Comments on: I’m Sorry, New Jersey

By: queuno

queuno — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:24:26 +0000

I do have to say that the “Pine Barrens” episode from the Sopranos showed a pretty woodsy area in New Jersey.

By: annegb

annegb — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:09:32 +0000

Perhaps you could send a small token of gratitude to the garbage department, some cupcakes or something. Perhaps a check. Or you could pay it forward and take your kids out to clean up a stretch of highway.

Frankly, I think you were between a rock and a hard place and sometimes these emergencies necessitate bad behavior.

By: Grace

Grace — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:45:13 +0000

Apart from the rather unfortunate cities of Trenton, Newark, and Camden, I would have to agree that the majority of New Jersey is really quite pretty. And when one is penned in on all sides by these locales, as well as NYC and Philadelphia, that’s no small feat!

By: hawkgrrrl

hawkgrrrl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:49:35 +0000

What a great story! Way to “man up” and do the right thing for your fam!

And there are some very lovely places in Jersey. They are just surrounded by trashy heaps of toxic waste (your vomit bags may go unnoticed), impossibly pink houses, and fecal-laden grime. When I lived there, on our way to church we would always pass this one tributary that was a favorite “sleeps with the fishes” locale; many a Sunday we noted they were “dragging the river” again!

By: KLeeT

KLeeT — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:44:46 +0000

New Jersey can be nice. Just compare it to NYC, and even Newark can seem nice. Hoboken has improved considerably. Northern and Western NJ are very pleasant.
I’ve had to work in NJ during the week for the last two years, so I have a natural bias against NJ. Secaucus is not the area of the state with the refineries. NJ’s areas for oil refineries are much better than Houston (or the rest Texas’s Oil Coast) [and it just may be that I have higher expectations of Texas over either NJ or Utah. In either condition it’s the cracking/refining of oil /gas that smells bad. Large cities smell bad most of the time.
In the spring and early summer it’s easier to see NJ as a garden or farm environment. I suspect that NJ keeps the toll-road areas trashy to discourage visitors from hanging around. It’s not the most friendly of places :-)

By: cordeiro

cordeiro — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:32:12 +0000

I think you’d best be worried about being cited for unauthorized disposal of toxic waste. At least you weren’t heaving overloaded soiled diapers out the driver’s side window.

By: Devyn S.

Devyn S. — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:48:19 +0000

Too funny Tagore. I was on the NJ turnpike last week for work. It is ugly, but when you deviate from it, NJ is a pretty state. It is one of the most picked on states in the country – similar to West Virginia. Not a lot of love going to those states.

By: Left Field

Left Field — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:34:33 +0000

New Jersey is primarily rural countryside between I-287 and the Delaware River and between I-295 and the Atlantic Ocean. That looks to be about 90% of the state. Of course, most of the population and nearly all the visitors passing through are concentrated in the Philadelphia-New York corridor that makes up the remaining 10%.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:15:46 +0000

New Jersey is actually very pretty, except for Secaucus, which sometimes smells as you drive down the turnpike. I just like to pick on the state. :)

By: Megan

Megan — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:44:21 +0000

New Jersey is lovely. Anyone who doesn’t believe just hasn’t been to the right part (the wrong parts being any city in NJ, pretty much). But almost everywhere else, really, is quite nice.