Google Maps view of New Jersey: the Movie locations

Here is the map of the locations in the final movie cut. The many deleted scenes locations will be added. Bookmark it now!

View New Jersey: the Movie filming locations in a larger map

Census part I: WNYC's take

I've been eagerly awaiting the 2010 Census numbers for a while now.

Public radio station WNYC has released some census maps, including racial demographics and population changes from 2000 - 2010. I took some screen shots of the the population change map, but of course, I was more interested in focusing on how the New York based radio station divided New Jersey.

Did they divide it based on where their listening audience is?

Where the fringe signal reaches?

Where the census divides New Jersey?

I really don't know.

But I did notice some interesting patterns:

They left out the Lehigh Valley area of New Jersey that we focused on heavily in New Jersey: the Movie. In the film's extras, we interviewed a friend Doug, who grew up near Belvidere and both owners of Gunnar's Landing. You can see the newest interview of Gunnar's here.

Finally, my hometown of Ewing gets split by this map. Actually, it splits Mercer County and Monmouth County. The significance of this: it is exactly where our People's Line (detailed in the film) goes through.

But surprise: no Ocean County.

This all makes me wonder if Ocean County will continue to be counted as part of the New York metropolitan area in the new census or if it will become something else . . . Anyway, I hope to post more as the new census numbers creep out.

More to Jersey - part II

This was published on youtube a while ago. Sorry for the delay. You should follow Steve on youtube too.

Jersey Regional Food Traditions

The food we eat defines us. In, New Jersey, we already have access to some of the best food in the world due to our diverse demographics. Our pizza & bagels are top notch and our ethnic foods are far reaching. However, there are some areas of NJ where the locals swear by a certain food. In Mounmouth County, it's Windmill Hot Dogs, but next door in Mercer, people barely have heard of them. This lead me to come up with a small map showcasing a local area's culinary chains. I've got 5 so far; what would you add to the list?

In the Trenton area, (besides Pork Roll which we've pointed out enough times), DeLorenzo's Tomatoe Pies, are a tradition.

In Monmouth County (and one in Westfield), you have the aforementioned, Windmill Hot Dogs.

In the River towns along Burlington County, you have Boost! Cola, which is like catnip to young residents there.

In Ocean & Monmouth counties, it's Surf Taco (thanks to John and Lisa for the rec).

And it may be a stretch, but if you went to Rutgers, Grease Trucks, are part of your vocabulary.

New Jersey's Property Tax Divide

Numbers are from 2007. Here is the map and ranking of counties' average property tax. Highest 11 are highlighted green. Statistics taken from NJ.com's By the Numbers.

Last Day to buy NJ the Movie in time for Valentine's

Today Monday February 8, 2010 is the last day to order New Jersey: the Movie so it ships in time for Valentine's Day.

You are a part of the mailing . . .

Enjoy! It has been a long time coming!

The Turnpike Series: Phillies & Yankees divide NJ - Part I

What town in NJ has the best downtown with good rail access?

In our search for the perfect NJ town to live in, my fiancée and I are asking for your help. I want access to rail that puts me in NYC or Philly in a reasonable time. She wants a walkable, cute downtown. A great coffe shop and sports bar would be bonuses. A cool co-ed softball or other adult sports league like a running club would be double bonus.

I will break it up into 3 sections. South, North and we will give the "Central" people their say too, although all of their rail is the same as North Jersey people (all lines lead to NYC). There is a voting bar above. Whichever town wins each section, will move onto the next round. We will go to the winning town and I will video blog the experience.

Lambertville screening Sat. Aug. 15 - 7:30pm

New Jersey: the Movie next screening

Saturday, August 15, 2009

7:30pm - 8:35pm

ACME Screening Room

25 S. Union Street

Lambertville, NJ 08530-1841

609-397-0275

Suggested $5 donation at the door

Wawa and Remembering Harry Kalas

Your local NJ Wawa is the exclusive seller for Rich Wolfe's, Remembering Harry Kalas. However, NOT all New Jersey Wawas are selling the below book.

Phone calls and visits to local Wawas in the "Central" areas of the state gave us this map:

The Red Counties represent those with Wawas that ALL sell the book.

The Blue Counties represent those that do not have any Wawas.

The Blank Counties have been singled out.

A "P" means that the Wawa had the book.

The "N" means that the Wawa didn't sell the book.

Two in disputed territories say that they had the book, but that it sold out.

Steven Piperno's closing song

This song rolls over the credits to our film. I threw together a little slideshow to go along with it.

How New Jersey is viewed by America . . .

 . . . AND why I think the most underrated reasons people specify they are from SOUTH or CENTRAL or WEST Jersey is because of these:

I'm getting some North Jersey friends on this for some defense.

Have a good time down the shore this weekend!

Civil War related divides . . .

New Jersey was once divided into East Jersey and West Jersey, as I have discussed here before. That eventually evolved into North and South Jersey. But in the early years of our republic, this divide was quite apparent when it came to slavery.

Taken from http://www.westjersey.org:

1) The slavery rates were much lower in South Jersey during the first three generations of the life of the nation (1790 to 1860). At the beginning of this period 92.6% of New Jersey's slaves were in the northern counties. By 1840 it was over 99%.

2) The 1860 popular vote for Lincoln in the Southern Counties as a whole was 55%, but was only 45% in the Northern Counties.

So although some people like to take the Mason Dixon Line and extend it across South Jersey, this early divide was really a kind-of-reverse Mason-Dixon Line.

Why was this? Too complicated, I would recommending further reading the linked westjersey.org site to get the answer.

But there will always be "Central" people trying to dispute that history. It all reminded me of the below clip, which inspired this post:

The above video takes about 4 seconds to begin playing.
The full above episode can be found at: http://www.hulu.com

NJTM wins another award!

