5 definitions by JLe
Livingston, New Jersey, a town of about 30,000 in Southwest Essex that's arguably the capital of Jewish New Jersey. Pretty much a modernized wasteland of suburban sprawl, McMansions, and ranch houses, mostly Jewish, and the rest Korean and Chinese. Home to the infamously declasse Livingston Mall, where the "only worthwhile stores are the Sears, Lord & Taylor, and Macy's", as opposed to the far more expensive options of the Short Hills Mall, and also as home to the infamously corporation-like mafiosos of the health care system, St. Barnabas. Many Orthodox Jews and Israelis live in Livingstein as well. Livingston is considered infamously JAPpy, as bad as Scarsdale, though the JAPs here equal Long Island JAPs in terms of bitchiness and vulgarity.
by JLe March 6, 2005
Generation Y person born between about 1977 or 1978 and 1993 with yuppie parents who separates themselves on a pedestal from the rest of humanity due to their artistry and misery. This includes the subcategories of emo. This is what hippies were to the baby boomers-a rebellious gesture that is in actuality very unrealistic and became commercialized. In the same way that hippies and later punks stemmed, though in different ways, from the pursuit of materialism, hipsterness and its child of emoness stem from the search to be unhappy. Most hipsters as children were so provided for and sanitized that they have never experienced real need and unhappiness, and don't blame materialism because they have no knowledge of money and how it is used due to their parents. Most hipsters were born in the latter half of Generation Y, between 1985 and 1993. All are liberals, though they usually don't have any clue as to the reality of what they're talking about, and are either obsessed with politics or hold some stupid theory about how the beauty and sadness of life (etcetera, etcetera) is more important than politics, and they listen to only very cutesy, brainlessly stylized, confessional music without any honesty, only hipness. They cluster in certain areas like the South End in Boston and the Lower East Side/Alphabet City and Williamsburg in New York. Many are trustafarians, and all either adamantly reject or endorse drug culture, though next to none are in between.
Man, look at all those hipsters wearing scarves and acting better than everyone! These people are going to have control of this country some day....wait. I'm going to shoot myself.
by JLe March 6, 2005
Old New Jersey slang referring to the traditional, working-class Italian communities of Belleville, Bloomfield, and Nutley, in Northeastern Essex County. Most of the Italians here are descended from Newark Italians who migrated north from Newark's north end. If you go to Nutley or certain parts of Belleville, you will see people who look like they could be on the Sopranos. Nutley is known for its political conservatism and racism, as are Brookdale and Oakeview, middle-class residential areas in North Bloomfield. However, the Pasta Triangle has been declining in places as an Italian center. Belleville now also has a very large Hispanic, Filipino, and Vietnamese community, and southern and central Bloomfield has many Asians, Filipinos, African-Americans, West Indians, Russians, and South Americans. Though they still have many Italians, Nutley is the most stable, and many people from Belleville and Bloomfield have migrated from there to the West Essex-Passaic Valley-Hanover area. Belleville, Nutley, and central/north Bloomfield all have midsized, small-town type shopping centers, but the area along Bloomfield Avenue in south Bloomfield is known as a major shopping area for all of urban and suburban Essex County.
