Wednesday, April 27, 2011

As Redman Said, "Once Upon a Time in Jersey, Yo!"

New Jersey- Home to the most shopping malls...the most diners...the Miss. American pageant...and the first Native American reservation.
Needless to say, Jersey is the epitome class and high culture. Next time someone tries to slander this blissful state, say with force and conviction, "Shut your mouth! You know who's from Jersey? Aaron Burr. And that guy shot Alexander Hamilton." Legit, am I right?

And high in the northern reaches of New Jersey lies New Brunswick, a quaint little college town that houses Rutgers Univeristy and it's thousands of college-age students. Today while going about her business, my good friend, Genna, found this treasure at the cross streets of College Ave. and Stone St. in New Brunswick: At first glance, this looks like a creature left in the middle of the road to die a death befit for an existentialist novella. However it is not a rat that has crawled from the well- maintained sewers of New Brunswick, but a weave left for the taking-- hopefully the taking of the eyes. And as an experiment, I will now seamlessly move into an analysis of the area where this homeless weave was found. I am going to delve a little more seriously into the demographics of the area, as the original thought behind this blog is to both enjoy these glimpses into the secret life of weaves, but also to look at the social structures in which they exist.
New Brunswick, located in Middlesex County, hosts 48,573 people with 9,293.5 people per square mile. The racial makeup of the city is 48.79% white, 39.01% Latino, 23.03% African American, 0.46% Native American, 5.32% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, and 18.08% from a host of other races. The remaining 4.24% identify as two or more races. Many of the residents who identify as Latino come from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador.
The median household income in New Brunswick is $36,080, with an average of $13,053 and a per capita income of $14,308. The following is a simple breakdown of jobs: 17,563 residents have white collar jobs; 21,6617 residents have blue collar jobs; 23,832 are employed; and 2,820 are unemployed. Only 62.6% of residents have attained a high school degree or higher.
Within that population of almost 50,000 people, there is an estimated 4,555 crimes a year that range from violent crime to petty larceny. New Brunswick isn't exactly a gated community.

And somewhere, lost in all of that turmoil, is that stranded clump of synthetic cosmetic accoutrement.

Special Thanks to Genna Ayres and Noam Orr for sharing this picture.
Thank you to Redman for "Jersey Yo"

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