I’ll let others who are a bit more familiar with out west help then! Good luck!

Would the priority be having more nature, or having a more vibrant downtown?

Bistro d’Azur in South Orange is a little longer of a drive from Bergen County, but is BYO and one of the best restaurants in the state, in my opinion.

Not sure if Cafe Panache in Ramsey is French French, but it’s also supposed to be one of the top restaurants in the state.

Everyone has their own list of needs and wants when choosing a home. For us personally, being able to walk into town as a family and not use a car for most of our errands and leisure activities is a huge quality of life factor, and was a top priority. For others it may be less important.

Maybe just stay in Canada my dude. Got a feeling not gonna work out for you here.

Montclair, and now also South Orange and Maplewood, use magnet school systems, so where you live doesn’t dictate where your child will go to school. Not something you can plan ahead for in these towns.

If OP wants to avoid racist people, this map of how each town in NJ voted is probably helpful: https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/o9YRC/9/

We lived in Montclair for seven years, then moved to South Orange two years ago, for a lot of reasons. To say we love South Orange and are happy with our move here is an understatement.

From what you’re looking for, especially item #2 and walkability, South Orange should be top of your list.

South Orange is much, much more integrated than Montclair or Maplewood, both of which can feel like highly segregated towns.

It’s also the most walkable town - mostly because of its tiny size. My wife no longer even owns a car. (Montclair and Maplewood can be very walkable also, but in certain neighborhoods more so than others. They’re just larger towns). In South Orange, unless you’re up in Newstead, you can walk to everything from everywhere - it’s a small town with a downtown right in the dead center of it: parks, pool, library, movie theater, supermarket, restaurants, etc. My kid is still young, but I can’t see him ever needing to own a car either. He can walk and bike to everything. There are always kids crawling all over downtown and the parks when schools get out.

It’s a HEAVILY involved, tight knit community also. Kind of place where everyone says good morning when you walk by (my wife calls it Sesame Street). Always activities for the kids (my favorite are the “South Orange Summer Nights” with free movies and concerts in Floods Hill. Whole town turns out for them) and the first town I’ve ever lived in where I feel like competent people with a vision are running it, and my tax dollars are getting put to actual good use. Check out the master plan on the town website to see what I mean.

And yes, lots of new, exciting business opening up in town, even since we moved here. SOPAC is a huge bonus too. But you move to Montclair for the cool businesses - you move to South Orange for the community. We made more friends here in six months than we did in seven years in Montclair. And everyone has kids.

Train system is far more frequent in SoMa than Montclair as well, including weekends.

Feel free to DM me or ask away with more questions,

Edit: Should mention too, we don’t find the downtown to be too congested, and find it a nice place to spend time, especially with the park being right there. But people also hang out all over on Sloan Street, and Spiotta Park. There is a plan to turn the Sloan Street parking lot into a pedestrian only piazza, which will make it even more amazing.