On NBC 40 this weekend . . . Zip Code Map

I will be taping an interview with author Jen A. Miller today in the Atlantic City Area on NBC 40.

Don't know when it will air, but they will show some of the first clips from our film on the broadcast . . . if you are in the area, check us out!

Also below is a requested "Zip Code map" . . . splitting NJ with zip codes that start with "08" and "07." It is a weird map and I don't know if it proves anything . . . especially since in Middlesex County, it cuts of the "07s" and makes most of Monmouth County "a 07 island" swimming in "08s".

New Jersey Stereotype # 9: New Jerseyans are the worst drivers in the US

Well, this made the news recently as New Jerseyans scored lowest in the country (even counting DC) on the GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test. The highest score went to Kansas.This is one of those statistics that seems OK on paper, but not in practice. True, we may scare New Yorkers with our propensity to turn on red lights, but like this article says - if you were to take a driver from Kansas and plop them in the middle of the Pulaski Skyway or Route 42 during rush hour or ask them to navigate a traffic circle, or merge after paying a toll . . . that would be as funny as watching Clark Griswold try to get out of traffic circle in London as portrayed in National Lampoon's European Vacation.
"Hey kids! Look! There's Big Ben! And Parliament!"

This was a recent post - but click here to see what one pair of New Yorkers said about our driving skills.

After watching, remember it when you see a New York or Pennsylvania license plate on the Garden State Parkway going down the Shore!

And what does this have to do with North or South? Well we had a driving competition between a North and South Jersey girl for bragging rights. You'll have to see the film to see who won!

A good Jersey Father's Day gift

If your dad is a HUGE baseball fan, as mine is . . check out: No Minor Accomplishment: The Revival of New Jersey Professional Baseball by Bob Golon.  It covers all 8 New Jersey Minor League teams and their interesting stories. 
Thanks to Ms. Jubliee at Brick City Bruins (her Newark Bears page) for the photo and plug for our film!

Down the Shore . . .

Here is some footage from last year . . . since I'm in a Shore mood with this weather!

Enjoy!

On the NJ.com Jersey Shore Blog

Click here or the picture to get to the article.

Mail from the Jersey Shore . . .

I told you we'd share some readers' emails.

Dear Sir,

My name TJ, I am 23 years old, currently live in Brick and can tell you that I do not live in North Jersey or South Jersey, but live at The Shore and have so my entire life. I have never lived north of Neptune or west of the Parkway. I have flown out of both Newark and Philly. While I root mostly for the Jets and Yankees, my family also supports the Phillies and the Eagles and would never, ever root for the Giants. My family has been based here for generations. Many of my friends are like me, ambiguous on teams, get made fun of for our accents by both north and south Jersey people(found this out when I went to Rutgers), and call it pork roll. Please don't call the towns in Ocean county and Monmouth county north Jersey due to the large influx of Bennys permanently relocating to the area( as a friend of mine now lovingly calls the area "little Long Island"). We are the shore, both area's come to vacation here, but we don't vacation there.

One other thing about this great state: While the North hates the South, and the South hates the North and we at the Shore hate everybody, one thing holds true. Like the Greek City states of old, we do battle with each other on a regular basis, however should a foreigner like NY or Philly, like Persia, attack one of us, we band together to fight off the invaders and I will help my brother's and sister's in the north or the south. Anyway good luck with the movie.

TJ
Who lives at The Shore

-----------------------------------
This one is from the Rutgers' Football message board and a guy from Monmouth County:

Wanna' start a bar fight with someone from Monmouth County? Ask him if he's from North OR South Jersey!

For all of you, out there, who seem to think that the entire state can be neatly divided between North and South, wake up! Central Jersey has always existed but you can't seem to wrap your heads around it because you're too busy fighting over your sports teams, with your godforsaken accents!

I'm from Monmouth County .. it's CENTRAL JERSEY! I can't imagine that it can ever be considered anything but that. Of course, when I got to Rutgers, those folks from Bergen County told me that I probably had "relations" with livestock because I was from way-down-South. And, those from Camden County told me that I was from that nasty area "all-the-way" up north.

