Without delving too much into this, that, and the other thing, who knows what about… what are the places?
Newport, Rhode Island. Yeah. Tell me something about Newport, Rhode Island.
And Camden, New Jersey. I need to know about Newport, Rhode Island and Camden, New Jersey.
Help me out here.
Camden SUX!! and has a dangerous history. If you decide you want to work there or something, you need to make sure and live in Philly or somewhere else and commute there.
Fell free to send me an email if you want more detail.
OH!! BTW – Thanks soo much for helping out with the Child’s Play Charity Auction!
I’m with Brigwyn on Camden. Nothing on the west coast? One can buy some serious house out here in this depressed market….
Hey…haven’t you ever watched the Sopranos? Don’t go near Camden! Newport, now, I don’t know much about except it’s pretty in the fall and cold in the winter….
I’m one of those Little Rhodey folks. Been here for a few years and it seems to be pretty good. Newport does have some good points, like all the touristy-crap, but if I had to choose for a permanent place to stay, I’d stay off of the island.
Well this should be interesting… My WarLock heeds your warning not to delv.. Wuahahaha… Sorry couldnt help it.
OK, here’s the deal. Living in Camden, bad. Living outside of Camden, not bad. Don’t trust the Soprano’s depiction of Camden. Actually don’t trust any show that talks about South Jersey… it seems that most think South Jersey has mountains (far from the truth.) Camden used to be nice… it had a thriving industry in the ’50s. RCA was a big big business there. Campbell’s Soup is also in Camden. Lockheed has about 5 major plants in the area, including the development location for the AEGIS system. And they have a great hospital there.
I can give you a lot of information about the surrounding areas if you want (grew up in South Jersey and have worked in the Philly region, South Jersey and Central Jersey region.) All the way from DE to PA to NJ to NY…
Outside of Camden is nice: it’s typical north eastern suburban. There are plenty of nice places to live.
Inside of Camden is so bad that odds are you couldn’t find any sort of job there, so I’m guessing that even if the job is “in Camden” it’s actually out on the highway somewhere.
Rhode Island is nice. Really nice. That part of New England has acceptable winters, amazing summers, great beaches and some wonderful towns. Rhode Island is on my short list of places to retire to. You can live in MA if you work in Newport(and again, odds are the job is not IN Newport unless you make a living re-inacting of days of old on ye old whale boats or something).
Bottomline: both are ok, Rhode Island is better, being with your family and playing less WOW total win.
Been reading your blog for a long time. Weird to see Newport, RI pop up in it, weird because my sister currently lives there.
Have you ever considered Huntsville, AL?
I live in RI and have to say Newport is a great place. Don’t live on the island as RI is small enough that anywhere else in the state or even MA is a short ride away. RI has such a wide range of areas from the cities of Providence, Warwick and Woonsocket mixed with the rural areas of Coventry and West Greenwich and the beaches of Narragansett. With so much to do within the borders of the state and close proximity to MA and CT, not to mention the rest of New England and NY, it’s definetly a plus. RI great weather, especially since it generally has been milder winters (global warming ftw!!!) All in all, RI is a great place. There is a reason why those who are born here may leave, but they always come back. Hope this helps.
Rhode Island is VERY small- if you’re in the state you’re pretty much in easy range of everything in the state (the Providence bus system even goes all over the state). I lived in Providence myself, and while the circumstances didn’t work out, I loved the area and the state. New England is an amazing area. There’s beaches (not like Florida, but still) in the summer, the winters in Rhode Island in particular tend to be more rainy than snowy because of the proximity of the ocean (but if you want snow Mass. is just a short drive away), and there NOTHING like New England in the fall. Everything you ever heard fall should be came from New England. Plus there are lots of apple orchards, though you probably have to be as crazy as I am to find that a compelling reason to live there.
