Doubtful. Monroe is populated by a ton of crotchety 55+ communities that don’t pay attention to this stuff. Those people clapping after the troll lashed out at that poor grandma… that was the people voting for her. Small town politics in action here.

I think geography actually explains a lot here. Jealousy of richer towns like Westfield and scotch plains versus poorer towns like linden and Rahway leaves Clark in the middle wanting to be one and not the other. Some of the mansions in Irvington that have been converted to 10 family homes makes me think white flight, and Clark isn’t far from there, so you get generational racism. I grew up with a lot of Italians with Newark history, lots of hard r racists. The police doing driving while black stops- that shit was done where I grew up and racists loved it… made them feel safe, reinforced the “not in my neighborhood” vibes. When we looked at homes in Clark, it was a lot of dead old people homes. I know racists come in all ages, but those old racists hit differently- way more willing to come out and be out, no fear of being exposed on the internet or lose their jobs.

I moved from Metuchen to Spotswood and still go back to Edison to go here for meats.

It’s been pretty bad. We hired contractors in June 2020 for a deck replacement, excavation, patio, finished basement with bathroom, and patio door egress. Things started ok, the deck work and excavation got done within a year, but we heard a lot about the costs going up. The trex decking took a while, but it got here. Pavers were not an issue.

The bigger problem was my contractor is from the area that got it by that hurricane a year or 2 ago, and he got all kinds of government contracts to fix the damage. He kinda ghosted me, and the quotes from the local guys to finish what was left were insane. 1 guy quoted us 10k for a half split when the basement already had 4 heat ducts he just missed. We owed the contractor maybe 30k of the 95k we contracted for, and estimated ran 60-120k. It was pretty depressing. Especially with the hole cut out of the foundation/basement wall for the patio doors being covered with a plastic tarp for almost 2 years…

I wanted to redo the pavers around the pool, so I basically rehired my first contractor to do that job to match the patio. He doubled the price on me, but it came with the caveat that he also finish the basement, which is now about 95% done. Just waiting on a plumber any day now for that basement bathroom. My guy has used a lot of subcontractors. It seems like the same sub crew never show up, but his regular guys are solid.

My town recently contacted me because the building permits are 2.5 years old and we haven’t called for final inspections. The guy that came said there are a lot of places where the contractors bailed or the owners ran out of money. As a lawyer, I can tell you we study how to sue contractors in property class- a mandatory core class for all first year law students- because it happens so often.

We have rec dispensarys and med only dispensarys. Just double check where you are planning to go, but if you find a rec place you are good to go.

My town did a “trunk or treat” at the high school tonight. Kiddo filled up her pumpkin, saw the fire truck, and took pictures with inflatables in full costume. I heard some people in line say it was their third of the day.

Tomorrow is her daycare parade and then we will do the neighborhood until she taps out.

I don't know about all amusement parks, but Great Adventure has huddled you into smoking boxes for like a decade. And they were strict about it, my buddy was hanging out straddling the line and got told "inside or we are kicked out."

I once lit a cig 20 feet from the exit line on my way out of the park and had an employee yell at me, tell me to put in out, and follow me until I crossed the line... when magically it was fine to smoke there.