I mean it does kinda suck that we don’t have any big number cities but like I said in the post places like Hudson county are kinda one big conglomerate of cities that blend into each other, so even if we did merge them they would look that much different aside from some name changes

Oh yeah I know, those should be first to go. There’s like 30+ donut hole towns, and then on top of that there’s easily another 60+ small towns that are either surrounded on 3 sides by another town or sandwiched between two large towns.

Just look at a municipality map of NJ and look around for like 5 minutes. Easily can spot like 100 towns that should be annexed by another one. The majority of them have very few residents.

This was just a hypothetical though. Even if taxes don’t go down, they will absolutely be far better utilized since municipal services will be cheaper to operate, leaving a surplus to spend on other things.

Taxes would go down with consolidation. Half of our 564 municipalities are pointless and only serve to make our taxes higher than they should be.

I would’ve said Manhattan but it’s nowhere near that level of high density. It’s pretty much a medium density version of Manhattan in a way, just with a bit more industry.

The only suburbs I think that actually have an identity are generally those that are historic or are college towns, meaning they existed prior to the boroughitis of the early 20th century. Ones that generally have a unique small downtown/Main Street. Freehold, Morristown, Cape May, Princeton, Montclair, etc. Cities, even small ones like New Brunswick, all tend to have an identity too.

I always find that argument funny because it’s not coming from people in cities like Newark, Atlantic City, New Brunswick, etc who actually have their own unique identities, no it’s coming from generic cookie cutter suburbanites from places like Summit or Middletown.

Luckily some towns are merging. Princeton was nearly a decade ago but Pine Valley and Pine Hill just merged this year, although Pine Valley was a golf course town.

Artsy definitely wasn’t the right word, but Hoboken is usually seen as the “hipster” town of NJ. In this hypothetical city, it would be the equivalent of like Greenwich Village or something like that. Washington St is just the main thoroughfare with all the shops and restaurants and whatnot.

It’s only a hypothetical. But yea I understand it’s difficult, although we ideally should be knocking 564 down to 300.

Exactly! Merging Hudson County would save huge money. No need for all these different services with paid employees for the same jobs.

Also, we’re actually down to 564, Pine Valley (one of those golf course towns of 12 people) merged with Pine Hill this year.

But all of those counties are a mix of higher density urban areas (Newark, Paterson, Fort Lee) and low density suburbs (Paramus, Ringwood, Fairfield). Hudson County is the only one that’s one large continuous high density urban landmass. It is basically the equivalent of the Bronx, Brooklyn, or Queens. There’s a reason they call it the “6th borough”

New Jersey is the densest state and all these suburbs are on top of each other. The fact you can’t tell where the borders are is an argument for consolidation of a LOT of municipalities, I can think of so many that deserve to be merged. We could easily go from 564 to at least 300.

Thing with Hudson County is that the entire county is pretty much medium-high density and won’t have any problems absorbing low density suburbs like other sprawl cities. It’s so well connected. Only Secaucus, Harrison, and Kearny are separated, but considering the PATH it’s not too bad.

We need reverse boroughitis

Guttenburg is the 20th densest city in the world, and 1st in the US, which I guess is cool but is completely unnecessary. The entire city is 4 streets wide. Absolutely pointless. I mean its four streets are literally called 68th-71st street ffs!

The only city that you can actually tell there’s a border is Hoboken, which seems to be surrounded by the Hudson Bergen Light Rail tracks.

TL/DR below

As someone from “Central” (in this map) Monmouth, I partially agree but have two major critiques. The Shore should be extended down to Cape May but split into North Shore/South Shore.

First:

This article shows the percentage of people who actually live in NJ who live there year-round. In Monmouth County, out of the 15 shore towns, 13 have over 80% year round residents, 11 over 85%, and 5 over 90%. Deal is the only one with less than 50%, being at 39%. These towns all essentially feel like Central NJ to me, feeling alive year-round and being highly connected to the rest of Monmouth but still generally have a distinct shore town feeling to them. I would go to Long Branch or Asbury Park any time of year. Ocean County has only 5/12 shore towns over 80%, and all of them are north of LBI, ending in Seaside Park. The lowest is Beach Haven at 67%.

I believe this is where the distinction truly begins. Island Beach State Park is where things become more summer-only touristy. Once you get to Atlantic & Cape May, the further south you go the less people actually live there. In Atlantic, the highest is Atlantic City at 74%. 2 towns are below 50%. Then you get it Cape May, where only 2/9 shore towns have over 50%, the lowest being Avalon at only 28%. The only town I would ever really consider going to outside the summer is Atlantic City, and maybe if there’s a famous restaurant that’s open year-round in say Wildwood or Cape May, but solely for that reason. These towns don’t really feel connected to anything else in their counties or in South Jersey. Hell 30 minutes outside AC you’re in the Pine Barrens.

Second:

As someone from Central Monmouth, I feel no relation to Camden or anything over there whatsoever. South Jersey is more influenced by the Philadelphia metro, while Central Jersey is generally more influenced by New York and Trenton. The line for Central Jersey needs to be moved up a lot higher. I’d argue Burlington is almost entirely South, and Ocean is Central but is South Jersey below Toms River.

TL/DR: Based on this, I would argue that there’s a

North Shore - Monmouth east of the Route 35, Ocean east of the Garden State Parkway minus Island Beach State Park (even if it’s connected)

South Shore - IBSP + Atlantic (only the 5 towns on the Ocean) + all of Cape May.

TL/DR below

As someone from “Central” (in this map) Monmouth, I partially agree but have a major critique. The Shore shouldn’t stop in Ocean County, it needs to go all the way down to Cape May. However, I also feel that there’s a North Shore and South Shore.

This article shows the percentage of people who actually live in NJ who live there year-round. In Monmouth County, out of the 15 shore towns, 13 have over 80% year round residents, 11 over 85%, and 5 over 90%. Deal is the only one with less than 50%, being at 39%. These towns all essentially feel like Central NJ to me, but still generally have a distinct shore town feeling to them.Ocean County has only 5/12 over 80%, and all of them are north of LBI, ending in Seaside Park. The lowest is Beach Haven at 67%.

I believe this is where the distinction truly begins. Island Beach State Park is where things become more summer-only touristy. Once you get to Atlantic & Cape May, the further south you go the less people actually live there. In Atlantic, the highest is Atlantic City at 74%. 2 towns are below 50%. Then you get it Cape May, where only 2/9 towns have over 50%, the lowest being Avalon at only 28%. And mind you these are only based on ownership of housing by in-state residents, meaning that these numbers don’t necessarily reflect the actual amount of people who live there.

TL/DR: Based on this, I would argue that there’s a

North Shore - Monmouth east of the Route 35, Ocean east of the Garden State Parkway minus Island Beach State Park (even if it’s connected)

South Shore - IBSP + Atlantic (only the 5 towns on the Ocean) + all of Cape May.