History UsefulNotes / NewJersey

In other words, New Jersey is home to the second-largest and third-densest city on the East Coast, it's just that it's divided into five counties and 141 separate municipalities... because Jersey likes "towns" and "local rule". This tradition goes back to the TheGayNineties, when the arrival of commuter rail led to the development of northern New Jersey's first suburbs, and conflict between new suburbanites and the "old guard" of farmers in the region (short version: the suburbanites wanted schools and infrastructure in their bedroom communities and local control over them, and the farmers didn't want to spend the tax dollars for it) led to the passage of new laws in 1894 that made it much easier for small communities to break away from townships and form "boroughs". Bergen County alone (where this trend was most concentrated) has seventy separate municipalities as a result of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boroughitis "boroughitis"]] that swept the state in 1894 and '95, and throughout the state, there exist many towns formed under the borough system that are completely surrounded by the townships they seceded from. This in turn made it hard for New Jersey's major urban centers to do what most other cities in the U.S. did: annex territory into the cities. This created problems for NJ's cities down the road (as it left them particularly vulnerable to white flight and other problems that caused narrowing of the tax base). Add this to the fact that New Jersey municipalities are forbidden from raising revenue through any means other than property taxes[[note]]With one very narrow exception that allows Newark and ''maybe'' Jersey City to levy a payroll tax, but that's it[[/note]] and you have a recipe for urban decline.\\

* Gary Brolsma (the "Numa Numa" guy, from Saddle Brook)

** '''Little India''': A quick note: north-central Middlesex County, particularly Edison and Iselin,[[note]]Iselin being the northwestern portion of Woodbridge Township[[/note]], but also Carteret and Avenel, is heavily populated by Indian-Americans and others from the Subcontinent. The community formed as a result of the research and medical industries in the area (immediately northeast of New Brunswick, with its university and pharmaceutical and chemical companies--did we mention that Johnson & Johnson is headquartered in New Brunswick?), with Indian students and immigrant researchers who came in the 1970s-90s settling down and forming a community; today, Edison in particular is nearly 30% Indian. Since Indians tend to speak English, there isn't as much an issue of ballots being provided in... well... there's another problem (lots of languages in India), although Middlesex County does have ballots with Gujarati. That said, the main street in Iselin is noted to always smell of curry, Indian languages are commonly spoken, and the Metropark station (the New Jersey Transit rail and Amtrak station around there) is usually festooned with ads (some written entirely in Hindi) for Indian television shows or other India-related products/services and will always have at least one Indian person on the platform during working hours. Always.
** '''The Amboys''': Sitting on either side of the Raritan at its mouth, Perth Amboy and South Amboy are the old centers of colonial Middlesex County. Perth Amboy in particular was the colonial capital for 90 years (from 1686 to 1776), although it had to share the dignity with Burlington from 1702 on. It was later overshadowed by other cities (most particularly New Brunswick), but today the Amboys are home to a thriving Hispanic community: 78% of residents of Perth Amboy identified as Hispanic or Latino in the 2010 Census, and immigration keeps the population rising. The Amboys are a particularly strong center of the Puerto Rican community in New Jersey, with a large Puerto Rican population and a large stock of Puerto Rican businesses and politicians.

** '''Ocean Grove:''' Directly south of Asbury Park, Ocean Grove was developed as a religious seaside resort in 1869. By the early 20th century, Ocean Grove became known as the "Queen of Religious Resorts." The neighborhood is also known for its large quantities of Victorian architecture. The most famous landmark in Ocean Grove is the historic Great Auditorium. Built in 1894, it has become famous for hosting concerts from such acts as Music/RayCharles, Tony Bennett, and Music/TheBeachBoys. Although the town began to decline in the 1960s, Ocean Grove has recently had a resurgence due to the restoration of old hotels and rising property values, alongside an increasingly prominent gay community (we can only imagine that the founders of the resort are turning in their graves). In 1977, a Supreme Court case arose as to the constitutionality of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association acting as the local government as it is a religious group of the United Methodist Church and was preventing vehicles being driven and parked within Ocean Grove on Sundays. When it was revealed that you had to be a good and upstanding member of the UMC in order to be a voting member of the OGCMA, which was deemed unconstitutional, the Sunday blue law was no longer allowed to be enforced.[[https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/supreme-court/1977/72-n-j-237-0.html]] Eventually Ocean Grove's municipal powers, police, and court was dissolved, and the area became an unincorporated community located within Neptune Township, though the property, except for the streets, is still owned by the OGCMA. Locals here call tourists "bennies".

