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New Jersey Notebook: Here, locals must clean own compounds, or face the law
A Newark Department of Public Works garbage collection truck in South Orange, New Jersey on July 1, 2026.
What you need to know:
- If you take garbage out of your house on a non-designated day, you are fined.
- In summer, as is the case here now, the days are longer than nights.
In New Jersey
Generally, the suburbs in New Jersey are rather clean and neat. There is very little to no litter, the lawns are well mowed, hedges are pruned, and despite locals keeping many dogs, you are unlikely to step on canine poop.
The reason for this is simple. Residents are responsible for the cleanliness of their environment. You are liable to be fined, and worse, if the surrounding area in your home is found to be dirty and untidy. If you let grass overgrow, you are promptly fined. If you take garbage out of your house on a non-designated day, you are fined. If there is dirt in your compound, you a fined.
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It’s summer here, so sunrise comes at 5.30am, and sunset at 8.30pm
Visitors from the tropics, where days and nights are nearly the same in length, have had a rough time adjusting to life in New Jersey/New York. Here, the sun rises at 5.30am and sets at 8.30pm.
In summer, as is the case here now, the days are longer than nights. Yours truly from East Africa took a little longer to adapt to this Northern Hemisphere natural timing. Imagine sluggishly turning on your bed at 5am and seeing a bright sunrise, or finding yourself taking supper while the sun is still peeping into your window.
It takes a while to get used to this. In winter, the opposite is the case. Nights are longer than days.
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Reliable public transport makes travel in New York easy
Thanks to technology, once you get familiar with the public transport system in New York /NewJersey, your commute is as easy as ABC.
Visitors to New York are advised to download an app that has the complete timetable of rail and bus transport.
One just needs to check his or phone, and information on the time and place to catch the train or bus pops up. If the train you want to board has delayed, the app will inform you.
If you want to know your arrival time, the app will show it. How long do you have to wait? Check the app. Kenyans born in the 1980s and earlier may remember with nostalgia the Kenya Bus Service (KBS) and its reliable timetable even without today’s technology.
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