Obviously there’s also access to a lot of fresh seafood, most prominently for me cheap fresh sea scallops, but you’re probably in a similar situation in Florida too. ^_^
I Live in Rumford, RI .. been to Newport many times. I love that island! The Tennis Hall of Fame is there if tennis means anything to you. Lots of beaches .. it has that historic feeling .. which most of the East Bay area has .. Rumford (E.Providence), Bristol, Barrington, Newport, Middle Town, Little Compton .. you get the point. Bristol must be my fav. place and that is where I hope to buy a house.
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RI to me is a great place to live. I love the weather, I love it’s feel and how traditional life feels. When my husband was stationed in WA and I moved there with my son. Everything changed. It looks nothing like New England, doesn’t feel like New England. I just personally cannot live anywhere else but here
The fact that RI is small makes it very convenient. You can work in NH, MA, CT bc we are in the center of it. So when looking for houses in RI you don’t necessarily have to live in Newport. I would say the nicest places to live in RI are the East Bay area, Cumberland/Lincoln area, and the Narragansett/Kingston area. Ofc this all depends do you enjoy the city? rural area? in the middle? We basically have it all.
Good Luck BRK in your search for a new place to live
I was born and raised in MA, though I traveled quite a bit as a U.S. Navy Submariner. I always end up coming back to New England! The four seasons are great, and there is nothing like a snowy Christmas morning here! A relatively short drive can take you to pretty much any environment you seek, whether it’s skiing in the mountains, or relaxing at the beach. Country Folk and City People can bothl find their respective happy place in New England.
I just moved back to MA after owning a house in Pawtucket R.I. for a couple of years. I strongly agree with the above comments that recommend living in MA and possibly commuting to RI. RI sales tax is 7.5%, whereas MA sales tax is 5%. RI taxes groceries and clothing, something that even Taxachusetts doesn’t do. When we moved to RI, my wife had to pay $400 sales tax to register her vehicle. She had already payed sales tax when she bought and registered the vehicle in MA. If I can provide any more info, feel free to contact me via email. Good luck.
hey why not move back to long island?
Camden is a dump, however the rest of NJ is pretty nice. You’re not far from the shore or the city. If you want a nice place in NJ to live look into Cape May, though I think that it’s a little bit of a hike from there to Camden. And if you’re the type that likes hills, I’d recommend Northern NJ.
Hey, Daniel! I’m a Rhode Island resident, living in Middletown for the past 25-ish years (one of the three towns on the island that Newport is a part of — the other being Portsmouth). It’s a beautiful area with four real seasons, unlike that fake winter you get in Florida. It’s crowded with tourists and beachgoers in the summer, but you can avoid them once you get accustomed to the area. We’re within 2 hours of Boston and Hartford, and 4 from New York, so it’s easy to get out and go to a city for a weekend, and I’ve always enjoyed the fact that you can swing through Massachusetts to get to Providence, RI.
Because of the popularity and the closeness to the water, property values tend to be high, but as others have stated, you can live anywhere in the state (or even over the border in Massachusetts) and get to where you need to go within a half hour.
I don’t know anything about Rhode Island. Camden itself is a terrible place to live though. However, you could easily live just across the river in Pennsylvania. I would recommend checking out Bensalem and other nearby suburbs. They’re just north of the actual City of Philadelphia, and the commute wouldn’t be bad. Maybe 40ish minutes, depending on how far north you were.
If you lived in the actual city, you’d probably have good luck in the area of the city called Northeast Philadelphia, or “The Northeast”. It’s fairly suburban feeling as well, depending on the area. But don’t expect to have much of a yard inside of the city, unless you shell out TONS of cash. And also, Philadelphia has a city wage tax that you have to pay on your earnings if you live OR work inside of the city. It was somewhere around 5% last time I lived there, if I recall correctly.
Alternatively, you could also live in northern Delaware and commute to Camden, thought it would be a touch long commute. Hope that helps!
