do you consider trenton/mercer county to be philly or nyc metro area?

[lancers]

Originally Posted by naesc

I love this discussion. I’ve always felt that the NY influence begins on Route 1 heading north past Quaker Bridge Mall. That whole area is close to Princeton and I associate Princeton with NYC much more than I do Philly.

Mercer County is unique in that it gets both NY & Philly channels, I don’t believe any other county in NJ can say that. I do feel the lean is more Philly if you are south of the 295/Route 1 interchange. I feel anything north of that interchange on Route 1 is NY influenced.

Many moons ago a relative of mine owned a hotel in Lakewood. They used to get Philly TV. I remember watching the Giant games when NYC was blacked out.

[drive carephilly]

Mercer is in the NYC CSA for federal, statistical purposes but for planning purposes it falls under the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission which is centered on Philadelphia. Mercer also has 3 rail connections to South Jersey/Philly - the RiverLine light rail and SEPTA's Trenton and West Trenton lines.

Also, 66% of Mercer County workers commute 30 minutes or less with another 19% in the 31-59 minute range which means most people either work in the county or in a neighboring county. In terms of all workers few people are commuting to NYC or to Philly.

Also, the traditional divide between Philly and NYC influence has been the colonial era East Jersey/West Jersey boundary. The Keith Line - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_line - is still clearly visible running through the middle of the state if you look at a map of municipal boundaries and is seen here cutting Mercer County in half and also forming the boundaries with Somerset, Hunterdon, Monmouth, and Burlington:
https://cms.dvrpc.org/sites/default/...CDs_8.5x11.pdf

Originally Posted by naesc

I love this discussion. I’ve always felt that the NY influence begins on Route 1 heading north past Quaker Bridge Mall. That whole area is close to Princeton and I associate Princeton with NYC much more than I do Philly.

Mercer County is unique in that it gets both NY & Philly channels, I don’t believe any other county in NJ can say that. I do feel the lean is more Philly if you are south of the 295/Route 1 interchange. I feel anything north of that interchange on Route 1 is NY influenced.

Not unique. This is also common in parts of Monmouth, Middlesex, and Ocean Counties. When we lived in Brick we basically got all of the channels twice- 2 was CBSNY, 3 was CBSPHL, 4 was NBCNY, 5 was FOXNY, 6 was ABCPHL, 7 was ABCNY, 9 was WORNJ, 10 was NBCPHL. When we moved to Monmouth County we lost 10 from Philly but we still got the others. My parents eventually moved up to Holmdel and in the late 90s and they still got ABC from Philly and even WHYY which is the PBS station in Philly. Anyway, as a kid we watched all the baseball and basically grew up a Phillies fan because it was quicker and easier to get to South Philly than it was to get to the Bronx.

It's only been in the last 25 years or so that the NY stations threw a fit about the Philly overlap and tried to draw this hard line but digital TV gave people back a lot of access that, through the cable companies, the FCC had taken away. https://transition.fcc.gov/dtv/marke...delphia_PA.pdf - but either way you can see that Mercer County is firmly in the Philly media market.

Central Jersey exists. Leave us alone and let us watch TV from both cities.

[lair8]

Can you realistically travel to either one of those 5days every week for a job?

If so, then no.

[g555]

Originally Posted by naesc

I love this discussion. I’ve always felt that the NY influence begins on Route 1 heading north past Quaker Bridge Mall. That whole area is close to Princeton and I associate Princeton with NYC much more than I do Philly.

Mercer County is unique in that it gets both NY & Philly channels, I don’t believe any other county in NJ can say that. I do feel the lean is more Philly if you are south of the 295/Route 1 interchange. I feel anything north of that interchange on Route 1 is NY influenced.

In the past, Quakerbridge felt more part of NYC than PHL.

I think because it didn’t have the Philly dept store influence of Strawbridge and Clothier or Wanamakers as an anchor, but had NY department stores. Also the Macy’s has a lot of Indian shoppers like other areas of Central NJ.

Now it’s getting blurred. You have Penn Medicine that took over Princeton Health and you see Penn signage there, and Wawas creeping up in Edison, over Krauszers.

As for TV, people are steaming more, and local newscasts from other markets can be viewed more easily.