First off I’m not “yeshivish,” and I live in Lakewood because I have a lot of family in town, and a Rav who has known me for nearly ten years, and I like that when push comes to shove, the Jewish people here are always looking out for each other.
Unless you’re living in NYC, the pay is much better for those who have no post high school education, plus people are getting paid off the books, so $12 equals to a lot more if it were on the books.
Yes this town has grown significantly in the past ten years or so. People from NY were sick and tired of the high costs of houses and rentals. They saw a big 4 bedroom home for under $200,000 and thought that was a steal! Plus, for those who lived in brooklyn, now get to live in neighborhoods filled with backyards for their kids to run around. My sister, her husband and 6 children moved to lakewood some years back because of those very reasons, that was also the last time they ever went to the bungalow colony for the summer.
Now the town has become too over populated for it’s size, that the traffic here is atrocious! Just as a safety reminder, Stay off the roads between 6:00ish-8:00ish, the driving is out of control! sadly (and very embarrassingly) most of the terrible drivers that time of day are Jews. (The proof is on the dash-cam & the traffic cameras)