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Where are you getting this notion notion from of Red Bank and Somerville not being 'destination towns'? If anything, Red Bank/Somerville are to Monmouth/Somerset counties as to what New Brunswick is to Middlesex county; acting as the center of nightlife, eateries, and commerce for their respected counties.
All I am saying, speaking as a Rutgers alumnus (whom graduated pretty recently btw), is that New Brunswick, while nice to visit, is not a desirable place to live. It's half massively gentrified (aka, where most of the college kids live in overpriced apartment complexes) and half ghetto. Whereas Somerville and Red Bank have actually cleaned up very well in the last 5-10 years, much of that unfortunately cannot be said of the same in regards to New Brunswick. I was in Somerville and Red Bank a few times last summer, and quite frankly these would be the places that I would rather visit. If it weren't for the fact that New Brunswick is a 'college town', I feel like most other people in NJ would opt for Red Bank and Somerville as well. And if one were to genuinely consider moving to one of these three towns, then I would not, in good faith, recommend New Brunswick out of the three options. That still would've been the case even 10-15 years ago.
You're entitled to your own opinion, but if I'm not mistaken you haven't been in New Jersey in years, correct? Perhaps the next time you're in the Garden State, you should venture out into all three of these towns, so that you could get a more accurate picture of what they're actually like now. Otherwise, the information that you're currently providing isn't really accurate.
Naturally. Why would I ever feel the urge to revisit these places for a night out when I am currently living within 10 miles of the city limits of Philadelphia?
For me, it’s a toss-up between Morris and Somerset. Both are beautiful, lush and green. Still relatively close to civilization, but not overbuilt like Bergen and Essex. Great schools, high quality of life (low crime) and full of history.
I think most of us would agree that there are far too many counties in this state. A state as geographically small as NJ does not need 21 counties. For comparison, the state of CT is about the same size as NJ (in terms of land area) and only has 8 counties.
Warren should be combined with Morris, Passaic combined with Bergen, Union combined with Essex, etc.
I Disagree. Bergen County is much more affluent and doesn’t really have any dangerous cities. The “ghettos” of Bergen County are Lodi, Garfield, Hackensack and the poor side of Englewood. Pretty laughable when you compare these towns to Paterson or Passaic. Why would they take them on?
My vote goes to Essex County, especially Central Essex County like Short Hills, Montclair, Glen Ridge, South Orange, Maplewood, Livingston. They have this very eclectic energy that I love. Lots of parks, joggers, gorgeous homes, diversity, liberal-leaning, highly-educated, etc.
The more urban areas of Essex County can be very rough but they mostly have potential. You'd even find some nice hidden gems and surprisingly nice neighborhoods within Newark, Orange and East Orange that have been completely forgotten.
Last edited by OceanDude; 06-17-2020 at 03:06 PM..
pros:
-It's home to most of the Pine Barrens
-Much quieter than the counties up north
-Not to far from Trenton, the shore, etc.
-Housing is pretty inexpensive
-Lush green hills in the west, sandy pinelands in the east
-Super easy access to Philly
neutral:
-Leans liberal
cons:
-Far from NYC (tho u can get most of the same stuff in Philly)
-Some high crime areas, mostly along the river -- Burlington city, Willingboro, etc.
-Pine barrens areas in the SE have hardly any roads/hard to travel through/are mostly uninhabited
-Not very diverse
Newark, Kearny, E Newark, Harrison, Belleville, Nutley, Irvington could be a city in itself.
Orange, East Orange, West Orange, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Montclair, Verona, Cedar Grove could all become "Orange"
Jersey City, Hoboken, Union City, West New York, North Bergen, Guttenberg, Weehawken, Bayonne could all become Jersey City.
Passaic and Clifton
Paterson could merge its tiny neighboring towns like Hawthorne, Prospect Park, Haledon, North Haledon
Elizabeth, Linden, Rahway, Roselle, Roselle Park, Hillside and even Union
Trenton and Ewing could merge and the push could be made to expand Trenton airport. hell, even Hamiltonians identify themselves as being from Trenton, make it official.
Hackensack and all weird tiny towns around it extending to the airport could be merge together and again, the airport could expand its services.
Fort Lee could merge with Cliffside Park, Edgewater, Palisades Park and Fairview and you'd already have a city there with a decent skyline.
just throwing idea darts out there. these towns are all densely packed and all bleed together as it is yet they pretend they are separate small towns with their own judges, clerks, super intendants and other various municipal offices.
when its time to replace a police car or road sign, they can change the names around then. until then it'd just be a transitional merging of services until old jobs are phased out.
this.... so much this...
reduce our taxes already FFS.
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Favorite county
