Good afternoon, my friends (and enemies) in the Garden State!
For my day off today I decided to head east of the border into NJ to snap a photo tour of Hackettstown, a community which had been hyped up to the extreme to me about its liveability, beauty, friendliness, charm, etc. I arrived in Hackettstown, NJ via Scranton, PA in just over an hour thanks to leaving my home just after the morning rush from the Poconos into NYC had ended.
I pulled into a municipal parking lot on the edge of downtown and deposited a few quarters into my parking meter (I intentionally put in more than I'd need in hopes that I'd make the day a bit brighter for whoever pulled in after me). I then proceeded to head off on foot to explore the community. I must say I was neither impressed nor disheartened by my experience today---I left with a "neutral" feeling for Hackettstown.
While it was nice to see a small historic movie theater and some thriving mom-and-pop stores along Main Street, it was likewise deplorable to have to endure such horrid traffic congestion in and around town, especially when people would refuse to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks becuase they were too busy yammering on their cell phones in their BMWs to even notice you.
Here in Pennsylvania, a lot of our once-congested historic downtowns now have "bypasses" around them so thru-traffic doesn't have to gridlock narrow Main Streets. One such example would be Tunkhannock, PA, which sits along busy U.S. Route 6. Traffic in that town used to be heinous, especially with the volume of tractor-trailers that would barrel through town and make it difficult for pedestrians to cross the main drag to do their window-shopping. Since a new bypass was completed around town, 100% of the tractor-trailer traffic can now avoid the town's main drag, and fears about the bypass "siphoning away customers from downtown" have not come to fruition, as the many tourists who frequent U.S. Route 6 still enjoy sauntering through the small town's stores. The same could most certainly be done for Hackettstown. It pained me to see a mother with a stroller running across a crosswalk as well as a bicyclist holding his breath as he tried to "share the road" with the rude drivers along Main Street. The impatient, nasty drivers in Hackettstown is one of the very few things that disgusted me about it, but it was certainly enough to turn me away from giving it an otherwise "Good" rating to a "Neutral" rating instead.
Isn't it state law in NJ that you people MUST yield to pedestrians in crosswalks instead of trying to make right-turns-on-red into their paths? If not, then PA actually for once has a progressive law in place that NJ doesn't, which is a first, considering you folks are usually light years ahead of us in that category!
The neighborhood immediately adjacent to Centenary College was much quieter and more "Mayberry-like" in character. I could have just set up an easel in the middle of the street to paint a photograph of the massive Capitol-like building which was the main structure on campus.
There were a lot of nice, well-kept older homes in Hackettstown, and other than the fact that the drivers there are idiots, it is extremely pedestrian and bicyclist-friendly with its plentiful shade trees and sidewalks.
I found the townspeople here to be "neutral" as well. I've come across friendlier folks here in PA, but they still returned my greeting of "Good morning" when I approached them, which was far better than what I had expected, given the often-heated tone of this state forum here on City-Data.
People seemed to take great pride in their properties in Hackettstown---I saw very few unkempt homes or businesses in town, and professional landscapers were out and about everywhere mowing lawns and trimming tree limbs.
All in all I wouldn't mind living in Hackettstown. I'd be happier in a place like Honesdale, PA, where patient drivers still stop along Main Street to wave across pedestrians in crosswalks and where people race each other to be the first to say "Good morning" with a smile as you pass them, but I honestly didn't expect this same "goody-two-shoes niceness" from Hackettstown given its close proximity to NYC.
One thing that did puzzle me though was the proliferation of nicer vehicles in town. Considering how much you people rant and rave about being "poor" on this forum, 99 out of every 100 vehicles that I passed that were parked in driveways or that passed me on the roadways was a late-model one, with about 25% of those being BMWs, Audis, Lexuses, Land Rovers, etc. I even saw a Bentley attempting to parallel park along Main Street! Sometimes I wonder if it's a case of people in NJ truly "struggling" to provide for their families or struggling to "keep up with the Jones's."
I'm sure a sharper distinction must be drawn there. Please don't attack me for that honest observation; I just think the word "struggle" is tossed around WAY too freely on this forum.
