New Jersey Voices
It is not easy to draw a dividing line between North and South Jersey. Many factors influence perception of where the line could be; accents, highways, population density, industry, agriculture, geography, political influence, even convenience stores differ between either half.
New Jersey residents, depending on their age and where they are from, have a wide range of opinions about what constitutes North and South Jersey.
“I couldn’t live anywhere that didn’t have good bagels,” said Shane Oberman, a painter from Edgewater, New Jersey. “North Jersey moves fast, but I’m used to it. I never really have a reason to go to South Jersey.”
“Jersey is the only state that I know about where people vacation less than an hour from their house,” said Graig Arfston. “In North Jersey, we usually call Seaside and LBI the beach… I think the rest of Jersey calls it the shore though.”
“Pork roll is nasty,” said Lauren Smith, a florist from Bergen County. “I take cream cheese on my bagel, thank you.”
Richie Pryce, a 23-year-old Jamaican immigrant, grew up in Perth Amboy. The Sociology Major currently resides in Glassboro, a college community wrapped in a pastoral setting.
Sometimes slight, sometimes more pronounced, Pryce sees and hears differences in his adopted community from his home town.
“Up North, you could say we have the tougher attitude. Our towns like Newark, Elizabeth, Irvington, are more violent. Down in South Jersey, they have Camden, but Newark is way bigger.”
“We got the cocky New York attitude. We feel like we’re damn there, right over the bridge; we can relate to them. South Jersey, they got the Philly attitude. They’re more relaxed and humble, more laid back, but they have a chip on their shoulders too.”
Steve Chernoski, who recently made a film about the North and South Jersey divide, believes that Central Jersey exists.
“When making the film, http://www.newjerseythemovie.com, – immigrants were tough to get to comment. It’s almost like you need to be in Jersey 10 – 15 years to truly get a grip on this North-South divide. But I met a recent Indian immigrant in Pennington and he leaned them South, but said that his staff disagrees. He said, “I am learning that this debate is important.”
For me (and for the film) if there is, indeed, a Central Jersey, it is where the cultures of Philly and NYC overlap. It doesn’t happen in Middlesex, Somerset or most of Monmouth (Hunterdon is more complicated). Those guys are all NY sports fans, all fly out of EWR, all call it a sub, sprinkles & slip in “w”s into the words like coffee and chocolate just like their Northern brethren. The cultures DO overlap in all of Mercer and half of Ocean. I mean, I was in in Middletown Twp. (Monmouth C), where Kevin Smith filmed Clerks, this weekend and I could see the NYC skyline from the shore of Leonardo. . . . so how can it be Central NJ if you can see a city’s skyline from your area? That doesn’t add up. . . . unless that skyline is Trenton.”
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