New Jersey Gets No Respect

As usual, the NY Times has a piece degrading something, this time it is New Jersey. The writer states:

Anyone who has ever driven on the New Jersey Turnpike knows that, at a certain point in the road, the entire Manhattan skyline appears to rise from the surrounding marshland like a close-yet-so-far Land of Oz, both tempting and terrorizing with its mysterious jutting cutouts. To traverse this roadway, as ... surely did as a young man, was undoubtedly to exist in a constant state of aspiration and alienation. No matter one’s personal glories, for those who call New Jersey home, and especially those who reside in Northern New Jersey, it’s difficult to forget that one is still not from “the city,” as the landmass across the river is known. Overcompensation tends to follow. Blind arrogance is an occasional byproduct.

Now I was not born nor bred in New Jersey. It was Staten Island, and yes for those in the rest of NY City Staten Island is a Borough and is NYC! Thus I was born and bred, whatever that means, in New York City. I did spend time in New Jersey, riding my bike across the old Goethals Bridge, down to Route 1 and out to the old Newark Airport, Lockheed Constellations and all. We did have a ferry to NYC, and a ferry to Brooklyn. No one really ever went to Brooklyn, it was also a little ferry, and an ugly one at that, not the grand ferry to Manhattan.

Residing in Northern New Jersey is also interesting. You see that from the Morris County line to the California border, county by county, it voted Republican. Not saying that it was all Republican but it is interesting to note the dramatic difference.

The above mentioned article, an ad hominem attack on someone allegedly born and bred in New Jersey, Livingston I believe, it is an adjacent town but a different county, all Democrats, is also an attack on anyone in New Jersey. Now New Jersey is not that bad, in fact it can be very livable. The people are generally friendly, similar to Staten Island. We had our notables on Todt Hill, "death" hill if you read Dutch, and in my town we had a similar family, if you get my gist. So it was like home.

The only problem in New Jersey is taking a train to New York City. It was easier to travel from St Petersburg to Moscow during the Russian Revolution than getting from my town to NYC. But then they had a Communist Revolution we have Amtrak and New York State. Go figguah.

For the many who may have never been in New Jersey, or for those limited to the Turnpike or Newark Airport, try a trip west. The Delaware river, the rising hills, the forests and preserved lands, go south to the pine lands. Not too bad. And unlike NYC, one can escape from New Jersey quite easily. We have roads. At one point the Turnpike has a total of sixteen lanes, yes eight in each direction. Road maintenance is at night so as not to slow traffic. That is the opposite of Connecticut, where two lane roads are closed at random times to trim a tree, resulting in hours of delay. Or the same in Pennsylvania.

So to the writer who seems to have an inferiority complex of birth in New Jersey, give it a rest! You had no choice, I did. It sure beats Connecticut!

Oh yes, "blind arrogance", it seems that the arrogance is on the other foot, the one who wrote this piece.