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everyone will pick THEIR town. it's silly to think there can be a "best" of anything. it's all subjective. we don't have a "downtown" nor do we want one. everyone's wants and needs are different. if you love where you are then it's the best for you. stop giving those people over at nj monthly your hard earned money!
chatham always seems to do well on lists such as these. i think i remember it ranking very highly on other national lists in the past as well. realtors in the area just eat this crap up
i lived there for about 5 yrs; imo it's a very nice town. homes in chatham twp i would not categorize as "small" by any stretch, the boro more so, especially the lafayette section (yuppy starter homes walking distance to train).
i moved away only to improve my commute, otherwise i think our family would have been quite happy there.
you would need an all-out pleasantville in order to win the slot as #1 in Jersey. but no such place exists... actually there is a town enar atlantic city called pleasantville, but supposedly it isn't pleasant at all.
there's also always some sort of a bias. no matter who it was who formulated the list there at NJ Monthly magazine, they obviously retained there own opinions about towns in NJ. what towns are good and what towns are bad. it was, of course, opinionated.
i actually thought there was some sort of basis for chatham's rating as #1. but now as I look into it more and more, and I'm getting more input from different people, it really is just a crap publication that this magazine put out, it has no real meaning.
and again, it's about personal preference and what people like. if Person A likes Montclair, then Montclair is the best town in NJ. If Person B likes Moorestown, then Moorestown is the best in NJ. and of course there has to be at least a dozen other towns similar to Montclair and Moorestown, so therefore those towns would also match the criteria of the person, therefore making them all tied for the "best town in NJ". if Person A likes Montclair, and thinks Montclair is the best town in NJ, then Person A might also like South Orange/Maplewood. Similar areas, both are diverse with sizable populations (Montclair is about 35,000 and Maplewood and South Orange combined is about the same). Both towns have colleges and walkable downtown areas. it's all about overlaps.
it's kind of the same thing with colleges. Person A thinks that Harvard is the best institution of higher learning in America. ok, well maybe Harvard's quality of education is the best in the country, but overall, you can't say Harvard is the best college just based on the quality of education. just because it gives out a good quality of education doesn't mean that its the most pleasant campus to live on. some one like Person B could prefer Seton Hall, which is totally different from Harvard. Seton Hall is a much smaller, commuter school, and also a Catholic school. Person A and Person B are completely different people, and they both like different things because they both have different personal preferences and differences in what the look for in a town, or college, or whatver. that's why there's overlaps, because you can't just flat out say harvard is the best college overall, which can account for several different areas, not just quality of education. If Person A thinks Harvard is the best, then Person A will also think that Yale, Princeton, and some of the other Ivy league schools are the best, because that's what Person A likes. Person B thinks Seton Hall is the best, then there going to think St. John's, Fordham, Providence College, University of Scranton, Rutgers, and Hofstra are also the best.
it's all about personal preference. i just used a college analogy to give people a better idea.
here's an idea... we should construct a more accurate list. we list the best towns by county or possibly by region. i wonder if there is anyone on this forum who is qualified to construct such a list.
Someone did start a list like that. Look back from today until about 1-2 days ago. It was a good thread so far.
Someone did start a list like that. Look back from today until about 1-2 days ago. It was a good thread so far.
i couldn't find one from 1-2 days ago... I did find one from 1-2 YEARS ago though... haha. yeah it turned up when I was searching something on Google for homework. it's not really a list, it's just people saying what they're favorite towns are. it's not even legitimate they're just like "I think Toms River is the best town in NJ" or "I like Union!" and they don't even give a reason why.
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The older I get the more I think those lists are just silly.
