Anna, I hope you're getting paid by New Brunswick's city council for all the PR you're giving them!

My b/f and I are looking to move out of the damn dirty south in about a year, and you make it sound so appealing, I think I'm going to be adding NB to the list. (Plus, I'm a former Jersey girl myself. My parents are from Midland Park.)

Lydia, I think I'll plan my first visit for the spring then! Haha, it seems like New Brunswick will have a growing population.

LadyAttercop, IaMonster, Heh, that's unexpected. What can I say? I love my local city. It's got its warts, no question about it, we have some pretty annoying traffic at class breaks (since the knucklebrains can't figure out to use the FREE public transportation!) and rush hour when the two major employers, Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol Meyer Squibb let out. Actually living in town and taking advantage of the public transit unless you actually need to get out of town for something will avoid 90% of that. Of course, I've walked all the way from the Piscataway campuses to "main street" New Brunswick, over the river and rt 18, and back in under forty-five minutes. The city is not so large, so my personal opinion is that public transit is for winter and drinking if I'm tooling around town.

Some things I failed to mention, since I seem to be the New Brunswick-Goth Axis Tourist Commission: three incredible graveyards in the city. I know we're not spooky kids hanging out in graveyards, but these are historic and beautiful. One of the members of my Pagan group (Grove of the Other Gods, the bastard ADF grove, http://www.othergods.org) made an oracle deck from photos of the unique gravestones in the area. There's a university owned art museum in town that is fantastic, the permanent exhibits focus on historic works, but the rotating exhibits are incredible. It's $3 to visit, but there are also monthly lectures and receptions showcasing the new exhibits. Of course, if art is your thing, there's a free gallery in the Mason Gross school on Livingston Ave, which displays the art students' work. It's in the theater district, also where the best food in town is located. Across the river, down 27 into Highland Park, there are more galleries then you can shake a stick at. There're a couple of historic house museums in the area, one in a park off the college "main street" and one over the river. And, of course, the most awesome museum is the Ag department's, which also puts on a huge fair and field day every year, free to get into, with all kinds of fun activities. And, of course, the ice cream they make on site, which is fresh that very day, not free, but awesome. Lots of music and hippies playing disc golf. (Actually, the university has a genuine disc golf course. Really.) There's also an incredible gardens area to see.

The best deal in town is definitely the university. It's not advertised, but you can purchase full university library privileges even if you're not involved with the university, on a yearly basis. Among other things, that means you can go to the media library (not in New Brunswick proper, but free public transit will get you there) and see any of the university's incredible movie collections in one of their viewing rooms. Free night out. There's no longer a YMCA or any other apparent gym in the city, but you can buy a membership in the university recreation department which gains you access to several pools, a climbing wall, several gyms, and a huge array of classes in everything from martial arts, dance, yoga, and some pretty funny things. (We taught a class in boffer fighting one year for the department. Seriously. The university also hosts an ongoing NJ film festival, which makes up for the lack of a traditional cinema in town (you can drive to a huge Loews in about 5 minutes, it's not inaccessible). Actually, the public library in Highland Park also has a free foreign film festival about every Wednesday, that's also easy walking distance from the city. In addition, if you want to be an instant "regular" in the city, you can join the university dining club, which is an interesting experience. It's a nice place, hard to describe. In addition, you can join the community garden club if you like, it's organic, and it's nice to get to garden if you have an apartment in the city.

The major park in town has free ice skating, as does the one across the river which also has an amphitheater, a reconstructed historic village, and a little petting zoo. If you like sports in the spectator sense, we have a huge cricket league and soccer league, and of course, the university sports. I regret to say that, because the university president is a corrupt ass, our prize winning fencing team was canned for our abomination of a multi-million dollar football stadium. In a flood plain. I comfort myself with the thought that, if it floods, we might recruit the old skulling team to reenact naval battles ala the Coliseum.

Now, as far as food, cause I've been chatting with another local on #Goth a good deal and it's on my mind: a suite of high end restaurants that my darling partner has yet to take me too. Of the top restaurants, I recommend Panico's (http://www.panicosrestaurant.com/ and, yes, they also own a pizza place that delivers, you can order the same quality of dinners through the pizza parlor, same food and half price) and Clydz (http://clydz.com/, which is an incredible, dark martini bar with just phenomenal food). We have an incredible Ethiopian restaurant, also Indian, several Mediterranean, a good pub (Tumulty's, no website) and a brew pub (Harvest Moon: http://harvestmoonbrewery.com/, whose ale is awesome and they make a mean creme brulee). And, of course, the junk food. We are the home of the grease trucks. I could go on about the food, but I'll end on a healthy note: if you're persistent, the Ag department has an organic CSA if you're a produce eater.

