My New Jersey, Your New Jersey.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/16/sunday/main7252648.shtml?tag=latest
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/16/sunday/main7252648.shtml?tag=latest
New Jersey
- Thread starter bobpbx
- Start date
Hmm... well, whatever. Personally, I am in full support of the bad image that many people have of New Jersey. Let's just keep it our own little secret. Really, I don't want anybody else to move here, don't want any more tourists to visit.... we've already got enough people. 
I agree with Boyd. I can live in any state that I want to but I can't think of one that has what we have. I never tell outsiders about the Pines, hiking, the wonderful beaches and all the other waterways to enjoy watersports. We are close to major cities but I go there infrequently. I choose to be here, this is my state.
Inspiration
This is precisely what inspired me to create a collection of photographs titled "the REAL Jersey Shore"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bachmansivory/sets/72157624684813855/
This is precisely what inspired me to create a collection of photographs titled "the REAL Jersey Shore"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bachmansivory/sets/72157624684813855/
Aside from nature, there's a very unique feeling of community in New Jersey, like "we're all in this together". It's hard to characterize, it's just a feeling I get. I didn't know anyone when I moved here, but it soon felt like home. I've lived in many other places but really never felt like this before - certainly not in PA. I think it has something to do with the fact that we're one of the smallest states.
I was in Central/Eastern Va. recently and was at a party at my sisters neighbor's house. They were really playing up the southern redneck thing and about how experienced they were in the woods. When they learned I was from NJ one of them commented about how they traveled the turnpike once and thought it was awful. "Too built up for us rednecks". He then went on to explain that they spend most of their free time hunting and fishing in the BIG 100 ACRES, MAYBE MORE of woods down the road.
I was expected to act impressed so I did. Wow, 100 acres huh? You know, believe it or not there are a few acres of woods near my house too. I just bit my tongue.
Jeff
I was expected to act impressed so I did. Wow, 100 acres huh? You know, believe it or not there are a few acres of woods near my house too. I just bit my tongue.
Jeff
Does anyone else not really consider themselves from NJ? When I tell people where I'm from I say South Jersey....I consider this state to be three separate states(Northwest Jersey, Central-Northeast Jersey and South Jersey. I drive 45 miles to work everyday into Princeton and the cultural differences of people who grew up there is unbelievable. Its unreal how little I have in common with people who grew up say 30 miles north of me, and people who come from Sussex Country to my job say the same thing....odd state.
I love the outdoors NJ but I do think the government of the state stinks big time.If the pines had caves and mountains we'd have it all.I used to think mounatins and barrens couldn't go together till I visited sams point preserve in the GUNKs of NY and found the best of both worlds,Barrens on the Rocks! I call it.
I just have to retell this story,
in boot camp in Dix back in 90 I got into an arguement with a guy in my platoon who had just arrived from oklahoma to philly by air and then road a bus into Dix at night and slept the whole way.He claimed jersey wasn't nothing but a big urban sprawl.I informed him we had enough woods to loos his ass in.He basically called me a liar.I told him we'd see next week when we started humping seven miles each way to the ranges out on range road for rifle practice.I didn't get to talk to him all the way out,there or back the first day but upon returning to the barracks all of us sore and beat I asked him what he thought of our little city on post.He said yeah these are some big woods but this is on post so they protect it,off post it's a slum.The next week he broke his glasses and had to get a ride of a DI to toms river to get new specs.Guess what he had to drive across
when he got back he said all he saw was miles and miles of pines and the DI told him all about how big the woods were south and east of DIX.somehow the DI was more credible then me and he became a believer.
I also had a cousin from indiana who moved here to live with us a summer once with the same attitude.I took for a barrens ride and after several hours of wandering without seeing blacktop I told him to take the wheel and find his way out.last crap i heard out of him for the summer.
I love the way barrens can shut people up
Al
I just have to retell this story,
in boot camp in Dix back in 90 I got into an arguement with a guy in my platoon who had just arrived from oklahoma to philly by air and then road a bus into Dix at night and slept the whole way.He claimed jersey wasn't nothing but a big urban sprawl.I informed him we had enough woods to loos his ass in.He basically called me a liar.I told him we'd see next week when we started humping seven miles each way to the ranges out on range road for rifle practice.I didn't get to talk to him all the way out,there or back the first day but upon returning to the barracks all of us sore and beat I asked him what he thought of our little city on post.He said yeah these are some big woods but this is on post so they protect it,off post it's a slum.The next week he broke his glasses and had to get a ride of a DI to toms river to get new specs.Guess what he had to drive across
when he got back he said all he saw was miles and miles of pines and the DI told him all about how big the woods were south and east of DIX.somehow the DI was more credible then me and he became a believer.
I also had a cousin from indiana who moved here to live with us a summer once with the same attitude.I took for a barrens ride and after several hours of wandering without seeing blacktop I told him to take the wheel and find his way out.last crap i heard out of him for the summer.
