New Jersey Municipal Consolidation

[Verily]

In this thread, I will try to fix New Jersey. That is, I will attempt to combine and eliminate municipalities in New Jersey to reduce the severe problem of redundant (and costly) services. NJ currently has 566 municipalities; I hope to reduce that a maximum of 200.

I'll be using Dave's Redistricting App and will post updates periodically.

[Verily]

So, I actually went a little crazy and made a mere 100 municipalities. Counties like Warren would probably be pretty upset about containing only two municipalities, so I may redo parts of the map to get it to more like 150. Anyway, Bergen County to start. Proposed names are listed first, then current municipalities, then populations.


Generally speaking, I stayed within county lines and did not split current municipalities. There were exceptions.



1: Rutherford
Contains: North Arlington, Lyndhurst, Rutherford, East Rutherford, Carlstadt, Wallington, Wood-Ridge, Moonachie, South Hackensack (part)
Population: 87,601

2: West Hackensack
Contains: Lodi, Garfield, Saddle Brook, Elmwood Park, Rochelle Park, South Hackensack (part)
Population: 91,434

3: [In Hudson County]

4: Palisades
Contains: Fairview, Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia, Fort Lee, Edgewater
Population: 127,140

5: Englewood
Contains: Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Teaneck, Bogota, Ridgefield Park
Population: 98,020

6: Northern Valley
Contains: Tenafly, Bergenfield, New Milford, Dumont, Cresskill, Demarest, Haworth, Closter, Alpine, Oradell (part)
Population: 104,702

7: Hackensack
Contains: Hackensack, South Hackensack (part), Little Ferry, Teterboro, Hasbrouck Heights, Riveredge, Maywood, Paramus (part)
Population: 96,136

8: Ridgewood
Contains: Fair Lawn, Glen Rock, Paramus (part), Ridgewood
Population: 89,147

9: Westwood
Contains: Oradell (part), Emerson, Westwood, Norwood, Northvale, Rockleigh, Old Tappan, Harrington Park, Rivervale, Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Washington, Park Ridge, Montvale
Population: 91,468

10: Ramapo
Contains: Midland Park, Wyckoff, Franklin Lakes, Oakland, Mahwah, Ramsey, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River, Ho-Ho-Kus, Waldwick, Allendale
Population: 109,192

[Verily]

What were your criteria for merging towns?

They had to have some level of shared commercial core(s), relatively similar demographics (but I bent this rule for the creation of urban cores, especially around Camden), logical geographic continuity (and similar geography). I also promoted urban cores, so for example Jersey City is up to over a half-million people on my map.

For most of this, I relied on my knowledge of the area. In South Jersey, I did a lot of Google Maps-ing to get a better feel for how communities fit together, but I probably did a better job in North Jersey.

[Verily]

I can understand why you split South Hackensack (it isn't contiguous to begin with), but what justification do you have for splitting Paramus?

I took a sliver of SE Paramus (the area east of Forest Ave/Spring Valley Rd and south of Midland Ave) off to make the Hackensack-River Edge connection a little neater. Almost all of Paramus is in the "Ridgewood" municipality, and most of Paramus in the "Hackensack" municipality is Van Saun Park (which is county-owned) plus the easternmost bit of the commercial strip along Rte 4.

Before someone asks, Oradell's inexplicable extension east of the Hackensack River was lopped off and put in "Northern Valley"; the rest is in "Westwood". New Milford has been agitating to annex that chunk of Oradell for years.

[Verily]

Here are Essex and Hudson Counties:



3: East Newark
Contains: East Newark, Kearny, Harrison
Population: 55,371

11: Newark
Contains: Newark, Irvington, East Orange, Orange
Population: 430,813

12: Montclair
Contains: Montclair, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Nutley, Belleville
Population: 151,350

13: Jersey City
Contains: Jersey City, Bayonne, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, Secaucus, North Bergen, West New York, Guttenberg
Population: 540,048

14: West Newark
Contains: Maplewood, West Orange, South Orange
Population: 81,363

15: Caldwell
Contains: Roseland, Essex Fells, Caldwell, West Caldwell, North Caldwell, Verona, Cedar Grove, Fairfield
Population: 62,332

16: Livingston
Contains: Livingston, Millburn
Population: 44,809

[Verily]

Livingston and West Newark could be combined, and Belleville and Nutley could go into Newark as well. Secaucus is out of place in Jersey City, but it doesn't really fit anywhere.

