New Jersey's regions, by Joe Steinfeld.

[randomness]

Joe Steinfeld, via the Star-Ledger:

"I meant it as a joke. It’s tongue-in-cheek. It’s meant to be silly, meant to be fun," Steinfeld said Wednesday. He filled the map with stereotypes he said he encountered growing up in and traveling New Jersey, labeling a swath of Bergen County "Well-To-Do Conservatives ‘Christie Country’ " and parts of Salem and Cumberland counties "Pretty Much Alabama."

Originally from Westfield, aka "Middle-Class Raritan Valley Line Commuters," Steinfeld’s inspiration was similar online dissections he saw for Vancouver and Pittsburgh. A part-time Rutgers environmental science research assistant, he said he saw a lot of New Jersey gathering research as a student.

(click for full sized map)

Comments

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

Thanks for ghis. It's pretty accurate for my hometown at least.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it! I wanted to share it with all my friends from NJ when it came out in Dec, but then the holidays intervened.

[chris-warrior.livejournal.com]

um, wow. *snort* i'd love to see one for New York. or maybe not.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

You mean like these? http://geographer-at-large.blogspot.com/2011/06/unconventional-yet-informative-maps-of.html

I love the New Yorkistan map most.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

My mother grew up in Scotch Plains, in the Westfield zone. Yup. Not quite good enough at the geography to see where Branchburg (where my folks live now) falls on the map.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahaha. :)

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

Me too! I'm up in Boston now, but I grew up in HP.

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

I'm 31, and I did the whole "go to Pine Grove through HPHS with the same dozen kids" thing. (If you don't know Pine Grove, it's an awesome daycare/nursery school co-op.)

[dpolicar]

Apparently I grew up in North Hipster.
That explains a lot, actually.

[gee-tar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember seeing this a month ago and liking it in general.

Though I have a bone to pick about labeling Bergen County "Christie Country." "Well-to-do conservatives" sounds about right, but my impression is that Christie doesn't actually have all that much support in the area, even among Republicans (of which there are many). Probably has something to do with Christie's efforts to kill NJ Transit.

[cubes.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the laugh.

I grew up on the border of "Bankers and Businessmen" and "Where they filmed Clerks", but when I was a kid "McMansions!!" was still horse farms. :-(

Seems like some other parts have changed in the dozen years since I've been gone, but most of it is about what I remember.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the laugh.

Sure! Glad you liked it.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it!

Some regions have changed over my lifetime, but not unrecognizably.

The persistence of these regions is something I found striking.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I lived in Friendly White Families for about a year. Best diners ever.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

One thing NJ has over MA is excellent diners.

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

Proud former resident of "Friendly White Families" :-) Too bad we didn't have this map in front of us during our discussion on Sunday...

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that conversation reminded me I hadn't gotten around to posting it. :)

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

Although Lawyers Driving Hybrids has its disadvantages, particularly for those without the dough, moving there from Sad Black People And Corruption was definitely a good thing. The border between Gaudy Summer Homes and Italian Guys in Wife Beaters is a nice place to spend a summer vacation. I have relatives in Hipsters who came there as, as drbitch says, Artists Who Couldn't Afford The Village.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I did my time in Drunk Rutgers Students, and then did more time in Executives Living In Mansions Driving Mercedes-Benzes.

[allessindra.livejournal.com]

I saw this when it came out, and was snortingly dismused (dismayed and amused) at everyone with a stick up their ass about wherever it is they live now.

I *think* I was born in the border of Lake Houses Owned by New Yorkers and Friendly White Families - it's hard to see the smaller towns through the map coloring. We moved to Hipsters, except it hadn't had the hipsters find it yet, and I would have named it New Havana (and sometimes do still ... it's really not changed that much, Hipsters is mostly the area actually *under* the word Hipsters, and the rest is New Havana). Through my early childhood my grandmother (who owned the apartment building we lived in) would spend her summers in a house right near where I was born, and I spent them with her except when I was in Camp which is further along the border of Lake Houses Onwed by New Yorkers and Vast Wilderness of Rednecks and Retired Hippies (which is actually some of the prettiest areas left in NJ).

My first attempt at college happened in Hipsters; my second attempt was on the other side of the Mississippi River, and then I came back to Drunk Rutgers Students, and lived there for a few years after. We moved to Raritan Valley Commuters and still live there now; husband worked in Poor Minorities till he got a job in the border between Poor Minorities, Melting Pot, and Friendly White Families.

While I don't think NJ is ideal, my years in Not Very Far West of the Mississippi River taught me that I need the type of diversity that NJ affords in order to be comfortable, if not actually happy. Most anywhere else in the USA that means living in deep urban districts; here, I can live in lesser urban district and still not feel like I'm standing out.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I remember sharing this over IM with you when I first saw it. I agree; some people just can't take a joke.

I know what you mean about NJ diversity, too. NJ was that way when I was a child, which at least gave me a rock-solid belief after I moved to CT that the racists there were the crazy ones.