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.
hmmm, it could be the largest road side memorial!
We weed out the ones that can't handle it and send them to remedial states.
I hear they now have gang problems in Bucks County. No gang problems where I live in NJ!
NJ seems expensive. Buddy of mine for the same price house pays 4 times what I do in property taxes.
Surveyed people who don't live here.
LOL! He only made it to Hoboken. If he'd made it further inland, he'd have been fine! Washington headquartered in NJ!
A Lexus costs more than a Hyundia.
Ahhh! Thank you Clemenza! ::blushes::
That cemetary is 146 years old.
http://www.oldnewark.com/cemeteries/holysepulchre.htm
My continuous gripe is how Counties like Hudson, Essex and recently Union are becoming catch-basins for legal and illegal immigration (and too much unskilled, cheap labor). I'm starting to see more Spanish-speaking advertisement and finding more and more people moving into this area that can't speak a lick of English while the local governments seem to cater to them, plus the living standard is going way down. Makes me sick.
Did I tell you that my parents live in Boca?
Florida and Texas are bigger than Jersey and have more personal freedom. But you can't get a fried hot dog in Florida and the only hills in Florida are garbage dumps.
All that and much more can be said in favor of, say, California, but something tells me the NJ-ites turn their noses up at the state.
You mean there's not really a Tony & Carmella Soprano living somewhere in North Jersey? Com'on...don't be messing with me now!
I'm with Huck. I love it here (northern Morris County).
I hear ya. As I said to someone else, personal freedom is something you take for yourself, you don't ask for permission, so I really don't care what the gubmint says. As it is, I don't really feel any more restricted in NJ than in other states, so I have no complaints about it. My congressman has a 100 ACU rating, for what that's worth. As far as the taxes, yeah, property taxes are high, but I have a nice, comfortable, modest lifestyle, so I can easily handle it. I teach guitar for a living, and play gigs, and NJ is a great place to be because the population is large enough to support my vocation. How does anyone make it in a state like Wyoming where there aren't even 1 million people? I like the options you get in a place like NJ, and for me they are worth the tradeoffs.
I'm serious. Hell, for me, not being a subscriber to HBO, there isn't even a fictional Tony Soprano! He doesn't exist at all!
Nothern/West morris is nice. Netcong, Jefferson Twp, Rockaway Twp, etc. I'm way up near High Point.
Each reason has its plusses and minuses. We all think where we are from is the best unless we have fled to another state.
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