Heres the deal. Ive been here for 23 years and what you dont realize until youve seen the entire state over a number of years is that its more like 3 states in 1. North, Central and South are all different. Central is a mixture of the 2, but really just takes the good from both. North kinda sucks. Its congested and is more like a subsection of NY. South is rural and has some of the nicest places in the whole ocuntry. The central (monmouth county in particular) is simply amazing. You have Holmdel Park and Thompson park (thompson is way better a place to run than holmdel) as well as the manasquan rez. The NJ shore is awesome (belmar, manasquan and pt pleasant). The school systems in NJ (monmouth county in particular again) are the best in the country. NJ produces more HS talent than any other state save TX, Cali FL and on some years, NY, but when taking into consideration size, its not even close. Unemployment is lowest in the nation and NJ is the wealthiest state per capita in the union. Not only this but 2 of the greatest cities in the wolrd are an hour away from where i live (philly and NYC). The weather gets cold in thw winter and hot in the summer, so you get all 4 seasons, but dont have to worry about earthquakes, hurricanes or tornados like other areas of the country.
Also, the only people in NJ that have accents are the people in North and South, who have NY and Philly accents. People in central NJ speak correctly without any trace of an accent whatsoever.
Lastly, the people who call NJ the "armpit" of america are the ones who judge is based off of their experiences in North Jersey in the shitty NY environment like Newark and Jersey City. Come to Monmouth County and then judge. The point is this, NY sucks and most people when in NJ have experiences with the NYers who are in North Jersey. That is why people think it sucks. Monmouth County Represent....