** '''Atlantic City:''' The East Coast's UsefulNotes/LasVegas. Atlantic City was recognized as a prime spot for a tourist town as early as the 1850s; the extension of the railroads from Philadelphia turned it into a playground for any Philadelphian who had even a little bit of disposable income. (British people: it may help to think of AC in this period as being rather like what [[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties Brighton]] was to London in the same period--the town by the sea easily accessible by rail from the metropolis on an estuary about 50 miles away.) By the turn of the 20th century, the rest of the East Coast had gotten in on the fun. The Miss America BeautyContest was held here from 1920 until 2005. AC was also a major hub of TheMafia during [[TheRoaringTwenties the Prohibition era]], as seen in ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire''. Like many old resort towns, it was gutted by the rise of the automobile, cheap air travel, and {{suburbia}}, a situation that came to a head in 1964 when it hosted the Democratic National Convention. While the convention was a success, the nation got to see just how rotten Atlantic City had become, with many of its once-renowned hotels being converted into cheap apartments and nursing homes in order to stay afloat. The New Jersey state government attempted to rectify this in 1976 by legalizing casino gambling in the city; while this has undoubtedly led to the restoration of the boardwalk and the seaside, the rest of the city continues to decay as it had before. Even then, the opening of competing casinos in Connecticut and Pennsylvania has begun to cut in on this; four out of the city's twelve casinos closed during 2014. On a lighter note, it's the birthplace of the sweet confection known as saltwater taffy. Locals here call tourists "shoobies" (when they're not calling them "the asshole who cussed me out on the casino floor before throwing up and passing out").
** '''Ocean City:''' Located on an island in northern Cape May County, OC is considered one of, if not the best family friendly resort town in the country. Originally founded as a Christian retreat after the Civil War, it's still a dry town so residents have to buy liquor on the mainland. The city's biggest attraction is it's 2 1/2 mile boardwalk containing shops, restaurants, mini golf, amusement parks, and a waterpark. [[Recap/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphiaS07E02TheGangGoesToTheJerseyShore Its Always Sunny]] filmed an episode here which the final cut the city government understandably doesn't approve of. Locals here call tourists "shoobies".

Definitions of South Jersey will vary depending on who you ask. Some will define the region as everything south of Interstate 195, which runs from just south of Bordentown in Burlington County to Belmar in Monmouth; this definition is popular among Central Jersey partians, as it gives some room for the unique identity they claim. (The same Central Jersey people say North Jersey starts at about Interstate 78, specifically the part that runs from just north of Newark Airport to Philipsburg in Warren County.) Others will draw a line starting just south of Trenton and ending just north of Atlantic City, and classify South Jersey as everything south of that line. Many in Monmouth County will make the cutoff for South Jersey anything south of Toms River in Ocean County[[note]]A definition that conveniently leaves out Point Pleasant and Six Flags Great Adventure, likely so that Central Jersey can count that little sliver of Ocean County as its own.[[/note]], while many people in South Jersey will make the cutoff at Howell Township in Monmouth County instead, a definition that follows county lines more neatly. A few people go so far as to count everything south of Newark as South Jersey, a definition that includes New Brunswick and even Elizabeth. Needless to say, the distinction causes a lot of arguments within the state.

