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There’s not much to do outside of the beach in SJ. If the two were to split, NNJ would run circles around SJ which is already basically Delaware with marshes. It's not a fun place and I'm saying this as someone born in SJ. Camden County is the only place I would see myself living in with actual walkable cities and solid transit. Most of SJ ranges from extremely suburban, rural to ugly impoverished small towns. PA suburbs function much better as actual places with a main street and downtowns.
Last edited by AshbyQuin; 01-08-2024 at 08:50 PM..
To the bolded, absolutely. The best example I can give of that is: 50% of C/D think NYC is the best city in the world, whereas, that number is closer to 5-10% in the real world. C/D forgets we are data driven/oriented, whereas, most people are not.
To the second bolded, yes I agree. NNJ is building up and building the nece4ssities people need. Housing is in good supply, lots of bars/nightclubs for younger people, good dining scene for the older folk, good pubs, great walkability, a state run transit system, a no-schedule needed regional rail network and a wide array of things to do in 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong, NJ has its faults, but MA is falling behind at a faster rate than before, imho.
Regarding the beaches, I much prefer the fine-grained sand of New Jersey's beaches to the coarser sand of Cape Cod's.
No, New Jersey doesn't have a Provincetown, but one can hop the ferry from Cape May to Lewes and head to Rehoboth Beach in neighboring Delaware. Philadelphians skip the ferry ride and drive there directly.
New Jersey does have some swanky beach towns; two of them have been mentioned in passing. In the northern part of the state, we have Deal, just north of Asbury Park; in the south, there are the two boroughs that split Seven Mile Island between them, Avalon and Stone Harbor. None of them have the rep or the A-list vacationers of Nantucket and the Vineyard, but they attract a good number of folks with money from the two cities that New Jersey serves as suburbs of. (More on this below.)
As has already been noted, Cape May is a truly unique beach town the likes of which you will not find anywhere in New England. It lays claim to being the first beach resort town in the country, as Philadelphians began to head there for the summer in the mid-19th century. This led to the unrivaled collection of Victorian homes, hotels and guest houses in the city.
I should note that, since we're slinging stats, New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation, having swiped that title from Rhode Island about 40 years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by btownboss4
I guess you can say bits of New Jersey are nicer than some bits of Massachusetts
But Boston is far better of a city than anything in New Jersey, and the Berkshires are significantly better mountains than anything in NJ. I’d also say Massachusetts has the more varied coastline.
I agree that NJ’s upscale suburbs are more interesting as Westin, Concord and most of metro west is dreadfully boring but Mass is much more the full package
I won't quibble with that, though I will say that Newark, New Jersey's largest city, deserves better than it gets in terms of reputation. I will also point out that, were it situated where Hartford is, or even if it were located where Atlantic City is now, we would be talking about a metropolitan center in its own right. But it happens to be 15 minutes from midtown Manhattan, and that has made it a satellite instead.
The point to remember about New Jersey here is that the two big cities that border it across the Hudson and Delaware rivers exert a lot of sway over the Garden State. And this has been true for centuries: Bostonian-turned-Philadelphian* Benjamin Franklin referred to New Jersey as "a keg tapped at both ends." Even more than Connecticut, New Jersey is the nation's biggest suburb. (And yet it still has undeveloped land that one can get lost in, mainly in the south. In particular, the Pinelands National Reserve, the Wharton State Forest and the cranberry- and produce-growing regions of Atlantic, Burlington, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.
There’s not much to do outside of the beach in SJ. If the two were to split, NNJ would run circles around SJ which is already basically Delaware with marshes. It's not a fun place and I'm saying this as someone born in SJ. Camden County is the only place I would see myself living in with actual walkable cities and solid transit. Most of SJ ranges from extremely suburban, rural to ugly impoverished small towns. PA suburbs function much better as actual places with a main street and downtowns.
Hey, if it weren't for that rural land, we wouldn't have those tomatoes...
...that are nowhere near as delicious as the gloriously ugly New Jersey tomatoes I used to buy in the '80s and '90s. Today's tomatoes look great but taste only okay; they are grown to survive shipping more than to taste fabulous.
No, New Jersey doesn't have a Provincetown, but one can hop the ferry from Cape May to Lewes and head to Rehoboth Beach in neighboring Delaware. Philadelphians skip the ferry ride and drive there directly.
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If NJ can get extra points for being close to Rehoboth, DE, can Mass get some points for being close Hampton Beach, NH, which is the closest thing we have in New England to a Jersey style beach (and you don't have to pay to get on the sand)?
If NJ can get extra points for being close to Rehoboth, DE, can Mass get some points for being close Hampton Beach, NH, which is the closest thing we have in New England to a Jersey style beach (and you don't have to pay to get on the sand)?
If NJ can get extra points for being close to Rehoboth, DE, can Mass get some points for being close Hampton Beach, NH, which is the closest thing we have in New England to a Jersey style beach (and you don't have to pay to get on the sand)?
I'd award points for that alone, and yes, it's even easier to get to Hampton Beach from Boston than it is to get to Rehoboth from Cape May (though in the latter case, you spend the bulk of time doing one of two things: waiting for the ferry or enjoying the ride across the mouth of the Delaware Bay).
One NJ shore community lets you onto the beach for free: Atlantic City. But "the Queen of Resorts" is a huge casino these days, a cross between Vegas-by-the-Sea and the South Bronx-by-the-Sea. Probably not what comes to mind when you think of a Jersey shore town. There are also the two parks: the Sandy Hook National Recreation Area at the New York end of the Shore and Island Beach State Park at the southern tip of the island containing Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.
I'd award points for that alone, and yes, it's even easier to get to Hampton Beach from Boston than it is to get to Rehoboth from Cape May (though in the latter case, you spend the bulk of time doing one of two things: waiting for the ferry or enjoying the ride across the mouth of the Delaware Bay).
One NJ shore community lets you onto the beach for free: Atlantic City. But "the Queen of Resorts" is a huge casino these days, a cross between Vegas-by-the-Sea and the South Bronx-by-the-Sea. Probably not what comes to mind when you think of a Jersey shore town. There are also the two parks: the Sandy Hook National Recreation Area at the New York end of the Shore and Island Beach State Park at the southern tip of the island containing Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.
Hey, if it weren't for that rural land, we wouldn't have those tomatoes...
...that are nowhere near as delicious as the gloriously ugly New Jersey tomatoes I used to buy in the '80s and '90s. Today's tomatoes look great but taste only okay; they are grown to survive shipping more than to taste fabulous.
A big "Thank you" to Campbell's Soup Co..
I haven't noticed any changes, although I'm younger, so I was probably raised on the "new and improved Rutger tomatoes." I'll give New Jersey credit for doing tomato pie and pizza much better than PA, although it's worth mentioning we did have a Tomato Capital all the way in York, PA, ironically, during the same time the Jersey Tomato was being introduced.
I imagine Salisbury Beach could fit the bill too with the arcade, restaurants, bars, boardwalk, etc.
Salisbury is trashier than any NJ beach lol
Even Hampton Beach NH is slightly worse than Seaside Heights.
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