# What's wrong with New Jersey? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2004, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109 "2004-03-24T09:10:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![glass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac8455/32.png) [@glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glass)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/61 "2004-03-26T08:19:41Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > So, does New Jersey still have those…left turn from right lane signs? We sure do, honey. Love to keep the out-of-staters on their toes. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![glass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac8455/32.png) [@glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glass)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/62 "2004-03-26T08:26:24Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > I’ve heard all the New Jersey jokes on _Futurama_. I’ve heard the title “Armpit of the Nation”. But really, what’s so bad about New Jersey? Do you have to go there to understand? Is it contagious? Does it come in jars? Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers in New Jersey. He is now selling them on the internet. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![glass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac8455/32.png) [@glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glass)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/63 "2004-03-26T08:48:14Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > I haven’t been to East Coast, except for layovers at a few Eastern airports travelling to and from Europe. But I always assumed that when people talk about “Jersey” as a place to be fashionably disdained, they just meant the bedroom communities in a relatively small portion of the state, across the river from NYC. I disdain in-and-outters who do not appreciate our bedrooms. It’ll cost you lots more to in-an’-out in the city. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/64 "2004-03-26T13:34:09Z")
> [@Omnipresent](#): > > Being from the NE corner of the state and, sitting here right now as I write, I can say that, there always has seemed to be confusion as to what is North Jersey and South Jersey. > > I believe that’s the confusion that “dan” has when he condemns the North East. As someone said, the North East corner IS, in fact, arguably one of the most well-to-do areas. But, where’s the line? > > I sit now in Westwood (check a map). As far as I’M concerned, anything below Route 4 is Central New Jersey and anything below the Raritan Bridge is Southern NJ. > > So, is “dan” referring to Newark-Kearny-Patterson, as Northern New Jersey? That would be inaccurate, I think. Just my two cents. Well, you could “ask” me. I might “answer.” At any rate, although the area above metro NYC seems to be fairly well-to-do, it’s not nearly the size as that metro area. Isn’t that like saying a small town is quite well off, even though there are only a proportionally few rich folks in it? I’m not sure how you could consider Newark anywhere but North Jersey. I would say that Princeton might be the North/Central border town, but Newark’s clearly in the North. As is Paterson, which is pretty close to the NY border. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/65 "2004-03-26T13:47:00Z")
I grew up in New Jersey. Love it – 45 minutes from my parents’ house to midtown Manhattan. When I was a kid you could get spring water in the next town, and apople orchards were on the other side. The license plates don’t say “The Garden State” for nothing. The refineries and chemical plants up in Elizabeth and Linden were there, but far enough away. As noted, the out-of-staters pick up their impressions of NJ from the route 1/Jersey Turnpike industrial corridor that runs from NYC to Philadelphia (and includes Newark Airport). At night, with the sodium vapor lamps going, and the torches burning off the waste gases from the refineries going the area around Jersey City looks like the openming shot of **Bladerunner** without the nifty architecture. But that stuff is far enough away. Someone (on this Board, I think) once said that NJ erected a great big scarecrow there, and it’s kept everyone out. There’s more to the rest of NJ than High Point , the Shjore, the Pine Barrens, and Princeton. Most of the state is pretty good. One last thing: > [@](#): > > One reason for NJ’s unpleasant reputation stemmed from its confusing and inadequate road signage. In one of her columns, Ann Landers – ever the diplomat – set about defending NJ from its critics but even she could not deny that it had the worst road signs in the nation. Inadequate Street Signage!!! NJ has _great_ street signage. If you want to see woefullly inadequate labeling, come up to Masssachusetts some time. They save money here by putting up only one street sign at an intersection (it’s assumed you know which street you’re on). The whole nation has heard of Route 128, but almost all the signs label it as Interstate 95. They only inform you that it’s also 128 at the last moment. ---
