Max Azzarello

New Brunswick, NJ

1. The basement punk music scene: The people who frequent these shows are some of the kindest, most considerate, socially involved people I have met, promoting equality regarless of gender, race, sexual orientation and the like. Some rockin' tunes too.

2. I ride my bike through a path that is riddled with graffiti and homeless people. When talking with one of them, he said he didn't want food or money, but would greatly appreciate cat food for the cats that live with some of them along the path. It was absolutely touching.

3. The liveliness of the "seedy" areas of town, especially on summer weekends. Many people are afraid of such areas, but I see nothing but neighborhood children playing, families walking together, the elderly watching the street, and so on. It's infinitely better than boring, empty suburbs.

4. The Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park is an excellent path for running or biking, stretching all the way from New Brunswick to Trenton!

5. There are like 12 parks in the city! They're all beautiful.

1. Every construction project within the city seems to require police officers to be on site. In nearly every instance, the police officers don't seem to be doing anything except just standing there. It is a terribly poor use of public resources.

2. There are constantly new, large developments being created downtown, but they seem to exist only to benefit visitors and outsiders without helping the typical New Brunswick resident.

3. Johnson & Johnson's office park is quintessentially suburban, sectioning off a huge chunk of land away from the city for private use.

4. I've never seen the city's theaters advertise to a single person in Spanish, even though about half the city's population is Latino.

5. Some guy yelled at me for no reason today.