Posted on 03/09/2006 6:48:25 AM PST by Huck
Who's laughing now?
New Jersey, the state that spawned a thousand wise-guy bumper stickers and became the butt of a million late-night jokes, is actually a nice place to live.
The research group Morgan Quitno crunched the numbers this year and yesterday ranked New Jersey the fifth-most-livable state.
As for its neighbors?
Pennsylvania finished 30th, New York 32d.
"The people we talk to say they wouldn't live anywhere else, and I have to go along with that," said Mark Moran, a Bloomfield resident and one of the editors of Weird New Jersey magazine. "Whether it grows on you or people just don't know any better, I don't know."
New Jersey has long had a tragically poor reputation, earned by corrupt politicians, homicidal mobsters (real and fictional), surreal traffic patterns (who invented the jughandle, anyway?), toxic waste, and big hair.
The state's image has been so bad that even then-acting Gov. Richard Codey took the time last year to rollick in some of the more humorous entries in his public slogan contest.
Among the favorites: "New Jersey: You got a problem with that?" and "New Jersey: Most of our elected officials have not been indicted."
Morgan Quitno, a Kansas-based publisher of statistical data, based its rankings on 44 factors, and New Jersey shined in many.
The state moved up from eighth place a year ago. New Hampshire was judged the most livable state for the third year in a row.
The study determined that New Jersey has excellent schools; an educated, wealthy population; and relatively low rates of crime and poverty.
"We don't claim to be finding the most exciting place or the best place to take a vacation," said Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno. "It's just looking at very basic things. Other people can choose to look at other factors."
In other words, the things that make Jersey so Jersey didn't count against it. (Except for the toxic waste: Morgan found New Jersey had the most "hazardous waste sites on the National Priority List per 10,000 square miles.")
Moran also noted that if auto insurance and property tax rates had been considered, New Jersey's ranking would have sunk like a stone.
But in Morgan Quitno's world, livability is measured by factors such as student-teacher ratios and per-capita spending on the arts, and New Jersey excelled in both.
For Moran, there is no conflict in a state's combining livability with a tradition for the weird and absurd.
"You've got to take the good with the bad," he said. "The fact that it's such an odd and unique place... certainly makes it more livable for me."
Morgan visited the state last year and made a swing through Camden, the city his publishing company has famously labeled the most dangerous the last two years.
"We didn't advertise who we were," he said.
1. Immigration (to the sunbelt from Mexico) and 2. Cheap housing in the sunbelt. Those of us willing to pay a bit more for civilization prefer the NY.NJ area thank you very much. Hope you hayseeds enjoy Applebees and sitting in your car just to pick up some milk!
I've been to CA. Big Sur was my favorite trip there.
CA doesn't have community outlets that I require to live. Like my much needed ethnic delis. I actually left NJ for 5 or 6 years. I went into massive withdrawal. It was a terrible sight. Needed my ethnic food fix.
>>>but something tells me the NJ-ites turn their noses up at the state.
Where did I imply this in any of my posts?
LOL
Actually, that toll (on I-80 at the Water Gap) is collected by a PA/NJ joint effort and shared by both states.
Whistler is in the Canadian Rockies, no?
Keep it up. I'll go get some popcorn
I didn't say you shouldn't comment. I said it doesn't seem very God-fearing to be a rude jerk. That's what you are. A rude jerk. Hope that's clear enough so you don't get confused.
For what? Not squandering precious time on earth watching teevee shows?
You didn't, but look at 122.
One wonders why they wouldn't include things like taxes and vehicle insurance rates (inclusive of accidents, theft, etc.) in determining the "liveability" of the states? God knows topics like those two are discussed around dinnertables each night.
It would also be interesting to see how crime rates (which have plummeted in shall-issue states like Florida...) were factored into this report. Many once-great cities of New Jersey like East Orange, Camden, Trenton, Newark, Plainfield, Irvington, Paterson, and others cannot be visited by normal residents. This is especially true after daylight hours.
~ Blue Jays ~
Their just moving away from Democrats and moving toward Republicans in PA
You totally don't get it. You don't see them moving to Pittsburgh do you? Know why? Cuz a 10 hour commute to NJ would be murder! They aren't running away from NJ. They are expanding NJ. In effect, the reach of NJ is spreading to Eastern PA. They are staying as close to NJ as possible because they work here.
Blah blah. Same old litany. You can't go into Birmingham Alabama at night either.
Actually, those towns are dangerous during daylight hours, too.
Besides, EVERY REGION OF THE COUNTRY that is experiencing economic growth is beset by the effects of illegal immigration. THere are signs in Spanish where my sister lives in South Carolina. At least Spanish is an easy language, the nabe I lived in in Brooklyn had signs in Arabic!
Essex, Union, and Hudson are the urban counties of the state. IMHO, the immigrants have actually IMPROVED much of Newark, Jersey City, Bloomfield, etc. Do you really think that Linden (until recently the redoubt of english-speaking whites and blacks) were really great places to live before the current wave of immigration?
I've lived most of my life in the northeast, with dad hailing from Newark and ma from Jersey City. I know the state very well. In my nearly 30 years, the bad areas (East Orange, Irvington, Paterson) are the same as when I was a child, and the good areas remain good areas. As a matter of fact, even some formerly bad areas (parts of New Brunswick, Jersey City, even Newark) have actually improved.
Could be. Don't know. That must be eastern Washington?
It was one of the "new state slogan" threads. That was hilarious.
That's good. Ignorance is bliss.
That's my impression, too.
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