Why did those of us who grew up outside NJ just dump on NJ all the time when it’s actually amazing?
So I grew up in southeast PA in the 1990s and for as long as I can remember it was “hur hur NJ, armpit of America,” and this continued as I went to college in Philly in the 2000s and NJ was just the place we went to get booze we couldn’t get in PA (Everclear, etc) - our own little Tijuana.
Fast forward 2 decades I spent living either in California or abroad, and now I’m living in the Montclair Cinematic Universe and it’s…just amazing? The people are great, the food is great, it’s one of the best states for education and diversity, Netflix is opening up a megastudio…it’s like everything good and civilized about a blue state but with less pretension. It’s the best state.
How did I get it so wrong? Was it just a Pennsylvania thing (neighborly love and all that) and NJ was always great? Did it become amazing sometime in the last 2 decades? Is NJ just actively trying to conceal its greatness like Wakanda so housing prices don’t get even worse?