Sorry for the bad use of the English language.
Why does New Jersey have such a bad reputation? It is known as an awful place. I personally love it there. In fact, I’m going there in two weeks.
Why no love for Jersey?
If you have to ask, you’ll never know. 
Because folks have no taste. New Jersey is a fine place, albeit cramped especially in light of living in Colorado for the past two years, and people are simply working off of decade old jokes and references which are not relevant anymore to the great Garden State.
The Jersey shore is one of the finest in the nation, the food is better than most places and there’s the stranger side of New Jersey. If you live in New Jersey you’re only a couple of hours away from the major metropolises of Philadelphia, New York City and if you really want to stretch Washington D.C…
I left New Jersey because it ended up being too damned expensive and I will be back.
I currently have no love for them b/c their oh-so-classy fans booed Guigere when they announced that he was getting the Conn Smythe, even as the Devils players were applauding the decision.
Before that? I guess I’ll go with the fact that every person I’ve met from Jersey is an arrogant narcissistic prick. YMMV, of course. 
Jersey is the only place I’ve ever been in my life where you were expected to pay to go on public beaches. How tacky is that? (Then when we did get to go onto a free beach, the seafoam left an oily residue :eek:.)
You must not have gone to Island Beach State Park. It’s beautiful.
Several years ago when we took the family to California for vacation, the kids were very disappointed in the beaches.
Any “stuff” that’s on the beach washes in from New York, I believe. The water quality standards for NJ beaches (and they are tested constantly) is higher than most. If it’s not good, they shut down the area for public access.
The free beach issue is with us constantly. On the one hand, huge numbers of people come to the beach. Not all of them clean up after themselves. Local homeowners resent having to do so or to pay to have it done, so they want to charge a fee. And of course you need to provide sanitary facilities for all the day-trippers. On the other hand, there is now a law, I believe, that says the beach itself is public and a fee cannot be charged. So parking and changing facility charges have become very high.
Island Beach State Park charges a minimal fee per car, even less if there is an old person in the car. We used to drive to the nearby town where my parents lived, put one grandparent in our car and the other in their own car, and split up the rest of the family between the two cars. We got into the park for almost nothing. When the grandparents had enough sun for the day they got in their own car and went home.
Sorry you don’t like me, Dooku. I’ve always been polite to you, and I’m not even a hockey fan. At least we’re not like Arizona, where when their team won the World Series they had a riot instead of a victory parade!
Why does it have a bad reputation? Because the crappiest parts are right near the airport and the city. You’ve got a nice base of overly dense population, with some highlights of standard urban decayal mixed with a massive port mixed with chemical refineries. And don’t forget that nature kicks in its share with some fun swamplands.
OTOH, I don’t know how anyone who drives through the state would say it’s crappy. It’s at least as nice as Connecticut, which has a sterling reputation.
You’re right, SF. It’s only people who don’t get off the Turnpike who have a poor opinion. It was a good enough state for Doris Duke, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Malcolm Forbes, and of course, let’s not forget Richard Nixon. On second thought, maybe let’s forget Richard Nixon.
When I die, bury me low,
Where I can hear the petroleum flow…
Actually, the NW corner of the state is rather nice. Hardly any petroleum plants at all.
So is the central and the southern. IMHO it’s only the part around the entrance to NYC and Newark Airport that is unpleasant.
The northern half of the NJ Turnpike, which runs New York-Phillly, is quite ugly and industrial. Most people driving through New Jersey only see that, and think the whole state’s like that. Route 1&9, which people drive on going from Newark Airport, is even more spectacularly ugly. But most of the state’s a pleasant giant suburb, with nice rural areas thrown in. (I do think we need to work on the whole city thing, though.)
Kind of on the same vein, but what is there to do in New Jersey. It would be even better if it was good for a three year old and a two year old.
