Does it associate itself with Philadelphia?
What is the downtown like?
Does the city have a decent skyline?
Is the economy good?
What does the future hold for this city?

some people feel trenton is just a suburb of philly, but as someone from delaware who hears this same thing about wilmington, i have to say that trenton still has it's own character. when you cross the state line into new jersey (or delaware regarding wilmington), you are going over a physical boundary that separates the philly suburbs from trenton. trenton is close enough to philly that it can be lumped into the greater philly area ("pretzelvania" as some people call it), which includes northern delaware, southern new jersey, and southeast pennsylvania. but people from trenton will tell you they are from trenton, or from new jersey, instead of saying they are from near philadelphia.

as for the other stuff, i cna't help you out much. but the pharmaceutical industry is big in new jersey, much like delaware, and so i would think that the economy in the trenton area is doing pretty fine.

Trenton Makes, The World Takes

I think old-timer Trentonites associate themselves with Philly but that's changing. Mercer County (incl. Trenton) was part of the Philadelphia MSA until 1990 when it was consumed by the New York CMSA.

It's a small city of about 90,000
Skyline? eh
Economy? eh

I actually havent been in a long time so I don't know if their downtown is rebounding like many other cities' downtowns have been recently.

I do know they have a nice waterfront stadium for their minor league baseball team.

They have a minor league hockey team too. You can catch Amtrak to New York or Philly and below, Septa to Philly, NJ Transit trains to Newark and New York, or the RiverLINE diesel lightrail to Camden. The city has an o.k. skyline. There is a Marriott hotel downtown, the only downtown hotel. It is the state capital.

>_< lammius, isn't it in *both*?

http://www.city-data.com/city/Trenton-New-Jersey.html

Trenton is about as classic a small, old, industrial city in the Northeast should be. The city really doesn't have too much going on development/commerce wise. From what I take on crime rate research, the city is pretty bad, and is well near/below the poverty line.

Trenton does, however seem to have decent suburbs surrounding the city. Trenton, unlike Philly and NYC was not designed in a grid pattern, but rather a Baltimorean "star" configuration which starts from a point on the river and goes out sort of like a half * asterisk, instead of the # square x,y axis grid Ben Franklin designed for Philly, and the configuration of Manhattan's urban development above Houston street.

Trenton is ODDDDDDDLLLLLYY not considered in the Philly metro. I would bet dollars to donuts that the majority of blue-collar Trenton DOES NOT commute an hour to New York's tight, white collar job market. Trenton is soooooo definitely Philadelphia. I just don't see how it is considered in the NY metro area. This is another 300,000 people missing from the true Philly CMSA.

Most people have their best impression of Trenton from the bridge across the Delaware river which states "Trenton Makes, the World Takes." (I believe stemming from Trenton's steel production in the 19th century which provided the way for the wire cable for the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.) Then again, I could be smoking crack.

Trenton's motto on the bridge is a northeast landmark, and is worth a picture or two out the Amtrak window on the Metroliner.

http://factfinder.census.gov/leg2/00/37095300.gif



According to this map (courtesy of the Census Bureau) Trenton is in the dark forest green area, the New York MSA. Philadelphia MSA is the olive color southwest. I looked for a good map that had trenton labeled but this was the best I could find in a quick search.

Seemed rather blue collar gritty when I visited last fall. Not like most of the state capitals I've been to. I've got a bunch of pics if you'd like me to post them.

I've got a bunch of pics if you'd like me to post them.

Go for it! I'd love to see them.

Post 'em baby

OK, you asked for it(not the greatest quality, but you get the idea) :)

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/3259/375trenj01.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/3259/375trenj02.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/3259/375trenj03.jpg

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http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/3259/375trenj19.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/3259/375trenj20.jpg

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http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/3259/375trenj24.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/3259/375trenj23.jpg

:carrot:

It is sort of odd that Trenton is included in the NYC metro area instead of Philadelphia's.

Trenton is only about 15 miles from Philadelphia city limits, and maybe 40 or 50 miles to New York City's border. I'm not sure what the criteria is when it comes to being included within a certain metro area. I thought it had to do with commuting patterns.

My thoughts on Trenton are:

Transportation hub - many people travel through this modest city between it's two huge neighboring cities.
Significant poverty - a number of crumbling neighborhoods.
High crime rate
Capital city
Trenton borders the Delaware River - this is where the Delaware becomes tidal. The Delaware rivers' northernmost port is in or just south of Trenton.
Economy???
The skyline - pretty good for a city of that population.

I would think that (most) "Trentonians" associate more with Philadelphia than New York in general considering how close it is to Philly. However in terms of sports, Trenton is probably a sort of transition point where you have both New York and Philadelphia fans living right by each other.

It is sort of odd that Trenton is included in the NYC metro area instead of Philadelphia's.

Trenton is only about 15 miles from Philadelphia city limits, and maybe 40 or 50 miles to New York City's border. I'm not sure what the criteria is when it comes to being included within a certain metro area. I thought it had to do with commuting patterns

I would think that (most) "Trentonians" associate more with Philadelphia than New York in general considering how close it is to Philly. However in terms of sports, Trenton is probably a sort of transition point where you have both New York and Philadelphia fans living right by each other.

Indeed it has VERY much to do with commuting patterns. Many people in Mercer County (incl. Trenton) commute north. It's a close race between NY and Phila job markets in Trenton proper but as you move up through the rest of Mercer County (Princeton, West Windsor, etc.) the alliances are strongly with New York. CTPP 2000 data shows that Trenton residents are commuting to places in the NY area than in the Phila area. Here's a sample of the top 50 towns in which Trentonites work.

