List some of New Jersey's "Secondhand Suburbs" (Clifton: fit in, park)

[UrbanQuest]

Originally Posted by ALackOfCreativity

OP, I don't think you really understood the article (assuming you read the NYT one and not someone writing about it without doing it justice) that inspired the whole "second-hand suburb" thing. The idea wasn't just places receiving black flight from the cities, but rather places with that in addition to old & poorly maintained housing stock, declining services, and white flight (and specifically were inner ring, but that was kind of Detroit-specific) -- places the new residents fleeing from the inner city are getting "second-hand" as it were.

The term was not intended as a euphemism for "places black people live in or are moving to," but to express the author's worry that a combination of moving to suburbs that were kind of decaying already + the resulting white flight would wipe out many of the personal benefits the people moving to them were hoping to gain.

I got ya, but the article talks about the Detroit phenomena in particular. It basically stated that alot of the poorer blacks fleeing Detroit where doing so to "second-hand suburbs". I took it as meaning old suburbs that where already inhabited by working class to middle class whites who are currently on their way out. Basically a hand me down from upwardly mobile/formerly working class whites to newly departed inner city blacks and hispanics. If anyone sees something racist here then tell the people doing it.

[HubCityMadMan]

Originally Posted by Tyler77

South Orange
Livingston
Morristown
Parsippany
South Bound Brook (was mostly white trash, now has a Hispanic presence)
Evesham
Alloway
Gibbsboro
Pennsauken
Bellmawr
Spring Lake Heights
Flemington
Linden
Long Branch

Evesham? Really?

I have relatives in Voorhees who have lived there for almost 30 years and while the demographics there have changed quite a bit over the years (and not for the better) it really is not that bad. Some apartment complexes near Echelon Mall...I mean, ahem, Voorhees Town Center, have gotten a lot of junk in recent years that is beginning to spread throughout, but the town still has lots of decent areas with average families too. Don't know much about Gibbsboro, but I know Voorhees surrounds it on three sides. And Pennsauken is quickly becoming the next ghetto around there too.

I know not too long ago there was an increasing gang presence in Evesham? What is going on there? I know Mt. Laurel has a very large percentage of affordable housing as well but that wasn't on your list. What is going on in Evesham?

[Mightyqueen801]

I had no idea we even had an "Evesham" in NJ, and now my mind keeps repeating:

"Such was the murder at Evesham, for battle it was none."

Of course, that was another Evesham, and another century. But I had just to get that out of my head. Carry on.

[HubCityMadMan]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

I had no idea we even had an "Evesham" in NJ, and now my mind keeps repeating:

"Such was the murder at Evesham, for battle it was none."

Of course, that was another Evesham, and another century. But I had just to get that out of my head. Carry on.

It's in South Jersey down in Burlington County. Most people who are not from there know it as Marlton.

[soug]

All "gang activity" in Voorhees/Cherry Hill/Marlton etc. is such a joke. It's just a bunch of high school kids trying to be tough. I used to know kids in these so-called gangs. The stats are so different from reality.

[soug]

Also, I guess we're not going by the OP's definition anymore, because Gibbsboro is almost fully white. In my high school class, of the Gibby kids (somewhere between sixty and eighty kids) there was one half-Asian.

[JC1990]

ill agree with you on union. demographics are changing quite fast out there IMO

[AnesthesiaMD]

Originally Posted by Tyler77

South Orange
Livingston
Morristown
Parsippany
South Bound Brook (was mostly white trash, now has a Hispanic presence)
Evesham
Alloway
Gibbsboro
Pennsauken
Bellmawr
Spring Lake Heights
Flemington
Linden
Long Branch

Livingston? Are you on drugs? There is only 1 African American in my daughters entire elementary school, and his father is a retired San Diego Charger, not someone trying to escape Newark or Irvington. There are no hispanic students in her class either. The largest minority population is Asian at about 20%, but I dont think they got here from urban flight. When you were making your list, did you just jot down the first 15 or 20 towns that came to your mind without any thought as to whether or not they fit the OP's description?

Here are the ACTUAL Stats for Livingston:

White population: 21,900
Black population: 203
American Indian population: 57
Asian population: 4,456
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population: 0
Some other race population: 20
Two or more races population: 146
Hispanic or Latino population: 638

[homenj]

Hopelawn (pretty much the eastern section of Woodbridge including Fords as well)
Clifton
North Bergen (still experiencing this kind of shift)
Belleville
Bloomfield
Sayreville
South River

Also I think Secaucus should be on this list

[EBWick]

I think Steven Colbert's description of Washington DC is appropriate for this thread:

comedian Stephen Colbert playfully mocked Nagin by calling Washington D.C. the "chocolate city with a marshmallow center and a graham cracker crust of corruption."