| Author | Message | ||
     Michael Janay Citizen Username: Childprotect Post Number: 1450 Registered: 1-2003  |
NJ vs LI 6 of one, half dozen of the other. | ||
| Jay060 Citizen Username: Jay060 Post Number: 101 Registered: 8-2003 |
I'm from LI too. It's better, but not by much. At least there you can find a decent restaurant and you really are close to the beach | ||
| Pippi Supporter Username: Pippi Post Number: 642 Registered: 8-2003  |
I have to disagree. Of course, this is coming from someone who grew up in STATEN ISLAND!! but really, I feel like NJ is much better than LI. In fact, I used to have a negative opinion of NJ, but since moving here a year and a half ago, I have come to really appreciate what NJ has to offer. | ||
| Phenixrising Citizen Username: Phenixrising Post Number: 311 Registered: 9-2004 |
I love New Jersey, but hate the property taxes  | ||
| Ukealalio Citizen Username: Ukealalio Post Number: 1681 Registered: 6-2003 |
As a Native Nu Yawka (Da Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Bklyn), I always said I would never live in Joisey. Still not crazy bout Joisey but LOVE Maplewood/South Orange. | ||
| Wendyn Supporter Username: Wendyn Post Number: 1254 Registered: 9-2002 |
Jay, if you have any advice as to fun things to do with 2 year old twins, please let us know. I am always looking for new things to do with my toddlers. Also would be interested in hearing your list of better places to live. Seriously, I'm curious. I wouldn't mind being a west-coaster, maybe San Francisco area, but that is about the only place I can think of where I would be as happy as NJ. I still can't figure out why people would rather be miserable in NJ (or anywhere) than happy elsewhere. My family in Texas make a lot less than I do, but their 3000 sq ft house cost $200k. If I wanted to live there I could take a pay cut and be as/more comfortable. Unfortunately, Texas sucks so that won't happen. | ||
| Mark Fuhrman Citizen Username: Mfpark Post Number: 1138 Registered: 9-2001  |
"When my boys were little (say 2 and 4) it was a Sunday morning treat...sit on the rider mowers at Home Depot and go for waffles across the street at Manny's." Kids riding lawnmowers out of HD and across SA to Manny's sounds pretty hair-raising and scary to me too! | ||
| Joe Citizen Username: Gonets Post Number: 613 Registered: 2-2004 |
Michael, Why can't you move your company? | ||
| Earlster Supporter Username: Earlster Post Number: 864 Registered: 8-2003  |
PROS: Maplewood Our Neighbors Diversity Culture Sidewalks (in MWD) Towns with Villages, not just strip malls NYC Good connections to europe Liberal  CONS: Expensive Dirty Crowded Polutted Traffic Too humid in the summer Car insurance ripoff Crazy drivers To far from real mountains Not to many jobs in my industry To hectic | ||
| Derek Citizen Username: Derek Post Number: 111 Registered: 5-2003  |
Between NJ & LI, my wife and I couldn't stomach living in LI. I'm glad we made that decision. Too many nauseating memories from grade school. While I stil visit to see my parents and sister and her family, I'd prefer just to visit. You'll never find anyone wearing a t-shirt or button that says, "Long Island Proud." | ||
| Derek Citizen Username: Derek Post Number: 112 Registered: 5-2003 |
Earlster, You can probably apply most of your CONS to living in NYC as well. | ||
| Pippi Supporter Username: Pippi Post Number: 643 Registered: 8-2003 |
I think most of the cons (with the exception of dirty and polluted, perhaps) can be said about a lot of areas around major cities all over the country (and the world). This topic begs the question: where WOULD you live? | ||
| Wendyn Supporter Username: Wendyn Post Number: 1255 Registered: 9-2002 |
If you decide to move: http://www.bestplaces.net/default.aspx | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 1064 Registered: 9-2003  |
I'm no fan, and hadda move here for work. Property taxes and housing prices completely blow. Plenty of other places have access to culture, etc. -- and, you can actually afford to do all those cool things when you live somewhere else! The provincialism bugs me some (same for NYC), and the perverse pride in living with things that one shouldn't have to. It's like battered citizen syndrome or something... | ||
| Zoesky1 Citizen Username: Zoesky1 Post Number: 639 Registered: 6-2003 |
