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Both violent and property crime rates in West Orange are at 50% of the National average. Looks like in a given year around 1% of the population will be a victim of property crime, and about 0.1-0.2% will be a victim of a violent crime. When you take away violent crime between people who know each other, that's probably like a 1-in-5000 chance of a random violent crime across a year. That's pretty unconcerning to me, but i suppose its all in the eyes of the beholder! I lived in Morristown for a few years when both numbers were actually above the national avg, and 3-4x as bad as West Orange, i never realized i should have been on ultra-high alert.
Westfield is a big town, you can't really paint Westfielders with a broad brush. There's alot of wealth and some snobby people, but there's also alot of down to earth families, some not so wealthy people, a variety of political ideologies, etc. The south side of Westfield is pretty awesome too, some great neighborhoods and parks. To me the biggest downside is how congested it gets w/ traffic, but if you like that part of NJ (Union/Essex area) than its about as good as it gets.
Both violent and property crime rates in West Orange are at 50% of the National average. Looks like in a given year around 1% of the population will be a victim of property crime, and about 0.1-0.2% will be a victim of a violent crime. When you take away violent crime between people who know each other, that's probably like a 1-in-5000 chance of a random violent crime across a year. That's pretty unconcerning to me, but i suppose its all in the eyes of the beholder! I lived in Morristown for a few years when both numbers were actually above the national avg, and 3-4x as bad as West Orange, i never realized i should have been on ultra-high alert.
Westfield is a big town, you can't really paint Westfielders with a broad brush. There's alot of wealth and some snobby people, but there's also alot of down to earth families, some not so wealthy people, a variety of political ideologies, etc. The south side of Westfield is pretty awesome too, some great neighborhoods and parks. To me the biggest downside is how congested it gets w/ traffic, but if you like that part of NJ (Union/Essex area) than its about as good as it gets.
honestly before looking at the city-data crime pages, i never would have guessed for a second that morristown's numbers would be higher than west orange's.
I hear ya. I live in WO too. Moved here 5 years ago. You know what the biggest crime has been in my neighborhood since I moved here? The theft of a UPS package left out on someone's front step. I'm not exactly shakin' in my boots, and I certainly don't think WO has "safety concerns". I take my kid out for walks and don't even bother locking my door when we leave. It's a very close knit community. The serious crimes are isolated to a few streets adjacent to the Orange border. The incidents at Essex Green are isolated and certainly do not deter me from going there. (Been to EG about 3 times already this week)
yeah more or less. i'm not even phased by what happened at EG. my coworker was on the morris county grand jury recently and told me a pretty bad story about something that happened in parsipanny in an office complex parking lot. crimes of opportunity happen in all sorts of places. i live near hazel school, which supposedly the area down the hill is horrible if you believe what you read on this board...we go to the park by hazel all the time. i go down to CVS and Planet Wings frequently. i also have walked and thought nothing of leaving the door unlocked, but after what happened in millburn i have thought twice about that and just lock doors and 1st floor windows as a common sense precaution...but not because i'm fearful of the rampant crime in w.o. lol
What about Springfield? For 550k, you should be able to find something in your price range. It has a full-day Kindergarten, as well as a public half-day PreK. The schools are ranked well enough (26th this past year by NJ Monthly, if that means anything to you).
Brady, With all due respect, I think you are seriously in denial. All one has to do is to take a look at the crime statistics for WO to see that there definitely are safety concerns in the town.
West Orange, according to City-Data, is slightly safer than Glen Ridge and significantly safer than South Orange. The problem is taxes, not crime
West Orange is dear to my heart but I think you should check out the quality of the school system. I think I read recently that it has declined over the last 10 years. You mentioned you have a young child and so I would def. investigate this further.
I am not saying you need the cream of the crop for schools, but on the other hand, you don't want anything mediocre either.
We are leaning towards Westfield. Thanks for all your thoughts!
Good luck... but I'm just a little doubtful... if you weren't seeing anything that you liked in your price range in Madison and other towns, I'm not sure how much you'll see in Westfield. (Great town, but quite popular, closer to NYC on train line... making it a bit pricey.)
Good luck... but I'm just a little doubtful... if you weren't seeing anything that you liked in your price range in Madison and other towns, I'm not sure how much you'll see in Westfield. (Great town, but quite popular, closer to NYC on train line... making it a bit pricey.)
Yeah, you were right. Apparently many of the houses we saw online were already under contract more than the list price. The homes not under contract weren't for us. We saw 3 houses and got the impression we weren't going to be able to swing Westfield
Looking in Springfield and Berkeley Heights today...
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