**Author:** ![jeevwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@jeevwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevwoman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/66 "2004-03-26T15:46:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Inadequate Street Signage!!! NJ has _great_ street signage. If you want to see woefullly inadequate labeling, come up to Masssachusetts some time. They save money here by putting up only one street sign at an intersection (it’s assumed you know which street you’re on). The whole nation has heard of Route 128, but almost all the signs label it as Interstate 95. They only inform you that it’s also 128 at the last moment. I have to agree with you on that. Chicago has street signs everywhere, but it’s never clear if the name of the street is where you are, where you are turning on to, or where the diagonal street is. It is ridiculous. And those infamous jughandles are only something I heard of when I went to school “down South” in Trenton. I don’t think we have them up north. On that topic, since I grew up in Ringwood, about 15 minutes from the NY state border, I consider everything south of Somerville ‘south’ Jersey. It’s a whole-nother-world down there. How come no one has mentioned that without NJ, we’d have no John Travolta, Susan Saradon, Alan Alda, Jason Alexander, Michael Landon, Robert Sean Leonard or Bruce Willis, among many others? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/67 "2004-03-26T16:26:51Z")
> [@jeevmon](#): > > How come no one has mentioned that without NJ, we’d have no John Travolta, Susan Saradon, Alan Alda, Jason Alexander, Michael Landon, Robert Sean Leonard or Bruce Willis, among many others? Not to mention Whitney Houston, Lauren Hill, the guy from Naughty By Nature, Queen Latifah, and Tisha Cambell. In her song “Looking Back”, Lauren Hill gives a shot out to the apartment complex where I live. Yeah, boyyy! I always consider North Jersey to be anything east and west of the Passaic-Hackensack river system. In other words, if you were to draw a line from the southernmost portion of Newark Bay and extend it westward, everything above that line would Northern Jersey. I’d say that Central New Jersey extends down to Trenton, and of course below that you get South Jersey. I think coastal NJ differs in flavor from inland New Jersey too. Can’t say that Warren County has much in common with Essex, even though both are northern. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/68 "2004-03-26T16:42:38Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > I always assumed that when people talk about “Jersey” as a place to be fashionably disdained, they just meant the bedroom communities in a relatively small portion of the state, across the river from NYC. I live in one of those bedroom communities (I can see the Empire State Building from my living room window) and it’s really quite lovely. Lots of 19th-century buildings (mine was built in 1829), as well as early 20th-century bungalows and a few new McMansions. Wide streets, gardens, trees, safe to walk around at night. Even has a very cool old graveyard. And I pay 1/10 the rent my Manhattan friends do, and maybe 1/2 the rent of my Brooklyn friends. ---
**Author:** ![jeevmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jeevmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevmon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/69 "2004-03-26T19:03:55Z")
> [@jeevwoman](#): > > I have to agree with you on that. Chicago has street signs everywhere, but it’s never clear if the name of the street is where you are, where you are turning on to, or where the diagonal street is. It is ridiculous. Oh, puh-leez. The signs in Chicago are always parallel to the street that they identify. So if you can read the sign saying “Division,” that means you are crossing Division. It’s really very easy. I understand that you’ve only really been driving regularly in Chicago for about a year, but still, it’s not that hard. And what’s so great about a state that doesn’t let you pump your own gas? ---
**Author:** ![Meros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Meros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meros)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/70 "2004-03-26T20:31:13Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Rush hours traffic congestion, Rts. 295, 55, 42, 78, 278, 80 … forgot 676, 76, 168, 130, 70, 30… Hell, come 5:00 the entire south half of the state is nothing but a huge parking lot. And if no one else has mentioned this…you can’t leave without paying. ---
**Author:** ![jeevwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@jeevwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevwoman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/71 "2004-03-26T20:43:42Z")
> [@jeevmon](#): > > Oh, puh-leez. The signs in Chicago are always parallel to the street that they identify. So if you can read the sign saying “Division,” that means you are crossing Division. It’s really very easy. I understand that you’ve only really been driving regularly in Chicago for about a year, but still, it’s not that hard. > > And what’s so great about a state that doesn’t let you pump your own gas? Oh, shut up! Illini need not respond to this thread; you may only lurk. 😃 And it’s not to not pump your own gas when it is 30 degrees out and there’s a blizzard. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/72 "2004-03-26T20:46:04Z")
> [@Meros](#): > > And if no one else has mentioned this…you can’t leave without paying. sure you can, if you take 95 to Yardley, or the bridge at Washington Crossing, or the bridge from Lambertville to New Hope. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/73 "2004-03-26T21:25:10Z")
> [@Meros](#): > > forgot 676, 76, 168, 130, 70, 30… > > Hell, come 5:00 the entire south half of the state is nothing but a huge parking lot. > And if no one else has mentioned this…you can’t leave without paying. 676 and 76? You mean the Schuylkill Expressway and offshoot? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109/74 "2004-03-26T21:51:17Z")
> [@Omnipresent](#): > > Being from the NE corner of the state and, sitting here right now as I write, I can say that, there always has seemed to be confusion as to what is North Jersey and South Jersey. I have two different mental geographic breakdowns for the state: [ul] [li]North Jersey: north of I-195[/li][li]South Jersey: south of I-195[/li][/ul] or, to break it down further: [ul] [li]North Jersey: north of the Raritan Bridge [/li][li]South Jersey: south of Bayville[/li][li]Central Jersey: in between those two[/li][/ul] > [@Omnipresent](#): > > …anything below the Raritan Bridge is Southern NJ. Guess it’s pretty much a matter of perception. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-new-jersey/236109.md?page=3)