Best Places to Live in America: NJ Style

The cynics among us always blast New Jersey at every conceivable moment for our high property taxes, high auto insurance rates, crowded highways, and sprawl being built upon more and more sprawl. We are the home of “The Sopranos”, the state where Miss New Jersey was blackmailed, and where we see the backside of the Statue of Liberty each morning from our side of the Hudson. The state song should be “I’m from New Jersey” by John Gorka.

When my New York City friends come to New Jersey for a visit, they lament over having to figure out how to handle jug-handle turns. They also love being able to make a right turn on a red light. They love our gas prices and the fact that they pump the gas for you, but they hate the toll roads. You gotta take the good with the bad in any state, I say. And the Garden State is no different.

Money magazine recently released their list of the “Top 100 BEST PLACES TO LIVE” in America. While no city in New Jersey made the top ten, we did place six towns in the top 50, and eight towns altogether. If you include all the towns nearby these eight, you get a pretty impressive number for a state the size of NJ.

The most impressive statistic: California has a population of 36,457,549 and 155,959.34 square miles of state ---- and they have the most number of cities in the “Top 100 BEST PLACES TO LIVE” at NINE. What about New Jersey? Well, with only 8,724,560 people, and just 7,417.34 square miles --- we have EIGHT cities in the “Top 100 BEST PLACES TO LIVE”. Our neighbors to the east and west of us have only 3 and 4 respectively in top 100.

Take that Los Angeles. Stick it where the sun don't shine, ‘Frisco.

Here are our proud winners:

13. Montville, N.J.
Population: 22,100

23. Hillsborough, NJ
Population: 41,100

29. River Vale, NJ
Population: 9,500

33. Marlboro, NJ
Population: 38,500

45.Berkeley Heights, NJ
Population: 14,000

47.Sayreville, NJ
Population: 45,200

58.Readington, NJ
Population: 19,000

78.Moorestown, NJ
Population: 20,700

And we have a better ocean than California, too. Everyone knows the Atlantic is better than the Pacific.