Questions about move to Montclair, NJ

April 21, 2018 8:30 PM

I'm thinking of relocating to Montclair this summer, and currently looking at renting somewhere in the area surrounding Walnut Street Station. I have two questions about the area: 1. If you commute into NYC on the Montclair Boonton line, how's your commute? Google maps seriously underestimates the average time it takes me to get into NYC from another NJ suburb, so I don't quite trust it and would like to hear from people who actually do it if possible. 2. How safe is that particular area surrounding Walnut St? It looked perfectly nice when we visited, but previous Askmefi questions have mentioned some crime in surrounding areas. Also, if there's anything else you'd like to add about Montclair, either positive or negative, please let me know!
posted by loquacious crouton to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

I used to commute between NY and Bloomfield. It would take longer when the weather was bad. NJ transit trains are in bad condition, breakdowns happen.. sometimes they would be slower than usual. Occasionally the trains would be pretty late/early or a no show. The most annoying parts were during bad winter weather/when one breakdown caused a domino effect on all the other trains. Otherwise, it was functional.
posted by thesockpuppet at 9:26 PM on April 21, 2018

Best answer: So without getting too detailed, I lived in Montclair in 2003-2005, and my brother has lived in and commuted from the Walnut St. Station area for the last six years, and a couple of my close friends live in the area as well. I think Montclair is fantastic. If my life were different, I'd move back there in a heartbeat. I now live in the rural part of NJ where we grew up, and I am jealous of my brother's ability to walk to so many things (like this fabulous bookstore), and to raise a family while having only one car, and so on. I think there's some crime in any fairly dense urban area like Montclair; however, I have never felt anything but safe there. My brother isn't on MeFi so I asked him about the commute and here's what he has to say (for context, he's in his early 30s raising two young kids there):

I would say the train is roughly 40mins to Penn station. NJ transit can suck but all mass transit sucks at one time or another. The train also runs to Hoboken station where you can take the PATH. There is also a private bus carrier (DeCamp) that runs to Port Authority; one of my friends swears the bus is better than the train. The train doesn’t run on weekends but bus runs 7 days a week.

There are lots of restaurants, parks , coffee shops, and a public pool in walking distance. A large farmers' market is held at the Walnut Station parking lot from spring to fall every Saturday morning. A carnival is held in the summer time, too -- and that’s just on Walnut St alone!
posted by katie at 5:12 AM on April 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I’ve lived in Montclair for six years, not far from Walnut Street Station, and commuted to NYC for most of that time from Walnut. I agree with the above, but have a few additions:

• The tracks and tunnels leading into Penn Station are shared by Amtrak, which has priority, so Amtrak problems cause NJ Transit delays and cancellations as well.

• The tunnels sustained a lot of damage from Hurricane Sandy which have had knock-on effects—train schedules were screwed up all last summer while some track repairs were made. Expect more of this.

• The Montclair train does run on weekends, but service ends at Bay Street Station, the stop just before Walnut. You can walk, drive, or bike the short distance to catch the train there. But it only runs every two or three hours.
posted by ejs at 8:36 AM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don't know about DeCamp specifically, but those NJ jitney buses have well-deserved terrible reputations generally.
posted by praemunire at 11:39 AM on April 22, 2018

As someone who lived in various places across the northeast and then moved back to NJ, I feel it is worthwhile to interject that even though there are always issues and inconveniences with public transport here, I really cannot think of anywhere in the US I would characterize as being better served by public transit. The system has challenges in part because it's huge and moves so many people every day. There are always a few different modes that can get you where you're going. So I think if you've lived without a system like this for a while, or with one of the USA's worse-performing ones (looking at you, Boston) it really is pretty remarkably great.
posted by Miko at 9:09 PM on April 22, 2018