I grew up about 15 minutes from Camden, and the school at which i volunteer is even closer still. There are small pockets of Camden that are safe, but traveling 2 or 3 blocks in any direction away from them is not a smart move, especially at night. Not somewhere I would ever want to raise a child. A few years back it was the city with the highest murder rate in the country, dunno if that is still true… anyway good luck
Pack your long undies and parka’s, coz the warm breezes of FL is going byebye
Hey,
I think I’ve been to Newport a few times. It’s a city that seems to like its history. I’ve only been during the summer though, the sea breeze in the winter is probably harsh. As stated above, the taxes in the region are aweful. Whoever it was that called MA Taxachusetts made me chuckle, must be a WAAF 97.7 listener (rock radio station for Boston and Worchester). Other than the winter, taxes, and dumb politicians its a really nice place to live. South end of Boston is a No-no, anything near the cape is good.
~Tay
A well known truism in Emergency Medicine Physician circles….
Want penetrating trauma experience? Move to Camden, New Jersey.
RH- it gets cold man. do you like the cold?
NJ- its nj nuff sed. lol seriously NJ??
I will take 7.5% RI tax any day over the 9% in WA lol .. no Tax on clothes in RI.
Perrins – don’t disrespect NJ…I moved here from upstate NY and I’ve grown to love it so much I’d without any hestitate punch a guy in the face that insulted as much as you did in your post.
It’s a nice place, respect it. DO IT.
Perrins, Only people who have lived in NJ for any length of time are allowed to dis NJ. If you have never lived there..don’t dis NJ in front of people who do live in NJ…even if they dissed NJ first.
Camden doesnt suck, it’s one of the best parts of London.
Oh…
I can’t advise ya on Rhode island but I will say this you do NOT want to go to Camden, let me repeat NOT. Unless you like crime its not the greatest place, which is a shame cause the aquarium and NJ battleship museum are there. Pretty rough place if your not on the right block. If you go to live in PA you’re gonna have to contend with Philly traffic (which blows by the way). South jersey isn’t too bad as long as you stay away from the metro areas and their spill overs. Oh and you will probably have to buy a new wardrobe, I lived in alot of places on the east coast but PA / NJ weather sucks. I can only imagine Rhode Island gets even colder then here with the cold off the ocean and being further north. Southeast PA has a ton of stuff to do as far as weekends though. you got Philly itself, Atlantic city, Baltimore and New York all within decent driving distance.
Daniel,
Newport’s a fun town. There’s still a decent sized Navy presence, but nowhere near as much as in years past. If you like the water – and especially if you’re a sailing fan – you’ll love Newport. Some cons include an invasion of the pretentious affluent in the warmer months, and Rhode Island drivers all year long (nevermind what you may hear about Boston/Masshole drivers – we rightly look down on Rhode Island drivers as being lobotomized jerks.)
The cost of living in Rhode Island isn’t bad, although it’s probably a bit higher in Newport than in the rest of the state because of the money there. There’s plenty to go out and see and do in Newport, and the bar/restaurant quality is generally above par. The schools in the area are also fairly good. Providence is not too far and is, in my opinion, a really fun town that’s on the upswing.
Newport: A+++ would buy again.
Having lived in New Jersey for eight years now (five of them in Camden County) I can say that Camden is an okay place to work during the day. Stay away from it at night. Collingswood, New Jersey, one of the towns next to Camden, is wonderful. Safe, great downtown area, good schools, etc…. I lived there for a few years and loved it. I still go to the farmer’s market there every weekend.
When my husband relocated from Mississippi to New Jersey all I could think of was concrete, smog and the mob. When I finally saw NJ for myself I was pleasantly surprised. It is a nice place to live, the people are very friendly (for the most part), and there is a ton of stuff to do/see. I will say that property taxes and the traffic suck, but everyplace has its drawbacks.
