A Marine Biologist I know sent me to this place.
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.
lol. I like NJ cuz we have 4 seasons. It's a temperate zone. It's a little sticky sometimes in summer, but not anywhere near as bad as Balt/DC or farther south. It's a little cold sometimes in winter, but nothing like Minnesota. We get some snowstorms, but not as bad as Buffalo. We get beautiful autumns. Maybe not Vermont-class, but very pretty and comfortable.
Keep looking then! I don't want to end up at Sandy Hook!
I'm from New York, and it has always been "Jerzey" to me.
Ahhhhh, North Jersey. I see. South Jersey is the best.
The funny thing is, I have met people from other states, such as Indiana, who swear to me they've heard folks from NJ say "Joisey", yet I know no one actually from NJ who has heard the same. Maybe New Jerseyans just like messing with people's minds..
In the interests of fairness, NJ did have two things I miss terribly: the hot dogs (all the way, of course) at the Hot Grill on Lexington Ave in Clifton, and Taylor's Meat Pies (IIRC, Passaic, but it's been a long time), the latter being mainly an acquired taste and a truly brutal addiction once acquired.
We definitley have great food.
Ping! Didn't know if you'd seen this. ;>)
Monthly average temperatures for NJ last 70 years....
In degrees Farenheit
January - 31.2
February - 31.9
March - 40.3
April - 50.6
May - 61.0
June - 69.8
July - 74.5
August - 73.1
September - 66.3
October - 55.4
November - 45.1
December - 34.4
Daytime only temps would be several degrees higher.
Couldn't have said it better myself!!!
It's a liberal state. Duh. Doesn't bother me. Like I say, you give something up for everything you gain. I'd rather have a great life with small inconveniences from the gubmint, then have great gubmint and an unfulfilling life. For me, the gubmint of NJ is quite tolerable. And if this is about as bad as gubmint gets, as some of you suggest, then I have nothing to worry about, because I'm quite happy.
I went to a couple of the Phil shows this past run, at Hammerstein in NYC and at the Tower Theater in PA. Great shows, great band, great times.
It's almost impossible to get a decent hot dog or NY-style pizza in Florida, or at least in the section I am in. The barbecue joint on every corner sort of makes up for it though. But yeah, miss those hot dogs badly.
Well, I lived on Staten Island for a couple of months in 2002 and every Italian American was dressed like that. I have noticed similar levels of sartorial elegance in certain parts of Jersey...
I am involved and have been since 1981. Speaking personally, I don't want people like you here no matter how you vote. I'd rather have a Democrat living here who actually gives a damn about where they live than someone like you who is just filling up space and biding time until they get out.
Besides your precious vote, what do you do (in tangible terms) to make New Jersey and Somerset County a better place to live ???
The pizza thing is no surprise. I'm curious about hot dogs though. How tough is it to make a hot dog? Im a chili dog man, myself. I mean, it's a hot weiner on a bun. How do they get that wrong?? As for pizza, if you grow up in NJ, you get the best pizza in the country. Forget NY. NJ has the goods. It makes it hard to eat pizza anywhere else. Forget the midwest, or the west. they havent got a clue.
A Marine Biologist I know sent me to this place.
I feel what you're saying. People should take pride in where they live or get the hell out. What kind of loser lives somewhere that makes them miserable?
And you admit to it?
I'm not sure if you are familiar with this site----
Live Archives--
http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?collection=etree&cat=Phil%20Lesh%20and%20Friends
Here ya go- 699 Phil Lesh Live shows you can download.
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