I recently relocated to Summit, NJ from Austin, TX. Although I don't have kids, from what I can tell, Summit is pretty uniform throughout in terms of both schools and neighborhoods--I don't think it has neighborhoods in the sense thatyou might be thinking of coming from CA (and me coming from a metro area in TX, for that matter, although I know exactly what you are talking about as I'm quite familiar with northern Cali). The towns here in the NJ suburbs are a little too small to have well-defined neighborhoods, and I haven't noticed much differences between these areas, though people who have lived here for longer will raise objections to that observation and say that such and such an area is on an obvious decline (because what they describe as "illegals" live there--apparently there is a large contingent of self-appointed green card checkers here in NJ
. From my point of view, you pretty much drive from one arboreal suburb to another, although that starts changing as you start driving E. toward NYC--some people complain about how it gets more congested and urban as you head toward the city, but that doesn't bother me at all--how could it be otherwise in a metro area of this size? And of course, when you start driving into any major metropolitan area, there will be more traffic, just to head off any negative comments you might get in that direction. I just don't see how it's possible to do a major commute as it existed in the 1950s in 2009. In my experience, most of the people who complain about the traffic are the same people who hog the roads with their SUVs.
You will also probably see people here use "newark," "irvington," "paterson," and "elizabeth" as devil terms (and also maybe Union City, West NY, and Jersey City); I've driven extensively in all these areas, and while they are far more urban than Summit and you may not want to live there, they are still a far cry from urban OH, PA, MI, CA, or MD, for that matter. What do you expect within 15 miles of NYC? The downtown here in Summit is kind of cute and charming, though downtown Westfield and other towns do offer a lot more options in terms of shopping and dining. All in all, I'd say it's super-quiet, sometimes to the point of boredom here in the NJ 'burbs. Summit is super-safe and quiet--you'll have no problems here.
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