Brooklyn --> Maplewood

byenyc said:

Going to be in S. Orange by the end of the month (hopefully) Straight from Park Slope

Really should only take an hour if you avoid rush hour. :rimshot:

If you just bought, you may be financially extended, but, if you can swing it, JOIN THE POOL!!! You will meet lots of wonderful people!

Karen
NYC to Maplewood circa 2001

Just don't get discouraged when you can't find the town pool. The trick is to drive into the middle school parking lot! Then you will see it. It was a wonderful contrast to the outdoor life of my little one in Park Slope. Go to the Baird Center with proper ID, that proves you live in town. The price for joining is quite nominal.

But if you are in Maplewood, the Maplewood Middle School parking lot is not where you will find the pool (the South Orange Pool is behind the South Orange Middle School)!!! If you aren't confused yet, and you still want to enjoy the pool this summer - go to Town Hall to inquire about membership.

Yes, the pool. A soon to be neighbor says there's also the pool at the country club? I have so much to learn!

apple44- We like to walk.

@byenyc - if you have children, you may want to consider joining the Mothers & More - South Orange/Maplewood chapter as well:
http://www.somamothers.org/

Congratulations on your move!

And if you have friends looking to move as well, I just put my house on the market! www.10FranklinTerrace.com

Welcome, hope you will love SO as much as we do! (We moved from Brooklyn in 2000.)

We moved here from Williamsburg in october and I'm still trying to adapt. I miss the ferry, I miss getting great coffee on my way to the playground, I miss the great restaurants I could walk to for dinner with husband while my great babysitter - that I miss - was with the kids, I miss not having to buckle up the kids to the car seat every single time I have anything to do out of the house.
Well, I'm hoping that the warmer weather will warm me up too. There's a lot of ex-brooklynites here! Welcome I guess

Gioamorim, you can still walk or ride a bike to the various places around town. It's not as densely packed as Brooklyn, but it can work. I've taught a few classes here in Maplewood to adults on how to ride a bike in traffic safely and comfortably. They've gone very well. I can also help you get set up if you have cargo or kids to haul or even both. Life is good when you're on two wheels.

Some people call me a nut, because it's against the mainstream, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea.

Don't these people look happy?

Williamsburg
E Village
Carroll Gardens
Prospect Heights
UES
Jackson Heights

Moved here in 2009 and am so glad to no longer live in the city. I was done.

Born in Brooklyn (in East New York--*definitely* not the hip part!), raised on the Upper West Side, lived in the East Village in the bad old days, and then up by Columbia when I was in college. Lived in Park Slope, in the most beautiful apartment ever, for about a year, and still miss it. Moved to West Orange in 2008. My husband is my excuse--he's never lived anywhere but suburban areas--but I admit I'm happy enough here. I like having space, and I love our house and neighborhood. But when I retire, I'm moving back to the city no matter what.

Tom, you and I must have passed on the street on the Upper West Side at some point in our lives, since we were born in the same year and both grew up there. I envy you moving back, and wish you all the best with the move.

Hey, you're welcome to visit us, and that applies to all here. As I said in my "moving on" thread, I am the only Tom Reingold on the internet, and I'm easy to find.

@Gioamorim - do you guys ever have a chance to visit your old haunts? I've found the trip (especially on off hours) to be very pleasant, and it's fun be able to take in all that Brooklyn has to offer and return to your snug little house at the end of the day.

kareno said:

If you just bought, you may be financially extended, but, if you can swing it, JOIN THE POOL!!! You will meet lots of wonderful people!

Karen
NYC to Maplewood circa 2001

The South Orange pool is $30 per person if you sign up soon! I think that the high rate is $35 per person!!!

I don't mean this in a negative way but I honestly never thought I would live to see the day when people would be teary-eyed and sentimental about not living in Brooklyn anymore. The world has changed I guess. I bet people will be doing the same sort of ruminating about SOMA in about 20 years time, after the gentrification process has completed and everyone currently living here has been priced out (or sold out). I personally was born and lived in Manhattan my whole life. While I enjoyed the opportunities, I certainly breath a sigh of relief (and fresh air) whenever the train arrives at Maplewood station. My only regret is that we probably won't be able to afford to retire here.

I think that some of the reminiscing is as much for a time-period in life as for a location. I look back fondly at my young adult years and early married years when I was living a relatively care-free life with friends and travel and carefree apartment living. I came here from Brooklyn via Hoboken and when I go back to Hoboken I can't believe I lived there as long as I did. It feels suffocating now that I am used to a less congested environment but I will definitely enjoy some day giving up a house and going back to carefree apartment living. I guess once an urban girl always an urban girl.

mod said:

I think that some of the reminiscing is as much for a time-period in life as for a location. I look back fondly at my young adult years and early married years when I was living a relatively care-free life with friends and travel and carefree apartment living. I came here from Brooklyn via Hoboken and when I go back to Hoboken I can't believe I lived there as long as I did. It feels suffocating now that I am used to a less congested environment but I will definitely enjoy some day giving up a house and going back to carefree apartment living. I guess once an urban girl always an urban girl.

