{"id":403,"date":"2004-07-08T11:51:32","date_gmt":"2004-07-08T15:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/07\/08\/new-jerseycapital-of-the-mcmansion\/"},"modified":"2004-07-08T11:51:32","modified_gmt":"2004-07-08T15:51:32","slug":"new-jerseycapital-of-the-mcmansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/07\/08\/new-jerseycapital-of-the-mcmansion\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey….Capital of the McMansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I meant to write about this yesterday (but forgot)…but with 40 minutes to go before leaving for Philadelphia, I figured I’d mention it before I forget.<\/P>
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I have concluded that New Jersey (at least this part of NJ) is the land of the McMansion. It’s a fascinating thing. This area seems to have been developed in 4 phases. There were the 1920’s style areas (like Sleepy Hollow) with charming old houses on reasonably sized lots. Then there were these 1950’s split-level ranch areas (also on reasonably sized lots).<\/P>
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In the 1960’s these modern\/contemporary houses started sprouting up. But, possibly as a result of the previous development bursts, these houses are sporadically thrown in among the other neighborhoods (versus having entire neighborhoods with identical Mike Brady houses).<\/P>
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Then, the worst development era is happening now: the McMansion. I don’t understand this phenomenon. People are building these enormous cookie-cutter houses all over the place down here. Occasionally you’ll see one built next to a 1950’s split level, but most of them are being built in these developments. The houses are enormous…at least 3,000 square feet with 4 car garages, palladian windows and excessive landscaping. I can’t imagine that these houses sell for less than $1-2 million…at least! Yet, they’re all the same…and built in areas behind strip malls and such. I’m guessing it must be a nouveau riche thing. I mean, if you have that much money to built an obscene house like that…why not build it overlooking the ocean, or a lake? And with that much money – why not customize the house so it doesn’t appear like all the others? They remind me of the homes you see on MTV’s “Cribs”…where newly rich basketball players buy a McMansion and the inside is all white and sterile. B-O-R-I-N-G !!!<\/P>
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Anyway, that’s just my observation. I’m sure the whole state isn’t like that…I hope.<\/P>
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Oh, and for all of you that think you’ve had a bad blind date…I’m sure it pales in comparison to the one my friend Melody went on in Manhattan this spring. I won’t provide all of the details, but let’s just say he arrived 1.5 hours late, brought her to a fast food stall for lunch, left her on a street corner for 15-30 minutes so he could (presumably) conduct a drug deal, commented on her ample bosom, then asked her about the size of another more private female body part (all within hearing distance of other pedestrians), and then dripped ice cream all over clothes. Poor Melody. I have faith that there are better men out there for her – and hopefully they don’t live in a McMansion.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I meant to write about this yesterday (but forgot)…but with 40 minutes to go before leaving for Philadelphia, I figured I’d mention it before I forget. I have concluded that New Jersey (at least this part of NJ) is the land of the McMansion. It’s a fascinating thing. This area seems to have been developed in 4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}