Even though I have lived in the Philadelphia media market for 12 years, I am still, at heart, a New York City media market kind of guy. And I think that the border between North Jersey and New York City is kind of an arbitrary and irrelevant thing from a cultural perspective. It’s all the same neighborhood and the same economy. So, yeah, the Super Bowl is being held in New Jersey, but we don’t call them the New Jersey Giants or the New Jersey Jets, or even the New Jersey Red Bulls. We could call them that. After all, we have the New Jersey Devils, and for a long time we had the New Jersey Nets. But just like Cherry Hill is a part of Philly, the Meadowlands are a part of New York. Being from Jersey is a big part of my identity, but I also consider myself to be from New York, because that’s the culture I grew up in. That was my local news. That was my playground. That’s home.
So, Cory Booker can complain if he wants and try to be a booster for the Garden State, but the Super Bowl is being played in New York, too. Even though it isn’t.
Let’s hope Christie keeps the bridges and tunnels open on Sunday.
Let’s hope Christie keeps the bridges and tunnels open on Sunday.
No, no, Christie wouldn’t do that. Only his underlings engage in such behavior. Totally without his knowledge.
Plus, Cuomo would kick his ass.
A good man – Tribute to Pete Seeger.
Sorry!
Missed your early-bird fp story – Goodbye, Pete Seeger.
I think we can say, most accurately, that the Super Bowl is being played in the New York Metropolitan Area — or, the New York Area for short.
Of course, the reason Jersey gets shirt shrift — and gets made fun of — is that it’s a state whose true sense of place is mainly tied to these two metropolises outside the state, which sometimes gives outsiders the impression that it doesn’t have its own sense of place. It’s this overall sentiment that “miffs” Cory Booker, and the reason he’s trying to boost Jersey pride.
As a guy who grew up in Brooklyn and now lives in the Main Line and works in Philly, I would say that it would be perfectly accurate to call this a New York/ New Jersey Super Bowl, and let both the metro area and the rest of the state of New Jersey be proud (if they are so inclined).
I suppose I grew up in the New York area also. Bridgeport, Connecticut in the ’40s & ’50s.
All the TV channels were from NYC. WOR was ch 9 (Brooklyn Dodgers), WPIX Ch 11 Giants & Yankees.
I think there was ch 2, 4,5,& 7 also. And in my twenties I worked for three years in Brooklyn.
Cherry Hill is not part of Philadelphia anymore than Camden is.
Sure it is. Why don’t you go out to a bar there while a sporting event is taking place.
Crap. Atlantic City is part of Philly.
And the Pine Barrens might as well be Appalachia as far as north Jersey is concerned. From a north Jersey POV anything Trenton and south is suspect.
No, because the only reason to go to NJ, other than I’m driving to NY is…
well, ok there’s really no other reason.
“I think that the border between North Jersey and New York City is kind of an arbitrary and irrelevant thing from a cultural perspective.”
Of course there are a lot of similarities. For a start, large parts of the two states were once New Netherlands, which differentiates them from all other states historically. But a lot has happened since then, and the states have developed in different ways. I’m not trying to be antagonistic here, but having grown up in Brooklyn, I don’t think the border is arbitrary or irrelevant at all.
In the eyes of the public, New Jersey suffers most because of the stereotyping it is subjected to on television and in the media. Mostly regarding the people from the Garden state. It’s not something that’s exclusive to NJ, but it seems to be particularly intense when compared to others.
Well, that stupid Jersey Shore show that starred people who are not even from Jersey certainly didn’t help.
Having part of a major metropolitan area be in another state isn’t unusual (e.g. Northwest Indiana, Kansas City, East St Louis) but what is unusual is how big the New Jersey component is.
The only similar situation I know of is San Jose vs. San Francisco. In 1950 San Francisco had nearly 10x the population – San Jose was a large town surrounded by orchards and the railroad connecting the two was sprinkled with towns amidst farmland. By 1990 San Jose had boomed to being larger than SF, which had mostly stable population due to having been built out, and the peninsula towns had grown to be a continuous belt of cities with most of the population closer to San Jose. In other words, the San Jose area was the largest population in the bay area and third largest in the state after LA and SD. (Since then SJ and SF’s population have both grown but the biggest growth has been in the areas around SJ.)
So San Jose wanted some recognition of this fact, and would you please stop calling it the San Francisco area. Like that worked. When the San Jose Sharks showed up in 1991 most of the nation thought that it they were like the Green Bay Packers, in a small town. And admittedly this is a city with almost NO downtown. When San Jose finally got recognized as a separate metro area (with newspapers and a full allotment of TV stations to compete with SF) the census takers originally drew the border between SF and SJ at the SJ border, counting bordering cities like Cupertino and Santa Clara as part of the metro area of SF which is 50 miles away.
Even with the 49ers moving to Santa Clara – next door to SJ and a long drive from SF – the team name is still San Francisco.