Dunellen and South Plainfield ?

[Rowen]

Originally Posted by HubCityMadMan

Both are fairly close to Plainfield, which is a ghetto. I used to live in Piscataway and had a few problems in the complex I lived in at the time. However, going north on Washington Ave, I always thought the looks of everything improved once you actually got into Dunellen while the bordering sections of Piscataway look as rundown as Plainfield.

I never thought South Plainfield was a bad area until a good friend of mine born and raised there said he got mugged there once. Granted I was mugged literally at my door in Piscataway, but I was kind of surprised to hear about that since I always knew SP as a safer town than Piscataway. He lived close to the Plainfield border too, but I always thought the cops patrolled that area pretty well.

My parents have lived in South Plainfield and close to the Plainfield border for over 50 years. They have never had a problem and their neighborhood is very close knit. The police do run a tight ship but I can't say the same for the South Plainfield road maintanance crew - the snow plowing leaves a lot to be desired.
There are other nice neighborhoods to be found in this town farther away from Plainfield and the taxes are fairly reasonable for NJ. I do know about some of those older apartment complexes in Piscataway and they are not as nice as they once were to say the least.

To the OP: Have you considered looking into Metuchen? It is a nice town too with a highly walkable downtown and a train station. I can't comment on the school system since I'm not familar with it but many people are moving there. It is not too far from South Plainfield either.