Towns, Townships, and Boroughs; Oh my!

[HubCityMadMan]

Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415

I have to say I've actually always found New York's way kind of confusing. At least we don't have municipalities within municipalities, at least in most places, which is what New York seems to do.

But many townships in NJ have unincorporated areas within them with names you occasionally hear. Take Woodbridge for instance. It is a township of 100,000 people, but it has all these areas contained within its borders: Avenel, Colonia, Fords, Hopelawn, Keasbey, Iselin, Port Reading, Sewaren and Menlo Park Terrace. Kind of confusing if you don't know the area well.

Other areas have historic names that often get used in place of the parent township's name even when referring to areas outside the historic village. Evesham Township in South Jersey contains Marlton, a small historic village, but too often do people refer to the whole town as Marlton.

New York City is made up of five boroughs. And AFAIK, there are no other boroughs in New York State. Upstate NY just calls their townships towns, and the smaller areas we call boroughs here in NJ are called Villages in Upstate NY. And the other unincorporated types of places mentioned above are called Hamlets in NY.

I personally feel that if we unincorporate some of the boroughs here in NJ and make them part of the nearby township, we could save a lot of money here, that is wasted too much on useless, unnecessary local governments.

[bigjake54]

Originally Posted by NJhighlands87

people wonder why they have high property taxes ... yet still resist ... consolidation.

There are no economies of scale in NJ. Large cities are poorly run and have far more public workers per 1,000 residents than small towns. More police, but much more crime. Suburban fire depts. are volunteer, cost far less than paid urban depts. Schools are much better; the large urban districts are mostly terrible despite spending far more per student that the smaller suburban districts. Also, the corrupt NJ Supreme Court and politicians force the suburban taxpayers to fund the urban districts.

[908Boi]

Originally Posted by bigjake54

There are no economies of scale in NJ. Large cities are poorly run and have far more public workers per 1,000 residents than small towns. More police, but much more crime. Suburban fire depts. are volunteer, cost far less than paid urban depts. Schools are much better; the large urban districts are mostly terrible despite spending far more per student that the smaller suburban districts. Also, the corrupt NJ Supreme Court and politicians force the suburban taxpayers to fund the urban districts.

Ok...? Consolidation doesnt mean Newark and Camden get to eat up all of the towns in nj

[sonofagunk]

Almost like we need to start over. Start a new county and only allow towns of a certain size to join, share most resources and try to prevent the county machine from taking over.

[EBWick]

There's been talk in Trenton of forced consolidation for small towns. Almost half of BC could probably consolidate. At least police and fire to start. One police force could easily patrol Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus and Waldwick with about half the personnel they have now as 3 separate forces.