Also, I doubt the residents of "West Newark" would appreciate the name, but the name isn't that important. I considered calling it "Orange", but that would be pretty audacious considering that the current Orange is absorbed into Newark.

[Verily]

Passaic County now...





17: Passaic
Contains: Passaic, Clifton
Population: 146,533

18: Paterson
Contains: Paterson, Prospect Park, Haledon, North Haledon, Hawthorne
Population: 189,391

19: Wayne
Contains: Wayne, Totowa, Little Falls, Woodland Park
Population: 85,803

20: Ringwood
Contains: Pompton Lakes, Ringwood, West Milford, Wanaque, Bloomingdale
Population: 67,322

[Verily]

And now we get something controversial: Union County+...



21: Elizabeth
Contains: Elizabeth, Linden, Rahway, Roselle, Roselle Park
Population: 221,017

22: Union
Contains: Union, Kenilworth, Hillside
Population: 82,487

23: Westfield
Contains: Westfield, Clark, Cranford, Garwood
Population: 73,826

24: Plainfield
Contains: Plainfield, Scotch Plains, Fanwood, North Plainfield*, Green Brook*, Watchung*
Population: 110,105

25: Summit
Contains: Summit, Mountainside, Springfield, New Providence, Berkeley Heights
Population: 67,476


*These municipalities are in Somerset County. However, I felt that I could not reasonably create a municipality around Plainfield without including them, especially North Plainfield. They would either be transferred to Union County, or (as proposed elsewhere), the counties would be dissolved.

Also, Union and Elizabeth could realistically be merged on this design.

[Verily]

You could easily consolidate more. My county of about a million people has a total of seven towns.  New Jersey is out of control.

To be fair, most of the towns were created a century ago, so it isn't the fault of the current residents.

More counties coming this afternoon as well as a redesign of the Plainfield area.

Also, some advice. Piscataway is a weird and multi-polar town, with the southern half looking to New Brunswick and the northern half looking to Plainfield while the middle is pretty much empty. Would it be reasonable to split Piscataway in half?

[Verily]

Okay, here is a combination piece of Union, Middlesex and Somerset Counties. I did them together because to get good municipalities you really need a lot of crossing of county lines in the area.




24: Plainfield v2.0
Contains: Plainfield, North Plainfield, Scotch Plains, Fanwood, Dunellen, South Plainfield, Piscataway (part)
Population: 156,366

(Note: The rest of Union County is unchanged and not included here.)

26: Perth Amboy
Contains: Perth Amboy, Carteret, Woodbridge (part)
Population: 137,628

27: New Brunswick
Contains: New Brunswick, Highland Park, Piscataway (part), Franklin [aka Somerset], North Brunswick
Population: 194,603

28: South Amboy
Contains: South Amboy, Old Bridge, Sayreville
Population: 108,193

29: Edison
Contains: Edison, Metuchen, Woodbridge (part)
Population: 163,558

30: East Brunswick
Contains: East Brunswick, South River, Spotswood, Milltown, Helmetta
Population: 77,389

31: South Brunswick
Contains: South Brunswick, Plainsboro, Cranbury, Monroe, Jamesburg
Population: 95,001

43: Bernardsville
Contains: Bernardsville, Bedminster, Far Hills, Peapack and Gladstone, Bernards, Warren, Watchung, Green Brook
Population: 72,694

44: Somerville
Contains: Somerville, Raritan, Manville, Bridgewater (part)
Population: 70,051

45: Hillsborough/Montgomery (not sure what would be better)
Contains: Montgomery, Hillsborough, Branchburg, Rocky Hill, Millstone
Population: 71,759

55: Bound Brook
Contains: Bound Brook, South Bound Brook, Bridgewater (part), Middlesex, Piscataway (part)
Population: 46,037

[Verily]

Yay, my home county.

I have no advice about north Piscataway, only to concur with your decision to keep the southern part with New Brunswick, which you did.

Tiny bits but Helmetta is aligned with Monroe and Jamesburg by current population patterns, even if it was carved out of East Brunswick Twp. originally. East Brunswick's population is far from its historic center.

