Definitely go across the bridge to New Hope PA while you're there. That's the much bigger and more popular tourist spot. There's beautiful huge houses there.

NJ has a lot of towns from before cars. They're pretty walkable. Lambertville is the classic example.

I live in East Rutherford down the street from this shot. It's actually really walkable. Bus and train are both walking distance from most of the town. When I want to go to American Dream I can take a bus to get there. It's pretty great these days TBH

Dude get into gardening and permaculture design. It'll help you feel some control over how things turn out. Also, you'll develop useful skills if what you're worried about actually happens.

You're definitely right there's a big risk of some really awful stuff happening. Try not to let it consume you and build resilience in your local community. Don't live your life online.

Oooo do Bergen!

What's the cancer part?

Astroturfing is the worst. These people couldn't give a wet fart about whales.

More if you count CT

Good point ☝️

Fair Lawn rules. I second this.

That would actually be pretty cool. All the NYC suburbs in the tristate area as a state would be a powerhouse.

The property taxes are HIGH though. $600k houses have $19k property taxes. In East Rutherford, a $600k house has $9.3k property taxes and is closer to the city. Montclair rules for sure, but living there can be tough.

Note that everything I said also applies to Rutherford but it's less diverse and more expensive. Still a solid town.

It really depends on where in the city you work. You have a LOT more options for a sub 1 hr commute.if you work in midtown for instance. If you work in FIDI, the ferry and path suburbs are best. If you work in Harlem or further north, bridge suburbs are great if you're gonna drive or take the jitneys.

East Rutherford has been great for my family. Homes are affordable, there's a walkable downtown, and a huge ass mall when we want it. The schools are good and improving, we have a brand new middle school that's amazing. It's very diverse and class sizes are small. There's always little town events and concerts and fairs. There's also tons of buses running to port authority all day and night. The Rutherford train station is also walking distance. Having both bus and train available is awesome. Hoboken is only two train stops away when I want that vibe too. IMO, this town is pretty perfect and I'm glad I'm raising my kids here. We also have the lowest property tax rate in Bergen county, that is important.

And I loved him on th Jets too.

New Hope, PA is pretty great if you've never been.

If you want to drink, U street and Adam's Morgan are the party areas. Very fun night life scene.

Yeah Baltimore is actually an awesome spot for a weekend trip. There's so much great food there. Definitely check out the neighborhood markets. They're such a neat local thing.

We need municipal consolidation for that. CT has much larger towns than NJ.

Probably Paramus. Just tons of traffic and malls. There's no actual downtown or anything resembling a cohesive identity besides shopping on rt17.

Yes, NJ's post industrial cities have their problems but they also have history and culture. Paramus is just a symbol of everything wrong with late stage capitalism.

Yeah that's a great idea. A shed in the parking lot could cover most needs.

Except that's expensive

Oh I'd love to donate some rods and reels to that.

This x1000. One thing I'd love to see is libraries adding tools. So many apartment dwellers need a drill once in a while. I've got a garage full of tools I've used maybe 5 times. I'd love to share those with my neighbors but be able to have them when I need them. We need a real culture of libraries of everything, not just books and media.

Really good in general. I use Greatschools.org and Niche to check individual towns. Those aren't perfect so if you seriously consider moving, talk to folks in the town.

Yeah I've never been more disappointed in a restaurant meal. It was hotel bar food at best.