When Governor Brendan Byrne insisted the powerful Port of New York Authority add New Jersey to its name in 1972, the change represented much more than a need for new stationery.
The renaming, according to Dennis Gale, a professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration in Newark, symbolized a turning point in the still-evolving relationship between New York City – Manhattan in particular – and its often apologetic “country cousin” to the west. This formal recognition by the Port of its status as a bistate agency for economic growth and development was key in lifting the Garden State, and specifically northern New Jersey, from the long shadows cast by arguably the most cosmopolitan, potent, and international of cities.
But despite its growing stature in its relationship to New York, New Jersey has yet to break into total sunshine, a point aptly illustrated by Gale’s new book, Greater New Jersey: Living in the Shadow of Gotham, the sixth volume in the University of Pennsylvania Press’ Metropolitan Portraits book series. Gale explores the states’ historical relationship and how New Jersey and its residents still struggle to define themselves while living within the influence of one of the world’s most important cities. He asks if northern New Jersey is “simply a region of commuters, or have communities created effective local governments and satisfying cultural activities for one of the most diverse populations in the country?”
The question is not easily answered. Not only do complex interstate economic, political, and cultural relationships contribute to a tension-infused rivalry, regional and local demographics and traditions help muddy the waters even further. While Gale (and his editor) thought he was biting off a manageable chunk of New Jersey – mainly Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, and Union counties – he quickly learned that the region’s diversity prevented generalization. What could vacant lots in Newark have in common with white picket fences in Chatham? Or Latino day laborers in Morristown with briefcase-toting Wall Streeters from Short Hills?
“Essentially what we’ve got is a love-hate relationship with New York, an approach-avoidance conflict,” said Gale, still growing his Jersey roots after seven years here. “When I lived in Maine, I felt the underlying sense of pride that residents feel about that state. But look how we struggled under then-Governor Codey to create a state slogan. We have a split identity, a kind of schizophrenia. It’s uncool in New Jersey to be overstated about the state.”
Gale believes the accident of geography contributes to residents’ lack of a strong Jersey identity: Southerners align with Philadelphia, while northerners feel New York’s pull. “North Jersey has sacrificed more than 30 percent of its land area to the vast web of roads and highways that carry more than 300,000 commuters to work in New York,” he said. “Many are former New Yorkers who moved across the Hudson for economic or perceived quality-of-life reasons, but still long for and take advantage of the city’s higher salaries and leisure-time benefits.”
According to Gale, the latter includes affirming loyalty to the professional sports teams of their youth (including the Giants and Jets, longtime Meadowlands residents who retain “New York” as a prefix), while largely ignoring New Jersey’s NHL Devils and especially NBA Nets, whose inability to grow a fan base will lead to relocation in Brooklyn. Add to that a bombardment of metropolitan centric stories from the New York media, which generally give short shrift to Garden State news, and it’s easy to see why many New Jerseyans still identify across the Hudson.
Yet Gale believes a state identity lies in its unique history and lengthy roster of accomplished, homegrown New Jerseyans – either by birth or circumstance – from the worlds of science and invention (Thomas Edison, Samuel F.B. Morse), activism (Harriet Tubman, Paul Robeson), arts and letters (Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Amiri Baraka, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth), popular entertainment (Count Basie, Bruce Springsteen, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Frank Sinatra) and even politics (Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland). He cites Springsteen’s lyrics for trying to give voice to a New Jersey identity: “[But] . . . underlying the scenes he creates with his musical paintbrush is a respect for people everywhere whose lives were supposed to deliver just a little bit more,” Gale writes. “It is the image, if not the reality, of this perpetual underdog status that seems to resonate with Springsteen’s North Jersey fans.”