The first time I ever heard that question was when I went to school in New York, and it was being asked by New Yorkers being smart-asses. It took me aback the first few times, because I was just unfamiliar with the concept.
Finally when someone asked me, “what exit,” I just replied, “7A.” He was stunned; I don’t think he really expected an answer. It’s one of those questions that’s asked for humorous effect. Nobody I knew growing up ever talked about where they lived in these terms.
Like others have said, the Summit/New Providence (Madison, Mendham, Chatham, etc.) area is a very nice, woodsy, Revolutionary War-historic, generally upper class area. Summit and New Providence are nestled in an upland area (by NJ standards). East of there the population intensifies as you get closer to the city (southeast is the shore) and west of there towards Pennsylvania things open up and NJ gets really beautiful (by NJ standards). The Great Swamp is just over the hill. It’s an early suburb of NYC so most of it’s already been built out. You won’t see a lot of the endless new sprawl you see in younger metro areas. The sprawl around there is much more mature :D. Property taxes will bug your eyes out and the public schools are top-notch. Definitely get an EZpass. The Short Hills Mall near Summit is an over-the-top upscale affair with valet parking and waiting rooms for the bathrooms, so if you like malls you won’t be far from one of the finer (if a bit ridiculous) ones in the area.
And if you like pizza, you’ll think you died and went to heaven.
Also, since you’re coming from the LA area the humidity is something you’ll have to get used to (but not so much in February). It’s not killer but it can be a bit much at the height of summer.
Is “turn around and run away as fast as you can” good advice?
the state’s broke, property taxes are excessively high, so are income taxes, it’s population density makes it excessively crowded, trafficky, and generally annoying, and… oh yea… Snooki.
Summit is a beautiful and wealthy town that rivals Alpine & Rumson. If you own a US made car & drive through there, you may stand out a little. For transport, there’s a good train station as well as Rt 24. It’ll get you to Rt 78, a good main East/West highway artery,
which people boast about having no tolls. Until it snows, when it has no plows. Millions for private towing, but not another penny for taxes. Welcome to Jersey. :rolleyes: Rt 24 will get you to Rt 287 too, but you seem like a nice guy and steering you to Rt 287 is about as neighborly as
telling you to drive on Rt 3 East during morning rush hour.
Across from the train station is Water Lillies, and awesome sit-down Chinese restaurant. If you like BBQ, try Famous Dave’s on Rt 22. Yes, its a chain, but its decent. Put a little Devils Spit on a french-fry. I dare you. 
Near by you will have The Short Hills Mall, the mall made famous by the movie “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” as well as Opie & Anthony and their “Homeless Express”. Its a nice place to window shop (or actually shop, if you are on an expense account).
Personally, I prefer the Rockaway Mall, but its a great place to visit if only to find which Mercedes & BMWs are popular this year. 
In NJ, a lot of people will try to get you to take sides on things. Is it Jets or Giants? Is it Mets or Yankees? Is it Turnpike or Parkway? But the Real choice for people who live here & maintain a budget is actually…
…is it COSTCOs… or BJs…? Most people join one & know a good friend who has joined the other. Many good deals, but not all; know your price per unit.
Food stores: the big markets are Shopright, Pathmark, and Stop&Shop. They do huge volume, so they have the best/ most competitive normal food prices. If you need the high-end stuff, there’s KINGS, but its easily 1/5 more money. There may be a Whole Foods close to you,
but there is Definitely a Trader Joes near you (it shares a parking lot with the Kyoto Grill). Now That’s worth visiting. You have multiplex movie theaters out on Rt10 as well as a Home Depot (moving to a new house almost Always involves a trip to Home Depot).
Cold weather gear is definitely needed now. While I Love Woolrich shirts, I know they aren’t always ‘stylish’…so you’ll probably want to get some good LL Bean gear. Its warm and its conservative, so it won’t stick out.
If relatives are flying in to see you, its Newark Airport, Terminal C. Yes, there is an airport in Morristown, but unless you are a pilot, have acess to a G3 Gulfstream, or are on John Cusak’s 2012 list, its kind of a non issue.