I’ve lived in southwest FL for 5 years, central NJ for 6, and now I live in Cumberland RI. So I know a little something about just about everywhere you’re talking about. Camden may be nice, but NJ on the whole is very overbuilt and overpopulated. Cost of living is high without too many perks, IMHO – sure you can get into NYC fairly quickly, but the traffic is horrendous if you drive. Trains are great, though. I always found it just too crowded for my taste. I have a soft spot in my heart for the state, having spent 4 great college years there and having met my future wife there, but it’s all the drawbacks of urbanity without too much upside.
Newport, on the other hand, and southern Rhode Island in general, is beautiful. Definitely more expensive to live in the southern half of the state than the northern, and despite the size of the state you probably wouldn’t want to commute from anywhere north of Providence. We’ve found our little corner of RI to be eminently livable and very friendly and welcoming. The weather is only slightly worse than Long Island (which, incidentally, is where my wife is from, so I’ve spent a good deal of time there as well!).
On the whole, as a RI transplant of 7 years now, I love it and would recommend it to anyone. Providence is a neat town, just the right size to be manageable without being overwhelming, plus good shopping, restaurants, and lots of parks and places to go. Great zoo, too – my 4 year-old is nuts about it. If you want more, you’re just train trip away from Boston or NYC. And apparently there’s a good contingent of BRK readers here, too – who knew?
Good luck with all this. Stressful time, it seems.
I’m a native Rhode Islander, lived here since I was five years old.
People have already addressed the housing issue, aka you can live anywhere. Newport tends to have either really expensive/nice housing or cheap/poor housing. There’s very little in between in Newport itself.
Regarding the commute, I once overheard a business owner describe how she didn’t want to move her store to a better location because it would double her daily commute from 10 minutes each way to twenty minutes each way. It’s a small state.
In RI, there are two general considerations I’d tell any out of stater.
1) It’s a bubble. General Rhode Islander consciousness of local events begins and ends at state borders. People give directions that involve buildings that were torn down ten years ago, like “take a left where the old Almacs used to be.” This is not the place to live if you’re looking for a vibrant arts and urban culture. Unless you’re in Providence, kiss good-bye any kind of authentic non-Italian or American cuisine. If you’re looking for a place that’s very focused on local culture and local traditions (with all of the good aspects and bad insularness combined), then RI is your place.
2) Rhode Island is a great place to grow up, it’s a terrible place to live in during your twenties, but it’s then a great place to raise your kids and retire. Seeing as you are no longer in your twenties, you probably fall into the ‘RI is a nice place’ perspective.
Beware, the state does have a known black-hole effect. Those who enter find it very hard to leave, although level on contentment with this state of affairs depends on the person (aka you may want to retire here, or you may be foaming at the mouth to leave).
Other warning, re: jobs. There are about zero tech employers in RI. ZERO. There’s NUWC, a few small companies, and that’s about it outside of stuff like civil engineering/urban development. Should you lose your job/change careers, in all likelihood you will be faced with either commuting to Mass/Connecticut or moving.
*Unless you’re in Providence, kiss good-bye any kind of authentic non-Italian or non-American cuisine.
Don’t worry, we have our share of greasy spoon diners, burger joints, and kick-ass ice cream stores.
Forget all this and come live in New Zealand.
With your exp[ertise we could have satelites in orbit in a few years!
OK so for all those people “offended” about my real suggestion about NJ i give you this explanation.
yes i did live in NJ i actually lived right outside Devonshire NJ for about 6 years of my life. ok yes thats not my whole life but a significant chunk of it.
ahh my expriences in Devonshire- i thank you for not tolerating me bc i did not have your dialect, or because i was a transplant from another state. but yeah my comment still stands.
NJ SUCKS!!!
I love the fact that a New Jersey resident would be willing without hesitation to punch you in the face for insulting his state. Says everything you need to know about the place, really.
