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I find it interesting in that thread when you compare people's first thoughts of NJ versus people's first thoughts of Connecticut. NJ and Connecticut are extremely similar places with a similar culture, and similar landscapes, yet one elicits overwhelmingly POSITIVE stereotypes, while one elicits overwhelmingly NEGATIVE images. What is the root of NJ's perception problems?
Somebody needs to start writing films that take place in the real NJ and portray it as a positive place. Americans are apparently not getting the right image of NJ.
I just rep'ed you for that post you left on the thread. I participated in that thread a long time ago. For the life of me, I don't know why anyone would post so much negativity about a state, regardless of geographical location or perception. I would focus on the positive aspects that a state had. Most of the people who made comments about New Jersey I would say either have never been there, laid over at Newark Airport, or drove up the New Jersey Turnpike from Philly or the DelMarva/D.C. area to NYC or New England. That's a shame, because due to aggressive development that caters to fast vehicular traffic, one comes away with a largely negative perspective. The same mistake could be made by judging the entire state of California on driving the San Diego Freeway from Santa Monica down to Orange County, or the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago to judge the entire state of Illinois. The only puzzling aspect of this is the mention of Connecticut, which as you say is similar, has its own horrible road in the form of the Connecticut Turnpike (I-95) but escapes much of the blanket criticism, however, not entirely.
I think to answer your question, much of this criteria is applied through the lens of a tourist (i.e. a romantic perspective) rather than through the lens of a resident (i.e. a realistic, grounded perspective). So one can pontificate endlessly (and positively) about painted deserts in New Mexico and Utah, or rolling hills in West Virginia or Kentucky, when in reality, many places in these states are extremely impoverished. So, to drive and/or visit these places reflects a naturally pure, positive experience, where as in contrast, places such as New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, are more utilitarian, i.e. they invoke the perception of those and how they live normally during their 50 weeks out of the year, rather than the 2 weeks they have of pleasure, exploring exotic, remote areas that are naturally beautiful, but when it comes to living there the remainder of the year, the economies are centered around extraction or tourism, neither of which lends itself to a broad-based, educated populace. And that's where I think NJ gets, shall we say, the $%it end of the stick.
I hope that's not too much of an obtuse description, but it's the best one I can offer, Tommy!
Out here on the left coast, few people besides "transplants" from the NYC Tri State area have ever visited the Garden State. People in the telecom, financial or pharma business might have gone there for a meeting, but those visits are usually a blur from the airport to a hotel or corporate office building. Most people in my area learned everything they know about New Jersey from watching the Sopranos, or perhaps "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle".
I lived in NJ from 1990 to 1993 while working on a large project there. I lived in Morris County and got to know my away round most of the state. I am an avid bicycle rider, and explored back roads and towns all over Northern, Central and Western NJ. When I tell people here in CA that the 3+ years I spent living in NJ were great, and that I would live there again any day, they are quite puzzled.
I have to explain to my local friends that perfect and mild sunny weather 90 percent of the time is not the only ingredient that a place can be judged on. I liked the variety of cities and towns in NJ, the history surrounding a lot of the places. NJ has four seasons which are usually balanced in length, and none that are too severe compared to many other places. And there's no shortage of things to do at any time of the year. It's not all perfect, sure there's crime and urban decay in some cities, political corruption and high property taxes. Yes, there's some lousy roads and the puzzling (or absent) road signs that will cause non-locals to get lost, perhaps even if they have GPS. I wore out many maps when living in NJ, but half the challenge was wondering if I could get to my destination without ending up in the wrong place.
The point is, people that live in most other states have probably not spent much time in NJ, or like Mike just said, have not ventured much beyond the NJ Turnpike or the Parkway. Nothing can be done about this, and most Hollywood movie or TV stereotypes of NJ don't do the state many favors either. NJ needs more of it's own home grown film and media to develop instead of allowing Hollywood studios to cast it's image.
New Jersey has so much corruption that a political boss is getting the governor to break up the state university and give the proceeds to a pet project of a politico. They'll have a lot more respect when they clean up the corruption. They seem to take it in stride, but it adds costs like crazy to regular people's expenses.
I'll try to steer this back on topic. In my opinion, New Jersey sometimes gets the short end of the stick for two reasons, both of which involve NYC:
First, NYC is NYC. No place in this country and very few in the world (London, Paris, Tokyo) can match up to it. No matter how great our state is, it will always be overshadowed by the giant next door. Given the circumstances, I think our state actually does remarkably well. As for the other parts of the Tri-state Area, I believe CT doesn't get the same treatment simply because it is just unknown. When I think of CT, I honestly draw a blank. I guess it's the "insurance capital" or whatever. Long Island has a bad reputation. Westchester County has no reputation at all, beyond being where Jay-Z and the Clintons live.
Second, and more contentious, is the fact that this nation takes its cultural cues from NYC. For whatever reason, New Yorkers many times have negative views towards NJ. It may just be the typical suburban hatred that city-dwellers in every city have, but taken to the next level. But whatever the underlying cause is, the condescension has been transported across the country through the power of NYC media, leading to the situation we have today. This negativity continues into the 21st Century. Two recent examples I can think of are a Brooklynite in the "Captain America" movie saying, "Paramus, pshh," and Neil Patrick Harris dumping on Jersey several times in "How I Met Your Mother."
All this said, I do think the average person can see above stereotypes and would have a vastly different opinion of New Jersey if we did a better job marketing all the history (Revolutionary War battles, Ellis Island), entertainment & music (too much to even mention), economic prowess, agriculture (Jersey tomatoes), wealth (I believe this year we are third), educational attainment (most doctors and engineers per capita), etc etc etc that New Jersey has.
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