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except that Mercer Co. is part of the Philadelphia MPO is almost twice as far from Manhattan as it is to Philly. Trenton is Delaware Valley all the way.
It's really not about how big the state is geographically - it's about how many people live here and the commonalities between them. North Jersey is all about kissing NYC a**, For South Jersey it's Philly. Central Jersey is far enough in between to be neither.
By driving, its easier to get from Princeton to Philly.
By train, its easier to get from Princeton to NY. 1 direct train, vs. 2 for Philly (NJ Transit changeover in Trenton, to SEPTA for Philadelphia, or RiverLine to PATCO).
In TV, though, it gets complicated.
Mercer Co. is part of the Philadelphia DMA
and Ocean Co. is part of the New York DMA,
though some communities like Princeton gravitate more like its adjacent northern suburban towns, and everything south of Toms River gravitates towards So. NJ. I'm not sure about Hamilton and Lawrenceville though, but I'm guessing all the wealthy areas in Mercer Co. (not Trenton) gravitate more to NY.
For sports markets, Mercer and Ocean Counties are the only two where its both NY and Philadelphia sports markets territory. Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic are Cape May are exclusive Philly, everything north of Mercer and Ocean is exclusively NY.
Fios which now services Ocean County however doesn't include any of the Philadelphia over the air signals. Comcast does but has moved most the Philly TV to digital only. Fios not carrying Philly is somewhat unfortunate. Though in Mercer, customers get both Its more often the case that the weather and temperature in Ocean Co. is more like what it is in Burlington Co. than it is in most of the North Jersey counties or NYC, and Philly TV does weather alerts for Ocean Co. The Philly stations cover its Jersey burbs pretty good (and even Trenton), mainly because the city of Philadelphia is smaller, and has lost population while its burbs have grown.
But Ocean Co. aligns with New York more than Philadelphia when it comes to where ppl are commuting to/from (their jobs) and where they originally came from.
The Census has classified Trenton with New York too because of that factor.
Another thing I noticed is the Rutgers system.
Rutgers Newark and Rutgers New Brunswick are more similar (like their MBA programs are really 1), but Rutgers Camden is on its own.
Rutgers Camden is pitiful though. Most high school kids from Cherry Hill or Voorhees would rather go to Rowan (which is also public) than Rutgers Camden, if they want to go to a four year college, save on housing expense, if that's all their parent can afford. Southern NJ usually gets screwed by NJ (compare the NJ Transit Trains), but some have argued the RiverLine project was for So. NJ and was paid by NJ taxpayer dollars.
I grew up in Pt Pleasant and if you look at only North or South all of Ocean County is South Jersey. And I tend to consider myself more from South Jersey, to me Central Jersey is places like East Brunswick. But as more and more people move to Ocean County from "up North" it has become more and more associated w NYC. I know we listened to WMMR out of Philly just as readily as WYNY depending on the song. (But usually is was FM 106.3)
Had the infrastructure been built differently(i.e. Route 70 4-6 lanes or the 37/38 freeways completed) I think Philadelphia would be more influential in Ocean County. Growing up my dad watched the News from NYC until we got cable and Channel 6 from Philadelphia had generally better coverage of Ocean County. If you read "Blind Faith" by Joe McGinnes he describes Ocean County as where the radio stations you set in the city (NYC or Phila) fade out. No matter where you consider Ocean County as North(NYC) or South(Phila) it is sort of overlooked by the majority of metro area residents with the exception of trips to the shore.
Interestingly the Shore Resorts of Bay Head, Point Pleasant Beach and even Sea Girt in Monmouth County were founded as shore resorts for people from Philadelphia, Trenton/Princeton.
I think as people live for a few generations in Ocean County the Philadelphia influence will increase. The Blue Claws have increased Phillies fans I am sure.
I grew up in Pt Pleasant and if you look at only North or South all of Ocean County is South Jersey. And I tend to consider myself more from South Jersey, to me Central Jersey is places like East Brunswick. But as more and more people move to Ocean County from "up North" it has become more and more associated w NYC. I know we listened to WMMR out of Philly just as readily as WYNY depending on the song. (But usually is was FM 106.3)
Had the infrastructure been built differently(i.e. Route 70 4-6 lanes or the 37/38 freeways completed) I think Philadelphia would be more influential in Ocean County. Growing up my dad watched the News from NYC until we got cable and Channel 6 from Philadelphia had generally better coverage of Ocean County. If you read "Blind Faith" by Joe McGinnes he describes Ocean County as where the radio stations you set in the city (NYC or Phila) fade out. No matter where you consider Ocean County as North(NYC) or South(Phila) it is sort of overlooked by the majority of metro area residents with the exception of trips to the shore.
Interestingly the Shore Resorts of Bay Head, Point Pleasant Beach and even Sea Girt in Monmouth County were founded as shore resorts for people from Philadelphia, Trenton/Princeton.
I think as people live for a few generations in Ocean County the Philadelphia influence will increase. The Blue Claws have increased Phillies fans I am sure.
Could not agree more. You're spot-on with this. Ocean County is getting a lot more NYC influence lately as people move here (primarily from Staten Island and North Jersey) but their children are not going to identify with NYC/North Jersey culture much at all. Those areas will be seen, to them, as places you sit in traffic for hours to get to in order to visit relatives on holidays.
Through sports, media and the simple proximity to Philadelphia vs. NYC, Ocean County's demographics will change once there is less of an influx from outside and more of a well-established generation of lifelong residents, which is developing now. My mother was from North Jersey and my father was from Brooklyn, but they moved to Ocean County before I was born and have lived here ever since. They've both switched to "Channel 6 Action News" from "4 New York." Also, as you mentioned, the BlueClaws have made essentially every young OC resident into a Phillies fan, even if their parents like the Mets or Yankees.
Also agree on "what could have been" as far as infrastructure goes. To be honest, I think it would be a worthwhile project to extend Rt. 37 as a highway into Philadelphia. If you look on a map, the most direct route from Philly to the Shore would be from Philadelphia to TR as it's basically a straight line - only problem is no highway exists. You can go south of the city on the AC Expressway or north of the city by way of 95/195, or in a curve via Rt. 70. But you can't go directly east, which would put you pretty much right by Toms River. It's actually pretty odd how no highway was ever built there.
As for my family and MANY families in Ocean County, the lack of a full Philadelphia channel lineup is being seen as a major con in getting FiOS, and Verizon is now scrambling to add the channels.
That pretty much sums up this whole issue. We have and will always appear to be two states because of this. That's why it puzzles me that when given the chance to be unified say with our sports team (The Devils), we can't even get that right. The poor souls in SJ (of which I am now a part of) don't even have any access to them and some knuckleheads in North Jersey still overstep the hometown team for the Rangers...
Why can't there be a NJ media TV station....like an expanded NJN, but with news of the caliber of News 12 (also not available in SJ), hometown sports (Devils, Rutgers, etc..), and limited coverage of NY AND Philly. We technically have our own radio station with 94.5 out of Trenton (101.5 is LAME!). We need our own MEDIA outlets!!!!!!!!!!
I've been saying this for years.
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Its more often the case that the weather and temperature in Ocean Co. is more like what it is in Burlington Co. than it is in most of the North Jersey counties or NYC, and Philly TV does weather alerts for Ocean Co. The Philly stations cover its Jersey burbs pretty good (and even Trenton), mainly because the city of Philadelphia is smaller, and has lost population while its burbs have grown.
