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I disagree, perhaps my control group is skewed but everyone here at Rutgers embraces a pan-Jersey identity. Someone trolled our class Facebook page and bashed NJ a couple months ago. When I spatted back, I got support from all different kinds of people living here - blacks, Latinos, Indians, Asians. The Indians assimilate especially well (from what I can see). I've met quite a few who love the shore and believe it or not love Springsteen.
that's cos Rutgers is a college. In the real world outside of Facebook, NJ are enclaves.
To some degree that is true. My Bergen County hometown only has a few black or Indian or Asian residents.
Where I live in Monmouth County, it is very mixed. I'm white, to the right are Malaysians, to the left a black family. I bought from Koreans. My whole neighborhood is like that. We're economically the same.
Now Bruce, he lives about five miles away. Very different neighborhood economically!
So the Star Ledger ran the following article last week, stating that only 28% of New Jerseyans have pride in our home state. Among every state in the nation, New Jersey ranks 46th in terms of state pride, tied with Michigan and New Mexico.
To me this (unfortunately) makes a lot of sense. In everyday life, it seems we puff our chests out and pretend to have pride in our state and yet at the same time, there is an ongoing feud between North and South Jersey, some people refuse to acknowledge Central Jersey's existence, people from the suburbs refuse to visit our cities, and we can't even agree on what to call Taylor Ham/Pork Roll.
It's very unfortunate because I have been from one end of this state to the other and have found plenty of things to be proud of. It seems that New Jerseyans just aren't that knowledgable about the positive things that happen outside of their little area of the state. As a result, we don't have a lot of pride in New Jersey as a whole. So the purpose of this thread is to educate people about great things that can be found in New Jersey.
Share with us something positive that you really like from your little slice of New Jersey. Is there a town that you love? What about a restaurant that you think deserves a mention? Is there a person or organization that you think does good work? Is there some aspect of New Jersey culture that you really enjoy? Any New Jersey institutions that you particularly like? Nothing is too big or too small.
I'll start by offering up a fairly obvious example but one that I'm sure everyone will agree should be included in this thread. The town of Princeton. I grew up right next door and I took the town for granted because it was always right there, but it truly is a great place. It is, in my opinion, the quintessential Ivy League college-town. The architecture is very beautiful and you really get a sense of the history and the important events that happened there. It is one of the best small towns in the country, in my opinion, and it is located right in the center of our home state.
So how about it, fellow New Jerseyans, what do you think makes our state a great place to live?
Do a post search on the word, 'relocation' and see all the people relocating to NJ. The first page alone had 30+ posts announcing reloaction to NJ and goes back to late February.
What could out of staters see that residents don't?
Perhaps the Dem and media effort to make CC look bad colors the negative impression of NJ....of course that is just a tiny piece of the puzzle.
I disagree that there isn't lot of pride in the state. I see a lot of people driving around with NJ stickers or magnets on their cars, sometimes just the outline of the state, but usually it's a "restore the shore" or "Jersey Strong" or something (and I saw Jersey Strong around way before Sandy - apparently they were magnets handed out by a gym). "Jersey girls don't pump gas" is also pretty common, even on t-shirts, and it's a pretty well known phrase at least in the area. I do think there is a lot of NJ pride, not sure how this study was conducted.
I never see a New York car driving around with a magnet in the shape of the state stuck on the car - seriously I have never seen it, and as someone who goes to Staten Island every week multiple times, I see a lot of NY cars.
I agree, but if he/she can't even spell "Jerseyan" correctly...should he/she be taken seriously?
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