You see, never having visited the U.S., the only information I currently have about the area is from watching The Sopranos, my favourite American program ever, and visiting this site (I particularly liked checking out the old historical abandoned ruins section). So my concept of New Jersey is that it is a sinister, romantic place of some natural beauty, somewhat sparsely populated relative to other states, and rich in 17th and 18th century historical sites and legends. Also home to various Mobsters who are, shall we say, “permanently demoted.” In other words, as an interesting (to me) place.
Am I hideously wrong? Do tell. :dubious:
Are you hideously wrong? It may depend on who you ask.
I must mention at the start that I’m not from New Jersey and have only visited on a few occasions. Having said that, I’ll go ahead and respond since there are no responses just yet, and I like to think I have a fairly decent idea of the state, at least.
As far as the stereotype of New Jersey is concerned, yes, you are hideously wrong. The stereotype of New Jersey is that it’s an overpopulated chemical wasteland full of rude people.
A couple of common New Jersey jokes:
What’s the New Jersey alphabet?
Fuckin’ A, Fuckin’ B, Fuckin’ C,…
What’s the difference between a New Jersey girl and the garbage?
The garbage gets picked up every once in while.
Another common in-joke is that when two New Jerseyans meet, they’ll ask each other, “What exit do you live at?”, referring to the fact that many New Jerseyans live right in the metropolitan corridor of the New Jersey Turnpike.
(Several years ago I was visiting Scotland with a couple of friends of mine from New Jersey. We met a couple of Scotsmen in Edinburgh who asked us where we were from; my friends mentioned Jersey and one of the Scotsmen started pointing and laughing at us and immediately replied, " ‘Fuck You!’ That’s what they say in New Jersey, isn’t it? ‘Fuck You!’ " So that reputation for New Jersey seems to be fairly widespread).
In other words, it has the reputation (in much of America) of being a hell hole (no offence to any New Jerseyans intended).
The reality of New Jersey is actually considerably different and quite close to your impressions. While there are metropolitan areas of New Jersey (near Philadelphia and New York City in particular), much of New Jersey is actually quite rural. They don’t call it the Garden State for nuthin’. In spite of the “chemical wasteland” jokes about NJ, agriculture makes up a big part of the NJ economy.
A friend of mine lived in Glassboro, NJ. There was a large rodeo not far from his place–NJ is big cow country.
When I went to visit him, I got lost on the return trip and must have seen ten deer within 15 minutes.
Some parts of NJ are quite beatiful. One place I’ve been meaning to visit one day is the Delaware Water Gap, which I’ve seen beautiful pictures of.
All I’m trying to say here is that NJ is not the “chemical wasteland” it’s often made out to be, however widespread that stereotype may be.
One more thing I will say. I love reading about legends and folklore surrounding certain places (i.e., things like Bigfoot, Loch Ness…that sort of thing). From my reading, New Jersey has got to be the weirdest goddamn state in the union.
There’s a very rural area in southern New Jersey known as the Pine Barrens. Legend has it that it’s the home of the Jersey Devil.
There are rumors of a Midgetville, NJ, where all the houses and signs are midget sized.
There’s a legend from the early 70’s of the end of a silver thread dangling (out of nowhere) from a clear sky. (It stayed around for a few days, then disappeared).
Also in the Pine Barrens (I believe) is a legendary (as far as I know) large metal cage (possibly suitable for locking someone up).
I’m only scratching the surface here; there’s much more of this sort of stuff listed at this site, which you may find interesting.
Historically, the Mafia has been big in NJ. I can’t help but think that a lot of these NJ legends could be traced back to the Mafia if one tried (in particular, such as that mysterious metal cage in the Pine Barrens I mentioned earlier).
Anyway, these are my impressions of New Jersey, in a nutshell. I’m sure an actual resident will be along to correct any inaccuracies I have.
There’s several New Jerseys, actually. I’m breaking several social laws by telling you how wonderful New Jersey can be, because the locals don’t want anyone finding out about it and moving in.
I’ve only lived in three areas in New Jersey, as a minor, and only for part of the year due to a joint custody arrangement. But these are my impressions:
The New Jersey around Newark down to Elizabeth is dismal. High crime, dirty streets, just not a pleasant place. Elizabeth, due to some industry, literally reeks to high heaven. Worse than Gary, IN.
The New Jersey along the Boardwalk is ever shifting, often economically depressed, but always seems on the verge of a comeback that never quite makes it. This is Kevin Smith’s New Jersey.
