Westfield New Jersey

My girlfriend and I both grew up in Westfield New Jersey and it’s just as great a place today as it was then.

However, the cost of homes and the property taxes keep us from living there right now. Instead, we have a house in Clark that will hopefully suffice until we can make the move back to our collective home town.

A lot of people think that Westfield is full of snobs.

In some ways they may be right.

People who live in Westfield do seem to act as though they are a cut above, but so do people who live in Summit, Short Hills and many other towns in the area.

Being a snob about where you live is much like rooting for your favorite baseball team or political party since you naturally find reasons why your side is better and the other is flawed.

In my opinion, Westfield does have an inherent quality about its downtown that makes it unique; with its train station squarely in the middle of town and its confluence of streets that make up the north side, other towns simply don’t have the physical complements of Westfield. Furthermore, it’s just far enough from the Short Hills and Woodbridge Malls that some big retailers find it worthwhile being located there.

There seems to be an overabundance of restaurants in town lately but since more and more keep coming, there must be enough demand to warrant their existence. The reality is you can get just about any cuisine in Westfield now including French, Thai and Hibachi not to mention multiple Italian and Continental establishments.

There are many things that you can no longer buy in town and for some of the things that you can still buy, you have to accept the fact that you WILL pay more and do so willingly simply to keep the last few local merchants in business.

For now, we are happy calling Clark home but spending much of our time in Westfield as we always have.

As this Blog evolves, I hope to discuss the parts of town I like most, some of the history that I lived while growing up in the town and to discuss the people in the town that make it truly a cut above.