North Jersey vs. South Jersey (Trenton, Princeton: transit, rain, driving)

[solibs]

except that Mercer Co. is part of the Philadelphia MPO is almost twice as far from Manhattan as it is to Philly. Trenton is Delaware Valley all the way.

It's really not about how big the state is geographically - it's about how many people live here and the commonalities between them. North Jersey is all about kissing NYC a**, For South Jersey it's Philly. Central Jersey is far enough in between to be neither.

[beowulf7]

I still get a kick when someone refers to "East Jersey" or "West Jersey".

[solibs]

It's true man. It's true.

http://www.westjersey.org/ew.gif

[beowulf7]

Originally Posted by solibs

It's true man. It's true.

http://www.westjersey.org/ew.gif

Now that's funny.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by solibs

It's true man. It's true.

http://www.westjersey.org/ew.gif

You're right. It goes back further than that to New Netherlands & New Sweden.

[iMridic201]

Originally Posted by tahiti

no fricken way! chester, columbia, hackettstown, mendham, millburn, morristown, newark, washington are not central! that's a huge portion of 908.

Millburn, morristown, and newark are 973-- so, not a huge portion of 908; though IMO, 908 is north jersey (except the lower parts of hunterdon and somerset county which are central jersey)

[ImCurlybelle]

I've always lived in North Jersey (Bergen County). For me, I personally enjoy being 10 minutes from NYC where there is so much arts, culture, live entertainment, so much to do and so much possibility. Additionally, I'm 50 minutes from the Jersey Shore, and 25 minutes from fabulous hiking trails- Although you do need a car, there is still plenty of transportation should you want to leave it at home time-to-time ... There's a train station in Ridgewood that goes to NYC and runs until 1:30am ... LOVE IT !

[Kracer]

An historic monument on the corner of rt 518 and Province Line rd in Mercer county, describes the east west division. Province line rd was the dividing line.

[Kracer]

[SIZE=3]"The backward pinebelt of NJ lies on the very border of the greatest industrial and commercial district of the US, yet most of the land is still covered with pine and brush, and the people are classed among the most backward of this prosperous country."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]"Many of the inhabitants dwell in cabins that have neither carpets nor paint; most of the adult population go barefooted in the summer; .................."[/SIZE]

This is just a couple of phrases from a book titled, "College Geography", 3rd edition Revised by Earl C Case, Univ of Cincinnati. Originally published in 1932 and 1940. Copywrighted 1949. College text from University of Delaware. I learnt it in college so it must be true!!!!

[subwayfan]

Originally Posted by DITC

Alright calm down I'll get technical here. Most people I know from Toms River area (NJ natives) tend to align with NY, fly out of Newark etc. Burlington/Camden people usually only go to Ocean County for LBI, and rarely anything north. 9 of 10 people in the Philly metro have never even been to Seaside, Pt Pleasant, Belmar. Toms River has little connection with Cherry Hill area (exception: congressional district).

Case in point, NY-bound NJ transit is already in Point Pleasant and Bay Head (Ocean County) and they are proposing an extension through Jackson, Howell, and Lakehurst (again Ocean County). There are express buses running from Ocean County to Port Authority. Real South Jersey is suburban Philadelphia and AC area.

Southern Ocean County is the buffer zone I guess. Maybe route 72 is the divider, I have no idea.

In TV, though, it gets complicated.
Mercer Co. is part of the Philadelphia DMA
and Ocean Co. is part of the New York DMA,

though some communities like Princeton gravitate more like its adjacent northern suburban towns, and everything south of Toms River gravitates towards So. NJ. I'm not sure about Hamilton and Lawrenceville though, but I'm guessing all the wealthy areas in Mercer Co. (not Trenton) gravitate more to NY.

For sports markets, Mercer and Ocean Counties are the only two where its both NY and Philadelphia sports markets territory. Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic are Cape May are exclusive Philly, everything north of Mercer and Ocean is exclusively NY.

Fios which now services Ocean County however doesn't include any of the Philadelphia over the air signals. Comcast does but has moved most the Philly TV to digital only. Fios not carrying Philly is somewhat unfortunate. Though in Mercer, customers get both Its more often the case that the weather and temperature in Ocean Co. is more like what it is in Burlington Co. than it is in most of the North Jersey counties or NYC, and Philly TV does weather alerts for Ocean Co. The Philly stations cover its Jersey burbs pretty good (and even Trenton), mainly because the city of Philadelphia is smaller, and has lost population while its burbs have grown.

But Ocean Co. aligns with New York more than Philadelphia when it comes to where ppl are commuting to/from (their jobs) and where they originally came from.
The Census has classified Trenton with New York too because of that factor.

Another thing I noticed is the Rutgers system.
Rutgers Newark and Rutgers New Brunswick are more similar (like their MBA programs are really 1), but Rutgers Camden is on its own.

Rutgers Camden is pitiful though. Most high school kids from Cherry Hill or Voorhees would rather go to Rowan (which is also public) than Rutgers Camden, if they want to go to a four year college, save on housing expense, if that's all their parent can afford. Southern NJ usually gets screwed by NJ (compare the NJ Transit Trains), but some have argued the RiverLine project was for So. NJ and was paid by NJ taxpayer dollars.