For when its warm, if you are skipping the beach traffic South and the PA traffic West, remember that you can always take a quiet walk through the ‘Great Swamp’ nature preserve and The Raptor Trust. They are both free & beautiful.
NJ Politics? Meh. All political opinions smell like Linden.
Waterlilies is pretty good, but in general the Chinese food in Summit is not up to par with what I’ve had on the west coast. NYC is really the best place to go if you’re craving anything authentic. Right next to Waterlilies is Summit Brick Oven, some of the best pizza in town. Again, it won’t compare with NYC, but it’s tasty.
Despite its reputation, I find shopping at Short Hills to be a pleasant experience. If you stick to places like Gap or Macy’s instead of Louis Vuitton, you’ll find some of the best customer service at a mall where many of the patrons are wealthy. There’s no food court, arcade, or anything else that appeals to teenagers, so most people are there to shop. Unlike Rockaway, Livingston, or Newport Center (near my office) which are entirely overrun with mall rats on the weekends.
And besides, it’s fun to check out the Bentleys on display. 
For home improvement, try the Home Depot Superstore in Vauxhall, just east of Summit. It is clean, well organized and has a great selection. Avoid the Home Depot in Union on route 22, in the Walmart plaza. Come to think of it, avoid that whole plaza unless you like playing real life Frogger!
You know, Snooki doesn’t necessarily come to your house when you live here.
You can’t buy wine in a grocery store for some reason. It has to be sold elsewhere. Weird.
Embrace Trader Joe’s if you haven’t before. The other best grocery store chain in NJ in my opinion is ShopRite. Pathmark has overpriced and mediocre produce. Kings is also quite overpriced.
Go apple picking here each fall.
If you have kids most NJ public schools are very good even though the idiot governor is trying to change that fact. New Providence is very pretty and so is much of the surrounding area. Enjoy it.
Kings is way expensive, but if you are rich it is so worth it. Clean stores, Few lines, a clerk and a bagger at every aisle, at least at the one I went to sometimes in Mountain Lakes.
When I used to Coupon pathmark usually ended up being the cheapest because they often had sales at the same time there was a coupon out for something.
no, but many look-alikes abound like cockroaches. and the male variants too.
there is actually one benefit to living in Jersey. Amazon prime stuff usually comes overnight, even though it’s shipped 2-day, since UPS ground has a relatively very very large (population and economic activity wise) 1-day service area around here.
I lived in Pennington, and had to deal with the Pennington Circle (only got hit once) and often traffic circle rules are more or less local custom.
BTW, speaking of traffic, roads in NJ are much narrower than roads in CA, and there aren’t nearly as many left turn lanes, hence the jughandles, which aren’t all that bad to deal with once you realize you have to be in the right land to turn left.
I lived in Princeton and then Pennington for 15 years before moving to Northern California, the good part, You’re lucky.
A few good things and bad things.
NJ has a thing called a tree, and there are lots of old trees all over the place.
I used to drive all over when working for AT&T back when it was the biggest employer in the state. I’ll second that where you are living is beautiful (not as nice as around Princeton, but pretty good.) The ugly part of NJ, in the north, is just a screen to keep the riffraff out.
Excellent public transit. Besides the train already mentioned, when our daughter was auditioning in NY we used to drive to Jersey City, park in the big garage by the PATH station, and take the PATH in. Driving in NY is nothing like driving in LA, and public transit is the way to go almost always.
Downsides:
Snow
NJ jokes.
You won’t find the kind of fresh fruits and vegetables in the supermarkets that you are used to.
Higher property taxes, but better schools. When we moved to California my 8th grade daughter was nearly a year ahead of kids here.
I hear what you are saying and I don’t necessarily disagree with you. Still, Waterlilies is close by, has a nice sit down, and you can take-out if you need to and still stay on your work-week time schedule.
Its 45-60 minutes drive one way from Summit to a Chinese restaurant near Canal Street, and that assumes you pass 14-A thru 14-C like S-turns (it can be done, but I don’t recommend it 
). Then reservation-wait, time to eat, and a full satisfied ride home…and a full nights sleep? Not on a work-night. Great food though.