I admit, having only seen New Jersey driving from Newark to New York en route to Connecticut, I was not impressed with the Meadowlands and the gray drabness and uglyness and so forth. And staying at a hotel in Newark for a night before a flight was very scary as well. And I hate the turnpike - I had to pee for three states and we stop and all the freakin’ urinals were closed off! WTF!?
But I’m sure the rest’s nice.
New Jersey rocks! I live over the river in Pennsy, but I’m in Jersey pretty frequently for work and seeing relatives/friends. Spent plenty of summers hanging out in Wildwood & Ocean City, camping in Wharton State Forest & hiking the Watchung rez, going to the fair in Flemington, the flea-market in Pennsauken, wandering the back streets of dirty Paterson with my cousins, and buying Slurpees at Cumberland Farms. I subscribe to Weird NJ. I have an E-Z pass. Sometimes I even root for the Devils.
New Jersey is a surreal state. The northern half is nothing like the southern half. It’s one of the most densely populated states in the nation, and it’s still filled with nature preserves and wild places. You aren’t allowed to pump your own gas. The people of Jersey are a varied bunch- the wanna-be New Yorkers with their sunglasses on their heads, the Pineys with their apple jack, the urban contingent sittin’ on the stoop, the harried commuters and their endless cellphones, the year-round shore folk with the sand in their yards, the Mafia-types, the ancient deli owners and junkyard operators: it’s a great place, from Chemical Alley to Cape May. I love NJ!
Amen, ratty! I was brought up in a wealthy small town near Atlantic City, and most of my friends were from there or one of the neighboring towns (Brigantine, Ventnor, Margate, Longport, Somers Point, etc). My boyfriend was born and raised in Ocean City! I also very fondly remember day trips to Cape May, Wildwood, NYC, and Seaside Heights. The southern half of New Jersey is far more beautiful than the north. There are glittering beaches and stretches of boardwalk, local eateries, well-kept suburbs and small towns, beautiful forests, and I’ve never heard anyone with a"Jersey accent". I remember watching a show as a child where one character was on the Moon and made a joke, “It’s just like New Jersey, only more trees.” I was absolutely perplexed by the thought of Jersey having no trees- I grew up on 4 acres of forest!
Yay ratty!
This I would agree with.
And if you’re interested, try a search. We’ve had many threads on the whole New Jersey thing already.
RandMcnally: I’d love to answer your question…but WHERE in Jersey are you going? It’s a whole state. I know you’re a Californian and all, but the little East Coast states are still too big to be treated as single places. Except for Rhode Island. And Delaware. But Delaware doen’t really exist anyway, so no matter.
New Jersey. It has beaches, forests for you hikin’ fools, lakes, streams, and even little hilly things we call Mounts. (Mount Laurel, Mount Holly, etc.)
Hold on you Southern NJ snobs. 
I live in Northern NJ. My house is on 2 1/2 acres backed by thousands of acres of State land in the Ramapo Mountains. I’m 45 minutes from the George Washington Bridge, 10 minutes from the NY state border and 15 from Sterling Forest, the site of the annual Rennaisance Fair. My town is 70% open land and reservoirs.
The area to the east, around Westwood Rivervale to the Palisades, while heavily populated, is lush, open and dotted with reservoirs.
The “Northern” you refer to is a narrow strip along the Hudson from about Bayonne to the GWB.
Well, how about taking them to the beach? There are miles and miles of the Jersey shore.
If you like amusement parks, there’s Great Adventure, near Jackson, NJ.
If you want something more educational, try Liberty State Park, which includes the Liberty Science Center.
For just pretty stuff, consider
Duke Gardens, created by the millionaire heiress Doris Duke. You can only tour the greenhouse gardens in fall, winter and spring, but they are starting tours of the grounds this summer.
Cape May is very nice also, with a nice beach and a cute town full of interesting Victorian gingerbread houses.
You can always pop across the river and see the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, too.
You can find lots of stuff through your normal search engines. Try starting at New Jersey Travel and Tourism.