Allow me to rebut you, Michael Janay: No customer service anywhere: Uh, have you traveled around the country much? Do you really think they have good customer service ANYWHERE nowadays? Besides, I find NJ is full of diverse population, many of them recent immigrants eager to climb the ladder and gain entree to the American Dream...these people will bend over backwards for you. Many of the people who pump your gas, clean your houses and check your stuff out at the store are charming and well-met people with a story to tell! Rude people: see above Expensive: yes, but salaries are higher here in turn Dirty: uh, not really. yes, Newark and Paterson are dirty but so are most older industrial cities. we have less heavy industry than many other more polluted places. do you really think the slag heaps of Pittsburgh or the paper mills of Washington State are cleaner? Plus our Democratically led government will at least crack down on polluters long before the red states... Old: Why is this bad? Give me authentic character ANY DAY over cookie-cutter suburbs, new strip malls or featureless, characterless, anonymous buildings Crowded: yes...but we are in the East Coast metropolis. this is the price we pay for access to culture, good jobs, etc. Besides, we can drive in less than one day and be in the wilds of Vermont, the Adirondacks, West Virginia, etc. Polutted: not really (see above) Crappy beaches in comparison to just about anywhere in the country (and I love the Jersey shore, but I've been to many other places and realize that in comparison, the shore sucks) : not as bad as the beaches in Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming...well, you get the point Corupt : compared to Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Connecticut...? THOSE places are corrupt I can't pump my own gas! I hate that! What's wrong with sitting in a nice warm car in the winter or a nice cool car in the summer and having someone do it for you (while paying less than in most of the nation!)?!?! Traffic: Compared to many places -- LA, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago -- our traffic isn't bad. And we can take relatively decent mass transit to NYC. Too cold in the winter and too humid in the summer: Not compared to Minnesota or Louisiana... Car insurance ripoff : OK, you got me... The DMV or is it MVS now : was there ever a good DMV, ever? Crazy drivers : I will concede this point. Clueless pedestrians: Kind of... But I think on the last few concerns, these are arguably relatively minor points. I think NJ is, overall, a better place to live than most other states. Take out the property taxes, and I'd never consider leaving. | ||
| Pippi Supporter Username: Pippi Post Number: 644 Registered: 8-2003 |
to take this further: ten years ago, my sister and her family moved from the NYC area to Maine, for a change of pace for her family. Close to beautiful mountains, gorgeous ocean (not great swimming beaches,but fishing and sailing).... BUT very high unemployment, a dearth of culture, and a lack of diversity. sometimes you can't have everything. what's important to you? | ||
| notehead Supporter Username: Notehead Post Number: 1865 Registered: 5-2001  |
In North Jersey, our good points are really good (tons of culture, diversity, every possible kind of product or service is available, etc.) but our bad points are a major drag (cost of living, overdevelopment, pollution, crime, noise, etc.) I sometimes wonder how many days of my life will be truncated by the chemical- and jet exhaust-laden air on the Turnpike. I think the single thing I most dislike about living here is the intensity. This can be positive, but seems to generally be more negative. People are so much more tense, and more demanding of others and themselves. Anyone who has done a fair amount of travelling will have observed that in many other parts of the U.S. and the world, people are simply less stressed. I recall hearing that heart attacks are substantially more frequent in the NYC metro area than elsewhere in the country -- that should tell you something. We would do well to adopt a few European habits: smaller food portions, more walking, and less time at the office. | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 1065 Registered: 9-2003 |
Wendyn, the link is COOL! I just compared my old locale (Newark DE) to Maplewood, and then looked at other places I've lived... | ||
| Wendyn Supporter Username: Wendyn Post Number: 1256 Registered: 9-2002 |
Funny I just took the "find your best place" quiz for the link I gave above (here is the actual quiz link): http://www.bestplaces.net/fybp/ And San Francisco topped my list. Funny that it is the first place I would consider moving. Of course for the $500k that my house is worth I couldn't buy a shack there. Boston was #2 (which I would consider if it weren't so cold). Strangest on the list: Syracuse NY where I went to college. Um, no. | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 1066 Registered: 9-2003 |
I like Baltimore area, and it came up high on my list...not very finely tuned, though (big metro areas...) I saw in spades some of my issues related to housing and such -- and why my "relo package" was horribly, horribly inadequate to live up here. Salaries are higher in metro NYC, but COLA is WAY higher... |