I’m going to have to trust you on the West Coast is Better thing. All I can really say is that on the 5 hour flight to terminal C, that double-cooked pork is going to get Pretty Cold. 
And thats assuming the TSA doesn’t confiscate it for [del]snacks[/del] terrorism. Sure, you can Gulfstream it there direct to Morristown Airport, but at that price, that better be some truly rockin’ food.
Its probably awesome, but we’re talking pizza in NJ. That opens a thread with about 150 opinions per poster from Wildwood to Highpoint. I like Famous Rays by me, but the next time I’m in Summit, I promise I’ll try a slice of Summit Brick Oven. And maybe the next time you’re at Waterlilies you’ll try the “Waterlilies Special”? Its not on the menu anymore, but it is an Awesome shrimp dish.
PS- Bentleys are nice, but they dont get your heart racing. Key goes in to the left of the steering wheel and if you have the window down, you’ll always think someone will reach in, grab it, and run. They do glide nicely though.
“The ugly Part of NJ” is closer to the center – Newark, Elizabeth, Linden – the area with the airport, the cargo port, and most especially the refineries, chemical plants, and oil storage.
Northern New Jersey is beautiful, and is where the movie stars have their less-publicized homes. Close to Manhattan, but amongst the trees.
Oh I totally agree with you here. What I meant about the East Coast/West Coast thing, is that there seems to be more authentic Chinese food (of the dim sum, scallion pancake, and ducks-in-the-window variety) on the west coast just due to the historical immigration patterns. Just like the Italian food and pizza here is better because of the large number of Italian Americans in the area.
Waterlilies is run of the mill, American style Chinese takeout food, like beef with broccoli and chicken lo mein, and it’s perfectly fine on that account. It’s tasty, it’s greasy (seriously, their dumplings are not pan fried. They’re DEEP fried.) I’m not complaining, they’re delicious, it’s just not authentic Chinese food in any sense of the word, and West Coast people might expect something different.
You can get more authentic Chinese food in nearby Scotch Plains, if that’s what you like and you don’t have 2 hours to spend. I went there with my Chinese coworker and he raved about the quality of the dim sum. My fiance and I rarely go into NYC just because of the hassle of driving, parking, taking the PATH, riding the subway… you know the drill.
Agreed. Everybody has different expectations for their pizza, and there are as many “right” answers about the best pizza in the state as there are people in NJ. My personal favorite pizzeria is in Clinton. But even the most mediocre mall pizza in the tri-state area is better than anything you’ll find in someplace like… Florida.
Actually, it is. Be prepared to spend at least twice as much of your life at gas stations as you currently do.
You need to wait for an attendent to come over to insert the pump. Then wait again for him to come over again and remove it. In some cases, you need to wait yet again for him to process your payment and return your credit card. It can take a LOT of time, in a busy station.
Hey, on the gas pumping front…are you expected to tip the guy who pumps your gas?
On the food front, I am looking forward to seeing what the east coast calls Chinese food. I have heard so much about it and how different it is from what you can get in California that it is one of the things I am looking forward to the most.
That and the pizza. I am seriously looking forward to pizza.
No tipping is expected at the gas station. You should, however, put out your cigarette and turn off the car’s engine. If you’re paying by credit card, it helps if you hand the card to the attendant when you start. Many stations have pay-at-the-pump systems and the attendant will hand you your receipt as soon as the pump is done.
The OP will be living in New Providence, which is in the same county as Summit but not quite the same as Summit. I live in Union County as well. Summit and Westfield are the two upper-class towns in the county. The rest of the county ranges from upper-middle to lower-low. Elizabeth, Union, Hillside, Rahway and Plainfield are some of the larger cities/towns in the county.
I really don’t envy the OP at all. I just spent the last week in Newport Beach, CA. I wish my company would transfer me there.
Meh. I have friends who live in Newport. It’s ok, but I wouldn’t want to live there, it’s a very very bland place. But I can understand some Southern California envy. Although I am sure the weather was nice. You only got a little of the winter rain.
It’s 70 and sunny outside my office right now. I will miss being able to wear t-shits and flip flops year round. But really I am not taking advantage of it like I could. I have lived here for 28 years and never even learned to surf. 