Is Woodbridge Center the ugliest mall in New Jersey? (Newark: buying, income)

[homenj]

I have been to other malls in NJ and every other mall looks much nicer than Woodbridge Center. It is funny because when the mall was built it drove businesses out of Perth Amboy's downtown.

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by homenj

It is funny because when the mall was built it drove businesses out of Perth Amboy's downtown.

Yes, but Woodbridge Center was opened to the public 48 years ago, and the failure of the mall's management to keep up with the times in regard to upgrades, combatting rampant car theft from their parking lots, redecoration, and a quest for new merchants--coupled with the obvious devolving of the local populace in Woodbridge Township--surely could not result in a wonderful environment at that mall.

I stopped going there in the '80s, when Friday night became "gang night at Woodbridge Center".
If you want to go to a mall that is not of the "ghetto" genre, there really isn't much to choose from except for The Mall at Short Hills.

[moshywilly]

I live close to the Livingston Mall and I think the Livingston Mall is a bit uglier. Livington Mall is very plain looking. I looked up pictures of the Woodbridge Mall. To me, the Woodbridge Mall is okay looking and has some fancy spots. In fact, Woodbridge Mall has a fancy entrance that Livingston Mall does not.

The ugliest mall in NJ is the Ledgewood Mall and it is the worst mall ever! It's a tiny mall, but every store closed down in it except for Walmart, Ashley Furniture, and Marshalls, and some stores are in the outside part of the mall like Barnes and Nobles. The other good stores are the ones in the separate strip mall right across the street outside of this mall.

[homenj]

Originally Posted by Retriever

Yes, but Woodbridge Center was opened to the public 48 years ago, and the failure of the mall's management to keep up with the times in regard to upgrades, combatting rampant car theft from their parking lots, redecoration, and a quest for new merchants--coupled with the obvious devolving of the local populace in Woodbridge Township--surely could not result in a wonderful environment at that mall.

I stopped going there in the '80s, when Friday night became "gang night at Woodbridge Center".
If you want to go to a mall that is not of the "ghetto" genre, there really isn't much to choose from except for The Mall at Short Hills.

I wouldn't say it is the only non ghetto mall.

I personally like Menlo Park Mall. Never felt it to be ghetto, at least not after they upgraded it in the 1990s.

Garden State Plaza and Newport Center attract a diverse group with many people from the lower income communities coming in but I wouldn't say they are ghetto either.

Freehold and Quakerbridge are also nice malls.

Even Jersey Gardens is palatial compared to Woodbridge Center Mall. In fact I feel it is just as nice or a tad bit nicer than most malls in New Jersey, or at least the malls I have been to.

It seems so ironic that Woodbridge was partly responsible for the ghettoization of the urban cities in the state as they sucked in the middle class moving out of the cities.

It is poetic justice now that there is a reversal of this trend, as Woodbridge is becoming more ghettoized and the nicer places are elsewhere.

[NYtoNJtoPA]

The worst mall in NJ I've ever been to is the Burlington Mall off exit 5 of the Turnpike. I have heard it finally closed recently, but had been considered a "dead mall" for a long time. The most ghetto would have to be Quakerbridge, the handfull of times I visited it. Right outside Trenton.

I never thought Woodbridge Mall was ugly. Nowadays its interior looks a bit dated compared to what they've done in nearby Menlo, but Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne, PA where I live now looks like that too. I also don't feel it is really ghetto. The clientele is, shall we say, mixed since you have a lot of people heading straight down Rts 1&9 from places like Linden, Elizabeth and even Newark but this is nothing new. It was like this back in the late 1980s when we first started going there too. But I never really found the place devoid of clientele that are more well off too. The car theft thing is certainly news to me. I went to this mall regularly and lived in the area for the better part of 25 years and never had a problem, nor do I know anyone who has. Cherry Hill Mall in South Jersey is more known for a car theft problem, and while it has been updated more over the years, its clientele IMO is more ghetto than this, since it is very close to Camden.

I visited Freehold Raceway Mall maybe 10 times in the 27 years I lived in New Jersey. Back in the 1990s it was just fine. Now it's like they are trying to make it into a faux Mall at Short Hills with even more ridiculously consumptive stores and the times I was there those expensive stores were always empty while the cheaper ones were busier. I don't think the local demographic can support them. And the clientele is basically glorified white trash, or white kids that act ghetto. My favorite is the young girls barely in their teens already dressed like sluts, many who are overweight or even obese. And their loudmouthed moms who look and dress the same. Like a bunch of lowlives all trying to be fancy.

[Kracer]

Originally Posted by homenj

I have been to other malls in NJ and every other mall looks much nicer than Woodbridge Center. It is funny because when the mall was built it drove businesses out of Perth Amboy's downtown.

I liked it better when it was a claybank. gone is the police pistol range and dairy farm as well.

[JasmineBasmati]

Originally Posted by homenj

I wouldn't say it is the only non ghetto mall.

I personally like Menlo Park Mall. Never felt it to be ghetto, at least not after they upgraded it in the 1990s.

Garden State Plaza and Newport Center attract a diverse group with many people from the lower income communities coming in but I wouldn't say they are ghetto either.

Freehold and Quakerbridge are also nice malls.

Even Jersey Gardens is palatial compared to Woodbridge Center Mall. In fact I feel it is just as nice or a tad bit nicer than most malls in New Jersey, or at least the malls I have been to.

It seems so ironic that Woodbridge was partly responsible for the ghettoization of the urban cities in the state as they sucked in the middle class moving out of the cities.

It is poetic justice now that there is a reversal of this trend, as Woodbridge is becoming more ghettoized and the nicer places are elsewhere.

THE JERSEY GARDENS MALL that is a dangerous ghetto.

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by homenj

I wouldn't say it is the only non ghetto mall.

I personally like Menlo Park Mall. Never felt it to be ghetto, at least not after they upgraded it in the 1990s.

Yes, Menlo Park Mall is... decent... albeit very crowded with kids.
However, the type of merchants at Menlo Park is drastically different from what you find at The Mall at Short Hills. Does Menlo Park Mall have smaller stores like Tiffany, Bulgari, Burberry, and Penhaligon's? Does Menlo Park Mall have Bentleys, Porsches, and Rolls Royces on display in the walkways?

Even the Nordstroms store at Menlo Park is very different from the one at Short Hills Mall. In addition to not carrying a lot of the high-end merchandise at their Menlo Park store, they have actually closed the upper level of the store to customers. Management wouldn't shut down an entire level of their department store if the local clientele was buying merchandise in sufficient quantities.

The Mall at Short Hills essentially replicates the shopping experience of Fifth Avenue in NYC, while Menlo Park is just a decent-looking, modernized version of your generic shopping mall that can be found in every state.

[bookspage]

Ah didn't Short Hills Mall have some pretty terrible stuff happen there relatively recently?

I don't like any enclosed malls in NJ. They all feel unsafe to me

[ansky]

I don't think I have been to any mall in over 10 years. It's hard to imagine how these malls are still surviving as they really serve no purpose other than a hangout spot for wayward teenagers.