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We consider Central NJ (which includes Mercer County) the mid point between NY and Philadelphia because both are about 1 hour away depending on whether you head north or south on the Turnpike. I even have some neighbors who commute to Delaware daily. Most of our commuters though head north to NYC because many have relocated from that area.
Last edited by NORMGLO; 12-03-2008 at 09:26 AM..
Reason: word omitted
I've always considered Mercer County (Trenton, Hamilton, Ewing, and Lawrence) as part of the Philly orbit. When you get to Princeton, that's where teh NYC/Philly line starts to change!!! Plus the Philly media does coverage in the Trenton area (other than state issues)!!! NYC media doesn't!!!
From the Trenton train station commuters to Philly/NYC are probably about even because you can either hop on an NJ Transit train to New York or a SEPTA train to Philadelphia. Of course there is also a train station in West Trenton which only provides service to Philadelphia. Way more people commute from the Hamilton and Princeton Junction (both located within Mercer County) train stations to New York though. TV channels are as follows:
2 New York
3 Philadelphia
4 New York
5 New York
6 Philadelphia
7 New York
10 Philadelphia
Depending on what part of the county you're in (and how good your radio is) you usually get 93.3 WMMR and 94.1 WSYP than 92.3 or Z100. AM stations are split too-you can get 770 WABC just as well as KYW 1060. There are Jets, Giants, and Eagles fans as well as Devils, Rangers, and Flyers fans interspersed all over the place. I grew up in the southeastern part of the county but was raised a Giants/Devils fan. I do retain the Philly/South Jersey accent though, but as more and more people move into Mercer County that will begin to change I guess.
The county itself is fairly diverse also. Hopewell and Pennington are nothing like Hamilton and Hightstown and Trenton and Ewing are nothing like East Windsor and Princeton. Hopewell has rolling hills and Hightstown has flat farmland. Trenton is an aging post industrial city and Princeton is a rich and vibrant college town. In short, Mercer County is a hard place to pin down. Once you move south into Burlington it becomes the Philly metro region without a doubt. East into Somerset/Monmouth County is definitely New York. North into Hunterdon/Warren is a bit iffy. Sussex is New York though.
To me, and this is an out-of-staters view so you can bust my chops if you want, but Princeton (Mercer County) is Central Jersey where I've heard some say "hoagie" (South=Philly) and others say "sub" (North=NYC). Yet Princeton is an ivy league university town with lots of out-of-staters in it to begin with and not "Jersey" like NB/Rutgers. Trenton geographically I identify with Philly, yet I was watching this videoblog documentary that interviewed a guy who said he observes more folks taking the NJTransit (to NYC) than the SEPTA (to Philly) out of there.
It's an intriguing topic the whole North vs South question. Is there a Central Jersey? Maybe it's Princeton.
About a year ago, I made a map making what I thought was the border, so I thought I would update it. I made the line of demarcation, then made a 10 mile buffer. Finally, I selected all muncipalities that shared the border with the buffer. These towns are what I would label transition areas, meaning, they share some Philly and some NY media together. In terms of what each area relates to, I'd say most would relate to Philly, but many of these tend to commute towards NYC.
About a year ago, I made a map making what I thought was the border, so I thought I would update it. I made the line of demarcation, then made a 10 mile buffer. Finally, I selected all muncipalities that shared the border with the buffer. These towns are what I would label transition areas, meaning, they share some Philly and some NY media together. In terms of what each area relates to, I'd say most would relate to Philly, but many of these tend to commute towards NYC.
Your demarcation looks like the old border between East Jersey and West Jersey.
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