Opinion of New Brunswick, NJ

[traininthedistance]

Come to think of it, it's the only American city I know of that has suburbs bigger than itself. Edison is way bigger for example.

I remember in high school finding out that it had a smaller population than Bismarck and my mind was utterly blown.

...New Brunswick and Edison are both suburbs of NYC.

[traininthedistance]

Though this now has me thinking, which actual central cities– no, not New Brunswick, though it's a fine little town– are smaller than some of their suburbs?  And NJ might still be a home to that, if you consider Trenton to still be its own core (it has its own MSA, but is part of the NYC combined area): Hamilton, to its immediate east, is larger.  Similarly, Egg Harbor is larger than Atlantic City, but that is part of the Philly CSA.

The best example has to be in the Hampton Roads area: Norfolk is the central city there, but thoroughly suburban Virginia Beach is the largest.

[traininthedistance]

New Jersey suburbs are not like Midwestern suburbs. They might as well be one giant urban area.

Also, people from way south of New Brunswick commute to Manhattan every day. Ocean County has its fair share of Manhattan commuters. An hour to an hour and a half commute is a regular thing for the most popular city in the country. It is absolutely a suburb. Of course New Jersey has some of its own places to work because it is on the urban side of suburban, but these people often find themselves having to go to New York very often to work too.

You are very much correct that Trenton is a suburb of Philly though. I would never consider that part of the NYC sphere of influence except for the fact that the governor is likely to pay attention to NYC more.

Exactly.  New Brunswick is an old town, so it has urban form, but it is very much a suburb of NYC, and has been so for many decades.  The proper comparison would be more like Norristown, which is closer but that makes sense since Philly is smaller.  NYC's Reading would probably be, I dunno, New Haven seems the most comparable.

And, yes, the NYC burbs go way down the shore.  I had an ex from all the way out in Lacey and they definitely considered themselves New York-area.  (The dad commuted up to the Meadowlands.) 

Deal with it, BRTD, your scene is suburban.