Glen Rock NJ (Montclair, Ridgewood, Maplewood: real estate, apartments, crime)
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Tell me more about this town. I heard the school systems are great and that it is a less pretentious RW. Also, I heard it is a bit hippie vs. "snob" (RW). Is this true?
similar but very different towns I would say. population of glen rock is a lot smaller. 10k vs 25k-ish.
glen rock has a very small downtown , ridgewood a little bigger.
My general feeling is there is more of an income range in Ridgewood, where in glen rock there may be fewer MORE wealthy people, most are quite well off. that is just an opinion and observation.
the school system is great, i am not sure about pretentious. my wife was worried abut keeping up with the joneses in Glen rock, but obviously anyone can live their life how they chose, but maybe people will judge you. The house we looked at was a nice little 3 bedroom ranch, where most of the ranches had been turned into big colonials with additions.
It's a very nice town. Its affluence grew significantly in the 90s, and median HHI is now very close to Ridgewood's. It is more affordable than Ridgewood, for sure, but still very expensive.
It may not be as pretentious as Ridgewood, but it still has its share. Many of the people who moved in over the past two decades are new money Wall Street types, so these people are definitely not hippies.
It is probably one of the most affordable "J" school district towns in the area. (Which is like getting a bunch of MENSA members together and calling the guy with the 170 IQ the "dummy".)
we moved to GR over the summer and happy to report that we truly love the town. We looked at Ridgewood as well. Real estate happens to be a process of opportunity. You find the home you love and that's where you settle(or at least that's the way it's supposed to work). Both towns are very similar. During Summer and Fall, we walk to either town center as it has a ton of choices for pretty much any service you need. The town pool is outstanding in GR and a life saver when you have multiple kids! The Library is also top notch. Even simple things like finding great sitters has worked out
It is quite a small town. Very quickly we have gotten to know a ton of people. I think there's snobbery everywhere, even in much less affluent towns. So far we've experienced only positive welcomes.
The train access has been great and have used it much more than I thought I would. School district is small but we really like that. I can tell you that school here is serious business. The kids are given quite a bit to do. And they enjoy it but from parent to teacher to student it's total involvement. I do feel our kids can get in to pretty much everything extra-curricular without having the type of competitiveness that you would find in a much larger school district like in RW. Taxes in GR are high, even for Bergen standards but with 3 kids we feel we're getting a ton out of the town and RW is right behind on that front as well. And just to answer your question, I haven't seen anything too 'hippie' in the town. It's no Montclair by any stretch as the town is a bit more on the conservative front. Very familiy oriented town where almost every event is pre-planned. Not too hippie IMO.
I've lived in Glen Rock for just under 10 years and have 2 young children in the school system. We've really enjoyed the town and love the fact that our kids can walk to school and that we can walk to town.
The elementary schools are neighborhood schools and feel very personal. In our current school, the principal knows all the students. I've also been impressed with the process the town uses to evaluate the curriculum on an ongoing basis to ensure that we are staying current and using the best programs. The New York Times ran an article featuring the engineering program at Glen Rock in June 2010: Many Schools Teach Engineering in Early Grades - NYTimes.com
Overall, I've found the people in Glen Rock down to earth. One of my daughters went to preschool in Ridgewood. Some of the families there seemed a bit "master of the universe" to me, but then there were others that were very normal. I think you get bigger extremes in Ridgewood on both ends since it's a larger town with more variety in the housing stock (more apartments than Glen Rock but also more multimillion dollar homes). One perk that Glen Rock has over RW is the great town pool!
In the past, I think GR may have been a bit more blue collar and RW more executive, but this has changed. Today GR residents are mostly working professionals in a variety of industries - advertising, healthcare, wall street, tech, legal, etc.
I'm an outsider who lives in Hawthorne. I'm in Glen Rock all the time and I can say that it is a great town. I can also say there is definitely some snobbery going on there. I don't think anyone who lives in Glen Rock can really comment on this since people are rarely snobby to people of the same ilk( ie also live in Glen Rock or economically comparable town). You see the snobbery when, at the playground, you(or your wife) mention you live in Hawthorne and suddenly you are standing there all by yourself. If you are expecting a free love, hippy community who treat everyone the same regardless of where they are from you will not find it in Glen Rock or probably anywhere else in that area(including my town). If you are looking for a great community with excellent schools who will always welcome someone new to their club then look no further.
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