Have you looked at West Orange at all? We live in the Lourdes section and can walk to a few restaurants right on main street in West Orange but it's also only about a 10 minute bike ride to Montclair's downtown. West Orange is one of the most diverse towns in the state and has a great school district.

Admittedly not the greatest downtown in the state but we enjoy it. The town is walkable in each neighborhood and the homes while not huge in this part of town are very nice and generally sell for less than 500k.