* = NY metro (not incl. Mercer Co)
+ = Phila. metro

Trenton city Mercer Co. NJ 11651
Hamilton Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 4000
Ewing Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 2575
Lawrence Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 2259
Princeton bor. Mercer Co. NJ 1401
West Windsor Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 1316
Princeton Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 485
East Windsor Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 405
+Falls Twp. Bucks Co. PA 345
*Manhattan bor. New York Co. NY 339
*Plainsboro Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 337
Washington Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 317
*South Brunswick Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 306
Hopewell Twp. Mercer Co. NJ 291
+Philadelphia city Philadelphia Co. PA 267
+Bordentown Twp. Burlington Co. NJ 232
+Bristol Twp. Bucks Co. PA 208
Hightstown bor. Mercer Co. NJ 198
Pennington bor. Mercer Co. NJ 173
+Morrisville bor. Bucks Co. PA 151
*Montgomery Twp. Somerset Co. NJ 141
*New Brunswick city Middlesex Co. NJ 134
*Edison Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 129
+Middletown Twp. Bucks Co. PA 126
Hopewell bor. Mercer Co. NJ 102
+Langhorne bor. Bucks Co. PA 101
*Cranbury Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 96
*Woodbridge Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 77
+Bordentown city Burlington Co. NJ 74
+Lower Southampton Twp. Bucks Co. PA 66
*Franklin Twp. Somerset Co. NJ 64
+Bristol bor. Bucks Co. PA 62
+Pemberton Twp. Burlington Co. NJ 60
*Elizabeth city Union Co. NJ 58
+Warminster Twp. Bucks Co. PA 57
*Monroe Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 53
*Hillsbor. Twp. Somerset Co. NJ 51
+Lower Makefield Twp. Bucks Co. PA 48
+Burlington city Burlington Co. NJ 45
+Mount Laurel Twp. Burlington Co. NJ 45
+Burlington Twp. Burlington Co. NJ 44
*Jersey City city Hudson Co. NJ 41
+Cherry Hill Twp. Camden Co. NJ 40
*East Brunswick Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 39
+Woodland Twp. Burlington Co. NJ 38
*Queens bor. Queens Co. NY 37
*Lambertville city Hunterdon Co. NJ 34
*North Brunswick Twp. Middlesex Co. NJ 32
+Bensalem Twp. Bucks Co. PA 31
+Mansfield Twp. Burlington Co. NJ 30

FInal score:
Philadelphia-area workers 2080
New York-area workers 1968

Despite that you see more people going to New York City than Philadelphia city, by nearly the same spread Philly metro won by.

Philadelphia city 267
New York City 376 (Manhattan + Queens. Other boroughs may have appeared farther down the list)


I'm not sure about borders but from centroid to centroid Trenton is
34 driving miles from Philadelphia
65 driving miles from New York

Nice photos!!!

Trenton is closer to Philly but theyd probably rather go to New York for work. Thats my opinion.

Mleh. Trenton is just another Small state capital. I only went thier once. It was clean suprisingly. I definatly don't think that Trentoners associate at all with Philly, because for some reason (If you live here you would understand) I think people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania tend to just not associate witch eachother. (Pennsylavanias think New Jerseyians are filthy people that are going to bring all sorts of drugs, violence and other races of people into their state, and Jersians think Pennsylvanians are a bunch of prudes who hate them for no reason... I think both are true) even though there is just a stupid river and a little bit of land beetween Trenton and Philly,Trenton still probly associates itself more with Itself or New York City.

Ehhh... I beg to differ there, Muddy.

Not all New Jerseyans disassociate with PA. People from Burlington County south probably associate well with Philadelphia. Many people in Camden, Gloucester, and Burl commute to Phila. And many of them identify as Metro Philadelphians.

I think Trenton teeters, and is becoming (if it isn't already) more of a New York edge city. Certainly large areas of the remainder of Mercer County (West Windsor, Princeton, Hopewell, Hightstown, Lawrenceville, etc.) are definitely more strongly allied with New York, as I said before. Even in Bucks County, PA (strongly allied with and even borders Phila.) 41% of the working residents of Yardley Borough commute to the New York metro area, according to CTPP. I'm sure that number grows as you move farther north though Bucks.

Trenton is closer to Philly but theyd probably rather go to New York for work. Thats my opinion.

Maybe it's not the Trentonites, but rather that Philly's job market is less than awesome at the moment.

Mleh. Trenton is just another Small state capital. I only went thier once. It was clean suprisingly. I definatly don't think that Trentoners associate at all with Philly, because for some reason (If you live here you would understand) I think people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania tend to just not associate witch eachother. (Pennsylavanias think New Jerseyians are filthy people that are going to bring all sorts of drugs, violence and other races of people into their state, and Jersians think Pennsylvanians are a bunch of prudes who hate them for no reason... I think both are true) even though there is just a stupid river and a little bit of land beetween Trenton and Philly,Trenton still probly associates itself more with Itself or New York City.

So like. Everyone's parents in South Jersey lived in Philly at one point, at least it feels like it. Teh fux0r are you talking about? Everyone's got cousins in PA or Philly. How can you live across a river and not associate with eachother? I mean I can see what you're saying to a degree, but it's not so absolute like you make it sound.

I'd say Trenton is more at the crossroads of Phila and NYC. And while you do have Eagles fans in Trenton, you also have some Giants fans over there as well. However, in the case of allegiance, I believe Trenton associates itself with Phila rather than NYC because the Phila TV stations cover what happens in Phila. There's even a Phila TV station in Trenton (WPVI Channel 6), whereas NYC doesn't really think the city of Trenton, not the capital, exists. It's pretty fucked up that the census gave Mercer County the NYC rather than Philly because we're closer to Trenton.

The latest in a long line of thievery from Philly, Sooner or later Montco and Bucks will Be NY.

Sonner or later, half of PA will be part of NY!! Im not kidding either.