Jersey City, New Jersey influenced the development of the sections of the city and its various neighborhoods. The city is divided into six wards. Downtown Jersey City is the area from the Hudson River westward to the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 78) and the New Jersey Palisades; it is also bounded by Hoboken to the north and Liberty State Park to the south. Historic Downtown is an area of mostly low-rise buildings to the west of the waterfront that is highly desirable due to its proximity to local amenities and Manhattan. It includes the neighborhoods of Van Vorst Park
New Jersey English New Jersey, plus Middlesex and Monmouth Counties. Therefore, the short-"a" system of these areas of New Jersey is most similar to the New York City split-"a" system, however with some variation. East of the Hackensack River, Labov finds the short-"a" system to occurs with no more variation than in New York City proper. However, west of the Hackensack River, he finds that the normal function word constraint of New York City English is lost and the open syllable constraint becomes variable. While most of the New York metropolitan dialect heard in New Jersey is rhotic, that of Newark and Jersey