All roads seem to angle in like radii around the "hubs" of Philly or NYC. This is true of secondary highways and roads as well.

So, while few people outside of South Jersey would recognize the fact, Berlin-Cross Keys road is actually a major highway in the South Jersey suburbs of metro Philadelphia. 

This article at NJ.com, in the Camden County News section, makes the case that this long-awaited bridge widening marks the latest chapter in the ongoing commercial boom story for business and commerce in this heavily travelled corridor.

Richard Harris is the director of the Rand Institute and a professor of political science, both at Rutgers–Camden, and has observed that without such cooperation, municipalities working in individually rational ways often create regionally irrational outcomes."

Here's an excerpt from the book, Crossroads of the American Revolution, that serves to prove the point:

Located between the British base at New York and the rebel capital at Philadelphia, New Jersey was the most war-ravaged of the 13 original states. More than 600 skirmishes and battles were fought on its soil and more than 150 naval actions on its waters.

Then, as now, New Jersey straddled roads connecting north and south. In 1775 and 1776, state regiments marched north. During November and December 1776, the remnants of the main Continental Army fled south across New Jersey, pursued by a British army. Just a month later, they retraced part of their route to defeat German and British detachments in Trenton and Princeton and march on to Morristown. This was the first of three winters that the Continental Army spent in New Jersey.

Its a truism to say that the past affects the present; I've made several observations here along those lines.

The book, and the quote above, is from a blog by Patrick Murray, My Historic NJ, that I found this morning.

So there have been calls for reducing extra layers of bureaucracy (and paid bureaucrats are included in that).

Get this: you can't drive into the Grove; you can only walk-in. Talk about pedestrian friendly!

Well, Pitman has been going through positive changes over the years, and revitalization is always popular news; hence the Inquirer's report the other day met with lots of positive feedback from readers.

At the same time, I'm also a "local is better" advocate, and New Jersey is nothing if not locally focused with all kinds of systems and structures of government and public services.

I was amazed to discover that there is no county wide library system in Gloucester County, for example. There is a county-wide library partnership, but some municipalities (townships, towns, boroughs) in Gloucester opted out of the county wide system.

(In my mind, this hyper-local locus of control culture that is widespread in New Jersey is connected to seeing lots of "Dont Tread on Me" flags flying around this most historic original colony of the American Revolutionary era.)

Along these lines, I was glad to read about what I think is a positive consolidation move

New Jersey's tragic rise in pedestrian fatalities has motivated authorities to begin undercover "stings" at crosswalks in towns across South Jersey. That's welcome news.

Maintaining and modernizing highways, bridges, and transit in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey will require at least $110 billion over the next 26 years, according to the plan approved by the bi-state Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC). That is $45 billion more than the region can expect to receive from projected federal, state, and local spending.

But the article also cited some significant and interesting statistics about South Jersey, Gloucester County, and the future role of the suburbs on the metro area.

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