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I just thought that since the OP was traveling to Red Bank, she had some idea of what the Monmouth County area was like.
Yes, some challenged person from the PNW on another thread was ranting about how awful NJ is, how we are all squashed into cubicle-sized spaces, all the stupid tired old NJ stereotype stuff that you'd think would have worn away by now. When pressed, it turned out he had only ever been to Newark Airport.
On her train ride, the OP will see the parts of Newark and some of the other more urban areas of NJ closest to NYC, then it will thin out to the suburbia around Woodbridge, and then she will continue down, crossing over the Raritan, and see something very different.
I took this from the train crossing the Raritan at sunrise last January.
Beautiful photo!
And sorry I wasn't more clear that I've never been there before. Well, I had a layover at EWR once.....and I will not lump myself into that PNW dork who judged the entire Garden State on an airport.
recently took the train into the city form LS and was truly amazed at how nice it was once it opens up.
Agree- assumed OP was more familiar with the area.
OP if you're still around depending on where your hotel is there are tons of beautiful things to see & nice places to eat. This area, at least in my opinion, is a nice blend of shore feel, with open spaces, while still having some of that nice "downtown" feel in spots...
I'm still here and thanks. I won't have a car and it'll be at the very end of Jan, not sure how much I'll want to walk around. Brrr. You may be a lot more southern than me, but we don't get snow/ice, I'm sure, like the east coast.
I'll be in training all day so I'm not sure what I'll be able to do/see.
Go back. Jon Bon Jovi lives across the river? Guess I have some touristy things to do.
Hahaha, he is from the area.
Seriously, he does a lot of charity stuff. He set up a restaurant in Red Bank and another in another town called the JBJ Soul Kitchen. It's actually a pretty decent restaurant, I'm told, but the way it works is that if you eat there and can afford to pay, you pay, and you have the option to "pay forward" for someone else's meal. If you can't afford to pay, you can still eat there, and you can volunteer to wait on tables or do something else in lieu of payment.
It's cute inside. I went to an event there last spring where they were selling handmade ceramic bowls outside as a fundraiser, and I took a peek.
Now the farm stand in Colts Neck where I buy my vegetables in the summer not only supplies fresh produce to JBJ Soul Kitchen, but they tell me that Bruce Springsteen shops there, too. I haven't seen him there so we must be on different schedules, but he doesn't live far from where the farm is, so I believe them.
Count Basie was from Red Bank, and a theater is named for him. I saw Brian Wilson doing his 50-year tour there in the summer. He's old and can barely walk, but his band kicked ass.
It's just an artsy area. Local artists have their work hanging in the hair salons or the stores. I belong to a writers group there, and there are a few of them.
Oh no, I don't think the OP meant anything, either. She just wants to get safely from the train to her hotel. I wanted her to realize she wasn't exactly going to be in the hood. Red Bank Taxi or Uber drivers aren't likely to be taking her any place sketchy.
But hell, didn't somebody just bury a body in Oceanport this past week, a couple of miles from Red Bank?
Don't worry, OP, the murder occurred in Manhattan. One of the killers just happened to have grown up in the nice little town of Oceanport so that's where they buried their victim.
Haha! OMG. Too funny. BTW, my story about the Uber driver taking someone WAY out of the area was in SoCal. They were in a very populated area, but for whatever reason, the GPS for the driver took them to an industrial area. THERE, the driver was trying to drop off the person, who just got out of a club or something (so, probably drunk), and was like, this isn't the address. But the person claimed this was the end of the line. Passenger was a woman and alone. Driver was male. They were in the middle of the city, not a bad area either, but just happened to be in an industrial area - which we all know can be super creepy.
But yes, if you saw my other posts, I wasn't assuming it was bad, just that I wanted to be safe. Telling me it's an affluent area helps me understand where I'm going, that I should always be wary of my surroundings anyways, but y'know, most likely I'll be 100% fine unless that murderer comes back or I get arrested for stalking Jon Bon Jovi's house.
And for the other post who asked, why do people do this? Humans, by nature, want to pigeon-hole everything. That's where stereotypes come from and prejudices too, right? Trust me, I hate it as much as you do.
But then she said she had been to South Carolina just prior to NJ and was surprised because she always thought SC was a desert. I realized then she was, um, geographically challenged.
There's a lot of that around, unfortunately. Many years ago, I was watching a "reality" TV show (was there one called The Great Race, or something to that effect?) and the contestants were plunked down in the middle of Mongolia without being told where they were. The landscape was arid, and barren, and no trees were in evidence. I thought that it was pretty obvious that they were in a region abutting the Gobi Desert.
A couple of the contestants stopped a motorcycle that came along, bearing the first people whom they encountered in those bleak surroundings. It quickly became apparent that they couldn't communicate with the very obviously Asian men on the motorcycle, but the contestants did see fit to examine the motorcycle in order to see where it was made. Apparently it came from China. So--when they were asked a few minutes later, "Where do you think you are?", they confidently answered, "Czechoslovakia!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415
I totally get that but my question is why so many assume the whole state is like that? It's one thing to say you don't like the Newark area but it's another to claim that ALL of NJ is like that or otherwise ugly or awful, especially if you've never even been outside that one particular area.
