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I currently live in Englewood and while we love living there we're moving due to the public school system. The community is very segregated so the public schools don't reflect the diversity in which the town offers. As a parent of a 7 year old diversity is very important to us.
We decided on Westwood...but now open to Paramus. Any feedback on both towns? Schools, community feel, diversity (race, social economic, etc.), recreation, etc. Our budget is $450K for at least a 3 bedroom....
Hm.. Well, with the Paramus public school system, you'll definitely have diversity. You can find at least one Asian per class for example. And the dominant Asian student make-up have been Koreans, but you still got the other types of Asians too. We even had a lot of international students transfer in when I was in high school. On top of that, Paramus is the host to the county's community college, a Jewish academy, a Catholic school, several other colleges, and a lot of other smaller schools.
The only thing about Paramus is that a lot of new homes keep getting constantly built.
And now, we have this "condominium debate" issue that's rising. Hopefully, the condominium deal does fall out as I don't think my town can take in more people. There's this newly built house on a newborn unpaved street that's been on the market for a long time, which is ridiculous as to why it was built in the first place.
Westwood will have diversity in the schools. I don't think the individual neighborhoods are particularly diverse though.
But, it is a lot easier to navigate around Westwood than Paramus, where you'll have to fight traffic to get everywhere from the grocery store to the sports fields. Westwood has a real downtown also, plenty of recreation programs, and town sponsored festivals for holidays. It's not quite as "small town" as it was when I grew up there, but it still retains some of the small town charms.
But, it is a lot easier to navigate around Westwood than Paramus, where you'll have to fight traffic to get everywhere from the grocery store to the sports fields.
Not necessarily do we have to fight "traffic" to get somewhere. We don't even have to take the highways unless we're going to non-local places. Paramus has 5 super markets so going the local routes are easy as pie. If you live here, you know your way around easily.
Definitely Westwood over Paramus...schools are very equal, Westwood's high school was ranked higher last time NJMonthly did their rankings. Westwood also will definitely have the house you're looking for in that price range...just very high taxes. Paramus housing seems expensive to me. There really is not that much diversity in town. For the most part the African-American population lives on the East side of town in the Sand Road vicinity. Westwood has a small town feel if that's what you are looking for...a summer concert series, holiday parade in December, great recreation programs. We also have a gazebo/town square. Traffic in both towns is horendous, and Saturday traffic is a nightmare in Paramus. Both are great towns though.
My Town's School aren't the best anymore , neither is Paramus......look for a private School.
I dont know much about Paramus outside the obvious, but any town where you have houses going for $400,000 minnimum is not a place where you have to put your kids in private school....
For some parents, who do want a private school in the area, they send their kids to Bergen Academies but with Paramus public school system having a huge number of Asians and international students, expect a lot of competition and high grades anyways. Me being a product of mostly Honor Rolls throughout my year. Although, I don't know how it's been going since I graduated several years ago.
(And of course, with every public school, ya got some bullies and troubled kids. But, good parenting + good peers + common sense = a good education. Edit: And yes, you also get some bad teachers in high school but hopefully, our comment assessments are useful in some way.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Collegeguy12
Paramus housing seems expensive to me.
The only thing is we have lower property taxes than you guys.
Last edited by Unknown Memory; 07-11-2010 at 04:03 PM..
The only thing is we have lower property taxes than you guys.[/quote]
That's true, but they're not low enough to make up for the higher housing prices.
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