"If You Lived Here You'd Be Cool By Now" - Jersey City is official, I guess

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Taxis at 2am, JC people. Do something about that.

Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, I agree.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Whatever, Lucky 7 is no dive at all compared to Uncle Joe's, which I shall mourn forever and ever, amen. Also divey: the keyhole bar and El Negro.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link

NYCers' "total blank lack of interest" IS disdain, though!

really, NJers get so much unnecessary shit from NYers (or folks who moved to NYC from wherever) that that is why we're always defensive. not to mention that many of us NJers feel like NYers are getting ripped off for the "privilege" of living on their overpriced (and ofttimes overrated) little islands.

Eisbär (Eisbär), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Taxis at 2am, JC people. Do something about that.

bring it up with Port Authority. (the excuse the cabbies always give me is the cost/hassle of dealing with the holland/lincoln tunnels.)

Eisbär (Eisbär), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Taxis: if you're leaving from anywhere on the lower-ish west side, get the taxi driver to agree to "double the meter at the tunnel, plus toll and tip." Depending on how far you live from the NJ side of the tunnel it comes out, more or less, and saves you from that entirely specious "surcharge".

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Also divey: the keyhole bar and El Negro.

El Negro closed. It's apparently now called The Star Bar and it's all gussied up. Have not been there.

I have a feeling PATH will eventually increase service. They'd better, the fuckers.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:12 (seventeen years ago) link

And I also miss Uncle Joe's.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:12 (seventeen years ago) link

NYCers' "total blank lack of interest" IS disdain, though

Not at all! I mean, NYCers' lack of interest in Jersey City is at least neutral, compared to NYCers' much more dismissive lack of interest in, like, 98% of the rest of the country. I mean, I dunno, I haven't been here that many years -- do you seriously get shit from people about it? I can kinda imagine this, I guess: I got condescended to a few months back for living on the Upper West Side, so anything's possible. But my sense is still that most people would just be like "oh, you live in Jersey City. Do you like it?"

many of us NJers feel like NYers are getting ripped off

Plus this is exactly the kind of "we pity you" tactic that gets whispered in one's ear by the chip on one's shoulder!!!

I'd as soon move to Jersey City as anywhere else in the area -- I'm just afraid everyone would be walking around there 24 hours a day grumbling about this. It'd be like living inside Rodney Dangerfield.

nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Or in Chicago.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually I think the keyhole is less divey since whatstheirfaces started holding POETRY READINGS upstairs. Is it safe to say here that what/who I know of those waterbug people annoys me to no end??

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I've never been to the Keyhole. I hate those waterbug fux though. The "local artists and poets" are probably the worst thing about this town.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Also re taxis, the trip from the West Village to anything north of, say, Newark Ave is SO MUCH SHORTER/FASTER than my ride home from the LES to mid-Brooklyn.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Nabisco, it's not like I get shit about it all the time, and it's not like I complain about it very often either. But it does happen - JC gets used as an easy punchline in blogs and people do sometimes make snide comments. A friend of mine was on his way into a Manhattan Mexican place recently and asked a woman coming out if the food was any good. She said that it was ok. Then she asked where he was from, and when he said "Jersey City" she responded "Oh, then the food is great."

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:24 (seventeen years ago) link

i can't imagine giving a fuck whether someone lives in jc or not.

Tyrone Slothrop (Tyrone Slothrop), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:28 (seventeen years ago) link

i've made it out to be more than it really is -- it's just a minor irritant, like being bit by gnats. so a defensive "i really pity you" is kinda like ointment.

Eisbär (Eisbär), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:33 (seventeen years ago) link

and let's face it, manhattan IS a rip-off for so many things. overpriced real estate, overpriced food, overpriced consumer goods, etc. getting a little more bang-for-your-buck AND being within spitting distance of manhattan (if one feels a need to go there for any reason) AND getting a manhattan paycheck whilst paying NJ prices* more than makes up for any snooty NYC attitudes.

(*though north jersey is also a rip-off not only in comparison to the rest of the country, but also in comparison to the rest of NJ.)

Eisbär (Eisbär), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I think one of the things the article captures really well is the madness of present-day New York's real estate boom-fueled mania for the next hot neighborhood.

I grew up hoping for the New York my parents always told me about - the New York of eccentrics and over psychoanalyzed "intellectuals" and wannabe actors and writers high on their starving artist fantasies - I mean all that's still there too but it's kind of depressing the way most of the "hip" neighborhoods now are the ones with the right brunch places and the "unhip" neighborhoods are nothing but big box retail and panini cafes. That's the NYMag version of things anyway.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:47 (seventeen years ago) link

If it makes any of you feel better, I've spent the last three years being disdained for living in a student-housing apartment, and I'm sure that when I'm forced to move out I'll wind up having to find a place in Elizabeth.

nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Or in Chicago.

I only hear the "Chicago is sooo provincial" line rarely, but it does make me want to kill.

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:01 (seventeen years ago) link

One of my favorite Brian Lehrer moments ever (during a "Manhattan versus Brooklyn" call-in a couple years ago):

Caller: "I live in Brooklyn, and I have a golden retriever, and I have to say I think Brooklyn is the best place in the U.S. to live with a dog. I live right by ____ park and..."

Brian Lehrer: "Wait a minute wait a minute. Are you honestly trying to tell me that of all the places in the U.S., BROOKLYN is the best place to have a dog?"

Caller: "No, really. I know a lot of people think it's better to live in rural areas with dogs, but it's really dangerous and you can't just let your dog roam free because it can go onto some farmer's land and then the farmer is allowed to shoot it."

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Home of Red's Tube Bar:

http://www.missioncreep.com/mw/tubebar/

PappaWheelie III (PappaWheelie III), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually in MI we didn't let our dogs outside all fall (hunting season) because a) collies don't look enough UNLIKE deer to be safe, and b) technically hunters are/were allowed to shoot dogs who are "running" (that is, chasing) deer. I have no idea why...? "Running" livestock animals stresses them out, makes them produce less milk/lose weight/become tough/etc but deer are hardly livestock!

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Ah ok. Nonetheless, you wouldn't exactly say Brooklyn would be a better place for dogs, right? After all it's not like you can let them out in the Fall, or any other time, in Brooklyn either.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 02:48 (seventeen years ago) link


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