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NOVA/Arlington is way richer than Jersey City. NOVA has more office space than any city not named New York. NOVA has more Fortune 500 companies. NOVA has better public schools. NOVA is safer, cleaner and looks better. NOVA has 2 airports. Metro kills any transportation in Jersey.
NOVA is a region, Jersey City is one city. A true apples to apples comparison would be more fair. Back to the topic at hand, if we're talking statewide, NJ has 16 of the richest 200 towns in the country, 2nd only to California with 23. In comparison, Virginia has 3. Hell Bergen County alone (5) has more than the entire state of Virginia lol So does Essex County (5).
NJ lies in the shadows of the Financial capital of the world. NJ is money central and very few places on the planet beat the large concentration of uber wealth found here. Virginia, while financially strong in its own regard, is not one of them. Also while Metro is great, NJ overall serves a much larger population with its mass transit systems (NJ Transit, PATH, NY Waterway) and has some of the best in the country.
NOVA/Arlington is way richer than Jersey City. NOVA has more office space than any city not named New York. NOVA has more Fortune 500 companies. NOVA has better public schools. NOVA is safer, cleaner and looks better. NOVA has 2 airports. Metro kills any transportation in Jersey.
Woah now, you just compared an entire area of Virginia to one city in Jersey. I am far from a NJ enthusiast, but no doubt that Northern Jersey offers a similar living experience.. I'd venture to guess there are more pockets of wealth in Northern Jersey than in NOVA (despite county vs. county breakdowns). NJ has a lot of small and medium sized townships and cities that offer beautiful housing stock, great downtown/town centers, walkability, and some of the best public schools in the US. Not sure, aside from Arlington/Alexandria, you could say the same about NOVA (quite frankly, not even close).
As for the comparison at large, I'd probably rather live in Virginia.. Beautiful State, great higher education, and largely cheaper. I don't particularly love the way I feel whenever I'm in Jersey. Something about the roads, the crappy state roads and strip malls, the attitudes. There are so many areas that have been developed and developed again, just doesn't feel as well preserved and maintained throughout as some other East Coast areas. And, it's pretty darn busy.
But if money is a complete non-issue, you can probably find me in that Short Hills/Chatham/Summit belt or on the coast in Rumson over anywhere I can think of in VA aside from Old Town Alexandria.
Do you have a listing of the number of Fortune 500 companies in Virginia and New Jersey?
Jersey City is one municipality within Hudson County within the larger Northern New Jersey region. Metro does have very good transit, but it doesn't reach much of the state. NJT, PATH, and PATCO does reach quite a bit of the state though overall service is very much lopsided towards Northern New Jersey. NJT Train operations have 165 stations in total with all but a handful in New Jersey proper. Where there's interlining with more than one train line or branch serving it, the frequencies can be decently high though it can also be pricey. The really unfortunate thing is that South Jersey doesn't get a bit more than it's pretty infrequent Atlantic City line.
Woah now, you just compared an entire area of Virginia to one city in Jersey. I am far from a NJ enthusiast, but no doubt that Northern Jersey offers a similar living experience.. I'd venture to guess there are more pockets of wealth in Northern Jersey than in NOVA (despite county vs. county breakdowns). NJ has a lot of small and medium sized townships and cities that offer beautiful housing stock, great downtown/town centers, walkability, and some of the best public schools in the US. Not sure, aside from Arlington/Alexandria, you could say the same about NOVA (quite frankly, not even close).
As for the comparison at large, I'd probably rather live in Virginia.. Beautiful State, great higher education, and largely cheaper. I don't particularly love the way I feel whenever I'm in Jersey. Something about the roads, the crappy state roads and strip malls, the attitudes. There are so many areas that have been developed and developed again, just doesn't feel as well preserved and maintained throughout as some other East Coast areas. And, it's pretty darn busy.
But if money is a complete non-issue, you can probably find me in that Short Hills/Chatham/Summit belt or on the coast in Rumson over anywhere I can think of in VA aside from Old Town Alexandria.
Top 25 Counties with the highest median income. 20% of the top 25 are Virginia counties.
NOVA is a region, Jersey City is one city. A true apples to apples comparison would be more fair. Back to the topic at hand, if we're talking statewide, NJ has 16 of the richest 200 towns in the country, 2nd only to California with 23. In comparison, Virginia has 3. Hell Bergen County alone (5) has more than the entire state of Virginia lol So does Essex County (5).
NJ lies in the shadows of the Financial capital of the world. NJ is money central and very few places on the planet beat the large concentration of uber wealth found here. Virginia, while financially strong in its own regard, is not one of them. Also while Metro is great, NJ overall serves a much larger population with its mass transit systems (NJ Transit, PATH, NY Waterway) and has some of the best in the country.
They're both highly ranked states IMO.
Virginia has 5 of the top 25 richest counties in the U.S.
I literally said despite county vs. county breakdowns, yet that's what you used.
County income comparisons don't mean a heck of a lot to me. What it does do, though, is confirm there are more pockets of blight and lower income areas in Northern Jersey. Nonetheless, as most data/census would suggest, top level wealth is higher in Jersey.
Point being, top level wealth in Jersey is amongst the highest in the US. Most certainly more .1% wealth in Jersey than in VA. Now, wealth is more evenly distributed, without the low income and blight in VA. So, if that's what you're trying to say, then I agree.
Isn't it kind of a well-known idea that much of the *extreme* wealth on the East Coast lives around NYC, Boston, and Philly? I think we all know that DC/NOVA is very well off, very well educated, but it seems DC/NOVA is without as much of that saturated, crazy top-end affluence due to the healthy mix of public and private.
Yeah, I've never really heard anyone say or seen any third party info to support that Virginia schools are better than their New Jersey counterparts. Outside of maybe Massachusetts, New Jersey may have the strongest K-12 public education in the US, while Virginia is not anywhere very close. Maybe DC's Finest meant public/private Universities?
We can argue what makes a good school system, and test scores shouldn't be the only indicator. But, on the aggregate, I suppose for the exercise of comparing successes between one state and another - assuming similar socioeconomic diversity- test scores are as good as it's going to get.
And, according to Stanford, there are far more NJ public districts near the top in the US as compared to VA. If anything, VA is a bit low compared to the National average when considering wealth distribution and higher educational attainment of NOVA adults.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mwj119
I literally said despite county vs. county breakdowns, yet that's what you used.
County income comparisons don't mean a heck of a lot to me. What it does do, though, is confirm there are more pockets of blight and lower income areas in Northern Jersey. Nonetheless, as most data/census would suggest, top level wealth is higher in Jersey.
Point being, top level wealth in Jersey is amongst the highest in the US. Most certainly more .1% wealth in Jersey than in VA. Now, wealth is more evenly distributed, without the low income and blight in VA. So, if that's what you're trying to say, then I agree.
Isn't it kind of a well-known idea that much of the *extreme* wealth on the East Coast lives around NYC, Boston, and Philly? I think we all know that DC/NOVA is very well off, very well educated, but it seems DC/NOVA is without as much of that saturated, crazy top-end affluence due to the healthy mix of public and private.
Not sure what you quantify as "extreme" wealth but Virginia ranks at 9th in concentration of millionaires:
Jersey’s main appeal is its proximity to NYC and Philly. Otherwise it’s expensive and dumpy, with a lot of its beach towns being long past their prime and cities being an unsafe venture. Virginia seems to be better in the quality-of-life and natural beauty departments.
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