Name: In Defense of New Jersey, America's 48th Worst State
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In Defense of New Jersey, America's 48th Worst State

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New Jersey, the place where I was raised. Where I ate water ice, where I went down the shore. Where I never pumped my own gas. Where I battled endlessly over the name of a discount breakfast meat. It is a state of boardwalks, a state of gardens, a state of pride—and according to a that made the rounds on Twitter last week, the 48th most unpopular state in the country. Wait, really? Worse than Delaware?YouGov.com, which surveyed 1,211 adults for a completely scientific and comprehensive study, ranked New Jersey below virtually every other state in the country besides Mississippi and Alabama. The site even made sure to remind readers that “New Jersey is often the butt of jokes, including for its occasional odor or for being the birthplace of the Jersey Shore franchise.” I can almost hear the sound of seagulls flocking as millions of readers from Jersey let out a collective “Ohh!” My exhaustion almost outweighs the outrage. Jersey natives are more than familiar with being picked last. Whether it’s the nickname “Dirty Jerz,” the eye-roll jokes in Hamilton (“Everything is legal in New Jersey”), or the way in which , year after year, delights in the Garden State’s outdated mob stereotypes, New Jersey residents have simply gotten used to this kind of abuse. And look, between our horrible drivers and Governor Chris Christie, I’ll admit we’re an easy target. (After all, I am the guy who made a video called ".") This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Growing up in New Jersey, you’re always aware of the shiny skylines of Philly and Manhattan. Sure, they’ve got the skyscrapers. The sports teams. The cheesesteaks (more on that later). Even though we have breathtaking vistas like the Palisades, there’s no Grand Canyon in Jersey, no Mount Rushmore, no iconic tourist attractions, unless you count in Margate, or the in Middletown. And yeah, so much of what you pass on the Jersey Turnpike appears to be bland emptiness: smog-billowing power plants, marshland, the Meadowlands complex that looks like a pile of DUPLO® blocks, and jughandles as far as the eye can see. Hell, we even have our own . But now that push has come to shove, I feel compelled to stand up for my native state. Despite its cartoonish reputation, Jersey is a place of legend.The diving horse at Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, one of the many legends of New Jersey’s weird and fabled past.I’m from South Jersey. Deep south—Haddon Township, to be exact. Wawa country. Down there, the almost mythological history of our state was alive everywhere. We lived close to Camden, one of those once-thriving cultural enclaves, like Newark, that you hear about in textbooks and Boardwalk Empire. The place was full of that Depression-era American lore. Walt Whitman famously lived there. (He wasn’t the only Jersey poet. Check out Adam Driver in Paterson for a loving ode to William Carlos Williams.) On the Waterfront, by the Adventure Aquarium, you’d hear about the Campbell Soup Company that fed the nation, and the RCA Victor factory where the phonograph was manufactured. Nearby was the actual boardwalk empire: Atlantic City, or what remains of it (thanks, ). My Grandmom went to see the big bands play there as a little girl. and Count Basie—both Jersey guys, born and bred—lit up those showrooms in their heyday. said AC felt like “home.”When I arrived on the campus of Rutgers—where the very first college football game occurred (Sorry Princeton, but Rutgers won)—Jersey became so much bigger to me. The university is up in the northern half of the state, near the , closer to Newark, and not too far from Asbury Park, the rock music hotbed that gave the world Bruce Springsteen. Residents of Jersey will take any opportunity they can get to assure you that North and South Jersey are vastly different (and they’ll fight to the death over the existence of Central Jersey, too). They’re right. Up there, where Wawa becomes QuickCheck and pork roll becomes taylor ham, I realized that my whole conception of New Jersey was tiny. The state contains multitudes.Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, and Sinatra crooning in 1987 at Bally’s Grand Hotel in Atlantic City. Sinatra said AC felt like “home” for him.For starters, Jersey is the most densely populated state in the U.S. In September 2020, Jersey ranked in the most diverse states in the country, with Jersey City getting the title in 2021 as the city in the entire U.S. Because of Joe Pesci, because of Frankie Valli and the Jersey Boys, because of Sinatra, I think our state is seen as a breeding ground for Italian-Americans. And, sure, from Hoboken to Cape May, Jersey has always been full of descendants from the boot country (with the food to prove it too, damn it). But the state has more to offer than an Italian Hoagie (or cheesesteak, which insisted was done better in Jersey than in Philly).Jersey residents know, and , that the best Indian food in the country can be found in the Garden State, especially in South Asian communities like the one in . On Bourdain’s visit to Jersey in Parts Unknown, the late travel host, who wasn’t born in Jersey but was raised there, called it “a cultural petri dish from which regularly issues forth greatness.” In that standout episode, he relishes in the fried clams in Long Beach Island, hot dogs at Hiram’s Roadstand in Fort Lee (Bourdain’s “antidote to every other place”), and, yes, salt water taffy in AC. I’m biased, but, for me, it’s his greatest episode, as the undervalued joys of our state seem to bring out some of Bourdain’s most profound observations: Speaking of Hiram, he says, “There’s not a lot of people in this world courageous enough to not change.” And of my home state, “To know Jersey is to love her."Bruce Springsteen performing at the historic Stone Pony at Asbury Park, a place that still rocks today.As a New York resident for almost a decade now, I suppose I’ve been away from home for about half as long as I lived there. And I don’t often miss it. When you grow up in the country’s punching bag, it’s only natural to want to leave. But sometimes when I close my eyes, my mind drifts to the sound of waves lapping, and there I am again, feet buried in the soft white sand of Brigantine, New Jersey, the Atlantic City skyline in the distance, my lips stained red from cherry water ice. Like so many Jersey natives, I’ve been self-hating about the place I was born for too long. But now? To quote a post from the official @NJGOV Twitter account: We don’t like you either.This content is imported from twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. — New Jersey (@NJGov) By the way, the Statue of Liberty? She’s a Jersey resident, too.Dom Nero is a Senior Creative Producer at Esquire, where he also writes about film, tv, tech, and video games. Elsewhere, Dom hosts Eye of the Duck, a podcast about essential movie scenes.&nbsp;This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.&nbsp;Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below

New Jersey, the place where I was raised. Where I ate water ice, where I went down the shore. Where I never pumped my own gas. Where I battled endlessly over the name of a discount breakfast meat. It is a state of boardwalks, a state of gardens, a state of pride—and according to a that made the rounds on Twitter last week, the 48th most unpopular state in the country. Wait, really? Worse than Delaware?YouGov.com, which surveyed 1,211 adults for a completely scientific and comprehensive study, ranked New Jersey below virtually every other state in the country besides Mississippi and Alabama....

In Defense of New Jersey, America's 48th Worst State

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