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Not this again. Not even close to reality. Woodbridge, Edison, Piscataway, Highland Park, Perth Amboy etc. are all north of the Driscoll Bridge and clearly considered Central Jersey if you know anything about the area.
All of Middlesex County is Central Jersey regardless of which side of the Raritan River it's on. It's that simple.
That's your opinion. Central NJ ain't all that large. South Jersey while devoid of people is considerably larger.
Well, Hamilton is the geographical center of New Jersey, and Trenton is directly west of Hamilton, so it's basically dead center of NYC and Philly. I live in Hamilton and I get more Philadelphia news channels here, but I feel a connection to both cities. The perks of living in Jersey, I guess.
But I take it once you cross to Middlesex/Monmouth or Burlington, it becomes very obvious you are in NY or Philly metro?
Old thread, but one that gets continually revisited. I grew up in Mercer County, but a stone's throw from Burlington County, quite literally-as a kid I could easily lob one over the Crosswicks Creek into Burlington. The area where my parents still live has a very "South Jersey" feel to it with forests, fields, and farms typical of the transition area of the Piedmont and Coastal Plain (https://www.nj.gov/dep/njgs/enviroed.../provinces.pdf) which goes right along with the area being known as a transition zone in general between North and South Jersey, the Philly and NYC Metro areas, Giants vs. Eagles, and Flyers vs. Devils/Rangers Country. You can toggle between Channels 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10 for New York or Philly news and sports, catch Septa or NJ Transit from the Trenton Train Station and be at 30th Street Station or New York Penn in an hour, have sports fans of either side living right along side each other, and have a conversation about swimming pools where one person talks about "wooder" while the other one talks about "watta."
Mercer is also interesting because to the southeast you can drive the dirt roads of Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in the Robbinsville/East Windsor area (Assunpink is mostly located in Monmouth County but has a western section which extends into Mercer) that feels very much like the very northwestern edge of the Pine Barrens with the soil becoming sandier, gravelly, and with the presence of scrub oak, but not pines. From there its not even a 40 minute drive to Baldpate Mountain, gateway to the Sourlands, views of the Delaware River Valley, and glacial erratic boulders the size of Volkswagens. Hopewell Township in general has a decidedly Hunterdon County feel in general. Finally, there is also the fact that depending on how fast one drives you can be "down the shore" in less than an hour on 195. Mercer County is probably the ultimate microcosm of the State of New Jersey contained in one single county. I feel very much at home in my adopted Hunterdon County and wouldn't rather live anywhere else at this point, but we also have easy access to the city via Route 78 when we want it, and it easily seems a million miles away when we don't.
You didn’t answer though, once you go into Burlington it becomes clear Philly, ditto New York for Middlesex and Monmouth.
I think in general that's true, but just as Mercer is a complete toss-up, some of the Monmouth, Middlesex, and Burlington border towns are as well:
BURLINGTON
Bordentown City
Bordentown Township
Chesterfield
Increasingly, I think you tend to find a lot of North Jersey transplants in these areas and that you still tend to get both Philly and NYC networks offered on local cable systems. You definitely get terrestrial radio from both markets in these towns. I spent a lot of time in these towns in my younger years and it was difficult to tell where Mercer ended and Burlington began.
MIDDLESEX
Cranbury
Plainsboro
Cranbury and Plainsboro I feel are toss-up-to-definitely-NYC-metro. Plainsboro is one of the few towns which has a cross-county school district (West Windsor-Plainsboro) which brings in Mercer influence, but both areas are NYC commuter hotbeds. Interestingly, Cranbury also has a sending relationship with Princeton, which also brings in some toss-up Mercer influence, but still, these towns are more NYC oriented.
MONMOUTH
Upper Freehold
Allentown
Millstone
I think they still lean NYC but maybe less so than the Middlesex border towns. This area is big-time horse country, but also a major Pinelands transition area. Upper Freehold also shares a border with Burlington County as well. The area west of Route 539 from Allentown all the way down to the "point" at the southern end where Province Line Road and Monmouth Road intersect (not far from the North Gate of Fort Dix) are as Philly/South Jersey as all points south in Burlington.
Once you go deeper into any of these counties the delineation is completely clear, but I would argue that these are the definite border areas. Notice I left out Hunterdon though-Hunterdon is a bit of a weird animal in my mind because you have some very disparate areas in the borderlands-Phillipsburg and Easton to the northwest, where you'll find NYC and Philly sports fans (and a strong Philly/South Jersey accent among natives, IMO) but also a strong Lehigh Valley media influence (WFMZ 69 News, Allentown Morning Call, Express Times, etc...), and then to the southwest an amalgamation of the Mercer toss-up region combined with the suburban/rural mix where East Amwell, Montgomery, and Hopewell all come together. Obviously though, Hunterdon is a solid bedroom community for the NYC metro area. Perhaps its really a three-way toss-up between the Philadelphia-Lehigh Valley-New York City Metro areas?
I don’t get why Hunterdon would be for Philly given how far north it is.
I thought Bordentown was clear Philly while Highstown/Cranbury are clear NY metro.
What I don’t get, and maybe this deserves a new thread,
1. Why do the Philly suburbs have such a small sprawl in NJ relative to not just NY but PA west of Philly? One would have thought post WW II South Jersey eastvof the NJTP would have become like Long Island for Philly.
Is that SJ just east of the NJTP is too swampy like NE North Carolina?
2. Don’t get why on I-95 crossing into NJ from PA, it becomes so much more rural with farms despite being 30 miles from Philly...and this continues until Jamesburg where it becomes very much sprawling with warehouses. Why is it for such a large market Phillys sprawl stops on 95 at the NJ border, but 25 miles away which is still 50 from NY you get their sprawl?
Or am I looking at this wrong?
Is the sprawl at exit 8 not really NYC sprawl but more New Brunswicj urban center sprawl?
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