Remember Montclair author Larry Dark? Seems he's no fan of Hempstead at Montclair. Dark puts pen to paper and serves up a sarcastic "welcome" to the future residents of McMansion Hamlet, in this letter to the Montclair Times...

I would like to be one of the first to welcome our new neighbors to the Hempstead at Montclair. Welcome! This high-toned name evoking the English countryside is apropos of a development of 10 grand houses on a lot where only a single hotel once stood. New Hempstead at Montclairians, you truly are brave pioneers of the “New Urbanism.”

You also, not incidentally, know a bargain when you see one. Your spacious new home is the largest that can be built under existing zoning laws, making clever use of every available inch the law allows. And for only $1.7 million, you will have the advantages of both residing in a cavernous abode and living in intimately close proximity to your neighbors — a mere 12 feet away! (I have never understood those haughty snobs who insist on so much space between their house and others.)

You can’t beat the location of the Hempstead at Montclair for convenience, either. It is especially well situated at the intersection of two major roads where trucks bearing much-needed consumer goods frequently rumble by. You are smart to purchase such a well-constructed home at such an affordable price. (Believe it or not, people pay nearly as much for old houses.) A developer able to situate 10 exclusive homes on a plot of that size would never, never, I am certain, cut corners in workmanship or materials.

In no time, the rest of your neighbors in their modest houses, so out of scale to yours, will overcome their jealousy and happily welcome you not only to the Hempstead at Montclair, but also to Montclair itself. I, for one, will be sure to give a friendly wave as your Hummer H2 impressively thunders by.

LARRY DARK

Montclair

March 11, 2006 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (98)

We may not (always) print totally speculative unconfirmed rumors, but it's not below us to point to them if they're already circulating on the internet. In this case, go check out the buzz going at the NJ.com Verona forum about a Verona connection to the December murder of Glen Ridge grandmother Joan Galligan in December. It seems that everyone in that town has heard this story.

Law enforcement officials in Glen Ridge and Essex County are staying mum, and one source even laughed at the theory. We'll see.

February 23, 2006 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (26)

One pay station worked. The other was broken. Tempers flared. Horns honked. And nobody cared if we took their picture. Click here to see the movie.

January 29, 2006 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (18)

This one goes out to the canine-kissin' Miss Martta and all the other dog lovers in Baristaville. Not to take you away from our page, but there's a new website and blog devoted to dog devotees in Montclair. Click here to read and comment on issues ranging from doggy day cares to flying disks that aren't worth the slobber. (Thanks to Adriana for the heads up.)

January 10, 2006 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (16)

  Reader Dory Swenson tips us that an ad in Absolut Vodka's "Win a Trip to Sweden" contest is actually a house on Clinton Street in Montclair. You thought the greeting "Merry Christmas" was controversial? Wait til the local teetotalers get wind of this. (Just kidding. Here's the one we don't think would fly in the tonier parts of Baristaville.) To support local vodka bottle decor, go to Absolut's website (you're supposed to be 21 to get in) and vote for the ad that says Absolut Welcome.

November 30, 2005 in Seen around town, Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (2)

Since March 31, Montclair artist Peter Jacobs has made a daily collage out of images and text from his daily newspaper. He aims to produce at least 365. The Collage Journal, presented online using flash animation, is a dreamlike record of the public sphere. It can be seen here.

November 27, 2005 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (7)

Sure, there's always lots of homes for sale in Baristaville, but on one street in Montclair, it's as if they all decided to sell at the same time. This contemporary, at 508 Highland Ave., is one.

To meet its brothers and sisters, go to Real Estate.

November 14, 2005 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (4)

Don't believe the hype about hybrids -- you can get one without waiting a year and a day. So says Baristaville's Brad Berman, the brains behind a website for hybrid car enthusiasts, interviewed here...

Berman, 42, who operates his web site from Montclair, N.J., was one of 38,000 people who bought a Honda Civic hybrid in 2002.

"I wanted to share my experience and share what I was learning about my driving habits," he said. "The Web was the perfect medium for that."

Berman who states that sales of all hybrid models are up 90 percent over 2004, predicts that U.S. sales are now on track to hit 200,000 this year. Unfortunately for hybrid lovers, the waiting is the hardest part.

Berman has dedicated a portion of his Web site to a message board where hybrid owners post details about the car they've purchased, including the time they had to wait to buy one. But a clear pattern about wait times has not emerged.

"It ranges from no wait in Centreville, Va., to 17 weeks in Brookfield, Wis.," he said.

Berman chalks up the wait times to "dealership vagaries."

He said one factor is uneven distribution among car dealers, and those with higher sales volumes are more likely to get more hybrids.

But Berman emphasized that car dealers do have hybrids in stock. He advises prospective buyers to shop around and to be flexible in picking a color, for example.

October 24, 2005 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (18)

Yeah, we know it's not the most super-interesting-fun thing of the day, but we thought it would be worthwhile to post about a mandatory survey done by Glen Ridge's school system about the school system itself. You can see the results in PowerPoint-esque form here, and learn everything you wanted to know about what people thought was important in the schools to how they felt about class size.

Again, it's not the most super scientific best-thing-ever, but it works. Check it out.

October 20, 2005 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (1)

Baristanet reader Arnie sent us a tip about a bit of a security gaffe at Montclair State University - who, according to the Star-Ledger's Kelly Heyboer, accidentally had the names and corresponding Social Security numbers for more than 9,000 students on an accessible page on the Internet. The big problem here is that even though that 18 students have come back so far and said their identities hadn't been stolen, that doesn't mean it isn't going to happen six months from now.

October 16, 2005 in Seen in Cyberspace | Permalink | Comments (13)