I'm a fan of mixed use.  Mixed use is the practice of allowing different types of buildings to coexist in a single neighborhood - for example, residential space next to/on top of restaurants and businesses.   By adding vitality and activity to a neighborhood, mixed use benefits a community because residents are able to walk to things that [...]

When I walk to Watchung Plaza from my Montclair home, I take a short route  through an interconnected grid of streets and through a small park.  I wave to my neighbor on the way.  I stop for a brief minute in the park to chat with a friend who's on her way home from work (she's just gotten off the 5:31 [...]

Sunday morning  historical walk/run and bike tour.

Don't try this in just any suburb.  It takes a village, a real one, to make these sorts of walk/bike tours possible.  Streets that are interconnected on a grid, sidewalks, trees to shade the sidewalks, history , a reason, a community, merchants that are involved with their community and [...]

1. The train station (any one of the six)

2.Watchung Plaza for a dozen bagels on Sunday morning

3.The farmer's market on a Saturday in June for local rhubarb and asparagus

4.Tierney's Tavern on the way home from work for a retro burger and beer (no phone, no credit cards!)

5.The Wellmont Theater on a Saturday night to see David Byrne, Kathy Griffith or Rosie [...]

For years, New Jersey was sprawling westward, northward, and southward with real estate development in formerly rural areas. Now the recession has hit and so many of those big new shiny houses a couple of hours outside the city are losing value rapidly--despite their newness, their immense pasture-like lawns, and quiet isolation. What seemed [...]