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So funny i've never heard of a rival btw NJ, AND PA. I will say that each portion of NJ pretty much feeds to the major city on their end .
North Jersey - New York
South Jersey - Philadelphia
I actually haven't heard of this rivalry, either. Maybe it's because I live in NE New Jersey. In many aspects, they're not actually very similar, especially outside PA's two major cities on opposite ends of the state.
Ah, a thread I can finally comment on with some actual knowledge.
I am from PA, but I live within 10 minutes of the NJ border.
When it comes to the states themselves, PA offers more in environment, but NJ has some pretty unique places, like Pine Barrens. In PA you have the flat southeastern area, the hilly/mountainous center and northern areas, etc. NJ strikes me as mostly like southeastern PA, with the added benefit of the coast. I am not too crazy about NJ's coast considering how built up it is, but that's just my personal tastes.
When it comes to civilization, NJ again mostly feels like southeastern PA. It's densely populated, alternating between beautiful towns like Princeton, uglier towns, strip malls, and the occasional stretches of forests and fields. I also notice a higher prevalence of 'apartment neighborhoods' in NJ, again a testament to how crowded they are.
The people. I really like the people from NJ. I've met the "famous" wise-cracking Italian-American idea made manifest in one woman from NJ, and I absolutely loved that kind of persona, granted you're their friend. I notice a lot of diversity in NJ too, especially with a massive influx of Indian-Americans. Southeast PA also has growing numbers of Indian-Americans, but they're still in much greater numbers in NJ. PA seems to have more middle eastern Americans. Overall, they're similar to this [southeast urban] area of PA. Can't complain.
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I could go on, but I feel like I'm going to repeatedly say "it's alot like southeast PA". If we lump Southeast PA in with NJ, then we are comparing two wildly different regions: NJ vs. non-Urbanized PA (+ Pittsburgh I guess). I like PA, but that's just a bias towards how we have more environmental variety through the virtue of greater size. Would I want to live in NJ? Not really, but it's not as bad as its reputation precedes.
One thing that really stood out in NJ that I never saw in PA was Lakewood. It is a HEAVILY orthodox Jewish area. I was really surprised at how distinct it was, just driving past the community.
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