South Brunswick may be sparsely populated now, but it's a big growth area. I would dismantle South Brunswick by putting South Brunswick (growing fast) in with East Brunswick (mature) because they have similar demographics and transit links, keeping Cranbury with Monroe (mix of mature suburbs with some growth and lots of senior communities), and adding Plainsboro to whatever town Princeton is in. Princeton should be the center of a community crossing county lines if you are comfortable doing that; Plainsboro shares a high school with West Windsor in Mercer County and has Princeton Junction train station. However, it could reasonably stay with South Brunswick, as well.

Old Bridge could be split north/south with the southern part going with Monroe. It used to have two high schools because it had two centers of population. This would equalize population some.

But since it's your map and not mine, feel free to disregard most of it.

You know Central Jersey a lot better than I do; I'll rely on your recommendations.

I also dismantled the Bound Brook municipality and combined most of it with Somerville. (The Piscataway bits went to New Brunswick.) That leaves me with an extra municipality to create somewhere on the map, but I'll leave it at that to get some flexibility.

[Verily]

Did I split Branchburg? I didn't mean to.

New update this evening coming.

[Verily]

Morris County! And nothing controversial here. Morris is easy.

36: Lincoln Park
Contains: Lincoln Park, Pequannock, Riverdale, Butler, Kinnelon, Montville
Population: 64,940

(Lincoln Park got the name because it has the airport and the train station.)

37: Madison
Contains: Madison, Florham Park, Hamilton, East Hamilton, Chatham, Long Hill, Harding
Population: 75,786

38: Parsippany
Contains: Parsippany-Troy Hills, Boonton (Town), Mountain Lakes
Population: 63,401

(Parsippany-Troy Hills would be an acceptable alternative, but I've never heard anyone call it Troy Hills.)

39: Morristown
Contains: Morristown, Morris, Morris Plains
Population: 49,971

40: Rockaway
Contains: Rockaway (Town), Rockaway (Twp) (part), Denville, Boonton (Twp), Jefferson
Population: 61,560

41: Dover
Contains: Dover, Wharton, Victory Gardens, Rockaway Twp (part), Mine Hill, Randolph
Population: 62,229

42: Mount Olive
Contains: Mount Olive, Netcong, Roxbury, Washington, Mendham, Chester
Population: 92,325

[Verily]

Looks good, except I'm not sure you should put the Town of Boonton and Boonton Township in different municipalities. And what's with the Rockaway Township split?

And looking back at the Somerset County map, it does look like you've put two precincts from northern Branchburg in the Bernardsville municipality.

Boonton and Boonton Twp are totally different, they just happen to share a name. Boonton is developed and fairly old and has strong ties with Mountain Lakes and Parsippany. Boonton Twp is undeveloped wilderness with some light exurban development, and it looks more towards Denville and Rockaway (or Kinnelon at the northern end) than the Parsippany/Mountain Lakes/Boonton conurbation. There's a ridge between Boonton and Boonton Twp.

Rockaway Township I split because there is some development on the southern edge of Rockaway Twp that is continuous with Dover (no undeveloped land in between) that I thought should be with Dover rather than with the mostly exurban and undeveloped Rockaway.

[Verily]

Personally, I think the New England states are desperately in need of municipal consolidation as well. Who can tell the difference between Medford and Malden, or between Goshen and Cornwall? Ridiculous redundant government, although New England did do a good job of eliminating county government. What people "want" doesn't, or shouldn't, matter in this regard. If people had their way, they would each form their own independent town.

Also, NY and PA contain a lot of empty space, so they're a little different. PA needs municipal consolidation in suburban Philly and Pittsburgh, though. NY has the weird Town system that I don't quite understand, but I imagine at that level NY has a much higher population per Town. (Hempstead would be one of the biggest cities in the country.)

[Verily]

19: Wayne
Contains: Wayne, Totowa, Little Falls, Woodland Park
Population: 85,803

Haha, you're going to merge me with West Paterson Woodland Park? That's positively unnatural...

Good to see that snobbery is alive and well. Pray tell, what is your problem with a wealthy, mostly Italian town other than its former nominal association with Paterson?

Anyway, I'd almost forgotten about this thread. I may try to do some new updates soonish.