Job wise, New Brunswick has the university, tons of local businesses, two major hospitals, two major pharmaceutical companies, and the home base of a regional bank in town. Over the river in Piscataway we have corporate parks for more pharmaceutical companies, some piece of AT&T (can't recall which since they were broken up some), Colgate if I recall correctly, and a ton of others. Down Easton Ave into Somerset there is one of the vastest corporate parks I know of with every field represented. Pharmaceuticals, communications, computers, engineering, some manufacturing, printing... And, of course, there's New Brunswick a brief train ride away.

On that note, I actually need to get out the door, but, yes, I really do think that the benefits outweigh the "warts" of the city. Our weather is not cheerful, although the beautiful days are gorgeous. Traffic is a pain. It's a gritty city, and we don't pull it off like NYC does. There's a thug culture here, it occasionally flares up, I've had two bikes stolen because I was dumb about where I left them and how long, but otherwise the thugs prey on other thugs and, sadly, on the immigrant population. As a city, we do our best for the poor and the immigrants, we try to shut down the crime and we have plenty in the way of shelters and soup kitchens and food banks, nor do we have a large population of homeless, but the illegal immigrant population won't cooperate with any investigations of the crime, so it continues to mostly afflict them. And, as a college town, we have a high turnover rate. People don't really settle here, there's only some diehards like myself.
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Ok, and because I'm a dunce, IaMonster, if you want to time your visit for a Pagan event, check out the Grove of the Other Gods link I included above (http://www.othergods.org) for the calendar of events. You can either email them yourself for information, or it might be easier to just give us a heads up and I'll RSVP for a +1. If you're of a more Wiccan persuasion, some of the regulars are also members of a Piscataway coven and I can introduce you for information gathering purposes. They're very open.

Well, if New Brunswick enjoys an influx of goth oriented folks, I can't see how that would be a bad thing, the few we have now are either college students with the energy to go to NYC whenever they feel like a goth fix, or cranky homebodies like myself that only want to go out if there's a quiet drink on the other end of the journey. Ok, or ice cream. Did I mention we are home to one of the most awesome local ice cream businesses of all time? Yes, we have Thomas Sweets (so does Princeton, but we're cooler). And, assuming the both of you are as pathologically female as I am in this regard: we have our own chocolate factory. With big sales after every holiday. Birnn chocolates, it's called, and IaMonster, all tours come with a sample, because it's an excuse for me to go indulge. Oh, they are so good! Blackberry truffles. Dark chocolate blackberry truffles. And blueberry truffles, made from real blueberries. Along with all the more common stuff, and they're not too snooty for chocolate covered pretzels or peanut butter cups. It's the other place that locals meet, recognize each other, and kibbutz. I know I talk about food a lot, but New Brunswick is really about the food, university, and arts. Our nightlife is pretty much going from awesome restaurant to awesome restaurant (although we do have a number of lounges apparently, the best I'm told is the new "Catherine Lombardi" (http://www.catherinelombardi.com/sle/cl/) Italian place owned by the kings of the local restaurant industry, Stage Left (http://www.stageleft.com/sl/dine/)), and we at least used to have Friday night dancing of the Latin ballroom dance variety at a Cuban place in town, that is now gone Mediterranean (like everyone else), but I think they might still do the dancing part.
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Lydia, I looked at the calendar of events for Grove of the Other Gods, but the events are not as far ahead as I was looking. I'm sure there will be an event for Beltaine, and that is when I would be most able to go. I would definately love to be there at that time! Would that work for your schedule?

And, I'm psyched about the chocolate factory. I love chocolate, when I lived in England I took a tour of the Cadburry's chocolate factory. However, topping my love for chocolate is my love for ice cream! Needless to say, New Brunswick sounds even better and better to me - Though not good for gut. hahaha

IaMonster, Oh man, you are totally my kind of person! Sure, there are usually several beltaine events, I'll keep you updated. We'll make an afternoon of it.
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Lydia, I'm flattered! I think we will get along famously. I can't wait for my visit! (Though trying to figure out New Jersey transit is like trying to find your way in the Amazon without a guide..)