There’s nothing like election season in Hoboken, New Jersey to make you question why the hell you’d ever want to live here in the first place. A tremendous amount of effort by all “concerned” goes into highlighting the negativity--the blatant corruption, the bold-faced avarice, the dizzying ineptitude and the seemingly unyielding mechanisms that maintain the dismal status quo in this little enclave. Add to that the cries of “Yuppie Go Home” from “Tony Bianare” and his pal “Joey Innozumbuti” while “Brad and Buffy Yupiscomb” park their Bugaboo stroller in the restaurant doorway so they can bitch about quality of life over bellinis at brunch, you begin to question the worth and wisdom of living in such a shallow, spiteful place.

Why DO I live here? Well… the easy answer is that I had a job which transferred me to the area twelve years ago. Where it gets complicated is that I left that job eleven years ago and I’m STILL here. So the question remains--and having given some thought, this is the best I could come up with:

I live here because it grants me access to the enviable splendor of the New York Metro Area while still maintaining a solid foothold on the 48 contiguous states. New Yorkers, as in Gothamite/Metro New Yorkers, tend to become pretentiously insular on their little island whereas in Hoboken, while staring directly in the glare of all that glitter, we have the perceived humbling stigma of New Jersey to keep us grounded. And while it may not sound like much of an endorsement, that tiny geographic technicality is a big part of what’s maintained my appreciation for this town. It’s not an insult, it’s a sort of rallying point--after all, General Pershing said “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken,” not “Heaven, Hell or SoHo…”

I live here because I have friends here. Throughout my years living and working in Hoboken I’ve met literally thousands of different people, and I actually like a couple of them. Beyond those four or five people, I have a fairly decent working relationship with almost everyone else. There are the notable exceptions of course, but there isn’t much that can be done about that when you consider the fact that wankers need a place to live too. Sometimes when we come into contact it gets a little ugly, but that’s part of living in a densely populated area. I could always go live in the wilderness, but even there I’d still have to chance loud-mouth yuppie tourists on a nature hike or beer soaked baboons on a hunting trip. I’m better off staying here where I can keep my guard up.

I live here because I can walk out my door and do everything I need to do within three blocks. I can do pretty much everything I want to do within 10 blocks. I can grab a chilidog or two at Biggie’s, sit in Elysian Park and watch the Mockingbirds fight over my leftover bun, then make my way down to the Hudson to walk it off. And should I need or want to do something outside that radius, I can get on a train, bus, boat or plane with relative ease and be there to do those things too.

I live here because it has potential. It’s rare to find anyone who moves into any urban area and immediately likes what they see. Dust, concrete, noise and clutter hardly make for an idyllic setting. But when they see in it what it could become, or more to the point what they could become in it, then it takes on a whole new significance. I live here because there’s always a chance it can get better. One day it seems like you’ve had your head kicked in and the next day you’re strolling along a sunny pier on a breezy afternoon. You don’t forget what happened yesterday, but you don’t let it ruin the day your having nor let it dissuade you from pursuing the better days to come.

I live here because I like it here. When it’s all said and done, Hoboken is still a relatively nice place to live. If you sit down and do a Pro v. Con list, it mightn’t appear that way, but in general I actually enjoy living in this town. I’m not saying I’m staying here forever, no one knows for sure what sort of stuff is in the pipeline that may make my family move somewhere else. But I live here now--and despite what I’m told by mass-mailings, automatic phone messages, unscrupulous websites and apathetic public servants, it’s not all bad. It just seems I have to remind myself of that more often lately.