Since when does one thing, one part of a whole state, represent all? It defies logic, especially when you consider how densely populated NJ is - clearly it's a popular place to live. We have a larger population than a lot of bigger states. So if it all soooo ugly and gross why do so many live here? Why so many nice towns and well paid people? It doesn't make sense to have these assumptions.
Over 30 years ago , I had occasion to drive to Michigan and Wisconsin twice, and the most direct highway ran through the city of Gary, Indiana. Aside from the rusting hulks of abandoned factories and other extremely unsightly visions, the thing that was most upsetting was the color of the air hovering over that incredibly blighted city.
At first, I thought that I was hallucinating, but my traveling companion then asked, "Is it my imagination, or is there a green haze hanging over this city?". Yup, back in those days, the...icing on the cake...for visitors to that ugly town was the very noticeable greenish pollution that was hanging over the city on both of my trips through Gary.
However, I never thought...Gee, Indiana is such an ugly state.
If I was able to separate my perceptions of that one incredibly ugly city from the rest of the state where it is located, why do so many out-of-staters come to the immediate conclusion that ALL of NJ looks like what you can see (and smell) from a limited stretch of the NJTP when you are riding through Essex, Union, and Middlesex Counties?
Quote:
Originally Posted by psichick
I didn't actually think that NJ was crime-ridden. I do not, in any way, think tv shows reflect NJ or even the New Jersey Shore. I'm from "The OC" and hate that people think what they saw on tv was real life, it's not.
Please understand, I'm originally from Los Angeles. Most people wouldn't walk downtown alone, at night, especially being a woman. However, you talk about suburbs, the burbs, etc, but honestly, Compton, is a suburb of LA, but I wouldn't be walking through there at night. The areas around Disneyland really aren't the safest, but people walk around like nothing.
So, I totally understand what you're saying, but please understand, I didn't think about the area being an affluent area or a bad area. I was more concerned about being alone, being a woman, at 10pm at night, in a place I've never been before....walking the streets or getting into a stranger's personal car (uber/lyft) versus a shuttle or taxi.
No offense taken. I completely understand that you were not familiar with the area prior to asking some questions in this forum.
Haha! OMG. Too funny. BTW, my story about the Uber driver taking someone WAY out of the area was in SoCal. They were in a very populated area, but for whatever reason, the GPS for the driver took them to an industrial area. THERE, the driver was trying to drop off the person, who just got out of a club or something (so, probably drunk), and was like, this isn't the address. But the person claimed this was the end of the line. Passenger was a woman and alone. Driver was male. They were in the middle of the city, not a bad area either, but just happened to be in an industrial area - which we all know can be super creepy.
But yes, if you saw my other posts, I wasn't assuming it was bad, just that I wanted to be safe. Telling me it's an affluent area helps me understand where I'm going, that I should always be wary of my surroundings anyways, but y'know, most likely I'll be 100% fine unless that murderer comes back or I get arrested for stalking Jon Bon Jovi's house.
And for the other post who asked, why do people do this? Humans, by nature, want to pigeon-hole everything. That's where stereotypes come from and prejudices too, right? Trust me, I hate it as much as you do.
Hey, I know the detective who arrested the guy who burglarized Bon Jovi. He'll probably be the same one that arrests you. Just ask him if you can post on City-Data and you'll have a friend of his call on your behalf. We have the same birthday.
He said the kid told him he didn't even know he was in Bon Jovi's house until he got to the room with all the guitars and Grammys on the wall. He knew alarm systems, and he could tell when people didn't activate them, so he was taking jewelry from their houses. He didn't close the door all the way at another house and it tripped a call to the police station and he got busted.
When the cop returned Bon Jovi's rings, he let him try them on and he took a picture of his hand. Half a million dollars.
Go back. Jon Bon Jovi lives across the river? Guess I have some touristy things to do.
The woman I used to babysit for dated Bon Jovi's younger brother in high school and went to his house once in the 90s.
Quote:
Originally Posted by psichick
I didn't actually think that NJ was crime-ridden. I do not, in any way, think tv shows reflect NJ or even the New Jersey Shore. I'm from "The OC" and hate that people think what they saw on tv was real life, it's not.
Please understand, I'm originally from Los Angeles. Most people wouldn't walk downtown alone, at night, especially being a woman. However, you talk about suburbs, the burbs, etc, but honestly, Compton, is a suburb of LA, but I wouldn't be walking through there at night. The areas around Disneyland really aren't the safest, but people walk around like nothing.
So, I totally understand what you're saying, but please understand, I didn't think about the area being an affluent area or a bad area. I was more concerned about being alone, being a woman, at 10pm at night, in a place I've never been before....walking the streets or getting into a stranger's personal car (uber/lyft) versus a shuttle or taxi.
Quote:
Originally Posted by psichick
Trust me. Being from LA, "The OC", and now "Portlandia", I totally get it. And therefore, I'm soooo not like that. I promise!
I also am concerned about being alone as a female, in unfamiliar areas especially and at night, so I get it. I personally am reluctant to take Uber and other car services alone so I completely understand where you're coming from.
I have never tried Uber. My daughter has used them, though, as I said.
I tend to perhaps not be cautious when there are times I should be. No fear.
I use Uber in larger groups. Even just two people makes me feel safer than being alone. And I never have them drop me off at my house, but a neutral nearby location and I'll walk home from there.
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, but he doesn't live far from where the farm is, so I believe them. 
