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Newark and Paterson both have their interesting aspects, especially in the ethnic populations. Paterson is one of the most diverse cities in America. I don't know if I'd wnat to live in either (if I did, probably Newark for its proximity to NYC) but I enjoyed visiting Newark and I'd like to see Paterson sometime.
I just looked up the crime rates between Camden and Irvington. 3/4 of Camden's zip codes are about twice the rates for the one Irvington zip code. Some people here seem to think Irvington is the bad one here, when clearly it's Camden by a long shot.
Newark is the only city improving on this list so id rule it out. Camden & Irvington are tied they both need a new leader and a Police force the size of Newark's. Paterson is trying but not hard enough.
Where are the nice neighborhoods in Camden? The waterfront doesn't count, who actually lives there?
I have family in that area - Cherry Hill and Voorhees - and know lots of people from surrounding areas as well. They all have a saying about this part of NJ: "No matter what they do to fix up Camden Waterfront, Camden will always be Camden."
I've seen no place worse than Asbury Park, the sections of Camden I've been in - Kennedy Hospital area (where I went to visit my grandfather in the hospital 4 years ago) - apparently weren't the worst parts. I obviously wasn't on the right street. Even the sections of Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, Elizabeth, East Orange, Trenton, Keansburg and Burlington City I've driven through don't look as bad as AP.
I used to work in Piscataway, never actually crossed the border into Plainfield, but faculty in the Piscataway school system used to say Plainfield was like Newark as far as crime goes. That was three years ago.
Anyway if I had to choose a ghetto to live in, probably pick Newark since its downtown has gotten fixed up in recent years. Some of my family emerged from Jersey City too originally, the Greenville section before it got bad and some say not all of JC is bad but you have to go through the bad parts to get to the good ones.
My father worked in Newark briefly about ten years ago, said there are some really good (inexpensive) restaurants downtown that make the ones in Manhattan look like garbage! Where he worked, however, was a different story. It was in an industrial park over there, he'd leave on a Friday night then come in Monday morning to find the fence cut open with the trucks broken into with batteries stolen. Called the police, some woman cop comes over he's talking to her while she's in the car and someone radios in about a stabbing at a local project, so my dad says "oh I guess you're gonna go to that" and she just laughed and said "that stuff happens everyday!" When you think about it, it's kinda sad but yet, in their eyes they got themselves there by getting into drugs and all, so let them kill each other. That's the mentality the cops have.
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Camden & Irvington are tied they both need a new leader and a Police force the size of Newark's. Paterson is trying but not hard enough.
