Scorned State Booms : New Jersey Savors Smell of Success

From Hoboken to Ho Ho Kus, from Benjamin Franklin to Johnny Carson, New Jersey long has been the Rodney Dangerfield of states: It gets no respect.

The much-maligned Garden State fights a reputation for corruption, mobsters, toxic waste, and the ever-pungent New Jersey Turnpike, where, one state official said, “every mile is a new odor.”

The state gem is concrete; the state bird is the mosquito, and the state tree is dead, one native said. “New Jersey--Landfill of Opportunity,” is the oft-suggested license plate.

To live here is to wince when Woody Allen cites intelligent life in the universe “except in certain parts of New Jersey.” It is to squirm when comedian Joe Piscopo poses by a belching refinery for his album “New Jersey.”

Tribute From Texan

This week, according to Chase’s Annual Events, which lists such things, is national “Be Nice to New Jersey Week.” Never mind that the idea came from a Texan, Lauren Barnett. She says the tribute is no joke: “I figured no place in the U.S. could be that awful.”

All very funny, right?

Well, New Jersey is laughing all the way to the bank these days.

The nation’s most densely populated state (7.5 million people crammed into an area the size of, well, New Jersey) is also one of the richest. The state that was once a declining industrial joke has become an economic powerhouse, a modern success story built on high-tech financial services, defense contracts and fast-growing suburbs.

The boom economy has created more than 460,000 jobs since 1982. A leader in the Northeast’s remarkable resurgence, New Jersey runs neck and neck with Massachusetts for having the nation’s lowest unemployment. In May it ranked second with 4.2%. The national rate was 6.2%.

Office Construction

Twice as much office space--more than 21 million square feet--is now under construction in New Jersey as in any other market in the nation. Business services, new incorporations, retail trade and construction all outpace the nation. The state is about to open a trade office in Tokyo.

The New Jersey Giants, at home in the Meadowlands with the Jets and the Nets, reign supreme as Super Bowl champions. Native son Bruce Springsteen croons “Jersey Girl” and other state anthems to millions. Atlantic City is the nation’s No. 1 tourist attraction, state officials claim, raking in nearly 30 million people and more than $15 billion in bets last year.

The result is a “new New Jersey,” says Gov. Thomas H. Kean, the state’s chief cheerleader.

“There’s a new sense of pride and accomplishment,” Kean de clares. “People are really sticking out their chests and saying they’re proud of New Jersey.”

Kean has reason to be happy this week. State officials originally predicted that the fiscal year that ends June 30 would leave New Jersey with a $194-million surplus; the actual figure is more than $600 million.

But others are also proud. Polls by the Center for Public Interest at Rutgers University show an increasing number of residents appreciate the state. More than 80% polled rated the state a good or excellent place to live in 1984, up from 62% in 1977. Nearly half said New Jersey was better than other states, almost double the rate four years earlier.

“People feel good about New Jersey,” said Cliff Zukin, the center’s director. “The image is changing.”

One reason is advertising. Using the slogan “New Jersey and You--Perfect Together,” Kean has filmed eight television ads. In several, Kean appears with recent Princeton grad and actress Brooke Shields. Bill Cosby stars in New Jersey’s popular radio ads.

Undeniable Beauty

The state’s undeniable beauty is one selling point. In the west are wooded mountains and bucolic, tree-lined horse farms. In the south is the mysterious Pine Barrens, as large as Grand Canyon National Park and as virgin as in Colonial times. The 125-mile-long Jersey shore booms and beckons, from the gaudy boardwalk at Asbury Park to the wildlife preserves near Cape May.

History is another draw. Franklin called New Jersey “a keg tapped at both ends.” He should know. His illegitimate son, William, was the colony’s last royal governor. Today, the state bills itself the “Cockpit of the Revolution” and boasts of more historic battle sites than Virginia or Massachusetts.

With Atlantic City as the base, travel and tourism is now the state’s largest employer, said Liz Thomas, deputy director of the state division of travel and tourism. More than 54 million people visited last year and spent $12.9 billion, she said.

Another reason for the boom is the growth of “New York’s sixth borough, if you will” across the Hudson River, says Rutgers urbanologist George Sternlieb. Rents and taxes in New Jersey are often half those in Manhattan. Full-page ads in New York magazines cry: “Go for broke, or go to New Jersey.” Many already have.

Businesses Gained

PaineWebber Group, the financial giant, is moving 2,000 employees to Weehawken. Buck Consultants Inc. has set up shop in Secaucus. The American Reinsurance Company is shifting 300 employees from Wall Street. The New York Times Co. has taken an option in Edison for space to augment its printing and distribution facilities.

“I know in New York they think I’m some kind of Pied Piper,” Kean says with a laugh. “I was in Manhattan the other day and some taxi driver yelled: ‘Hey, Governor, what company are you trying to take today?’ Last year, I went to the World Series to watch the Mets and people were yelling: “Governor, please don’t take them back with you.’ ”

In recent weeks, New Jersey officials watched with glee as two of New York’s most powerful figures, Mayor Edward I. Koch and developer Donald J. Trump, traded insults in an attempt to keep the National Broadcasting Co. from leaving New York City for Secaucus.