The reality is all of you seem to think that the part of the state that revolves around your particular identiy is yours and EVERYTHING ELSE is the other. It's not. There are many parts to the Garden State. It isn't just a question of North and South!

OK - There is something different about the Jersey Shore . . . admitted. Lifestyle is the biggest thing I've noted. But I do think that this last post and his "friends" in Bergen County were all cheering the New York Giants' Super Bowl victory this past year. . . but after that? Is there much in common? As always - you debate.

But now all I want (and I am serious and even contacted his PR guy) is for Greg Schiano to just say "We're ALL New Jersey" for our film . . . anyone out there know him?

New Jersey Stereotype # 10: North Jersey is ugly

Now, there is a certain smell as you travel on the New Jersey Turnpike, roughly between Exit 11 and North. It is hard to refute this . . . we trust our noses.

Additionally, many visitors to the New York Metropolitan area, fly into Newark Airport and never stay in New Jersey . . . they go right into the City. They catch that smell and coupled with the sight of oil refineries and other eye sores in the area - a certain negative vision of New Jersey is etched quite rapidly into visitors' minds. However, North Jersey is not all of this.

There is the beautiful Northwest as seen in Sussex, Warren and Morris counties. Even Passaic county, with the most chain stores on one roadway that I've ever seen (see Route 3 in Clifton for yourself), has much beauty in its far North.

Bergen has the posh lifestyle - great downtowns, an abundance of high end shopping malls and of course - something that is rampant in North Jersey: nail salons.

In Essex County, where I work, there are even more great downtown areas (have you strolled through Millburn ever?) Even Newark is revitalizing with its Portuguese restaurants in the Ironbound area, "the Rock," the new home of the New Jersey Devils, . . . and across the Passaic River in Harrison will be the Red Bulls' new stadium, Red Bull Park.

And of course, there is Hoboken (my current residence) or "playground on the Hudson" as one NJ Transit conductor constantly exclaims.

So yes, there is a certain "smell" in some parts of North Jersey. And it definitely has its share of eye sores (none worse than those in Gary, Indiana). But North Jerseyans have their ego for a reason up here. The assortment of arts, culture and beauty are what many locals think of . . . instead of the congestion, the economically depressed towns (well - they do exist) and the haze.

Sure New Yorkers bust on North Jersey all the time. But when you are so close to one of the greatest cities in the world - that is bound to happen. North Jersey still has a large amount of culture that is a result of being near the creative nexus that is NYC . . . . and despite the comments, it has more to offer than just guidos.

In the Philadelphia Inquirer tomorrow . . .

You can read the article here. Thanks to Amy Rosenberg at the Inquirer for taking the time to do this story on us! :)
As an aspiring writer, I have to admit: Amy is a great writer. But I was misquoted a couple times. I would never want us to have Staten Island, that is what I said that I believe New Yorkers wanted! And the inbreeding quote was not mine! But I do appreciate an artist trying to paint a picture . . . Amy Rosenberg . . . thank you again!

Readers: Please subscribe to our blog for film updates and other Jersey trivia (link is on the left bar) . . . Soon I will be starting a TOP 10 list of Jersey stereotypes! Email or comment for ideas.

No major accomplishment, but . . . .

I correctly picked all 21 counties and how they would vote in the New Jersey Democratic Primary for the US Senate in the post below on Monday. I went 100% - 21/21.  . . . Now, most political pundits would have also agreed too, and Lautenberg was heavily favored - so this is no big accomplishment on my part. But how does a guy like me, who is not an insider on NJ politics pick this so accurately?

BECAUSE there IS A NORTH - SOUTH JERSEY DIVIDE - notice they couldn't hide behind "Central" here?

How the Democratic vote went yesterday seems awfully similar to our Dunkin' Donuts line, with Mercer playing the role of flip flopper as usual.  The anomaly of Ocean County continues (something we'll explore in the film too).  Click here for the results.

