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anything has to be be better than NYC, we have ZERO quality of life here.
Oh shut up. This hyperbole is so ridiculous.
What does that even mean? In your personal opinion, you might think that, but I think the complete opposite of you so you're canceled out? My life was absolutely wonderful when I lived in NYC, and I have lived all over this country and the world.
If we aren't taking price into account, I would say Westchester. Lots of nice areas, close to NYC, scenic, tons of quaint downtowns, not much sprawl, the Hudson, the Sound, the mountains, etc.
Other really nice areas (again, not taking price into account) would be coastal Fairfield County, CT, parts of Bergen and Essex Counties (places like Montclair and Livingston), and parts of Nassau County. Generally speaking, the inner suburbs have more wealth, but cost more. The outer suburbs have more new housing and are cheaper, but further from everything and usually not as nice.
Of course there are cheap inner suburbs (usually not very nice inner-city type towns) and expensive outer suburbs (Hamptons, parts of Coastal Connecticut, NJ hunt country, Tuxedo Park, NY), but generally speaking that's the rule.
This is stupid. It isn't like 100% of these towns are "ghetto". They are four lower income towns, but half of Newark (the Ironbound and most of North Newark) is not "ghetto", and much of East Orange, Irvington and Orange are not "ghettto" though they have their ghetto parts.
Just because a place is working class and has immigrants or minorities does not mean it is totally "ghetto". Someplace like Irvington has tons of striving West Indians that are doing well for themselves, and are in nicer areas in one generation. Not everyplace can be "nice" or half the region would be homeless.
Sadly, so many people living around this crowded tri-state region traveled very little outside of their county and NYC.
So many nice places that are unknown or underrated by most around. I can say for sure Central NJ is highly under-rated by most unfamiliar to the area.
We have Westfield, Clark,Edison, Scott Plains, Union, etc that will rival any town in the tri-state. There are more Whole Foods, Targets, and Shopping Malls around than any part of NJ, NY.
We also have a Wegman's for more than a decade, including couple of Trader Joes.
Central NJ also has very good schools in the region.
We have Westfield, Clark,Edison, Scott Plains, Union, etc that will rival any town in the tri-state. There are more Whole Foods, Targets, and Shopping Malls around than any part of NJ, NY.
Westfield is very nice, and I agree it can match up with any suburb. The others are nice too, but not at that level.
Sadly, so many people living around this crowded tri-state region traveled very little outside of their county and NYC.
So many nice places that are unknown or underrated by most around. I can say for sure Central NJ is highly under-rated by most unfamiliar to the area.
We have Westfield, Clark,Edison, Scott Plains, Union, etc that will rival any town in the tri-state. There are more Whole Foods, Targets, and Shopping Malls around than any part of NJ, NY.
We also have a Wegman's for more than a decade, including couple of Trader Joes.
Central NJ also has very good schools in the region.
Not to go off topic but I never considered most of the communities you listed to be "Central New Jersey". Especially the Union County ones, Union is actually mostly north of Staten Island and even parts of Brooklyn & Queens. When I think of Central New Jersey, I think of areas south of the Raritan River.
Plus I think it is Scotch Plains.
The point you made about the supermarkets is a good one. The more populated suburbs tend to have more stores and restaurants. That is an advantage of being in a more populated suburban area like parts of New Jersey and Long Island. The bad thing of course is that it is more crowded.
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