Nutley/Lyndhurst Residents (Newark, Bloomfield, Montclair: apartment, rentals, crime)

[STrapani1105]

hey, just a quick couple of questions. i was interested in your two towns (Nutley and Lyndhurst) and was wondering how you felt in your neighborhoods. do you feel like where you live is safe? would you let your children go out alone at night? would you leave your cars out in the driveway? do you feel like you MUST lock your doors at night? Is it a good and safe place to raise kids?

SECOND QUESTION: What are good community spots in your towns? Is your town very community oriented? Are their any parks/recreation centers where the townspeople like to gather?

The reason why I bring up these questions is because Nutley borders Bloomfield and Bellevile, and Lyndhurst is still relatively close. and they're all near the city of Newark. is safety really at it's best in Nutley and Lyndhurst?

[STrapani1105]

aw come on people! 12 views and no replies? please, this is important for me.

[GiantRutgersfan]

Nutley is a nice town. I would have no problem doing any of the things you listed there. Dont know much about Lyndhurst

[PureNarcotic]

I spent a decent chunk of my childhood in Lyndhurst. Safety-wise, I never felt unsafe walking around the streets even in odd hours of the night. Yeah, there's the naiveness factor there, but I still feel that it's a safe community. Neither me, nor my parents ever had any issues leaving our cars in the driveway or in the streets. We locked our doors, but that's just something we've always done.

As for the community, it's a very working-class Italian town. It's diversified in recent years, but its roots are still there. There's a very nice county park, as well as a smaller one near town hall. Education-wise, the town has a somewhat bad reputation, at least when compared to the rest of Bergen County. The K-8 schools aren't too bad, but the high school isn't great. Though I lived in Lyndhurst during my high school years, I went to the Academies@Englewood magnet school.

I know some of this info is vague, but it's a youngling's recollection. Just for reference, I'm 20 now, so the time frame that I use is recent.

[JerseyGirl08]

I have never lived in either town but I have had good friends who grew up in both place. Both moved out of those towns when I they got married about 3 years ago. My friend who lived in Nutley really loved the town and yet she would be the 1st to tell you that she did want to raise her kids there because of the crime of some of the near bye towns. She actually moved to Rutherford about a block in from Lyndhurst.
My friend in Lyndhurst always left the cars out and many times even had thier house unlocked during the day.

[pbergen]

safety is not an issue in nutley and lyndhurst. they may be relatively close to newark, but there isn't any crime spillover. in fact, i would feel safe walking around either of these towns at any time of the day or night. and they are definitely family-friendly.

i'm not sure why proximity to belleville would affect your perception of nutley. while belleville has gotten thrown under the bus by some of the people on these boards, it certainly isn't a dangerous community. people may grumble about its changing demographics, so-so schools, and industrial, semi rough-around-the-edges appearance in the areas closer to newark, but it is what it always has been - a decent, blue collar transition town that buffers nutley from the brick city.

and the areas of bloomfield that border nutley are some of the nicest parts of that town (with the worst areas all the way on the opposite side near east orange). no need to worry there.

meanwhile, lyndhurst is located across the river from essex county, which provides a further degree of separation from newark. even in the towns to the south such as north arlington, kearny, east newark, and harrison, there are rarely any serious crime issues despite being closer to the inner city. the reason? the police departments of these communities have always been extremely vigilant about preventing outside criminal elements from entering and causing problems, with more than a little help from the passaic river as a natural boundary.

as for community spots, lyndhurst has a couple of low-key but nice parks along the passaic river on riverside avenue. one of them straddles the township's southern boundary with north arlington, while the other is a bit further north near the intersection of riverside, park, and valley brook avenues. i spent a lot of time at these parks growing up and they were always safe and pleasant. i highly doubt that has changed since then.

there is also a small pocket park on delafield avenue at court avenue, just north of the municipal building and fire station and just south of the nj transit rail tracks. this park and its surroundings tend to be the focus of community events, but recreational opportunities are limited in comparison with the riverside avenue parks due to its modest size.

[STrapani1105]

Thank you all for the posts. These are some really good posts and the information you've all provided is great. These two towns sound like pretty nice places to start out. As far as I know, housing prices are fairly cheap in the two areas. I would imagine Lyndhurst is a slightly cheaper area to live than Nutley.

To Nutley residents: What would be considered your "center" of town, or downtown. I've passed through the area a couple of times in my lifetime and I would say that the intersection of Franklin Ave. and Centre Street would be your main center of town. Is this accurate?

To Lyndhurst residents: Not as familiar with the center of town as Nutley, but from my best guess, I would have to say that your main center of town area would be at the intersection of Kingsland Ave. and Ridge Road. Is this correct?

[pbergen]

Originally Posted by STrapani1105

To Lyndhurst residents: Not as familiar with the center of town as Nutley, but from my best guess, I would have to say that your main center of town area would be at the intersection of Kingsland Ave. and Ridge Road. Is this correct?

actually, if i had to pinpoint the center of town, i'd probably say it's at the intersection of ridge road and valley brook ave, just south of the kingsland train station. but really, lyndhurst's commercial district stretches along most of the length of ridge road from the southern border with north arlington (union ave) to the northern border with rutherford (rutherford ave). there is also a fair number of shops and eateries (not to mention the municipal building) on valley brook ave between ridge road and stuyvesant ave as well as on stuyvesant between valley brook and the lyndhurst train station at court ave.

[CarsonD]

Nutley is much prettier-it is hillier and the streets are not on such a straight grid, they wind around more. There is more visual interest. There are more parks and the houses have more charm. I think of Nutley as "Montclair lite". Nutley is by far nicer to look at but as safety goes I think the two towns are about the same. Lyndhurst is more working class, and it is closer to the meadowlands. You get more of a tough guy type in Nutley, a little more of an insular attitude. I found the attitude to be a little suspicious of people and slightly more urban than Nutley. In Lyndhurst the streets are long and straight and the town doesn't seem to like trees very much. I was told by a friend that her neighbor in Lyndhurst actually had a tree chopped down so he didn't have to rake leaves. Nutley has some very nice apartment rentals on the park. Nutley has a good library and the center of town is all in one general area. Lyndhurst has neighborhood pockets of little shops and the government buildings are in a different area. Lyndhurst has a train to NYC and Nutley doesn't. Lyndhurst is closer to NYC and there are more 2 family homes. All said, I would pick Nutley to live.

[johnfrisco]

Nutley is definitely nicer, but Lyndhurst is not bad. I have lived in Nutley for the past 10 years and before that I lived in Lyndhurst.