I moved to NJ from upstate NY as well. Camden is supposedly not very safe, but the rest of NJ is great. The traffic drove me nuts my first 6 months or so, now I scare friends while we’re driving, how cool is that? Oh and the whole “slow people in the left lane” and “people passing you on the right” thing? Yeah, we got that here too. Not exactly a point in New Jersey’s favor, but hey.
On the plus side, you’re relatively close to New York without having to auction a kidney for your rent (about an hour train ride from where I live outside Trenton) and Philly is close too (maybe 45 minutes to an hour’s drive from where I live). There are a lot of things to love about Jersey. Besides, Rhode Island is Patriots country. You want to stay away from there.
I grew up in Camden (many years ago)…..No one could pay me enough to even think of living there again. It used to be a real nice place, but not since the 70′s…..I wouldn’t even work there, unless it was for Campbell Soup or LM, and even that would depend on location and what shift…..I now live in Burlington County, and have since ’78, and really like it there….it’s just far enough and just close enough from Philly/NYC/Balt, etc…..
Good Luck in your search Dan/BRK….
Been in South Jersey for 28 years. Like others have said, Camden can be nice to visit (Battleship New Jersey, the Aquarium, the River Sharks minor league team – much nicer than the Phillies to go see), or to work (Campbell’s, Lockheed Martin, Cooper Hospital) or to go to school (Rutgers-Camden is well regarded), but you don’t want to live there. City services suck and the schools and a lot of city departments are so bad the State of New Jersey actually took over from local authorities. Condsidering how awful the NJ state government can be…this is pretty bad indeed.
Don’t live in Philly if the city wage tax bothers you. They tax you coming and going: if you either work OR live there (wherever you work) you get taxed. Obviously, though, a lot of culture in the city, from art, restaurant, and theatre districts to national historical sites.
Property taxes in South Jersey are wacko – state has almost 600 school districts each with their own administration and attendant cost duplication, chronic corruption at the state and local level, and traffic within 20 miles of Camden/Philly is very congested anywhere near rush hour. If you can live with that, though, it has numerous small towns with great local downtowns and businesses and places to shop/eat/etc. along with good to great schools.
The alternative is Northern Delaware with no state sales tax, a nearby casino/racetrack, the University of Delaware, and better beaches than South Jersey (though if you want a boardwalk experience, you’re still not far from Wildwood/Ocean City NJ).
And if you’re looking at Lockheed Martin…I know a Project Manager there….
Daniel,
I have family in Camden County, NJ and agree that you won’t want to live _in_ Camden, NJ but there is nothing wrong with nearby townships such as Haddonfield, Cherry Hill, and Cinnaminson. School systems in New Jersey are arranged by township. You have young children so I’ll add that Haddonfield is one of the top public high schools in the state and Cherry Hill is well respected. Really, the housing market in these areas is relatively inexpensive, especially considering your proximity to Philly, New York, and the NJ beaches.
I travel to Newport frequently on business and I’ve always enjoyed it from a visitors point of view. I don’t have enough information to comment on the school system or even the real estate market, but even though Newport is further from the major cities than the area around Camden, I imagine there is still competition for housing due to investors in rental properties and retirement homes. I can tell you that the sailing is fantastic.
Happy Hunting
2 years of a family member’s work is zooming into space right now. He works in Maryland, as a contractor, and there’s some damn good schools (and semi affordable housing since the market collapsed).
Otherwise, for both cities, I’d suggest working there but not living in them. Especially Camden.
Good luck!
Heh, I’m sitting in my office ( in Middletown, right next to Newport ), looking out my window at First Beach. Its a beautiful spring day here, nice bright sun, water starting to get warm. I’ll be launching my sailboat in a couple of weeks, looking forward to spending time on the bay. If you’d like to learn to sail, the guys at the Naval War College have a nice class, after which you can use their boats.
RI is like the best place to be ( big caveat up front, don’t look at the state legislature … it won’t help and you might get upset ). We are a close drive to Boston or NY for some big city stuff, or you can drive off to go skiing. Our beaches are the best. If you head up this way, look up Iggy’s ( doughboys by the dozen ). Providence is no longer the pit it was when I was growing up, and is now a pretty nice little city.