You know that's a good point. I never thought of it that way. My "happiest" years I have to say was when I was out of school and working and as carefree and house poor (well, not a big space to worry about etc) as you describe (and without kids too!!). Perhaps that's really what we all yearn for, that simplicity and state of mind in our lives where things are just very simple. We may perhaps confuse that contentment with the actual geographical location where it took place. State of mind I guess, not geography.

On my former block, approximately 50% of the households were people who had lived in Brooklyn within the past 10 years. My current block is closer to 95%.

What happend to the OP? Guess they changed their mind?

Must have decided that being from Brooklyn no longer made them 'special' and just walked next door to meet someone else from Brooklyn.

jai, it shouldn't surprise us that people are teary-eyed about Brooklyn. Some things are the same, but some things are pretty different.

I grew up on the upper west side when large pockets of it were seedy. I was mugged and harassed several times growing up. Now it's not dangerous, and the shopping is, as they say, fabulous. But who can afford to live there any more? I've heard it's now more expensive than the east side.

mod said:

I think that some of the reminiscing is as much for a time-period in life as for a location. I look back fondly at my young adult years and early married years when I was living a relatively care-free life with friends and travel and carefree apartment living. I came here from Brooklyn via Hoboken and when I go back to Hoboken I can't believe I lived there as long as I did. It feels suffocating now that I am used to a less congested environment but I will definitely enjoy some day giving up a house and going back to carefree apartment living. I guess once an urban girl always an urban girl.

I agree completely. The streets of the (Upper) Upper West Side are filled with memories for me, from our early days of marriage and adopting our dog and becoming parents. It was a different life then, completely. I absolutely love our lives here and it's perfect, to me, for raising my active preschooler. I wouldn't trade either one for the world.

Funny enough, we lived in a few places in the city - Park Slope the summer after we were married, Forest Hills Queens for 2 years after that, and then 2 different Manhattan apartments for the next 3 years. I have very fond memories of that Park Slope summer, and equally fond memories of Manhattan... Queens I can take or leave. Our apartment was huge and lovely, and Forest Hills is very nice, but it just didn't "click." Our first Manhattan place is still what I think of as that perfect intersection of place and people... despite it being 300 square feet smaller than our Queens place, and a 5th floor walkup, we were very, very, very happy to be living there!

Tom_Reingold said:

jai, it shouldn't surprise us that people are teary-eyed about Brooklyn. Some things are the same, but some things are pretty different.

I grew up on the upper west side when large pockets of it were seedy. I was mugged and harassed several times growing up. Now it's not dangerous, and the shopping is, as they say, fabulous. But who can afford to live there any more? I've heard it's now more expensive than the east side.

Are you saying that you would live there if you could afford it? Because it's now gentrified and the shopping is better? Sorry, I don't follow you. I think we're talking about different things. I think some people, as mod pointed out, crave carefree familiarity of another, whereas others crave a certain lifestyle (urban yuppies or hipsters or whatever they call themselves these days). I fall more into the first camp I think. I know where I was happiest a few years ago, but that has all changed now. Moving back to that geographical location, like moving back to where one grew up, are really illusions for many. Things change. And it's true "you can never go back" - when they say that it means that one is trying to restore something that is forever gone. I guess my point is, people say they "miss Brooklyn" or >insert a place< but although that geography still exists does the same culture exist that made you happy in the first place. Not so sure really. Even SOMA has changed radically in the past 15 years we have been here; quite frankly I don't recognize the towns anymore sometimes compared to what they were when we moved here.

jai, my feelings are extremely mixed, which is probably why I didn't come off clearly.

Well, I would totally live there if I could afford it. I'm not saying South Orange and Maplewood aren't nice. you know, it was so pretty in autumn and now it's beautiful in spring here, people are nice and so on. I think I'm just an urban girl, wanna be among the crazy flow of people, ideas and noise

"the crazy flow of people, ideas and noise"... sounds like MOL to me...

-s.

And BTW:

I guess that's why I hang out here sometimes...
Btw, a good shower solves dirty feet easily

apple44 said:

I like going to the Flea once in awhile. Yesterday someone was asking about best way to get to Barclay Center. Maybe we should start a M/SO to Bklyn shuttle like those buses to Atlantic City!

We too get to Brooklyn when we can--the new B Bridge waterfront park, for instance. And we guaranteed our Brooklyn connection by getting BAM season tickets. It definitely does feel like the best of both worlds when that works out.

When we first moved to Maplewood, it took me about a week to realize I hadn't had to wash black soot off my feet at the end of the day, like I had had to do every spring/summer day in Brooklyn for the past 10 years.

It was a revelation.

afa said:

When we first moved to Maplewood, it took me about a week to realize I hadn't had to wash black soot off my feet at the end of the day, like I had had to do every spring/summer day in Brooklyn for the past 10 years.

It was a revelation.

Not to mention the 'black soot' that comes out of one's nasal passages after a day in the city on a dry day... Yuck! That keeps things real for me.