Atlantic City is pretty much how you’d guess, only with more litter. Lots of lights, lots of attempts to be Las Vegas that fall far short. There’s fuscia frosting on the brownies in Trump’s casino, which I think pretty much says it all. (Or at least there was 10 years ago, which was the last time I went there.)
The New Jersey around Pennington, Princeton, Hopewell, etc. is gorgeous and amazing. There’s little old town squares in quaint little towns, yet Borders and a huge multi-plex is just down the highway. My dad currently lives on 18 acres of woods (lots of black walnut trees) with herds of deer that come stare into the living room each morning, guinea hens on the front lawn and a winding 1/2 mile driveway which makes it feel completely secluded. Yet every modern convenience (well, besides Thai food) that I enjoy in Chicago is within a 1/2 hour drive. There’s organic farms just down the street, and a great shops just in town, 5 minutes away. 20 minutes away is the Borders, Wal-Mart, etc. strip mall area.
By a curious freak of circumstance, my husband’s extended family lives about 10 minutes away from my dad. They **are **the Sopranos. New Jersey Italian-Americans with connections I don’t want to know about. It’s really funny - every time we go to dinner, I feel inundated with stereotypes. But they have gorgeous homes with lots of marble and mirrors and are really sweet people. I’m just never getting divorced, ever! 
(I was hopelessly proud that this year I was deemed worthy of stirring the gravy (“pasta sauce” to the rest of us). Not actually do anything to it like add ingredients - but I was allowed to stir! After only 5 years of marriage to the family!)
So yeah, a lot of the stereotypes are true, but none of them are true for the whole state.
But, uh…don’t tell Uncle Frankie I told you, OK? 
As others have said, New Jersey is a very mixed bag. The Delaware Water Gap is as wonderful as touted, and I used to take the Cape May-Lewes, Delaware Ferry regularly, and it’s a lovely area to visit and drive through. Many of the old watch towers built during the Second World War are still intact and I think some are open for people to climb and explore.
I’ve never been to Atlantic City, and never really wished to go, but I know of no reason to doubt anything that anyone here has said about it.
North New Jersey is… a suburb for one of the largest metropolitan cities in the world. For a long time, because land prices, labor and tax burdens, and regulatory environments were all cheaper in Jersey than in NY state and especially the city, a lot of related industry moved from NYC area to Jersey. As an example - NY used to be one of the busiest ports in the world, and now there are piers upon piers of disused wharf warehouse space because it’s so much cheaper to transship goods in Elizabeth, and they had the room to build rail spurs, and the larger cranes needed to service container ships.
While I was working with ConEd one of the gripes from the environmental engineers working at the plants closest to New Jersey was the way that the environmental laws for the state were written they had to make sure that their stacks produced air of a certain purity - which was cleaner than what they were getting to breathe, because of the difference in regulatory levels across the river in New Jersey. They didn’t mind, overmuch, cleaning up their own waste - but they objected to having to clean up their competitors’ waste.
So, I guess I’m seconding WhyNot’s view: Your New Jersey is there, even if it’s not actually indicative of the whole state.
A tour of the grand old ladies by the sea in Cape May is in order. There are many lovely pieces of architecture in this town. Follow the Atlantic Ocean northward. Little towns, large cities, expanses of back bay thick with waterfowl, and unique pieces of kitsch, such as Lucy the Elephant. Head across the Black or White Horse pikes during spring, summer, or fall, and find plants, produce and farmer’s market hospitality. The lower two-thirds is a beautiful and diverse state, seemingly a world apart from the industrial/commercial north. One little out of the way church near Princeton has stained glass windows donated by former President Ulysses Grant. It’s been years but I hope the drive down route 72 into Manahawkin is still an unspoiled strip of asphalt through the pineys. This lifelong PA resident says to Joisey, gimme a hug, you!
Yep. Check out my location. 
Though I’d say that the “what exit?” thing refers more to the exits on the Garden State Parkway than the Turnpike. The Garden State’s exit numbers correspond to the mile markers (more or less.) So if someone told me they lived at exit 60 or something, I wouldn’t necessarily know exactly where that was, but I’d have a pretty good idea. (The exits number up to 172 I think.) The Turnpike, on the other hand, has exits that number only up to 18, and they don’t correspond to mile markers. There are actually more exits than 18, counting some like 8A and the various spurs, but the numbers still don’t tell you much about where you are.
Also, each Turnpike exit has huge cloverleafs. The Parkway exit ramps generally put you right onto local roads. So the Parkway is more closely integrated into towns and neighborhoods.
Me, I actually live between 135 and 137. If I’m heading north, I take 137 in Cranford, and if I’m heading south I take 135 in Clark. It leads to the kind of identity crisis only a New Jerseyan could understand. I actually used to have my exit listed as 135, but I changed it–after much consideration and soul searching.
