When we first started to think about leaving Brooklyn, we focused our search first on Westchester and New Jersey.  It didn’t take long for us to figure out that, as beautiful as parts of Westchester are (the woods, the hilly roads), it was just too different from the NYC life we loved.  It didn’t take very much longer to discover what so many before and since have – that the Montclair area is teeming with NYC life!  Art, music, restaurants, everything we loved right here in these lively, eclectic towns – and still just 12 miles to midtown Manhattan.  In 2000, we moved to Montclair and haven’t looked back since. This recent NY Times article lays out the pros and cons of Westchester and West Essex (NJ) nicely!  OK, yes, they also quoted me – but I love the article even beyond that! 🙂

NY Times: Comparing Suburbs: Montclair in New Jersey vs. Dobbs Ferry in New York