| Author |
Message |
    
llama
Citizen
Username: Llama
Post Number: 183
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 7:32 pm: |     |
Where is Mayberry? |
Jamaine Cripe
Citizen
Username: Jamaine
Post Number: 5
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 9:57 pm: | |
Nakaille-
My husband and I are moving near the Irvington boarder for one reason alone - its the only place left in the city that we can afford. All houses need a little work and I can't justify paying $500K for a house that needs just as much work as a $200K house.
Just visiting the house over the past few weeks has shown me the kind of diversity I have in my current neighborhood (Park Slope). Its not an even blend but there is an even representation (Black, White, Asian, Indian). |
C Bataille
Citizen
Username: Nakaille
Post Number: 1478
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 11, 2003 - 9:32 am: | |
Welcome to the neighborhood, Jermaine!
Cathy
aka Bacata/Nakaille |
Jerry Hill Jr
Citizen
Username: Bklyntonj
Post Number: 7
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 11, 2003 - 9:48 am: | |
Park Slope? My family and I are moving to Maplewood from Bklyn too. I know what you mean Jamaine but from the feedback I've been getting, Maplewood is a great town from border to border. |
bmpsab
Citizen
Username: Bmpsab
Post Number: 52
Registered: 3-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 11, 2003 - 9:48 am: | |
I will throw a suggestion in the hat: Morristown (where I grew up). Very diverse, lovely town area, and very diverse high school. Also has mid-town direct service (but, it is obviously a longer commute to NYC). |
amandacat
Citizen
Username: Amandacat
Post Number: 165
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 11, 2003 - 10:56 am: | |
And Morristown is also not particularly cheaper than Maplewood, really. I'm actually coming to believe that, despite our high taxes, Maplewood is the best bargain out there! |
lumpyhead
Citizen
Username: Lumpyhead
Post Number: 318
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, July 11, 2003 - 11:15 am: | |
It is amazing that there are towns that you just can't realistically send your child to the public school and nothing gets done about it. |
Jackie Day
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 33
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 11, 2003 - 6:48 pm: | |
Not true, Lumpyhead! There is a small but growing nonprofit (registered, incorporated and everything) based here in town called All Children Excelling, or ACE. It was founded by Maplewood residents looking to improve our district's schools from the grassroots on up. ACE is nonpartisan, and it seeks to draw upon prominent research into education for its recommendations and initiatives. ACE depends mostly on charitable donations. Anyone interested in donating to ACE, please privateline me and I'll connect you with the right people (I myself am not an officeholder or anything official with ACE). |
newjerz
Citizen
Username: Newjerz
Post Number: 22
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 4:21 pm: | |
anyone know of any studies or reports done on the impact of the riots on the surrounding areas looking back from distance (an historical perspective)? |
amandacat
Citizen
Username: Amandacat
Post Number: 168
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 5:00 pm: | |
Back to the original question, what about our neighbor West Orange? It's much bigger and more sprawling than Maplewood/SO and so is missing some of that small town feel, but it's certainly close enough to both places to use their downtowns. It seems like houses in the Gregory section at least are of the older/charming variety, and the town and school system are relatively diverse, from what I understand. |
Jackie Day
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 38
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 8:46 pm: | |
Good point, Amandacat, but aren't housing prices in WO about the same as here? I've never considered living there, but that's the impression I've had. |
ffof
Citizen
Username: Ffof
Post Number: 1288
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 10:25 pm: | |
no midtown direct. |
Maplewoody
Citizen
Username: Maplewoody
Post Number: 253
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 11:37 pm: | |
West Orange is 2 stops and about 10 minutes closer by train than Maplewood. I think most that live there and commute to NYC use the Orange station, or take a Jitney to South Orange. |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1640
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 6:20 am: | |
Those stops are in Orange, not West Orange, and they're not exactly the same town. |
Dave Ross
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 4858
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 8:00 am: | |
I think West Orange runs a jitney to Mountain Station in S. Orange. |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1641
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 8:08 am: | |
There aren't any Midtown Direct trains through Mountain (are there?). Still, it's better than nothing. |
NCJanow
Citizen
Username: Librarylady
Post Number: 883
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 8:19 am: | |
The West Orange Jitney runs to South Orange Station for the rush hour trains. The stop on Luddington and Gregory is convenient for those of us who live on the SO/WO border.
NCJ aka LL- Any and all posts are my personal opinions, not as an employee of the South Orange Public Library. |
amandacat
Citizen
Username: Amandacat
Post Number: 169
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 11:43 am: | |
True that West Orange dosn't have it's own train station, but as was mentioned it does have relatively easy access to stations in Orange and South Orange, and there's always the bus for those who don't mind getting stuck in traffic. In my experience househunting two years ago, I did find housing prices and property taxes there to be lower than in M/SO, though not dramatically so. |
Tommy Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 236
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 11:47 am: | |
Sounds like West Orange costs about as much and isn't quite as convenient. And it doesn't have the quaint and useful village.
My wife and I chose SO/M because they are walking towns. We can walk to various useful places, and more importantly, so can the kids. I found that having to drive the kids everywhere was the aspect of the suburbs I disliked the most. Does West Orange have as walkable a town? I heard from one person that it doesn't.
So far, no one has made any towns sound as attractive to me as SO/M.
Tom Reingold
|
1-2many
Citizen
Username: Wbg69
Post Number: 161
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 12:09 pm: | |
my grapevine information on WO is that the schools there are bad. while there is debate on SOMA schools, isn't that as much because of the schools as it is because folks here are vociferous, opinionated activists? (which is itself a significant part of the value of SOMA, imo) |
amandacat
Citizen
Username: Amandacat
Post Number: 170
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 1:27 pm: | |
Not that I'm advocating for WO over M/SO -- after all , I chose to buy in Maplewood and I'm very happy with my choice -- but I don't think it's accurate to say that WO schools are "bad". I believe their average standardized test scores are higher than M/SO's, for example, and they rank higher than M/SO on NJ Monthly's (is that the name of the magazine?) annual scorecard of NJ school systems. |
1-2many
Citizen
Username: Wbg69
Post Number: 163
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 5:15 pm: | |
sorry - I should have been clearer - my information (WO schools bad) was truly heard through the grapevine only, never clarified with research or actual experience. |
pcg
Citizen
Username: Pcg
Post Number: 94
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 9:52 pm: | |
Having lived in both WO and Maplewood, WO is a good town, the Greogory School was okay, go visit it to see for yourslf. I have heard of some changes in the last few years, don't know if they are for the better or the worse. A friend used to teach at the St Cloud school and I heard a lot of good things from them about that school.
You have access to both SO and MPLWD downtowns if you are in the Gregory section.
The Mountain Station the Hoboken commute is good, and who cares if the jitney's take you to a train station in a different town, is anyone really that elitist.
WO also has good access to 280, which used to be great for access to downtown NY. A short hop on 280 to Harrison and I could be on Wall street from the path in less than 1 hour, often 45 minutes. When the path reopens down town this will be viable again.
WO also has access to buses to NY from the South Mountain Arena and from the Tory Corner section of town on the 66 and 77 buses.
The town pool has a million (billion) rules, just like MPLWD, but it is not as nice as the MPLWD or SO pools. There is a broader tax base, so I don't think taxes are as high.
You can throw out anything in the garbage and they will take it...... Sofas, white goods, rugs, no "hold your garbage for a year".. I once threw out about 50 items, they took them........ My crazy neighbor used to put his cans out 24 hours before the truck came and left them out for a day or two... it drove me nuts.
he had his cans out at 9 am on Sunday morning...
net net, I left WO, it was good, but I like Mplwd better..... |
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