New Jersey voted "Worst State in Union":

[fire1811]

Originally posted by Thordic
You can all kiss my arse

Any man who wants to talk crap about New Jersey can officially consider himself challenged to a drinking contest. Anyone who can drink me under the table can keep talking smack, all others must shut up and admit their state sucks more than Andy Dick at a Chippendales party.

That is all.

*raises hand* challenge accepted

[straightshot]

hell yeah Thordic, I've been all over the place and north jersey is the only place I call home. Now if we could just do something about all the idiots on the road.....

[impostal22]

Originally posted by Thordic
Everyone likes to crap on NJ, well, I hate to break it to you, but your states are frickin boring. Ohio? Illinois? Texas? What the hell do they have?

NY...has NYC i believe...so ya...i can crap on NJ all i want. my job is in mahwah (only like 5 miinutes past the border) and i STILL hate driving through it..so..nyah

[1stdeadeye]

LOL Facts!!!!

Leave my home alone!

South Jersey is great. Affordable homes, open space, the shore, National Paintball Supply's headquarters ( ), .....

Patron,
If NJ stinks so bad, why are you all here? That's right we have lots of jobs here. We are the most affluent state in the Nation!

[ShooterJM]

Originally posted by 1stdeadeye
We are the most affluent state in the Nation!

For some reason I thought CT still held that title....

[Muzikman]

Thordic, One question, what is a "Real" city in NJ?

South Jersey is an annex of PA, North Jersey is an Annex of NYC.

[FactsOfLife]

Originally posted by Thordic
Everyone likes to crap on NJ, well, I hate to break it to you, but your states are frickin boring. Ohio? Illinois? Texas? What the hell do they have?

Clean air? The sure knowledge they they aren't called "The armpit of the country"?

Any man who wants to talk crap about New Jersey can officially consider himself challenged to a drinking contest. Anyone who can drink me under the table can keep talking smack, all others must shut up and admit their state sucks more than Andy Dick at a Chippendales party.

That is all.

I already know NY sucks. We have the second highest insruance rates in the country(you guys are numero uno there). Hell, we even have NYC attached to us, and we even elected Billary Clinton to the senatorial seat.

And despite all that, Jersey STILL sucks more...

[1stdeadeye]

Originally posted by ShooterJM


For some reason I thought CT still held that title....

No they do not currently. We usually swap it with them every few years. But we are always in the top 3!

NJ is not an annex of any area. I hate the Eagles and the Giants, so there!

Jersey ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FactsOfLife]

Originally posted by 1stdeadeye
We are the most affluent state in the Nation!

I think that's spelled EFFLUENT.....

[Patron God of Pirates]

Originally posted by 1stdeadeye
Patron,
If NJ stinks so bad, why are you all here? That's right we have lots of jobs here. We are the most affluent state in the Nation!

Company Loyalty. If not for that chink in my armor I'd be back in NH or MA in a heartbeat. MA is pleanty afluent and compared to NH, Jersey is a police state.

That said, outside of everything having to do with travel, NJ not as bad as people say.

[FalconGuy016]

Im glad I dont live there. Those traffic patterns would murder me

[Thordic]

I look at it this way.

No one from upstate NY (like 99% of the actual state, landwise) wants to be associated with NYC. Most of NY is farms and country.

No one from North Jersey wants to be associated with South Jersey.

South Jersey wants to be associated with Pennsylvania.

A large portion of North Jersey's population are people who used to live in NYC.

My solution?

Pennsylvania annexes South Jersey, they can have it.

New York City (and areas such as Yonkers) and North Jersey merge to form their own state.

Upstate New York gets to be its own state.

This way, everyone is happy. NYC'ers and North Jersey people may crap on each other, but we're all a-holes anyway, so we'll fit in with each other. South Jersey gets to be associated with the state they love so much (G**damn philly fans), and Upstate NY'ers get to be free and happy.

But anyway, Muzik, to answer your question, without counting NYC as something we have (which is questionable at best since Jersey people spend more time in NYC than New Yorkers who don't live in the city).

You may think Newark is a craphole, but its really not. I've had tons of fun in Newark. There are tons of bars and whatnot, you have NJPAC for concerts and other events, the Newark Bears baseball team, and Newark has a great public transportation system (NJ Transit buses and trains, Newark City Subway, and Amtrak). There are crappy parts of Newark, but they are mostly on the far side of town. I always thought Newark was a total useless sewer as well until I went to school at NJIT for a year and lived in the dorms there. Now I hang out in Newark all the time. Newark has the appearance of being old and decrepit, which is partially true. Newark has a lot of crime, drugs, and whatnot, but it seriously does have its positive points too. Most of all, Newark has character.

Paterson, Camden, etc. Those are cesspools.

But, if you look at North Jersey, its like one big city. We have millions of people living in a relatively small geographic area. When you have population density like we do, you don't NEED a big city. Theres enough population around that major things (such as, lets say, Giants Stadium) can be located in a small town (East Rutherford is fairly small), instead of needing to be located in a city. We have the unique advantage of not NEEDING big cities. We get all the benefits of having a city (Businesses, jobs, attractions, shopping, whatever) without all of the drawbacks (crime, overcrowding, etc). If you move to the country, you are stuck having to drive 30 minutes just to go get milk. If you live in the city, the milk is right around the corner, but you might get mugged walking there, and god forbid you take your car because then you'd lose the parking spot it took you 5 hours of circling the block to get. In North Jersey, the milk is 2 minutes away, and no one is gonna drag you into an alley if you decide to walk down there to get it.

You can say all you want about New Jersey, but its just words. You can't beat living here

[Thordic]

One more thing though. Even I, the tireless defender of the Garden State, must rant about New Jersey traffic. It isn't just NJ, but basically the entire stretch of 95 and its nearby highways between Washington DC and Boston. You can't just blame NJ, because its just as bad, if not worse, everywhere in that stretch. I think Delaware probably wins as the worst traffic, then NYC, then Boston, then NJ.

But the traffic gets ridiculous sometimes. The Parkway tolls are ridiculous all over. It was supposed to be a temporary way to pay for construction costs, but of course, they never bothered to get rid of it. Why they don't just run it like the turnpike I'll never understand.

Try driving down to Wildwood in the summer. It SHOULD be a two hour drive for me, yet I've seen it take close to five. It's not all NJ drivers, though. Especially going down to the shore in the summer, we get all the northern people who just stop at the first place the water isn't so cold it freezes your balls all the way up into your throat. (I've gone swimming in Maine in August, and its like ice water)

But yes, I'll concede your point on traffic. It gets ridiculous bad sometimes. If you think parkway traffic is bad, though, try driving from NJ to West Islip, NY on a friday night. NYC into Long Island is the most ridiculous traffic on the face of the planet, period.

[Patron God of Pirates]

But you sure can beat driving here (see: anywhere else).

[Thordic]

Are you kidding me? I'd rather weave through traffic at 80 miles an hour than sit on a boring empty stretch of road anyday.

If the traffic isn't heavy, driving in NJ is always fun. Driving on empty roads is boring. Driving on a highway with spotty traffic and people changing lanes without turn signals is adventure!. Do NASCAR cars have turn signals? I think not, my friend.