One thing that you are “hideously wrong” about is that we’re definitely not “sparsely populated.” I think we’re the most densely populated state in the Union! We do have many remote and rural areas, but there aren’t the vast empty spaces that you find in most other states. And we have huge areas of very dense population.
We’ve actually had lots of threads about this, but I think you can’t search, seeing as you’re a “guest.” I’ll see if I can come up with some links a little later.
Now ask her (him?) why she doesn’t live at exit 136. Go on, I dare you. It’s because the numbering system on the Parkway is whacked.
And they have jughandles and traffic circles everywhere, because New Jersians are terrified of turns, for some strange reason. Which can be nice if you don’t know where you’re going, because you don’t turn onto a street until you’ve passed it.
But it’s a beautiful state.
Urk. I just realized that my location still reads “135.” :smack:
Because of the vagaries of the local roads, it’s faster for me to get to 135 or 137 than 136. And 136 only exists in one direction, anyway.
I must object to the characterization of the numbering system of the Parkway as “whacked.” I think it’s quite sensible. That way, you can figure out how far you have to go. If I get on at 137 and I’m going up to 159, I know I have approximately 22 miles on the Parkway, which should take me anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half.
And I’m a Jersey Girl, btw. Not a native, I’m afraid. I was born in New York, and schooled in Pittsburgh, but now that I’m here, I can’t imagine wanting to live anywhere else. I just passed the 10-year mark. Wow.
I live in Bergen County, the “suburb” part of New York City. It’s a small town with a small town mentality. Everybody knows your business and watches out for you. Most are employed in the service industry, as people go to NYC for sports and entertainment. The restaurants and hotels are cheaper, and the bus service is great. I tell people to stay in New Jersey and take the bus to NYC when they visit.
New Jersey is a real mix. There’s tyhe Bedroom Community for NYC and Philadelphia, there’s the Industrial Wasteland with all the refineries and chemical plants up around Elizabeth and Linden (unfortunately, the place where too many out-of-toewners, being bussed from Newark Airport to NYC, pick up their impressions of the state). There’s the Garden State, full of orchards, dairies, and small crop farms. This has rapidly been disappearing recently – many of the orchards near where I grew up have been shut down, the trees bulldozed or sold. The farmland and dairies have been giving way to high-end hjomes and enormous warehouses (it seems as if no one s building new factories in NJ, and they’re closing the old ones). There’s academic New Jersey – Rutgers University (which, with Johnson and Johnson, owns New Brunswick) and Princeton, chiefly. There’s the Shore, from Sandy Hook through the slowly reviving disaster of Asbury Park past Point Pleasant (totally unlike the new series of that name, from what I see), past Seaside and Atlantic City and Wildwood to the old-house splendior of Cape May. There’s the Pine Barrens, with its desolation and weirdness. There’s the overspill-of-New York feel of Newark and Liberty Park. And there’s the Connecticut-like rich homeowners haven of Northern NJ.
I live in a smallish middle-class town, a half-hour commute from NYC (I can see the Empire State Building from my living-room window). Most of the houses were built between 1880–1930, so there are a lot of quaint bungalows, Queen Anne delights, a few new McMansions. A great big Shop-Rite, great old library, Mom ‘n’ Pop stores, where you can buy a Mom or a Pop.
Population is 40% blue-collar Italian-Catholic families who have been there forever; 40% New York yuppies like myself; and we have an interesting influx of Eastern (Mid- and Far- ) immigrants. Oddly, no blacks or Hispanics, and I’m the closest thing to a Jew.
Nice, quiet area; low crime; the houses are very well-kept and many of the lawns and gardens are breath-taking.
People tend to forget that the state motto for New Jersey is “The Garden State.” At one time, it was much, much more bucolic than now, even though there are still plenty of rural areas.
I can’t add much more than what’s been said already. I did, however, grow up in the very neighborhood the Sopranos are supposed to live in. I’d compare it to the show, but I’m not-entirely-ashamed to say I’ve never watched it. Why? Because for the last several years, every time I’ve been late for something, it’s because there’s a #$^@ Sopranos film crew in my way. :mad:
That being said, I’ve lived up and down the eastern seaboard, and I always come back home. I guess I’m a Jersey Girl to the core–but there are different types of Jersey Girls, as I’m sure some of the other posters here can tell you. Personally, I’m a West Essex Girl, born and bred. And I think sometime soon, they’re going to throw me out of the club for not having my nails done. 
