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NJ just seems exhausting, brash and Kind of crumby.
It obviously has an energy that cannot be matched by Virginia and there is something magical about being so close to NYC and Philadelphia. I would never question anyone’s preference of New Jersey. It’s not for me though.
NJ just seems exhausting, brash and Kind of crumby.
It obviously has an energy that cannot be matched by Virginia and there is something magical about being so close to NYC and Philadelphia. I would never question anyone’s preference of New Jersey. It’s not for me though.
That's just a stereotype.
Sure, NJ doesn't even compare to really any NE state in the natural beauty aspect. And some of the cities are REALLY bad. But a good majority of the state is good. Like its very content.
The state has great urbanity in the Hoboken-JC stretch, theres some cliffs in Alpine. Morristown is a great visit. Montclair, Maplewood, Summit, Short Hills, Livingston, New Brunswick all have great little town centres. Some are posh. Some are not. It has decent transit and its location is great.
There's the Delaware Water Gap and the Jersey Shore beaches. I'm not the biggest fan of the physical beaches themselves but places like Asbury Park, Long Branch, Ocean City, Wildwood and Cape May are great visits.
Princeton is gorgeous. Central Jersey is pretty unique in itself too.
Overall NJ is a solid 7/10. It ranks very good in Education, Quality of Life, Town Quality, Crime outside like 5 cities, and things to do. Although it's nowhere near VA in natural beauty, it still marks high in other factors.
VA is strong by having Virginia Beach and the Hamptons Roads. NOVA is strong urbanity and great suburbs of DC, and the mountains really are something. But VA lacks some things that NJ has that a lot really like. I give VA a 6.5/10.
They're both GREAT. However, I give the edge to NJ slightly. If NJ could fix it's cities, cut the urban sprawl development, and somehow fix it's tax burden, I'd almost place it as high as MA/NYA. NJs flaws could hypothetically be fixed
Sure, NJ doesn't even compare to really any NE state in the natural beauty aspect. And some of the cities are REALLY bad. But a good majority of the state is good. Like its very content.
The state has great urbanity in the Hoboken-JC stretch, theres some cliffs in Alpine. Morristown is a great visit. Montclair, Maplewood, Summit, Short Hills, Livingston, New Brunswick all have great little town centres. Some are posh. Some are not. It has decent transit and its location is great.
There's the Delaware Water Gap and the Jersey Shore beaches. I'm not the biggest fan of the physical beaches themselves but places like Asbury Park, Long Branch, Ocean City, Wildwood and Cape May are great visits.
Princeton is gorgeous. Central Jersey is pretty unique in itself too.
Overall NJ is a solid 7/10. It ranks very good in Education, Quality of Life, Town Quality, Crime outside like 5 cities, and things to do. Although it's nowhere near VA in natural beauty, it still marks high in other factors.
VA is strong by having Virginia Beach and the Hamptons Roads. NOVA is strong urbanity and great suburbs of DC, and the mountains really are something. But VA lacks some things that NJ has that a lot really like. I give VA a 6.5/10.
They're both GREAT. However, I give the edge to NJ slightly. If NJ could fix it's cities, cut the urban sprawl development, and somehow fix it's tax burden, I'd almost place it as high as MA/NYA. NJs flaws could hypothetically be fixed
NJ can fix a lot of its issues (environmental remediation, better transit and updated and expanded infrastructure in general, public education on all levels funding, etc. without having to radically up the state and local taxes) if NJ weren't continuously one of the most short-changed states when it comes to federal revenue from New Jersey versus federal spending in New Jersey: https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fis...yments-portal/ https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...-they-get-back
There's endless charming towns in NJ. The problem is most people don't actually know the state that well and just use these boring, age old generalizations that NJ is the Shore, AC and the turnpike. It's so wildly off base but that's why stereotypes exist.
I'm going to interject here because if there's one thing Virginia excels at, it's charming, classy small towns and cities in different parts of the state. Notwithstanding, many of these are found in the more rural central, western and northwestern portions of the state in Virginia Wine Country and the mountains...Abingdon, Staunton, Luray, Winchester, Lexington, etc., but also, Little Washington (VA), Charlottesville, Williamsburg, Yorktown, etc.
For example, here's a photo I took of the lesser known, but really interesting Staunton, VA with my phone, which sits near the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains:
When it comes to NJ, I think of the shore, but the first place that comes to mind in terms of charming would be Princeton. I just think there are probably more opportunities in Virginia to get similar ambience in different doses.
Thank you aquest!!!! Very much appreciated.. I will add some of these to the to-do's. We were actually considering a move to NOVA for work, though it's looking like that won't happen now.
Still love to explore States up and down the East Coast, and haven't spent any time in West/NW Virginia. Most of my time has been in NOVA, central, and southern VA.
It seems to me, when comparing Jersey and Virginia, that a lot of Jersey's charm actually falls within 30-60 miles of NYC. Virginia is a bit more dispersed and rural in it's delivery, which I certainly can appreciate!
As for Jersey, Princeton is certainly a good one. There are considerable amount of suburbs that deliver main street, Americana charm and charming pre-WWII residential architecture and landscape. Certainly less rural charm in NJ, though it exists.
Just a few street views of areas I've been to in my adult life that I thought had some material charm. This is quite subjective, but mature trees, older architecture, homes layered on top of eachother.. It's typically what I associate with charm, at least for small/midsized towns:
Both states are very similar in population. Both are coastal states. And both have no major city but are the suburban neighbors to a large city.
New Jersey has Princeton.
New Jersey has more beach towns and a larger footprint of accessible beaches.
Jersey City blows Arlington out of the water.
New Jersey Transit is much more substantial than the small section of WMATA in NOVA.
So which East Coast state brings it.
How are we defining major cities in this forum. I think population is just one in a majority of factors. We need to look at infrastructure, whether the city is a job center, the type of cultural institutions it has, and whether or not the city plays a huge role in state politics. By those measures, Newark would definitely be a major city, it may not have the population, but it does have a major airport, seaport, highways, and two major train stations. Additionally, it is a huge job center in its region, and has major cultural institutions like NJ PAC, Prudential Center, the Newark Museum/Grammy Museum, and is a major center for higher education, plus the city has a lot of pull in Trenton. I think correlating a city's importance by population doesn't do many cities justice.
However, as for my preference, I love Virginia. I have always said that if there was an aristocratic class in the US, they would all clump together in Virginia. However, as much as I love Virginia, I hands down prefer NJ. The variety you get in such a small state is crazy. Plus, the energy in NJ is second to none. I can see why people dont like it, but I love NJ blighted cities and all.
Last edited by jaydiz1994; 10-21-2020 at 01:22 PM..
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.
Err.... There are a huge pile of bridge/tunnel rats in North Jersey who are off the charts affluent. Those towns have tippity-top public school systems. All those commuter rail lines to NY Penn plus the PATH.
What's the highest median household income town in NOVA? Vienna? That's $155K. Falls Church #2 at $125k? North Jersey has a bunch in the $175k to $200+k range. Saddle River is #13 at $174k.
NYC is the #1 city in North America. The 'burbs are the most affluent in North America. A bunch of those 'burbs are in New Jersey. You can't decouple North Jersey from NYC and you can't decouple NOVA from DC.
Newark does (did) 23 million passengers as the #2 airport in NYC. It's the same number of passengers as Dulles and DCA combined which are both 11 million and change. Plus you have all those international nonstop flights to anywhere on the planet at JFK that don't exist at IAD.
I have lots of other metrics where I'd rate Virginia over New Jersey but with the metrics you're using, NOVA as a DC suburb vs North Jersey as a Manhattan suburb isn't much of a contest.
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