Piscataway, New Jersey: The Armpit Of The State!
Aug 08 '02
The Bottom Line An example of a bad town - not necessarily the worst, but pretty close to it...
Review of Piscataway, NJ (August 8, 2002)
Overall, NJ is an extremely good state to live in. It has an abundance of resources ranging from beautiful beaches, parks, farms, historical sites and wooded lands, to industry, shopping malls, and places of employment. Most towns are pleasant, quaint places to live in and raise a family. The only major drawback to living in New Jersey is that it has become overcrowded over the years. To much sprawl: Houses built on top of one another – huge boxes that have no real charm other than that they are big inside! Yuk! This is what you will find in Piscataway, NJ.
My wife and I are considering buying a bigger house to move into to upgrade. We occasionally drive around towns on weekends to look at houses for sale. One day, we spotted an ad in the newspaper for a house for sale in Piscataway, so we hopped in the car and took a quick drive over. While we were driving, we passed by a farm with a huge sign posted close to the road. The sign had a picture of a cute little girl on it and it read: “Please Piscataway, Do Not Take Away My Family’s Farm!” Later we found out that the town’s council wanted to approve the site to build another shopping mall. When we arrived to the house for sale, we didn’t even want to get out of the car. It was a cheap looking box-house plopped down on a ¼ acre of land, amidst more of the same. Put simply, a sprawl house.
We drove around the town. Everywhere we looked, we saw nothing but sprawl houses. No character. No vision. No charm. No trees! It made my stomach turn. We turned onto one of the main arteries in town, Stelton Road. The road was jammed packed with stop and go traffic. Along the road, where there were once farms and wooded lots, now sported strip malls, gas stations, and fast food stores. The city did not plan well for their over-developed situation. They should have planned a better roadway system to handle the increased traffic. I wonder where all of the tax revenues are being spent in this town?
I often hear mumblings about corruption in this town. Greedy politicians taking bribes, hiring contractors that give handouts, and other such tales. On a personal note, several years ago I was driving through Piscataway when I came to an intersection with a traffic light. I was making a left turn, under a green light. After I completed the turn, a fellow in a car going in the opposite direction was trying to make a left turn into a gas station on the other side of the street. Being a careful driver and a good sport, I braked to allow him to cross in front of me. A cop driving several cars behind me pulled me over about a mile away from the intersection and accused me of running through a red traffic light! I tried to explain the situation to him, but he simply told me to tell it to the judge.
Upon the court date, the cop appeared at the courtroom and asked that all those people for whom he had issued tickets come directly to him to have their cases reviewed. There were several people who had similar complaints that they were not guilty of a traffic violation, so he offered them a “deal” – no points, just pay the traffic fine. He made the same offer to me, but I figured I would talk to the prosecutor. The meeting was short and unfruitful.
Over an hour later, when I had my opportunity to be tried in front of the judge, the cop first explained his account of the incident. He jumbled up facts, did not even provide correct details, and blatantly lied about the whole incident. I told my side of the story, while the judge drummed his fingers on the bench and yawned. I was found guilty and had to pay the fine. Later, I talked to a buddy who is a cop in my town and he told me: “Oh yeah – that town has an ethics problem in their police force. The cops there are told to make their quota in tickets or suffer penalties”.
The town does have some historical sites (it was once the site of the Camp Kilmer army base during World War 2). It is home to the Rutgers University Piscataway Campus (Bush and Livingston Campuses) near the New Brunswick side of town. However, that seems to be the only interesting part of town. There are an abundance of industrial buildings on the southernmost section of town (many of the buildings appear to be vacant). Piscataway also has some popular chain stores such as Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, etc. which makes shopping easy. But that is it - certainly not a place to go visit on vacation.
Piscataway is accessible via interstate highway, 287. There are several exits off Route 287 that lead into various sections of Piscataway. Another smaller road that will lead you through Piscataway from the Northern end is Mettlers Lane (Route 18).
I have a special message to people who live in New Jersey towns – especially to those who are empowered to make decisions on whether or not open land may be used for building. Take a ride through Piscataway. Do you want your town to become like this one? If you do, you are ignorant. Very, very ignorant. New Jersey is over built and in many towns over taxed. Big trees take years to grow, and built-up land is almost never converted back to open fields. If builders want to build, why not tear down existing, outdated structures – such as the many vacant industrial sites, and build there? This is just my two-cents worth… Best wishes for a wonderful day and thank you for reading my review!
Mike
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