How bad was crime in jersey back in the 80s and 90s (Newark: lawyer, house)

[Freshflakes757]

If you want to talk suburbs, I remember growing up as a kid Morristown was considered to have some pretty rough parts. That was all reverse by the early 2000s.

[Big Dre]

I was doing some research and I found the duncan projects and curries woods projects. Those were supposed to be two of the worst projects in NJ from what I've researched. Any other high rise PJs in jersey city that were bad back in the day? A previous poster said the Bergen/Lafayette section was the worst back in the day, any high rise projects in there?

[Big Dre]

Originally Posted by Freshflakes757

If you want to talk suburbs, I remember growing up as a kid Morristown was considered to have some pretty rough parts. That was all reverse by the early 2000s.

Yeah tell what you know. Idk that much about morristown but I've heard of it.

[tamparesident26]

Originally Posted by Big Dre

I was doing some research and I found the duncan projects and curries woods projects. Those were supposed to be two of the worst projects in NJ from what I've researched. Any other high rise PJs in jersey city that were bad back in the day? A previous poster said the Bergen/Lafayette section was the worst back in the day, any high rise projects in there?

I'm not as familiar with Curries Woods as much but Duncan (aka A Harry Moore which was what we all called it) was pretty terrible. It was well known that the whole place was a drug and crime haven - you stayed away from there unless you were looking for drugs (any kind - they had them all) or to get shot, or both. One of the best things that could have ever happened to that neighborhood was for them to tear those down and start over, unfortunately.

In Bergen/Lafayette there was Montgomery Gardens - very close to the JC Medical center. Very large complex - at least 5 buildings. That place was awful too - well known reputation for being crime ridden and full of drugs. LOTS of shootings - a few years ago there was a big news story about a 5 year old little girl who got shot and I'm pretty sure it was at Montgomery.

I'm not sure it's still there - frankly I'd be surprised if it is since they have been a large problem area for a very long time and I know they are working on gentrifying and cleaning up that area. If I'm not mistaken, those were super, super old projects anyway - like from the early 60s or maybe even before that and they were in an obvious state of disrepair even back in the 1990s.

Not sure how broad an area you are looking into as far as spots in North Jersey that were pretty downtrodden in the 80s and 90s but there's also East Orange and Irvington which are in the general vicinity of Newark. (Those areas are still pretty rough, actually)

[Big Dre]

Based on what you know(which is a lot btw)what do you think was more dangerous bed stuy brooklyn or the worst neighborhood/city in jersey.

[Big Dre]

I also found lafeyette gardens. Idk anything about that place do you have info on that? Any pics or anything

[EBWick]

The Alabama Projects in Paterson are known as a big north Jersey drug supermarket. I remember when i lived just down Lakeview in Clifton they filmed an episode of Cops at the Alabama Projects. Cops pulled some dopes from Pennsylvania over who were buying wholesale to re-sell back in the Poconos. This is when heroin was making a "comeback" over a decade ago.

Edit: apparently they were torn down a few yrs ago. But one doper remembers them fondly:

PATERSON , NJ: The End of an Era...RIP to the Alabama Projects

[Big Dre]

I can't believe people are reminiscing about copping drugs in the jects in that link. They should be ashamed of themselves.

[Big Dre]

Can't find anything on lafeyette projects that were torn down. But I heard some pretty nasty stuff from a friend of mine who's from jersey about newark and jersey city back in the 80s and 90s. Sounds like a typical brooklyn ghetto. Sounds like my neighborhood when I was growing up in it.

[ansky]

A few years ago I was living in the Hamilton Park section of Jersey City. There was a guy in my building who had been living there since the 80's. He would tell me stories about how that park and the area around it was basically an open air drug market up until about the mid-90's. The front door of the building I lived in had a glass front door and one day a guy threw a brick through the glass to break into the building (this was either late 80's or early 90's). After they started to develop the Newport area things began to get better around Hamilton Park.

As for New Brunswick, I lived there in the late 90's and remember the high-rise housing projects in the area around route 18 and Commercial Ave. They finally started knocking those down by 2000.