by JLe March 6, 2005
Glen Ridge is an NJ Yuppie suburb of Montclair, differentiated from it by being mostly white Catholics from New Jersey pretending to be yuppies despite their otherwise roots. Glen Ridge has the 3rd oldest house age in the country, and is distinguished by its excellent public schools with well-known drug and drinking problems. Almost 85% of the borough of Glen Ridge (population 7,500) is in a Victorian/Early 20th Century Historic District. Cindy Sherman is totally from Glen Ridge, and Tom Cruise spent the last few years of his educational career here, where he started acting. Glen Ridge is also known as the site of "Our Guys", when a number of high school jocks raped a mentally disabled girl and denied that it was rape. This was exacerbated by GRHS covering it up, though they all eventually were convicted. Since then, the jock culture has declined in GR, and though most students are very isolated, the most evil are no longer typically asshole jocks. Part of this is that no male sports team in Glen Ridge is considered prestigious because of a. The efforts of the town to dismantle the jock hierarchy, b. The small size of the town, and c. That everyone is too lazy and stoned/obsessed with their grades to care. The students tend to fall into either of those categories, and all seemed to be obsessed with drugs and alcohol as a shallow way to end their perpetual shelteredness and boredom. GRHSers (whom the town is still known for) are seen by Montclair teenagers as totally sheltered and sadly unhip. Most people are upper middle-class or wealthy, and tend to be people from NJ who lived in the city for awhile and then came back, as opposed to Montclairians, who are from NYC or other parts of the country and then moved to NJ, considering Montclair as the only place they would move to. Glen Ridge was once known for the institutionalized implicit racism of the Glen Ridge Country Club, a now all-but-defunct standard. Adults from GR are called Ridgeroos, while kids are called Ridgers, after the sports teams.
by JLe March 6, 2005
Commuter suburb in Essex County, NJ, about 15 miles from Manhattan. Divided into about three sections. Section 1: The "ghetto" of southeastern and east central Montclair, mostly composed of vaguely derelict multifamily houses and vacant laundromats, and black with a few Sikhs in population. Known as an infamous drug trading area for everyone in suburban Essex County. The area between Glenfield Park and Glen Ridge Avenue is typically considered the worst area, where over 1/2 the businesses are vacant and most of the houses appear to be in a state of disrepair. It is also home to Lackawanna Plaza, a discount shopping center. Black people have lived in the area south of Bloomfield Avenue in East Montclair since the 1700s, and the area north of Bloomfield Avenue is originally a very old Italian neighborhood that is now primarily black, but with some Sikhs. 2. Downtown Montclair-An expanding area centered on the fairly trendy business area around Bloomfield Avenue, Church Street, Fullerton Avenue, Midland Avenue, and Walnut Street. This is home to many boutiques, restaurants, art house movie theaters, bookstores, galleries, and a disordinate number of antique stores for such a small town. The residential areas of Downtown Montclair range from primarily white luxury apartments and restored Victorian two-family houses off Bloomfield Avenue to multimillion dollar houses near Essex Park and down South Mountain Avenue towards the Eagle Rock Reservation. Upper Mountain Avenue in the vicinity of Downtown Montclair is the home of the wealthiest part of Upper Mountain Avenue, which offers multimillion dollar mansions and NYC views, and is arguably the most exclusive street in suburban Essex County. Downtown Montclair has spawned a breed of white rich kids who think of themselves as the hippest, hottest thing in the universe. Most of the people who are Downtown Montclair users are either yuppies, part of an expat community of twenty, thirty, and fortysomethings from NYC, or bored, self-absorbed teenagers. Downtown Montclair also includes most of Claremont Avenue, a somewhat dangerous and deserted residential boulevard. Home of Montclair High School, infamous as home of racial rioting and rich white indie kids. 3. Upper Montclair-The very, very wealthy, totally white and primarily residential area north of Watchung Avenue. Known as the home of private high schools like Lacordaire Academy and Montclair Kimberley Academy, both used by Upper Montclair residents and residents from towns to the west. Upper Montclair is very middle-aged white and teenagery and totally boring and quaint. The main business strip is Valley Road, seconded by Watchung Avenue. People from Downtown Montclair view it as the epitome of the rich white people who they think they aren't, even though Upper Montclair people do happen to be sheltered, obnoxious, and when not old money, act like they're old money. Montclair is, finally, known for the attitude of thinking itself diverse (by the white people) but being, in actuality, totally segregated, even among the black people. The wealthier blacks live towards West Orange while the poorest towards Glenfield Park. It's an ideal example of the hypocritical secret racism by white liberals on a smaller scale, as opposed to the occurence in NYC, which is on too large a scale to thoroughly socially examine.
We're going to go to that great Indian restaurant on Montclair.
Man, I need to go buy some crack by Glenfield Park in Montclair.
Man, I need to go buy some crack by Glenfield Park in Montclair.
by JLe March 6, 2005