Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Kearny isnt bad but it's right up against Newark and its Industrial so it's not necessarily desirable because of that.
North Arlington isnt bad but it's also close to Newark which brings it's value down.
Asbury Park has really become a more desirable place to go. It still has it's problems but the bad areas are being pushed further and further away.
Browns Mills it's not a bad area but not desirable. There isn't much out there but military transplants, low income, community college students and drug addicts. That entire rt. 38 corridor isn't that nice.
Kearny isnt bad but it's right up against Newark and its Industrial so it's not necessarily desirable because of that.
North Arlington isnt bad but it's also close to Newark which brings it's value down.
Asbury Park has really become a more desirable place to go. It still has it's problems but the bad areas are being pushed further and further away.
Browns Mills it's not a bad area but not desirable. There isn't much out there but military transplants, low income, community college students and drug addicts. That entire rt. 38 corridor isn't that nice.
Kearny doesn't have a land border with Newark, you must cross the Passaic first. But Kearny does not get any of Newark's crime, and it's industrialism hasn't affected the town too much. There are much worse industrial towns in NJ, like Elizabeth and Paterson.
In terms of crime, Bridgeton may be the worst. NeighborhoodScout gives it a 7 on a 1-100 scale on crime metrics (with 100 the safest). Take that for what it's worth...
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not ok
Many of the others aren't "bad" at all, IMO. Especially North Arlington.
Gotta admit, Salem popped into my head immediately when I read the title of your thread. And then Bridgeton. Millville, too, but I guess it has too large a population to meet the "small town" criteria. I used to visit all 3 towns regularly for shopping and visiting antique stores, but I will not set foot in any of them now. Just too much violent crime. And Route 77 through Bridgeton became unbelievably run-down.
Most of the towns listed in this thread are either shore resorts that don't have much going on in the off-season and blue-collar/working class towns. Not much "miserable" about most of them. The "bad" areas in NJ are genuinely depressing and poverty-stricken but these maybe slightly run-down industrial towns are really not that "bad."
Sorry, I live in southern NJ, and to call Salem and Bridgeton "slightly run-down industrial towns" tells me you haven't visited lately, if ever. Just read nj.com and click on the South Jersey Times section at the bottom of the home page. Salem, Bridgeton, Millville (and Vineland) come up over and over and over in the crime reports. And they are pretty depressing with much poverty.
Chesilhurst in Camden County was named the worst place in NJ by NJ monthly magazine some years ago. I don't think it's particularly dangerously, but it is a poor rural town near the Atlantic County border, and there are literally like no businesses there at all except for a gas station and a couple of restaurants. Maybe some auto shop or something too. It is very small though, kind of blink and miss it. Only a little over 1,600 residents, but I would go out of my mind living there.
Lakewood is not a small town, it's population is almost 100,000
How many people in town? The township is huge.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.