Nutley or Livingston (Irvington, Bloomfield, Belleville: lawyers, house, school)

[AnesthesiaMD]

Originally Posted by marymagda

Hmmmmmm very good point. Hard to argue with that one.

Actually, it's easy to argue with that one. When I posted "what is more useful." is an opinion, I thought that said it all. If some upper middle class person is moving here from California, and they heard Saddle River is nice, but then they see Irvington was rated higher, they may actually drive to Irvington before realizing that it is not anything even close to what they are looking for. How useful was the magazine to them? In this case, the opinion of other upper middle class people on this board is "more useful" than the magazine. In fact, I think asking people who are similar to yourself is the MOST USEFUL method you can use, rather than some generic number assigned to a town by a magazine, but again, thats MY opinion.

[kalim2008]

Originally Posted by AnesthesiaMD

Actually, it's easy to argue with that one. When I posted "what is more useful." is an opinion, I thought that said it all. If some upper middle class person is moving here from California, and they heard Saddle River is nice, but then they see Irvington was rated higher, they may actually drive to Irvington before realizing that it is not anything even close to what they are looking for. How useful was the magazine to them? In this case, the opinion of other upper middle class people on this board is "more useful" than the magazine. In fact, I think asking people who are similar to yourself is the MOST USEFUL method you can use, rather than some generic number assigned to a town by a magazine, but again, thats MY opinion.

That's nice, except people here are anonymous AND probably have hidden biases. Each person is individual as to their tastes and dislikes, which means what may appeal to one person may not appeal to another (e.g. Cranford is great if you want a rather sleepy, boring but safe town, but it would be hell for younger people).

The best thing to do would be to walk the walk and see the towns yourself and talk to the people there. The use of statistical and hard numbers is also very useful (and more so than anonymnous opinions) because it removes any personal biases of people AND shows the larger picture (the forest instead of individual trees) IF you can manipulate the weighting so that you give larger weights to those factors that you consider desirable.

That study is useful in that is shows a way towards judging towns based NOT on biased opinions, but on hard data. Now, if only they allowed one to personalize the results by adjusting the weighting system....

[AnesthesiaMD]

Yes, if you could change the weight of the issues that would make it useful. There are a lot of people like me who weight school system 40%, Crime 35%, commute 20%, everything else 5%. When things like property taxes are of little concern when compared to school system, most towns will be way out of order for me if they are given the same weight. For people like us, taking property values out of the equation adds to it's uselessness, as these are the areas with higher property values. So as it is, the list is completely useless to me. In it's current form, I dont see how it would help me choose a town that is right for me. If I was one of the rare people who weight everything the same way the magazine does, THEN I would be in luck.

[Elena121]

Originally Posted by Zarah19

Do research Livingston definitely. There was a study done in Nutley about how they really dislike new comers. People there are closed minded and in-breeds. Warning Caution Stay Away from Nutley!!

not true about Nutley..
We were newcomers from another country (not state)and nobody disliked us..
Perfect city, nice parks, top schools, homes in good condition, downtown....
Everything in Nutley is perfect..The problem is with what surrounds Nutley..Clifton, Belleville, Newark...
I have no say about Livingston..( bigger properties though, quieter)..
I would recommend Millburn also..(has train)..

[scorp200]

Originally Posted by Elena121

Everything in Nutley is perfect..The problem is with what surrounds Nutley..Clifton, Belleville, Newark...

Clifton?? I grew up in Clifton on the Nutley border...I have virtually no idea of what you mean

[ahomefinder]

Sorry....What Livingston just built doesn't qualify as a downtown. It's more an outdoor mall. Towns with real downtowns: Millburn, South Orange, Maplewood, Montclair. There's a real "town" atmosphere there. You can walk there, see friends, shop, dine, see a movie, chat with the shopkeepers..........or hop a train to Manhattan. Great architecture too.

[brookdaleresident]

Originally Posted by ahomefinder

Sorry....What Livingston just built doesn't qualify as a downtown. It's more an outdoor mall. Towns with real downtowns: Millburn, South Orange, Maplewood, Montclair. There's a real "town" atmosphere there. You can walk there, see friends, shop, dine, see a movie, chat with the shopkeepers..........or hop a train to Manhattan. Great architecture too.

Why not? It's the center of town. There are all kinds of shops in the area, not just the new town center complex. There's restaurants, offices and other businesses as well. One thing it lacks is a movie theater. Not every downtown looks the same.

[ahomefinder]

Sorry.......I can't buy it. It has more the feel of an outlet mall than a real downtown. Livingston is so spread out over such a huge area that there is no real town center..........just lots of little strip malls, some along Livingston Ave, others on other major roads. It's not homey like real downtowns. I also vote for Nutley if you want a real town as opposed to a sprawling "burb".

[Elena121]

Originally Posted by scorp200

Clifton?? I grew up in Clifton on the Nutley border...I have virtually no idea of what you mean

That part is good..but Clifton does have some bad parts..And I forgot to say Passaic too.

However, I missed Nutley..Is close to everything but I don't regret living in Sussex County .

[pixieshmoo]

Being familiar with both, I will give you my opinion. I lived in Nutley for quite sometime and was literally born and raised in the town next to Nutley, Belleville. I worked in livingston for years as well.

I find Nutley people, while some are a bit obnoxious, to be slightly more down to earth than Livingston people. Someone commented on here that people born and raised in Nutley stay in Nutley. It's quite true. You will probably find that 87% (maybe more) of the people in Nutley, were born and raised there. It's a very tight community where everyone pretty much knows each other, knows each other's kids, etc. There are no "bad" parts of Nutley. There's nice and nicer, expensive and more expensive. Considering I grew up one town away, it's surprising to see exactly how much better Nutley is all-around than my own original hometown next door. It's a beautiful town generally speaking. With that said, it's very expensive. There, of course, is a spill over of bad influence considering what it's surrounded by. Essex County has one of, if not THE, highest property taxes in NJ. Nutley has extremely high taxes for the most part and the homes that don't, have practically no property around them. The schools are decent, but don't be fooled, there's the same drama that there is everywhere else. There's your small crimes, marijuana, fights, etc. There were recently a few property thefts reported in one of the neighborhoods as well. But basically it's a safe town. While it's right about average for where I'd want to be money and lifestyle-wise, the largest complaint I've had was the fact that there are about 40,000 people squashed into the whopping 2 square miles that Nutley is. You cannot park on the street at night and when I say the town is crowded, it takes 15 minutes or more to get from where I lived to Shoprite, which was 3 blocks away. Because there's traffic everywhere and no parking!!

As for Livingston, I think it's slightly more diverse than Nutley and I don't think the community is as "tight" as far as people growing up there and staying. Livingston is much larger than Nutley and probably priced about the same as far as homes and taxes. Although, I believe the homes may be slightly more expensive. Livingston is also located on and near several major roads and highways, which can be a positive or negative depending on how you look at it. It has many restaurants, salons, places of business, office complexes, shopping centers, etc. However, with that said, working there was not fun when you're stuck in a major traffic jam on Route 10 just trying to get out of a parking lot. Traffic is constant there, you will never NOT see traffic unless it's the middle of the night. I do know that the area of Livingston and surrounding towns does/do have some higher rated school systems and while it's in Essex County, it borders Morris County. However, without sounding biased toward Nutley, Nutley is one of the best schools in it's own area (surrounded by Belleville, Bloomfield, Clifton, Newark, Montclair). I believe ultimately the school ratings are not very different. Both towns (as we say) "have money". With that said, they're very similar other than location and size.

Good luck with your choices!!