I love the way barrens can shut people up
Al
we moved from Philly in '65 to the BOONDOCKS. lived off greentree rd and friends from Philly would visit and say "people live out here"
when i hiked the AT '09 and asked where i am from. id say Jersey and they would say. "must be nice to see a tree"
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
,but let's keep it a secret. :rofl:
when i hiked the AT '09 and asked where i am from. id say Jersey and they would say. "must be nice to see a tree"
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
,but let's keep it a secret. :rofl:
It Has Not Gone Unnoticed
The Pinelands value-potential has not gone unnoticed. Developers are quietly positioning to change things in the Pines to their advantage. While the core area of the Pinelands may have received some protection, the half below the Mullica has not fared so well. As warned in earlier posts there is an ongoing effort to sewer Pinelands Villages, essentially turning them into economic growth areas in a ratables chase. By Pinelands Commission (PC) rules, Villages are not allowed to double their 1979 footprint. Through redevelopment overlays and sewering we will cede our “prescriptions” (growth units) to outside developers, squandering in perpetuity future local growth needs for politicians' short-term gain.
Here’s a link to Atlantic County’s Sewer Service Areas (SSA) mapping for a look at some of the proposed water & sewer-zone expansions:
http://www.aclink.org/Planning/MainPages/ArcIMS_pdf_display.asp?gis_var=ssa
My community, Richland Village, is the PC prototype for such redevelopment. $350,000 is being spent on package sewer plant design, with the PC contributing $100,000 from their Pinelands Conservation Fund (i.e., power transmission line mitigation money) and $250,000 is in-kind services from the Atlantic County Utilities Authority. It is my understanding that both water-in and water-out will be addressed, although the whole process has been cryptic so details are sketchy.
At the January 14, 2011 PC monthly meeting, Charles Siemon, Esq., an eminent regional planner presented. He was instrumental in setting up the PC’s rules. In review, he claimed flat out that Smart Growth does not work. His sentiment concurs with recent findings reported in the Journal of the American Planning Association (Lewis, et al., 2009), which is that priority funding areas like Smart Growth have not worked. Let’s hope Siemon’s colleagues were listening before it is too late. After all, it’s our money and sustainability that’s at stake.
Figure 1 Some excerpts of PSSA projected Pinelands Village sewer-service areas. Click to enlarge.
The Pinelands value-potential has not gone unnoticed. Developers are quietly positioning to change things in the Pines to their advantage. While the core area of the Pinelands may have received some protection, the half below the Mullica has not fared so well. As warned in earlier posts there is an ongoing effort to sewer Pinelands Villages, essentially turning them into economic growth areas in a ratables chase. By Pinelands Commission (PC) rules, Villages are not allowed to double their 1979 footprint. Through redevelopment overlays and sewering we will cede our “prescriptions” (growth units) to outside developers, squandering in perpetuity future local growth needs for politicians' short-term gain.
Here’s a link to Atlantic County’s Sewer Service Areas (SSA) mapping for a look at some of the proposed water & sewer-zone expansions:
http://www.aclink.org/Planning/MainPages/ArcIMS_pdf_display.asp?gis_var=ssa
My community, Richland Village, is the PC prototype for such redevelopment. $350,000 is being spent on package sewer plant design, with the PC contributing $100,000 from their Pinelands Conservation Fund (i.e., power transmission line mitigation money) and $250,000 is in-kind services from the Atlantic County Utilities Authority. It is my understanding that both water-in and water-out will be addressed, although the whole process has been cryptic so details are sketchy.
At the January 14, 2011 PC monthly meeting, Charles Siemon, Esq., an eminent regional planner presented. He was instrumental in setting up the PC’s rules. In review, he claimed flat out that Smart Growth does not work. His sentiment concurs with recent findings reported in the Journal of the American Planning Association (Lewis, et al., 2009), which is that priority funding areas like Smart Growth have not worked. Let’s hope Siemon’s colleagues were listening before it is too late. After all, it’s our money and sustainability that’s at stake.
Figure 1 Some excerpts of PSSA projected Pinelands Village sewer-service areas. Click to enlarge.
I love Jersey! It has it all!
When I first moved from Vermont to Jersey I would get "Hows life in the big city?" from my family when they would call or I would visit. I would try to explain to them what it was like around where I lived and they just didn't understand. They thought it was just one big concrete jungle. When my Dad came to visit for the first time I brought him out for a few hour ride in the Pines, about an hour into the ride he asked if we were still in Jersey? I have not seen a house in many miles. He asked how I knew my way around on all the sand roads that looked the same. When my cousin came down to visit from Vermont he was impressed by Jersey, it was nothing that he thought it would be!
Al, I remember you telling me that story.
Chris
When I first moved from Vermont to Jersey I would get "Hows life in the big city?" from my family when they would call or I would visit. I would try to explain to them what it was like around where I lived and they just didn't understand. They thought it was just one big concrete jungle. When my Dad came to visit for the first time I brought him out for a few hour ride in the Pines, about an hour into the ride he asked if we were still in Jersey? I have not seen a house in many miles. He asked how I knew my way around on all the sand roads that looked the same. When my cousin came down to visit from Vermont he was impressed by Jersey, it was nothing that he thought it would be!
Al, I remember you telling me that story.
Chris