Thanks to all of you who drove down to Asbury Park for the Garden State Film Festival. Our film won the "Home Grown Award" for Short Documentary - Honorable Mention. You can see the list of winners here. Being that there were NO other Honorable Mentions awarded, we believe that we captured the fan vote.  So a special thanks to all of you!

"Central Jersey" Deleted scenes

Actually, one of these clips made the final cut, but that was it:

Finding the dividing line: part III

Our dividing line goes through these counties:

Why Somerset & Middlesex lean toward North Jersey

If you looked at all of the evidence in the last post, and are still unconvinced about why we included ALL of Middlesex and Somerset counties into North Jersey here is one more reason: PRINCETON.

Princeton, at the northeast part of Mercer County, was thought of as North by most state residents who we interviewed and polled.

I did see a pattern of "education bias" in the polling. Many of those interviewed (rightly or wrongly) associated North Jersey as more cultured, and thus felt it was natural to "bring Princeton along." This was common in the North-Central counties, but I was also surprised about how many South Jersey residents agreed.

I also bought into it, partly because I grew up in Mercer County.

It is uncanny how the towns in Mercer that revolve more around Trenton (Ewing, Hamilton, Robbinsville & the southern part of Lawrence) differ from those that revolve around Princeton (Hopewell, West Windsor & the northern part of Lawrence). East Windsor was the toughest to figure out.

Another amazing stat - look at the residents of MERCER COUNTY. They were uncharacteristically united in their vote. 93% of them said Princeton leaned to North Jersey.

The following is the poll of people who thought Princeton was NORTH Jersey. North or South was the only choice - no Central. Each County had 30 residents polled (630 people total), and if you don't think that is a lot, sorry. It took me a LONG time to do!

NJ Residents by county who thought Princeton was North Jersey:

Bergen - 47%

Passaic - 17%

Sussex - 27%

Hudson - 33%

Essex - 43%

Morris - 53%

Union - 53%

Warren - 77%

Somerset - 67%

Hunterdon - 70%

Middlesex - 73%

Mercer - 93% . . . very surprising

Monmouth - 90% . . . very surprising also

Ocean - 73%

Burlington - 87%

Atlantic - 80%

Camden - 77%

Gloucester - 83%

Cape May - 100%

Cumberland - 100%

Salem - 97%

Princeton's average was 69% NORTH . . . well above the required 50.01% to tip it to North, thus taking its northern neighbors in Somerset & Middlesex counties along.

But, wait - there are 3 towns in southern Middlesex that are technically south of Princeton: Cranbury, Plainsboro & Monroe Township. What about them?
Well - I had to do some even heavier groundwork there.

Monore was easier to lean North because of its area code not being 609. I also interviewed guys within the fire department there who seemed to indicate a more "North Jersey" preference, while hinting that their southern neighbors in Millstone were culturally different.

NOTE: Cops & Firefighters, though they wouldn't be filmed, were some of my best overall sources. No group had a better "pulse on the town" than them.

Cranbury students attend Princeton High School - thus linking Cranbury's destiny with Princeton.

Plainsboro, the northernmostof the 3 towns, has a new Village Center which is pretty much at the same latitude as Princeton's Train Station.

But as you can see by the last post, latitude is really a secondary thing. Plainsboro & Cranbury are culturally linked to Princeton and above all else, that's what matters here.

FINAL VERDICT: North Jersey

Finding the line: part II

We guarantee that this post will be more controversial than the last. But these are the counties that after exhausting research - pointed NORTH. These counties have more in common with North Jersey than South Jersey.

Now it must be said, that this is a debate mostly about Somerset and Middlesex counties, where most residents consider themselves as being from Central Jersey. However, if we are going by CULTURE first and geography second, then it must be understood that this is North Jersey.All of these counties have many things that bind them together.

#1 - Sports loyalties. No one can hide behind the Central label here. Someone from the south of the county, from even Cranbury or Skillman, roots for the same sports teams as someone from Mahwah, with very rare exceptions.

#2 - They watch the New York news. Even though some of the southern towns here get some Philly stations; they all get more New York channels.

#3 - It is closer to fly out of EWR than PHL in all of the above counties

#4 - The following are called a sub, Italian ice and sprinkles (not hoagie, water ice and jimmies)

#5 - All are within the New York metropolitan area and "The City" is NYC.

#6 - Somerset is north of Princeton (which is a big deal that I will talk about in my next post) and Middlesex is in the Gateway region as defined by the state of New Jersey.

#7 - The Newark Star Ledger is the biggest selling paper in all of these counties and has a special section for all.

Somerset & Middlesex Debatable:

#1 The towns of Rocky Hill, Montgomery, Plainsboro & Cranbury have a 609 area code and some of them are geographically closer to Philadelphia.

#2 It is Pork Roll (not Taylor Ham)

#3 The southern parts of these counties are below the Raritan River - which the Driscoll Bride spans.

But let's be clear on one thing. Most people in North Jersey cite the Driscoll Bridge as their biggest dividing line. Since that spans the Raritan River - we can use that as a dividing line and easily take out the northern parts of Middlesex and Somerset counties.

Now in the next post, I will explain why the southern parts of Middlesex and Somerset are still culturally North Jersey.

Wawa line moves farther North

This happened in August 2008. Sorry for being late, but we did mention it earlier. Below is the new Wawa map.

The most astounding thing? In the story - they call it, "A hoagie making showdown."

The new Wawa is in Phillipsburg, which is above I-78. This further points to our thesis that New Jersey's dividing line is cultural and not geographic.
Though it is a stretch to put ALL of the new area below in pink, most do have easy access to many Wawas across the river in PA (like Lambertville does in New Hope).