What say you? I might be looking for a home in the Philly-NJ metro area; I know all the jokes about Trenton and it’s high on the list as a “murder city.” What’s the Straight Dope?
Well, what do you want to know? It’s a small city with many big city problems.
Of course, it’s kind of odd that there’s a state prison right in downtown, on Cass street – that’s where John List is. Gives me a little chill knowing that a guy like that is just blocks from my house.
But it’s really just a big town (~100k people) with some bad parts.
I think that the city gets too much bad press – people avoid “Trenton” because of the bad stuff that goes on in those select parts of town. Drugs and prostitution do happen, but like other cities, they are limited to certain areas.
If you are looking for a place to live, with no absolute need to live in Trenton proper, check out the suburbs. Lawrenceville, Mercerville, Ewing, Hamilton (where I live), and Yardville are all pleasant areas to live in, with plenty of nice neighborhoods where you can let your kids play in the yard without concern. There are major highways throughout, so getting to Philly is no big deal. I went to the Philadelphia airport last week and it was a little more than 40 minutes, going down 295 and across the Walt Whitman with no big problems. It’s 50 minutes or so to Newark airport.
There’s lots of nice stuff in Trenton – they have a minor league baseball team, the Thunder, and it’s cool to take the kids to a game there. There’s lots of good Italian food in the Italian part of town (Chambersburg). The waterfront is attractive.
Oh yes – the trains.
There are two train stations: Trenton and Hamilton. These are on the Northeast Corridor between DC and Boston.
You can catch a train to either NYC or Philly.
I’m 7 minutes from the Hamilton station. When I need to go to NYC, my wife drops me off and I’m in the City in an hour.
If I need to fly, she drops me off at the station and I take the train to Newark Airport (where they recently added a NJ Transit spur line).
Very convenient.
What is the drive like into Bucks County? (Newtown, PA., specifically).
How about property taxes in NJ?
From my house to Newtown is less than a half hour. Up 29 to Rt. 1, across to PA, and then another ten or fifteen minutes to Newtown.
Property taxes suck. I pay ~$5K/yr in Hamilton and I think we get off lightly compared to others. The folks living in the McMansions around the state are probably paying tens of thousands of taxes.
FWIW, many of my co-workers (in the Princeton area) live in Pennsylvania, where housing and taxes are cheaper. Yardley seems to be popular.
Former Pennington resident here - down Rte 31 from Trenton. There are lots of nice places to live around Trenton, not in it. Suffice to say the governor does not live in Trenton, but rather Princeton.
The Trenton station is on the main Amtrak corridor, and it’s fast into NY, Philly or points south. There are also reasonably priced NJ Transit trains you can take.
Besides Chambersburg, there is a nice museum on the river. Property taxes are high, but when I lived there the schools were great and the public amenities, like great trash collection. I pay less taxes in California on a more expensive house, but I pay extra for trash pickup and the schools suck, relatively speaking, in that there are fewer class periods, and you pay all sorts of extras.
Trenton is not great and the Property Taxes are high. Car Insurance in NJ is very high on the national average. There are some excellent towns immediately surrounding Trenton.
Some Census Facts on Mercer County: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/34/34021.html
On Trenton itself: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/34/3474000.html
Here is Hamilton Township’s official Site: http://www.hamiltonnj.com/
Tax Rates for Mercer County: http://nj.gov/counties/mercer/commissions/pdfs/2006_tax_rate_breakdown.pdf
Do you care about schools? Trenton is a little scary for school ratings.
http://www.psk12.com/rating/USthreeRsphp/STATE_NJ_level_Elementary_CountyID_11.html
Highschools
Good Luck,
Jim