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I have heard good things about the northern valley area. Can anyone give me some info about old tappan, norwood, harrington park, northvale. I know they attend the same high school but are they all similar towns? What are the people from each town like? Any info besides the stats you get from websites like this would be appreciated.
-snobby or down to earth people?
-safest towns?
-good parks/ recreation programs?
Each town has it's own personality. There are more towns in the northern valley as well. The companion (also blue ribbon) high school includes the towns of Closter, Haworth and Demarest. While this area is upscale and the taxes generally rather high, there are different neighborhoods with varying home styles and sizes. The local services are good and the proximity to NYC helps to insure a steady value to the area.
They are all very nice, safe and all have excellent schools. They are all rather pretentious too, there is no getting away from that in the more affluent Bergen County towns. How important is that too you? (It IS a factor to me...) I actually had a friend sell in Closter and move to Rutherford because he couldn't take the materialism that his children were faced with daily in school.
One thing I would say is that the entire area is kind of "out of the way" too. Now, some like that, but others don't. Another friend moved from Creskill to Paramus because she hated having a "20 min ride to the highway."
each town does have its own vibe, but since they share the same high school, outsiders will sometimes lump them together as one entity. ultimately, though, they're all nice areas. you just need to drive around and see for yourself.
as far as pretentiousness, i'd rank them in this order, from most to least:
old tappan, harrington park, norwood, northvale. this more or less corresponds with their relative income levels.
there are a bunch of parks located just over the county and state lines in rockland county, the closest being tallman mountain state park. palisades interstate park is also located just to the east in alpine.
some more detailed comments about the northern valley communities:
old tappan is the most upscale and nouveau riche of these towns. it wasn't all that long ago that the borough had no street lights and was filled with farms and woods, but over the past few decades, much of that land has been developed into large modern homes. there are also a few strip malls that serve as a de facto town center. the town's layout is best described as sprawling, with lots of cul de sacs and heavily wooded, winding roads. i'm especially partial to the residential area immediately east of lake tappan.
harrington park isn't nearly as flashy as old tappan but is also quite nice. there are a number of classic old homes as well as some newer construction. in general, there is a very "all-american" feel to the town, with tall, mature trees lining the streets and a little bit of a bucolic feel here and there (just like in old tappan). the town overwhelmingly consists of single family homes and small side streets, so the vibe is extremely family-friendly and relaxed. it's definitely my favorite of the four towns.
norwood is a bit of a mixed bag. traditionally, it was more of a blue-collar town, but over the past 20+ years, a lot of large, fancy homes and townhouses have been built, especially in the eastern section of the borough. so there's a bit of a divide between the 1950s-era ranch homes vs. the 1990s-era mcmansions. most of the people i know from this town grew up in the "modest" homes and are surprised by how much more upscale the town has become - in fact, its income levels have nearly caught up to harrington park. norwood also has a low-key town center that primarily serves the residents of the immediate area (as opposed to the downtowns of westwood or ridgewood, which are much more of a regional draw).
northvale is definitely the most unpretentious and blue-collar of the bunch. many of my friends in the area, especially the ones who attended northern valley old tappan high school, used to deride northvale's residents as being "trashy" and "redneck". although the town has seen an influx of more solidly middle-to-upper-middle income folks in recent years, i'm willing to bet that the old stereotypes still exist among longtime residents. the truth is that northvale does have some very modest homes on small lots that are a bit rough around the edges (especially just off of livingston st, where i used to see old, junky cars parked on the lawns of some of the more unkempt residences), but there are also clean 1980s-era homes that are typical of the area. the town also has the most commercial activity of the four towns (primarily centered along livingston st).
if i were to rank each of these towns based on my personal preference, it would be harrington park and old tappan, then a bit of a dropoff to norwood, and then another dropoff to northvale. but again, i'd highly recommend that you drive around each of these towns to get a better sense of their layout and "feel". they all share the same high school, so you should be fine buying anywhere in the district (which includes another town, rockleigh, which you didn't mention).
thanks for all of the responses, im glad this topic finally got some hits. ironically, i was finally able to visit this area last weekend with the beautiful weather and i was quite impressed and generally agree with everyone's assessments. old tappan and harrington park are especially beautiful towns, i love the amount of old, tall trees lining the streets and both towns seemed to have tons of families and kids walking around and at all the parks.
i'm familiar with some of the wealthier towns of monmouth county (colts neck, manalapan, marlboro) and i liked old tappan much better than these towns. the properties in monmouth lack the old trees, woods, and hills that i personally think make a town like old tappan or any of the other northern valley towns so beautiful. the park across from old tappan high school looked beautiful and its nice to see that there are still some open spaces not totally built up.
northvale did seem a little more blue collar but the neighborhoods near the old tappan border seemed very quaint. overall, just driving through this area was very nice and i'm just wondering about the pretentiousness that exists there.
northvale doesn't have any pretentiousness, imo. it's pretty clearly the lowest income town of the 4, but still a very nice place to live. ot has beautiful homes, overall prob the most wealthy of the towns. my favorite of the towns is norwood, i think norwood and hp have the nicest community feel of the 4, and i think norwood has a nice downtown.
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Northern Valley area