NJ Democrats and the NJ Divide

So, New Jersey, who will you be voting for tomorrow?  Many people have emailed us to bring this up in the movie - but we don't want to get political.  The movie is a fun look at the divide in our state . . . it will make you laugh and may teach you a couple things.

That being said, on this blog, I will bring it up because it does seems like there is an electoral divide based on geography.  True it has been noticeable before - but expect the divide here to be made more apparent.  

If you don't know - democrat Rob Andrews from Camden County is challenging longtime Incumbent, democrat Frank Lautenberg, for the right to run against the Republican winner in November.  It is true, the winner of this contest on June 3rd will still have to beat the Republican nominee.  But among the three Republican candidates: Dick Zimmer, Dr. Murray Sabrin or Joe Pennacchio there is no debate about North and South . . Zimmer's old congressional district is the middle but not south enough to see a great divide in voting geographically; the other Republicans are from far north.  

But, the Democrats' contest is likely to see a split by voting: North and South.

Expect to see Lautenberg heavily winning in the Northern counties (where more of the population is) and Andrews will win heavily in the south.  It will be fun to look how the counties go and if we would be able to draw a line, huh? 

Here is how I see the voting panning out - (and I haven't been following it that much -just my feelings after traveling the state for a year)

Lautenberg:
1. Bergen
2. Passaic
3. Morris (though Cresitello could hurt him here)
4. Hudson
5. Essex
6. Union
7. Middlesex
8. Hunterdon
9. Somerset
10. Monmouth

Andrews:
11. Salem
12. Cumberland
13. Cape May
14. Atlantic
15. Gloucester
16. Camden
17. Burlington

The dark horse counties:
18. Sussex and 19. Warren - I could see good numbers for Cresitello here, but Lautenberg probably winning. 
20. Mercer and 21. Ocean . . . I am expecting Mercer to have a 'North Jersey" showing here and going for Lautenberg. . just look at the poll of my town to see how close. Ocean . . I am predicting a very, very narrow Lautenberg win.
But I am not an insider on NJ politics like this guy: Blue Jersey who predicts differences on Middlesex and Ocean amongst others.

Either way . . . vote tomorrow!

Democrats:
Frank Lautenberg

Rob Andrews

Donald Cresitello

Republicans:

Dick Zimmer

Dr. Murray Sabrin

Joe Pennacchio

Wikipedia debate

One of the funniest (and frustrating) things that I have seen written about New Jersey on the web has been the wikipedia entries: North Jersey, Central Jersey and South Jersey. They helped me for the documentary. Then, they changed. Things got deleted and people got mad.

Considering wikipedia's open-source editing - this is to be expected: someone with an agenda gets control and crowds out the others. Also I realize that this blog entry could be inviting disaster - keeping in mind that anyone can edit the online encyclopedia.

But, the North and South Jersey entries need to be improved to what they were a year ago . . . I just feel strongly here because these original articles helped immensely in starting my quest. They didn't influence me so much as they provided me with links and theories that had some foundation. And I kept in mind that it's wikipedia - and has many flaws - but still a source that I enjoy.

Then I had a South Jersey girl write to me about how she thought there was no "Central Jersey." She referenced the newly-edited version of Central Jersey - which she considered biased to the "Raritan Valley." If all of "Central Jersey" is within the New York Metropolitan Area (as the author claims) - then surely that means it's North Jersey, yes?

The article has gotten better with debate - but I tried to add the idea of Plumsted Township (which is near the state's geographic center) and it keeps getting deleted. It just reinforces my opinion that we can't agree on anything within this state! And I don't have to patience to include our documentary's findings yet in these pages.

I'll let you decide. Check out the discussion that contributors to the Central Jersey article have been having. I added a comment. To me, again, it just shows that we can't agree on anything. . . . Let alone if there is a Central Jersey or not.

Still looking for someone to tell me something that they all have in common.