?). i know buckingham is one of the worst.

i would definately rather walk through willingboro then carteret or rahway

[mike0421]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

You weren't on the right streets then- there's plenty of places in Camden where you would have been worried about getting hurt.

I've got a good one: try walking down south 3rd Street, between Walnut St and Atlantic Ave, during any given time of the day. Get away from the Tweeter Center, or the University, and you will begin to feel immediate fear.

[manicotti]

Originally Posted by DeniseNJ

I'd like to take issue with the mention of Dover, I was raised there and still live in the area and there are a lot of misconceptions about Dover, I think a lot of it is based on the fact that Dover has a majority minority population, mostly hispanic. Many people comment that Dover is crime ridden and poor, and as someone who is white I'd like to give my perspective on Dover.

It's actually a great town, petty crime might be higher then some other towns in Morris County, and there are drugs, but there are also drugs in rich towns in Morris County also. I think most areas of Dover are a great place to raise a family, yeah it's ethnically diverse but I've always felt safe in Dover and I go there almost everyday and have found the Spanish community that is the majority in town to be very family oriented and nice. Dover is pretty much the victim of a bad rap because compared to other wealthy communities in Morris County it's not as wealthy.

Just wanted to clear some myths up about Dover because I've seen it mentioned a few times on this board.

I agree, but I feel Dover is more a victim of racist and classist thought than anything else. The unfortunate majority seem to equate being rich with being crime free. I too, lived in Dover and have walked around at the early hours of the morning. I have never had a problem or once felt threatened. I always wondered when people talked poorly about all the crime in Dover, where is it? I have never experienced crime in Dover. I am not saying it does not exist, but I can tell you, I have been treated far nicer in Dover than I have been in Morristown by the wealthy, who are so supposedly morally upright by the nature of their bank account. When ancestors of these people came to this country, they were treated poorly and given menial jobs. America was once the land of opportunity, but now only for a select and connected few. Now the children and grandchildren of these people are expected to thrive in a country that makes it almost impossible to get ahead in life? Hispanics and blacks were treated very poorly and now their reaction to such and the near impossibility of getting out of the ghetto is used as a reason for more racism. Self-fulfilling prophecy.