re: #28 Mattand

I don’t think it’s so much rural in our case as it is the dominant metro area in the North (NYC) is just massively bigger than the southern metro area (Philly). I don’t know the exact percentages, but I would not be shocked if like 50% to 60% of NJ’s population is clustered around either city.

That said, I’m always shocked at how rural it gets anywhere in NJ once you get out of the population centers.

NJ makes decent bank as the center for truck farming since they have two nearby large metropolitan centers to sell their produce to.

And a separate “South Jersey” would quickly have an issue where the Philadelphia-dominated west part would have the population and influence over the coastal east part.

And then when the south-east part splits off… they get eaten by Delaware.