Concessions Sought

NBC has said it is considering vacating its present Rockefeller Center headquarters to gain more space. One option is to move to 35 acres in Secaucus. To head that off and enhance the value of his own property, Trump sought massive tax and zoning concessions from New York City to lure NBC and its 4,000 jobs to his proposed Television City complex on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. When the city said no, Trump blasted Koch as a “moron” and worse. “Greedy, greedy, greedy,” chided the mayor in return.

Four miles away in Secaucus, once known only for its pig farms and garbage dumps, developers have calmly given NBC their own deadline to decide.

“We’re very confident,” says Martin Gold, director of planning and marketing for Hartz Mountain Industries Inc.

He should be. Hartz Mountain has attracted 24,000 people to Secaucus since 1969, turning 1,300 acres of swamp and landfill into a city of concrete-and-glass offices, shopping malls and condominiums, with the state’s only VHF TV station. Nearby is the Meadowlands, one of the world’s largest and most profitable sports facilities.

Development Along Hudson

Other developers are hoping to hit pay dirt on the “Gold Coast,” the long-blighted New Jersey shore of the Hudson River across from Manhattan. Rotting piers and aging warehouses are giving way to luxury condos and high-tech offices. Billions of dollars of commercial and residential projects are planned or under way in towns like Hoboken, Weehawken, North Bergen and Edgewater.

The largest projects are in Jersey City, which has 225,000 residents and is the state’s second-largest city after Newark. Until now, Jersey City was best known for the legendary Mayor Frank (I am the Law) Hague, who ran City Hall and nearly everything else from 1917 to 1949. Hague’s salary was less than $8,000 a year, but he left a $5-million estate when he died.

But the new Jersey City will include Harborside Financial Center, a $900-million office and condominium complex in two 60-story skyscrapers. Nearby will be Newport, with 9,500 luxury condominiums, 4.5 million square feet of offices and a 1,000-slip marina. Two other projects are nearly as large.

“Developers are knocking down doors to do projects here,” said Ben Ferrara, director of the state’s division of economic development.

Firms Replace Farms

Farther south, the once-rural Route 1 corridor from Princeton to New Brunswick has become a congested strip of hotels, office buildings and conference centers. Farmland that once grew sweet Jersey corn and tomatoes now supports data processing, management consulting, advertising and insurance companies.

In Atlantic City, a 13th casino is under construction. The 42-story Taj Mahal casino-hotel will have 2,000 rooms, nearly four times the number of other Atlantic City casino-hotels, and a casino twice the size of the next-largest.

The state is changing in character as well. After years of decline, population is edging upward. And, despite its reputation as an urban, industrial state sandwiched between New York and Philadelphia, New Jersey is now one of the most suburban in the nation.

“We now have the smallest major cities of any state in the country,” Rutgers’ Sternlieb says. “The six largest cities contain only 10% of the population and 10% of the jobs.”

Apology for Button

Problems persist, of course. Despite improvements, inner-city areas of Newark, Camden and Paterson remain badly blighted--and an easy target. After Newark officials complained, a Baltimore novelty company recently apologized for selling a button saying: “Hell is a city much like Newark.”

The state’s environmental problems also are no joke. New Jersey has 101 hazardous waste sites on the federal Superfund priority list, the most of any state. State officials say this is only because they are the most aggressive in identifying the sites to get federal money for cleanup.

Still, 35 miles of state beaches were closed at the end of May after thick sewage sludge washed ashore, the worst such pollution in a decade. And Montclair residents have been fighting for two years to remove 5,000 barrels of radium-contaminated soil stacked on their lawns, the legacy of a factory that once made luminescent clock faces. A proposal to move the soil to the rural Pinelands National Reserve is now in court.

Crime Reputation

Although crime has dropped, New Jersey’s reputation for organized crime and corruption also endures. Residents say this is unfair--no U.S. senator or congressman has been sent to jail since Abscam, and voters have not elected a convicted felon since 1982.

The 185-mile New Jersey Turnpike, the best-known symbol of the state, also endures--particularly a grimy northern stretch lined by landfills, refineries, Newark Airport and the Vince Lombardi Service Area. A state plan to beautify the heavily traveled highway by planting 3 million trees got off to a shaky start last year when half the seedlings died.

Still, life has changed. Ask Gary Hart. During the state’s 1984 presidential primary, Hart was quoted as saying his wife got to campaign with a koala bear in California, while he got to hold “samples from a toxic waste dump” in New Jersey.

New Jersey voters did not laugh. Hart lost by a 2-1 margin. “He got his head handed to him,” Carl Golden, Kean’s spokesman, recalls cheerfully.

None of this is to say that the slings and arrows are likely to disappear.

Endless Insults

In Sebastian’s Lounge in Fanwood, N.J., self-appointed satirist Harry (Skip) Unger sings with passion of New Jersey. The insults are endless, the snubs sublime, from a bard who says his uncle could “identify seven distinct smells” near Newark, and who says his mother “expected to be attacked by Indians” on the turnpike.

Several years ago, when Kean was looking for a state song, Unger wrote “God Save New Jersey.” The chorus is:

God save New Jersey

Save its hills, its swamps, its brooks

Save its race tracks and casinos,

Its godfathers and crooks

Save its politicians

The pollution in Arthur Kill

God save New Jersey

For certainly no one else will.

“I sent it in,” Unger says. “But I never heard back. I couldn’t understand it.”