December 9, 2007
Montclair, New Jersey = Park Slope West?
A couple of real estate agents are seriously deluded and declaring Montclair, NJ as "Park Slope West" (something The NY Times covered two years ago). They stand by their claim and the town's "urban-suburban setting" which boasts a theater, a museum, shops and even a "great commute". Suckers Prospective buyers are brought to the suburbs in a limo, and are wined and dined at the “Park Slope-style” restaurant, Raymond’s. Recently a curious Brooklynite and a Brooklyn Paper reporter took the tour de Jerz...only to be picked up in a minivan (reportedly the limo was out of service that day).
Their [the agents] objective: to prove that, yes, you can own a home in a diverse community with the implausible combination of great public schools, restaurants and a walkable downtown, while still being able to see the Manhattan skyline, albeit through that odd brown cloud over Union City.So how much does an average three-bedroom home go for in these parts? Much less than any of the new condos popping up around Brooklyn. While one East Village family left the city and now resides happily in a "huge Victorian House" there, many don't want to leave the New York -- which is why the agents set up this limo tour. Be warned, not all who have made the move are are so smitten with the suburbs.Keeping in tune with Brooklyn lingo, the tour cruised up “restaurant row” on Bloomfield Avenue, with a wide range of cuisines, and through Brookdale Park, which was designed by the sons of Frederick Olmsted, Prospect Park’s co-builder (so Montclair’s park is a sequel?).
“I would move back to Park Slope in a heartbeat for me, myself and I, but this was about a decision driven by an expanding family,” said Camilla Seth, a mother of two.Perhaps the minivan is more fitting for this tour, the perfect vehicle to give a glimpse into a family-style future. Interested in leaving your high-rent hectic life? The next tour is in January.Seth and her husband resettled for “totally stereotypical reasons,” namely, for a bigger home and excellent public schools (that cost about $12,000–$17,000 a year in taxes, by the way), but she feels like a fish out of water. Her neighbors “have urban sensibilities, but day-to-day life is suburban. People are driving. People are in their single-family homes. The way they interact is different.
Photo of Montclair via smaginnis11565's flickr.
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This is crazy talk. Brokers are such scum, this only reminds us of that.
Well, they do actually have some nice BAM-style performing arts out at Montclair U., at least for now. We drove on out there for a David Lang opera.
Seth and her husband resettled for “totally stereotypical reasons,” namely, for a bigger home and excellent public schools (that cost about $12,000–$17,000 a year in taxes, by the way)
Yeah and an equivalent good private school in NYC costs about $30,000 a year. So what's your point again?
People are driving.
Oh so she has to drive as opposed to being driven by a driver in a taxi cab?
People are in their single-family homes.
Yes there is less chance of interacting with people. That's a problem.
The way they interact is different.
In what way? Because with all the little inconveniences of city living removed, there is no longer anything to talk about?
She needs to grow up.
I don't see much people interacting in the photo above. that's what one should expect in the suburbs.
people get out of car, go in to store, get back in to the car.
Montclair is a perfectly nice place to live with a thriving arts community. The taxes in every part of New Jersey are outrageous. I'll keep my 3 bedroom home with yard. hot tub and fireplace on Staten Island. My mortgage $1298 a month. My taxes $2,800 a year. My hipness and coolness factor comes from within, not what is deemed cool by transplants who piss away obscene amounts of rent. If I want to eat in Park Slope (where I am originally from) or in the city, I can drive my car there in 30 minutes or less. It's called equity.
Is there anything more lame than city-folk feeling superior to suburbanites? Nope. If your city-based life was so great, why would you even care what happened elsewhere. Methinks you doth protest too much, Gothamist.
Are there hipsters in Montclair? If not why do broker scum bother since properties ain't gonna appreciate without the hipster factor. NJers should just stay in their rotten state.
Bornbred - what nabe?
If anything can be called Park Slope West, it's Hoboken for sure. Washington Street in Hoboken, Newbury Street in Boston, and 7th Avenue in Park Slope all have a similar vibe and appearance.
If Montclair is good enough for the fictional Dr. Jennifer Melfi, it's good enough for budget-minded Brooklynites in search of that "old feeling again". In other words, find another exit.
Yikes! Just when you were starting to hate park slope...
LOL... having grown up near Montclair, it's not anything like Brooklyn.
I grew up in montclair. i was soo bored. i got out of there as soon as i could and never looked back.
We left Park Slope in 1989. Settled in Montclair. Put one kid through private school because we were not happy with public schools (which was the reason we moved out here in the first place). Now that he is a senior in college we have had thoguhts about moving. But we are still tied to this place. No it is not Park Slope West. It is a nice town, filled with a lot of people from Brooklyn and elsewhere. Obviously we like the town. But like anything else it has it's pluses and minuses. I was chair of the Historic Preservation Commission here in town and what I like so much about it is that it as town that was built around train stations, rather than more antiseptic burbs further to the west which came about primarily as auto centric places. Sure you have to have a car here. Probably two. And taxes are outrageous. We pay over 20,000 per year, but at this point it is worth it. Our museum is world class institution, the town has a literary feel to it, and frankly we like the folks who have become part of our life here. Politically though it is a lot like Park Slope. Republicans are a threatened species, and political correctness is taken to a whole new hypocritical level.