* Debbie Harry of Music/{{Blondie}} (born in UsefulNotes/{{Miami}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, but raised in Hawthorne; attended Centennial College in Hackettstown)

New Jersey is one of only two states (the other being [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Oregon]]) where it is illegal to pump your own fuel at the gas station, having banned it in 1949 due to safety concerns and to protect jobs. While in most of the country, gas station attendants have been relegated to the realm of nostalgia, in Jersey full-service gas stations are still a fact of life. Most New Jerseyans take this as a point of pride, with bumper stickers bearing the above slogan being a common sight on women's cars. This can occasionally lead to snickers from New Jerseyans when movies and shows (such as the ''Film/FridayThe13th2009'' remake) portray characters from New Jersey pumping their own gas.\\

* Richard Codey (born in Orange, but raised in West Orange, where a hockey arena is named for him; currently lives in Roseland; long-time State Senate President notable mostly for having been Governor after Jim [=McGreevey=] resigned, after which he wrote a political memoir entitled ''[[SelfDeprecation Me, Governor?]]'')

* '''[=ShopRite=]:''' A cooperative chain started in the late '40s, and who have since grown to encompass stores from as far north as Connecticut and Upstate New York, as far west as the Poconos, and as far south as Baltimore, though New Jersey is their headquarters and contains the largest amount of stores. Due to the aforementioned co-op structure, [=ShopRites=] tend to not look alike and can be tiny and old, or huge and new. A large number of them have Jewish owners and concomitantly large kosher-goods sections (up to and including full on-site kosher butcher's counters separate from the "standard" butcher and closed for Shabbat). They're fairly common and their famous for their twice-a-year ''Can Can'' sales (where all canned products are on sale).

* '''Paterson''': An old industrial center, the county seat of Passaic County, wedged between the Meadowlands on one hand and the Skylands on the other. Formerly the center of the American silk industry, giving it the nickname "the Silk City". Today it's a working-class multiethnic melting pot, with particularly large populations of Middle Eastern Muslims (mainly Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, and Turkish) and Hispanic Catholics (mostly Dominicans and Puerto Ricans). The Arab/Muslim population is particularly interesting, as Paterson has the second-highest proportion of Muslims and of Arabic speakers of any municipality in the U.S. (after Dearborn, UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}, outside UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}); as a result, Paterson has some of the best Arabic food in North America, and the Paterson schools get [[UsefulNotes/IslamicHolidaysAndFestivals Muslim holidays]] off.

New Jersey is the fourth smallest state by land area in the U.S., but it is also the eleventh most populated and single most densely populated (usually).[[note]]Smallest state UsefulNotes/RhodeIsland sometimes slips into first, but NJ usually finds a way back soon after, and it never falls below second.[[/note]] It borders the states of UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}, and Delaware. It has a high level of ethnic and religious diversity, being home to Italians, Irish, Jews, [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Russians]], Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, [[UsefulNotes/{{Jamaica}} Jamaicans]], Haitians, [[UsefulNotes/{{Guyana}} Guyanese]], Trinidadians, etc. in large numbers. Its landscape is also highly diverse, especially for a state of its size, being home to forests, mountains, swamps, cliffs, white sand beaches, and miles of rolling farmland. It is the location of several military facilities, including one of the largest in the country, Joint Base [=McGuire=]-Dix-Lakehurst. It has the highest population density in the U.S., and combined with its [[UsefulNotes/NewJerseyTransit system of public transit]], it is easy to get (almost) anywhere.[[note]]The state's surprisingly-numerous rural areas are unsurprisingly not accessible by transit. Although it has to be said: is Sussex County ''really'' New Jersey?[[/note]] New Jersey is the second most affluent state in the U.S., possesses one of the most highly-regarded [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEducationalSystem education systems]] in the country, and has the lowest poverty rate in the nation. There are affluent suburbs, bustling cities, and lush dairy farms all within a few miles of each other. In short, it's one of the most diverse states, filled to the brim with a plethora of different cultures and lifestyles.