Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Where the hell IS Central Jersey?

dennismcgrath posed this question yesterday afternoon; there's a discussion of it on BlueJersey.

I'm in favor of defining it by county: Mercer, Monmouth, Middlesex, Hunterdon, and Somerset. Not Union. It's in North Jersey, by culture if not by geography.

5 comments:

Bob said...

I have only one rule: I don't allow anyone to call me a benny who hasn't lived within 15 miles of the ocean for at least two decades. Freehold is not "the shore."

Sharon GR said...

Amen, Bob.

I used to think in terms of North/South only, and the dividing line was the 609/201 area code- or an 07... or 08... zip code. Then came 732/973/what have you, which shot that down.

Maybe the best way to define it is: if you can get a hoagie, it's South Jersey, if it's a sub, it's North Jersey. I live in Central Jersey- I have a local take-out menu which has a category for "subs" and each one is called a hoagie. Now that's central!

Bob said...

I have evolved on this issue. Having grown up in Cape May, we did not accept anything above Cape May County as true South Jersey and AC was about as far north as anyone would bend.

But now I have a broader definition. Extend I-195 to the coast. Below it is South Jersey. Everything from 195 to I-80 is central (I'd be willing to cap it at 75), north of 80 is North Jersey.

Metroplexual said...

Having grown up in central NJ (East Brunswick)I feel I can weigh in here. This is often a topic of debate up here in Warren and Sussex counties. Many up north here and way down south do not recognize a "central" NJ.

A former coworker said if you have sand in your yard for the soil you are in South Jersey. I personally look at it as where your television stations are from. If your old TV recieved NY North Jersey, If you got Philly South Jersey. If you could get both Central.

BTW bob, I also like the I-195 border for south central boundary. As far as the north I like I-78

Metroplexual said...

This map shows the TV effect. The line roughly follows the east/west jersey line when NJ was two colonies.

http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/new_jersey/assets/nj_north_and_siuth.jpg