Newport itself suffers a bit under the endless feet of tourists during the summer, but you can avoid them if you want. Actually, RI is so small you can commute from pretty much anywhere to anywhere. I actually live over in Wickford, and commute over the bay every morning.
Based on the cost of living:
A salary of $50,000 in Camden, New Jersey would be equivalent to a salary of $81,831 in Newport, Rhode Island
I live right on the border of Pennsauken NJ and Cherry Hill NJ in Camden County. You don’t want to go anywhere near Camden. Trust me on this. There are plenty of nice places _around_ Camden, but Camden itself is a crime-infested shit-hole.
Rhode Island is the most catholic state in the USA. I’ll leave it to you to decide if this is desirable or not.
I’ve not been to Newport in..well, a good long time. I was pleased to see on the gonewport website, however, that The White Horse Tavern is still up and running. While going to school for Culinary Arts, we took a trip to Newport. We had a tour of “The Breakers” and a phenomenal lunch at the White Horse. Newport is a gorgeous place to visit and explore. I can’t say anything about living there, tho. Western Mass (depending on where you go) is fairly quiet, beautiful, and easy to travel from utilizing either Route 2 or the 91.
Hola Buddy! I have lived in central jersey for about thirty years, and I gotta tell you. New Jersey is the best kept secret on the east coast. Camden is an urban area that was a bit downtrodden during the 80′s and 90′s but regardless it is safe to work there if that is the focus on Camden. Approximately twenty minutes to the east is Cherry hill and the lower princeton area. Some of the most beautiful areas to live are around there. Plus, here is why NJ is awsome. Wanna go to NYC? about an hour away. Wanna go to Atlantic City? about an hour away. Wanna go skiing/rafting/climbling? about an hour away. In NJ, you can truly do aything. Plus, like the normal world, we get all four seasons!
Okay I’m done defending my home state… phew! okay, so Camden, like I said, you don’t want to live there, but it’s a good place to work. Plus it’s also across the Delaware River from Philly. If you ever do make it out to Jersey, throw me an email, I’ll buy you a beer or three!
@C/Daniel. Huntsville would be a good fit.
Newport is a great place. Great sailing, and a good view. Its a really nice place to live, and or work. There are some good schools around there to. Sailing is a big deal, but you always have easy acces to Block Island, which is great and has some fantastic pizza. But if you hear a guy complain about people trap shooting at a property next to him, tell him he shouldnt have bought it for cheap, then try and shut the place down, the cheating @#%$!! But other than that one dude everybody else is really nice and fun. The Clambake club is very nice, if your into sailing and hunting, and they New York Yacht Club is also a very nice place.
I lived in NJ for 28 years and always on the towns residing next to Camden, Audubon and Collingswood respectfully. Camden is a dirt hole, i wouldnt even want to work in that city. Everything surrounding it is great. Cherry Hill, Haddon Twp, and others close by are fantastic. There a lot of great places to shop in south jersey from the various malls and strip malls. The surrounding areas are beautiful.
@Veronica – WOOT Collingswood!
I was raised in RI for much of my life and still have many relatives there. Of all the places in the world, Newport is my absolute favorite.
Conclusion – RI is awesome. I would live there in a heartbeat, but for some reason my job requires that I work where they are… cretins.
I grew up in North Jersey but am now a South Jersey transplant. Camden has its good and bad. The bad can be pretty bad (at one point Camden had a high homocide rate, as well as corruption). But the state aquarium is there, and you can actually swim with the sharks. Swim with the sharks! How cool is that?!?!
I’ve lived in Gloucester County, right near the Camden County border, for the past 2 years now. We moved here for a safe neighborhood and good schools, and I never plan on moving again. Would I live in Camden? No, but there are some absolutely fantastic surrounding areas.