What is the best and safest New Jersey town to live in for a small family? (Paterson: for rent, high crime)
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I am new to city-data so if I am doing anything wrong please bear with me.
I am a single mother with my 17-year old daughter.
I am looking for a nice safe area that we can live in peacefully. I will be working in a firm near the Edison/ Piscataway area (still not sure which firm to choose so far) and my daughter will be attending Rutgers - New Brunswick. We are not from NJ (currently living in London), obviously so we are not very familiar with the area.
I will be making around $72K a year and we want to rent for around $2,000 a year, is this reasonable? We want to rent a small house with a small backyard (since we have 2 golden retrievers).
Our criteria is:
-A safe area. (Very Important)
-Away from the hudson river (hurricanes) -(not a major aspect)
-Family oriented environment (important)
-clean (important)
-Accesible to NYC (My daughter wants to intern in media companies/newspapers in NYC) (Very Important)
-Somewhat accesible to Philly for some visits? (Not important)
-Diverse/ Tolerance towards muslims or Arabs (We are Half Arabs/Half Brits - muslims) (Very Important)
-Very close to Rutgers- New Brunswick (VERY IMPORTANT)- I don't want my daughter to have a sufferable commute.
So, these are the major criteria. I don't mind commuting up to 50 mins but I don't want my daughter to have a sufferable commute as I have mentioned.
Thanks for your time and help.
If there is anything else you need to know to help me out, please tell me.
Also, if my rent price is not very reasonable, I guess we can stretch it a bit but tell me how much I should pay in a good area.
Your rent and commute expectations are fairly reasonable. My first thought would be somewhere in Middlesex County, such as one of the Brunswicks or the Edison/Metuchan/Woodbridge area. Edison as a very large Indian population and there's certainly a sizeable Muslim subset within that population, so you would likely find an accepting religious community there. Unfortunately I don't know if there's a sizeable Arab population in that area, generally Paterson comes to mind when thinking of NJ's Arabic population. That said, North Jersey is very diverse and I doubt you'll have too big of an issue finding acceptance. A town like Edison would give your daughter a short commute to New Brunswick and also not too bad of a train ride into Manhattan. You'd also be about an 70-80 minute ride to Philadelphia either via Route 1 to 95 or down the Turnpike to the Betsy Ross Bridge.
Thank you so much for your replies, I greatly appreciate your effort and time. So right now I will be considering/searching in the Brunswicks, Edison area, and Piscataway. What about the safety? Are these locations safe enough, considering it will be only me and my daughter living alone?
Location: Where Sunday shopping is banned in the USA
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Paterson has large Muslim minorities (Turkish and Arabs) where you will find lots of Halal/Middle Eastern restaurants, shops, Islamic schools and few mosques. However, most of the city is basically ghetto and parts of it dangerous but where the Muslims live in is generally safer the closer you get to Clifton (another nice and affordable town next to Paterson).
Other towns closer to Rutgers to check out is New Brunswick, East Brunswick, Edison, Piscataway, Nutley.
A quick search on a competitor's website showed a bunch of homes in Union and Middlesex counties for rent for under $2k/month. The vast majority of people aren't going to make a big deal out of your religion in most areas of NJ. I wouldn't recommend Paterson as it's dangerous and quite far from Rutgers-New Brunswick; but for some, the benifits of living in an ethnic nabe outweigh those type of drawbacks.
Paterson is far from Rutgers and not safe--high crime.
Most of the NJ suburbs are safe.
There are prejudiced people everywhere, but NJ is very diverse as far as religion and ethnicity so for the most part you should be fine.
I just went to our library and the librarian was wearing a hajib. I also watched the NJ Marathon this morning and there were a number of young Muslim women in the race as well.
I will be making around $72K a year and we want to rent for around $2,000 a year, is this reasonable? We want to rent a small house with a small backyard (since we have 2 golden retrievers).
I really hope that you meant $2k per month, rather than per year!
$2k per month is "doable", but $2k per year is...several decades out of date...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jag_Je
Paterson has large Muslim minorities (Turkish and Arabs) where you will find lots of Halal/Middle Eastern restaurants, shops, Islamic schools and few mosques. However, most of the city is basically ghetto and parts of it dangerous but where the Muslims live in is generally safer the closer you get to Clifton (another nice and affordable town next to Paterson).
If the OP wants both a safe environment and a commute to New Brunswick that will be relatively quick, then the suggestion of living in Paterson borders on the bizarre, IMHO. And, while Clifton is surely safer than Paterson, the commute from either Paterson or Clifton to New Brunswick is long, arduous, and potentially expensive.
The OP's original idea of living in Edison or Piscataway is definitely the way to go in terms of both safety and close proximity to New Brunswick.
Paterson has large Muslim minorities (Turkish and Arabs) where you will find lots of Halal/Middle Eastern restaurants, shops, Islamic schools and few mosques. However, most of the city is basically ghetto and parts of it dangerous but where the Muslims live in is generally safer the closer you get to Clifton (another nice and affordable town next to Paterson).
Other towns closer to Rutgers to check out is New Brunswick, East Brunswick, Edison, Piscataway, Nutley.
I don't recommend living in Paterson if you can afford to live elsewhere - and you can - but the Arabic part of town is worth a visit if you are interested in halal food or restaurants (or don't keep halal but like the cuisine anyway).
I've visited for that purpose (not Muslim; just good food at good prices) several times including after dark and not felt in danger whatsoever.
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