New Jersey–Every kind of vacation spot you’re looking for–and you can still smoke in bars.
Much of NJ is a hole. Much is very beautiful. I grew up there; personally, I couldn’t wait to get out, so take the following with that in mind. (Naturally, I had to pay a toll upon leaving; many bridges and tunnels bordering other states cost to get out, but not to get in.) It’s the most densely populated state in the US, attributable to the northern and eastern parts (generally radiating out from NYC). Most of my extended family lived in NJ when I was growing up. Now, very few do. Most of my experience is of northern NJ, which is very dense; my impression is that much of southern and western NJ are relatively sparse and nice.
Camden, I believe, is the current murder capital of the world. Taxes are high. Property (in nice areas) is practically unaffordable, at least by the standards of much of the rest of the country. Identifying your location with your exit on the Parkway is an accurate foible. The landscape, where it’s not one big strip mall, is varied and beautiful.
I never understood what the big deal was about the NJ shore until I visited some other beaches. Many states’ coastlines are either rocky or have only a thin strip of sand (often gravelly). NJ has some wide, fine-grained sand beaches that are often beautiful. Except for the garbage that would wash up (in the mid-80s when I was teenager, there was medical waste washing up on shore); I think much of that’s been resolved. However, there’s still this brownish beige foam that caps the waves…I haven’t set foot in the ocean off NJ since I was 7 or 8. And some of the architecture is phenomenal; my grandmother owns a home in Ocean Grove. Quaint little gingerbread type of house.
I used to live in Hoboken. When I was there, during the Wall Street heyday of the late-80s/early-90s, rents were cheap compared to NYC. I remember reading that more alcohol got drunk in a typical weekend in this mile-square city per capita than anywhere else in the country. The traffic is often insane, although not as bad as California I think. It used to take me 45min-1hr to get to the Port Authority in NYC via the Lincoln Tunnel. That’s approximately 5 miles. Similarly, it would take me an hour and a half during rush hour to get to my parents’ house; off-peak, it would take me 20 minutes. From what I recall, the definition of “rush hour” was in a constant state of expansion, from about 7am-9:30am and 3:30pm-7:30pm.
How’s that for a minor pastiche of impressions?
I grew up in Morris County and left as soon as soon as I was able. Looking back it was a nice place to grow up, but I had to get out of there. Stifling.
The seedy underbelly (if you’re looking for one) to all the pseudo-bucolic affluent suburban bliss is the vast quantities of illegal drugs consumed by teenage New Jersey, and, at least when I was growing up and the drinking age was 18 (can you believe it?), the amount of drunk driving that goes on. Since the drinking age is higher, I imagine it’s a bit less, but probably not by much. I suppose you can say that about most places, though.
All of these posters here are dupes or government post-bots. New Jersey doesn’t actually exist. The CIA made the state up in early 1950’s, to trick the Soviets into diverting a portion of God-less Commie nuclear weapons for use on an area of empty ocean, rather than hitting real cities. Just look at the name - “New” Jersey - their wasn’t even an old Jersey anywhere, until the the Brits copied the US and created an old Jersey, as a similar diversion against a French nuclear attack.
Well. That explains quite a bit about my life. Thanks!
Well, people who don’t live on the I-95 corridor forget that, anyway. I see so many Jersey plates, you’d think I lived in NYC!
Oh - and my favourite part of Jersey in the winter - they pump your gas for you. Hooray!
I’m a Jersey Girl born and bred. I was born in Fort Dix, grew up right off of exit 8A, lived most of my adult life off of Exit 9 (NJ TPK)
I like the way people described th different areas, that’s very accurate. I’ve always split the state in quarters in my mind, with the center being a 5th area. The Northeast section being the suburbs of NY, Sopranos-land, Newark Airport, etc. The Northwest being more woodsy, Delaware Water Gap, etc. The Southeast is ‘the shore’ and nearby shore towns, throw in Atlantic City and Wildwood as vacation spots. The Southwest being suburbs of Philly the closer you get to that city, and lots of farmland towards the center.
I grew up in Central Jersey. I know “The Garden State.” Tons of farms. Although I’ve lived in North Jersey as well.
I’ll echo what Green Bean said, you’re way off with ‘sparsely populated’, it is the most densely populated state in America.
There are lots of historic buildings, Ye Olde Taverns, places where George Washington slept. All kinds of 17th century history, and it is interesting.
I’ll always love New Jersey, and I’ll always call it home.
Oh and Cabbage, my wise-cracking sister (a Jersey Girl herself, of course) bought my husband that ‘trash gets picked up t-shirt’, I think it got ‘lost’)