On the way home I took the "scenic route" along Route 46 West to PA. I passed by an interesting place called Hot Dog Johnny's in Buttzville, NJ that looked like an awesome place to stop for lunch, but I was running short on time. This disappointed me because I LOVE foot-long hot dogs! (No gay jokes, please! LOL!)
I suppose it was a good thing that I didn't stop for lunch, as I was then halted in a massive traffic jam for nearly an hour in and around Stroudsburg, PA that was just on account of there being too much volume on PA's antiquated, narrow, four-lane roadways (that now should be made eight-lanes to accomodate the incoming sprawl from NJ). I tried getting off I-80 at the Bartonsville exit only to hit even more traffic on Route 611 North near the new Lowe's and the Crossroads Shopping Center. I never saw such a hellish, chaotic scene of people forming their own lanes, honking horns, and flipping each other off in my entire life---why you people in NJ are moving to Stroudsburg in droves to experience
that is beyond me.
Here's my summary of Hackettstown:
PROS:
-Excellent police department that was visible just about
everywhere as I roamed around town. A Hackettstown officer was the
only driver during my visit that stopped to permit me to cross a busy street in the crosswalk while the rest of the dum-dums just blew on by me on their cell phones.
I couldn't imagine being an avid runner or bicyclist there.
-Convenient to I-80 and major employers in Northeast Jersey and NYC. Also home to Mars Candies and convenient big-box shopping opportunities just to the east of town near Budd Lake.
-Well-kept homes, businesses, and other properties. Plenty of landscaping and tree-lined streets. Sidewalks were abundant.
-Historic architecture; thriving downtown area.
CONS:
-Moronic, idiotic, selfish, rude drivers who tried to run over pedestrians by making right turns on red WITHOUT first yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks who had the walk signal!
-I definitely sensed a sense of materialism in this town given the number of higher-end vehicles I saw tooling around. Needlessly flaunting one's own financial successes in an attempt to say "Look at me; I'm successful, and you're not" turns me off.
-Housing prices looked to be absolutely HORRID! You can get so much more house for your money in my area (which is probably why so many from NJ are moving to PA).
-The people did reply to my smile-laden "Good mornings," but they did so with a bit of hesitation like they were being "forced" to. Since when was friendliness deemed a crime?
Overall, I liked Hackettstown, but I was disappointed that it didn't quite live up to the "hype" that others had bestowed upon it. It wasn't a bad place by any means, but I expected more in the way of "Leave it to Beaver", "Mayberry", or "Bedford Falls," as opposed to getting a good vibe of "the attitude" from NYC.
I'll be heading to other NJ towns in the future for more photo tours; I'm hoping Morristown or Newton will be better examples of people being friendly, patient, courteous, etc. I've heard of the phrase "Minnesota Nice" before; why can't there be a "New Jersey Nice" as well?
It would do wonders for your state's image if everyone just took a second or two to do a kind thing for
others as opposed to solely looking out for themselves.
This does include waiting an extra second or two to permit a MOTHER AND HER BABY to cross the street!
Please enjoy the photo tour, and feel free to provide me with suggestions for my other upcoming NJ photo tours!
Please don't take offense to the honest criticisms I provided about Hackettstown---it actually NEEDED a bit of "balancing" to detract from how overhyped it is (in relation to the many better towns I've been in within the Tri-State Area) and to bring it back to reality.
Welcome to Hackettstown! This attractive sign greets visitors to town who are entering from the east along Route 46, which is also known as Mill Street when it enters town. I'd personally recommend the town's leaders erect a similar sign along Route 517 (High Street), as this is town's main gateway from I-80. I was surprised not to see one there.
These festive town banners that lined the telephone poles along High Street help to make up for the absence of a welcome sign for those entering town from I-80.
By the way, also welcome to Warren County, which along with neighboring Sussex County, comprise the two most gorgeous counties in New Jersey, in my humble opinion. I apologize for the odd angle this image was shot at---the sign wasn't perpendicular to the ground (another thing I'd fix if I were on town council).
If you still didn't feel "welcomed" enough to be in town, perhaps this beautiful mural along Main Street would do the trick?
(PHOTOS TO BE CONTINUED BELOW---PLEASE HOLD REPLIES)
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Main Street
