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Having had a day to ponder the question, here's where the line is in my mind. It runs basically northwest-to-southeast.
North Jersey: Linden, Roselle, Roselle Park, Kenilworth, Springfield, Summit (and of course Elizabeth, Hillside and Union).
Central Jersey: Rahway, Clark, Winfield, Cranford, Westfield, Mountainside, Berkeley Heights, New Providence (and of course Garwood, Scotch Plains, Fanwood and Plainfield).
All of Middlesex and Somerset Counties are Central; all of Morris is North, except maybe Long Hill Township (Gillette, Millington, Stirling).
This is not scientific in any way, just how I see the world. Thinking about it, I realize that I was influenced by years of reading the Courier-News, which started in Plainfield, moved to Bridgewater, and whose website is "mycentraljersey.com". The towns that the Courier-News covered are the ones that feel like Central Jersey to me.
I don't think most people in Central NJ consider Westfield & Clark (and most of Union) as Central NJ. Over the Raritan for one and also pretty close to Newark.
I have to say, I'm confused by this person. Growing up in Bayonne, the closest "big" mall was in......Woodbridge. Next to Edison. About 20 minutes away. Im not sure what I considered Edison to be, but it certainly wasn't South Jersey. How old is she? That may explain it since Newport may have been her go to mall. But when I was young, it was SI or Woodbridge.
She is four years older than me so she must be 58 now. Couldn't have been Newport--it didn't exist when she was young. That was one of the first attempts to revitalize the JC waterfront. Not sure when they built it, but they put us in JC temporarily after the bomb in 1993 and the Newport Mall was the only place to walk to and it was still pretty new and pretty empty.
She may not have necessarily gone to Woodbridge Mall anyway. When I was growing up, I remember people talking about Willowbrook and I asked what it was and everyone looked at me as if I was an idiot. I just didn't know because my mother didn't go shopping at malls. We shopped for clothes in Paterson or "down on the highway" at Korvettes. People with money went to the mall. We did have Garden State Plaza, but that wasn't enclosed--it was a collection of stores connected by sidewalks. I know this woman from Bayonne grew up poor. She has money now, but she is very cheap.
Just looked it up. Woodbridge Mall wasn't even built until 1971.
Kind of funny--I guess younger people don't know that malls are a fairly recent phenomenon that didn't exist when many of us were growing up. Like blowdryers (one of the fetuses at work was shocked to learn that I used to try to straighten my hair in junior high by setting it on giant rollers. She asked why I didn't just blow it straight. I said because blowdryers hadn't come out yet.)
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 10-26-2012 at 08:08 PM..
I think that Union County is north Jersey. I even think it geographically fits. Some maps have Warren considered to be north, but it extends further south than Union which on the same map is considered central. Below Union I would consider central.
You can see a difference when you hit Middlesex, Union fits in with north Jersey IMO. I live in Union County, in a town that some on this thread have considered to be north and some have considered to be central, but I think I live in north Jersey. Where I live does NOT feel like true central Jersey at all. Actually, I never really even heard of central NJ until I came onto this site. It was always north and south. South of the Driscoll is classically South Jersey, even though I think Middlesex County is definitely not south enough, which is probably why someone invented the central region.
The Sopranos opening, when he drives over the Goethals Bridge… Union County is north Jersey. A good half of it is further north than Staten Island. Union County is not big enough to be split in half like some tried. It's either all or nothing, and without it in the north region there is literally a chunk off the eastern end of the map missing.
Last edited by JerseyGirl415; 10-26-2012 at 08:48 PM..
I agree with this map, but I wish you could cut Somerset and Hunterdon in half. They extend too far south, but the northern portions are north Jersey in my opinion. It's tough because NJ's counties are so out of proportion with one another in size and some are too long to really get a true south/central/north reading without trying to work around borders or cut counties in half. I do think though that cutting the longer counties up would make this easier. I would cut Somerset and Hunterdon at the border of Union and Middlesex. Right across that line, north of it is NNJ and south of it is CNJ.
This is so complicated! LOL This is why I prefer the old Driscoll trick - north of it (also the Raritan Bay) is North Jersey and south of it is South Jersey. There.
4 regions: North,Central,South,and Jersey Shore.
The shore is a distinct area imo.
I'd add west Jersey. Places on the Delaware above Trenton are like the Shore, it's own area.
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Below Union I would consider central. 
A good half of it is further north than Staten Island. Union County is not big enough to be split in half like some tried. It's either all or nothing, and without it in the north region there is literally a chunk off the eastern end of the map missing.
