6 Things New Jerseyans and New Yorkers Still Fight About

Put a New Jerseyan and a New Yorker in the same room, and it doesn’t always take long for an argument to start.

Some of these fights go back generations, and neither side seems ready to back down.

Here are the debates that still come up whenever both sides get on the subject.

Note: This is general information, not tax advice. State tax rules are subject to change.

1. Giants and Jets Home Field

New York’s two pro football teams, the Giants and the Jets, play their home games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The Giants announced a move to a new home in New Jersey on August 26, 1971.

Mayor John Lindsay responded by directing the city’s corporate counsel to start proceedings to restrict the team’s right to use the city’s name.

The Giants kept the name.

The Giants signed a 30-year lease for the new stadium in New Jersey.

The Giants played the rest of 1973 and the 1974 season at the Yale Bowl in Connecticut, then spent 1975 at Shea Stadium.

In 1976 they moved into Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

CBS New York says the Jets relocated to Giants Stadium in 1984 after they couldn’t agree on a new stadium with New York City.

Both teams shared Giants Stadium through the 2009 season before moving to MetLife Stadium, which is also in East Rutherford.

For the 2026 World Cup, soccer’s governing body, FIFA, temporarily called it New York New Jersey Stadium.

News 12 New Jersey reported in May 2026 that the more prominent of two signs on the stadium would soon read New Jersey New York Stadium.

Governor Mikie Sherrill was credited with the change.

2. Congestion Pricing

New Jersey sued to stop New York City’s congestion pricing toll, arguing that the environmental review behind it was deficient.

The New Jersey Monitor reports that New Jersey elected officials broadly oppose the toll, arguing it makes their residents cover years of financial mismanagement at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

If you drive a car into Manhattan south of 60th Street, the toll has been $9 at peak since January 5, 2025.

Off-peak, the toll for cars drops to $2.25.

A federal judge rejected that environmental claim before the toll began, according to NBC New York.

The state amended its claims, and the lawsuit remained ongoing as of March 2026.

In March 2026, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman found the Trump administration’s effort to end the program unlawful and unreasoned.

As of that March 2026 report, the toll for cars was still $9, and it is set to rise to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031.

Heavier vehicles face far steeper rates than cars.

Governor Mikie Sherrill opposed the program on the campaign trail, the Monitor reports.

She previously raised the idea that New Jersey could charge a toll on New Yorkers entering the state.

3. Oldest Pizzeria

Public radio station WYSO reported in 2011 that a New York City pizzeria and a New Jersey pizzeria were arguing over which is America’s oldest.

Lombardi’s in Manhattan’s Little Italy started selling pies in 1905, and Papa’s Tomato Pies in Trenton opened in 1912.

The claim that Gennaro Lombardi was the first to put a pizzeria in America comes from John Brescio at Lombardi’s.

The owner of Papa’s argues that Lombardi’s 10-year closure undercuts its claim to be the oldest.

The original Lombardi’s closed in 1984 and the current restaurant reopened 10 years later, a few doors from the original.

4. Statue of Liberty’s Address

The Statue of Liberty stands on Liberty Island, which is federal property run by the National Park Service.

The park service says the island falls under New York’s territorial jurisdiction.

Even so, a Jersey City, New Jersey, address is listed for official mail to the park.

You can catch a ferry to the island at two places, The Battery in New York City and Liberty State Park in Jersey City.

Anyone standing on the Jersey City waterfront is looking at an island under New York’s jurisdiction.

5. Remote-Work Income Tax

According to a Tax Policy Center explainer from August 2023, New York generally taxes income earned by people who work for New York employers.

The rule applies wherever they do the job.

The only exception is a remote office set up for the employer’s convenience, which the center calls difficult to prove.

In 2023, New Jersey passed a law for workers who dispute their New York tax bills.

If a worker wins a refund from New York, New Jersey gives them a credit against their New Jersey tax.

6. Baseball’s Birthplace

Baseball’s birthplace is a New York versus New Jersey argument, with Cooperstown, New York, on one side and Hoboken, New Jersey, on the other.

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) says the Mills Commission’s 1907 report concluded that Abner Doubleday devised the first scheme for playing baseball at Cooperstown in 1839.

Critics have questioned the credibility of the witness behind that story.

Hoboken’s case rests on Elysian Fields, where Major League Baseball’s site says the game on June 19, 1846, is widely recognized as the first recorded baseball game.

Both teams were New York clubs, the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine.

There was an earlier game between New York and Brooklyn clubs at Elysian Fields on October 21, 1845.

United Press International (UPI) reported in 1990 that Hoboken was claiming to be the birthplace of baseball, with Mayor Patrick Pasculli disputing the Doubleday designation for Cooperstown.

Patch reported in March 2026 that Hoboken’s current mayor, Emily Jabbour, says the city still holds that it is the birthplace of the first organized game of baseball.

Ellis Island Ownership

Ellis Island is the one fight on this list that a court has settled.

The justices ruled on May 26, 1998, and split the island by when each piece was built.

Justice David Souter wrote the opinion, and Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia dissented, with Justice Clarence Thomas joining Scalia.

The original three acres stay under New York’s authority.

The roughly 24.5 acres of landfill the federal government added later belong to New Jersey.

The immigration station opened in January 1892, and by then the federal government had already added fill to the island.

More than 12 million people disembarked there from 1892 to 1954.

Neither side got everything.

That means you can cross a state line on Ellis Island without getting your shoes wet.

Shared Port Authority

The two states run one large operation together, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

According to New Jersey Business Magazine, an act of Congress and a signed compact created the authority on April 30, 1921.

It’s a network of international airports, tunnels, bridges, bus terminals, rail systems and a seaport.