New Jersey

A few more thoughts on Hoboken, New Jersey. I'd say it's not as polished as DC/Bethesda. Of course, this has to do with what part of DC you compare to, and so I'm comparing to the areas that I've lived in- Georgetown and Bethesda.

- There are a lot of people who smoke. Young people,young mothers, deep voices. It fits my idea of "new jersey culture", but it's pretty sad to see.

- There are a lot of parents (particularly mothers) YELLING at their kids in the street. Not for anything that needs yelling- no kids running into high-traffic streets. No, this is just communicating through YELLING instead of talking. Wow, almost makes me turn around and tell the mother to zip it- if you can't use your indoor voice, keep it shut.

- The upside of less polished are lots of family-run stores and restaurants. I've already mentioned the Italian population, and there are Italian delis/bodegas/ba'alaat (in Arabic) on the corners of streets in the middle of the neighborhood. You see signs written on posterboard "On vacation until August XX". There's one Indian store that looks like it's run by a band of sisters, and I can imagine that it's just them sitting around deciding what to add to their merchandise. I think I've already mentioned the coffeeshop I like- a young woman who made the price list at home with sticky stenciled letters (she told me in confidence- don't spread it around). Some chain fast food places, but mostly mom-and-pops and independent places.

It turns out it's hard to maintain the mom-and-pop even in Hoboken. There's a Barnes and Noble (kind of in keeping with the atmosphere of Hoboken, it's kind of cute and compact and cozy). There is also an independent used bookstore. However, in order for this independent bookstore to survive, the mayor's office or family or something actually helps support it financially- it's subsidized. Kind of funny, kind of sad.

Still likin' it!

Oh, and didn't even realize there was a tornado warning- never thought of tornadoes in NYC!!