Does Cape May really sum up NJ? No, not even close

I’m sorry, but whoever answered this survey has clearly never spent enough time in New Jersey.

According to a new report, Cape May has been named the New Jersey town that best represents the characteristics of our state.

Cape May? Really?

Don’t get me wrong. Cape May is beautiful. The Victorian houses are gorgeous. The beaches are nice. It’s charming. It’s historic. And it has a place in my heart as my daughter did her basic training in the U.S. Coast Guard there. It’s the kind of place where you can stroll around in a linen shirt and pretend you’re the kind of person who owns a yacht.

But New Jersey?

No.

According to NorthJersey.com, the survey was done by the Justin Havre Real Estate Team, which polled over 3,000 adults across the United States and Canada, asking people to identify the town or neighborhood that best represents their state’s identity. How did they describe Cape May?

“Cape May feels Victorian and buttoned-up.”

Sure, Cape May does. Jersey doesn’t.

Cape May represents New Jersey only if New Jersey were exclusively wealthy people with vacation homes, Victorian mansions and enough disposable income to spend $25 on a cocktail while discussing the architectural significance of the building they’re sitting in.

That’s not the Jersey I know.

Google Maps

New Jersey is diners. It’s dive bars. It’s people who have been sitting on the same barstool for 30 years. It’s somebody telling you to “get the hell out of the way” because you’re walking too slowly in the supermarket.

It’s hard attitudes and even harder opinions.

SEE ALSO: This is NJ's best town to retire, and here's the worst

a train on a train track in front of a city skyline

It’s industrial towns, plus suburbs, plus farmland, crowded highways, strip malls, pizza places, pork roll debates and somebody inexplicably trying to merge onto the Parkway at 35 miles per hour.

SEE ALSO: NJ cop deserves praise for actually enforcing this pet peeve

a city street lined with parked cars next to tall buildings

It’s beautiful shore towns, sure. Of course. But it’s also gritty cities, working-class neighborhoods and people who will complain about New Jersey all day long and then become personally offended if somebody from Pennsylvania says something bad about us.

Cape May is lovely. Which is part of the problem. Here we don’t tend to use words like ‘lovely’ often.

But if you want the place that truly captures the Jersey spirit, I’d look somewhere a little less polished.

Somewhere with a dive bar.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

Report a correction 👈