Phil Read has a story in today’s Ledger about the Bloomfield Ave. businesses that, let us just say, don’t draw crowds from Ridgewood. Businesses like McDonough Tire and Jinx Proof Tattoo and Body Piercing.

According to Read, Montclair has put some businesses a blacklist — although it’s not clear from the story how official the blacklist is:

In the past decade, Montclair’s “not wanted” list has grown from such operations as used-car dealers, check-cashing outfits, pawn shops and adult entertainment to this month’s newest add-ons: new-car showrooms, such as Montclair Jaguar; drive-through banks, such as the newest and apparently final one at Commerce Bank; and rental-car outfits, of which there are none.

For those in place, being “grandfathered” means they can keep operating but have little hope of expanding or selling to an expansion-minded buyer.

Well, man cannot live on sushi alone. Every once in a while you do have to get your car fixed or draw some money out of an ATM machine.

113 replies on “Montclair’s Least Wanted”

  2. Don’t mind Montclair Jaguar, it’s the rest of those crappy businesses that we can do without.

  4. Let the market decide… If it supports $300 colanders, maybe the Tattoo Parlor should start charging more.

  5. Actually, the car and tire dealerships are OK, they serve a useful purpose. Montclair just needs better quality ratables.

  6. Remember, these banned uses are just for the Central Business District.
    So, they’ll all move to one of the other 7 business districts. Right now they’re discussing the drive in bank for Watchung.
    Seems like the merchants, i.e. the BID, are writing the ordinances now.

  7. Naive me, I thought ‘blacklists’ were a thing of the 1950’s.
    Is this latest reincarnation of the ‘blacklist’ legal?

  8. Uh, whose blacklist is this? Do the accused have any right to defense and appeal, or is it like rendetion and Gitmo?
    Just curious.

  9. Where’s the Alfa-Maserati-Ferrari-Lamborghini dealer? Must we all have to drive to Edison or Paramus or Spring Valley (NY) for sales and service?!

  11. A “blacklist”?
    How close minded is Montclair getting? If we’re not sporting clogs with brightly colored socks, bohemian garb, messy hair, and kids who snack on brussel sprouts, does this mean we have to sit at the back of the bus now? If you don’t like the area you live in, maybe you should consider moving to a private community where everyone can stick their noses in the air together. Montclair can have a “sex” shop or two, but want to close a tattoo parlor and a Jag. dealer?? Instead of wasting their man hours fighting and complaining about what they don’t like, they should spend it trying to figure out how to take their thumbs out of their a$$es. I have no tolerance for people who think they are better.

  13. McDonough Tire is wonderful asset to this town. They repair cars quickly, reliably and for a reasonable cost. The employees are courteous and informative. I’ve been bringing my cars to them for years, and expect to do business with them for years to come.

  17. We talked about Celebration, Florida in a Modern Philosophies of Art class. I think we were all scared of the idea of people wanting to make this perfect town.

  18. Jinx Proof is actually one of the LEAST scary tattoo places I’ve seen. They keep to themselves, the clientele isn’t too scary, they’re clean and well lit and they fit in with the record store down the block. Why don’t we put a cap on antique shops?!!! They are to Montclair what nail salons are to other towns.

  20. “We talked about Celebration, Florida in a Modern Philosophies of Art class. I think we were all scared of the idea of people wanting to make this perfect town.”
    This is the next hot TV drama waiting to happen: “Celebration: The perfect town, filled with perfect people, all hiding dark and ugly secrets…tune in next Sunday at 9.”

  21. I wouldn’t worry about the Jag dealership. I read they got a sweetheart deal from the town to help with their expansion.
    Clearly someone was helping them and then trying to hurt their competition with the new law.
    Anyone know specifics?

  22. FORGET the business blacklist, here is a LEAST WANTED list that every citizen of Montclair, Glen Ridge, and Bloomfield should be made aware of :
    www12.familywatchdog.us/StaySafe.asp
    Type in your address. It’s going to scare the living hell out of you.

  24. they must have charged DJ actual $$ for the records he/she bought, hence the dislike for the record store, also the record store has real records from the 60s..something the neanderthals from this era cant quite handle, the check cashing place is a great excuse to walk into the club where women go that never post here, and that men in here can only see on line…yeehaa.

  26. The BID needs to consult a little more with its customer base – merchants are not the only ones who should be deciding who should be their neighbors. One of the original purposes of creating the BID was to keep the character od the downtown yet they seem to be happier with Urban Outfitters than any actual services – they also tried to out-ordinance nail salons and businesses aimed at kid-entertainment like the Little Gym.

  27. I agree, surprisingly, with Agath about the BID. They also forget that a lot of their customers live in the residential neighborhoods that surround the Central Business District. Speaking as one of those residents I don’t appreciate the BID’s support for township initiatives that bring more cars into our residential areas – such as the proposed parking lots on Forest St. and the increase in commercial permit parking on our streets. This is not to say that when I purchased my home near the downtown that I did not expect to see a lot of cars on our street – one has to be realistic about living near a busy downtown. I just resent the efforts to bring additional cars to an already busy street, and this seems to be something that the BID supports.

  28. Didn’t anyone working for the BID ever ask themselves why malls usually have tire dealers/auto repair shops sharing the same parking lots?
    Customers who are waiting for there cars will go grab something to eat. They may do some shopping. Even if they don’t buy something at that time, they are familiarizing themselves with the stores so that they know where to return to when thy are ready to make a purchase.
    I fail to see how replacing car dealerships with condos is going to help the town.

  29. Time for some folks to
    close their windows,
    close their drapes,
    close their eyes and
    mind their own business.
    Too bad if you don’t
    like the color of the
    house across from you.
    So sad that your neighbor
    has a landscaper with a leafblower and you don’t. Banks are banks,
    and you knew that the Planning Board would
    okay Commerce in their pursuit of ratables in
    the 4th Ward, “The Only
    Place We Have Room To
    Build,” as I’ve been
    reminded 100 times.
    Nail salons? Bring ’em
    on. Let’s hope we don’t
    sink to the level of
    other towns. You gotta
    have a sense of humor to
    live where I do, across
    the street from Dressing For Pleasure (their website describes it as “America’s Largest Sex and Fetish Department store.)
    Upstairs there’s a proported “aromatherapy” salon,although parades of girls walk up and down
    the street, trying to convince men to go
    with them and….smell
    nice candles?
    Leave McDonough alone.
    Slap around the
    clueless video guy
    every now and then as he’s prone to forget he
    shouldn’t put
    fur lined handcuffs
    in the window.
    Bloomfield Avenue is a festival. Who needs
    Mardi Gras?

  30. Three registered Sex Offenders in Montclair is Three too many. Did you notice the one in Bloomfield listed as living right next to Brookdale Park ???

  31. I’m glad the town stopped the plan for a drive thru bank in Watchung Plaza – it would have created a traffic nightmare.

  32. Why would a “drive in” bank cause more traffic that the “drive-in” gas station currently on that corner?

  34. The drive thru bank I live near is a mess during weekend-errand busy times. At least seven to eight cars lined up, all running with exhaust smoke rising. The gas station never seems to have that many cars, and cars get turned off while they sit and fill up.
    It’s an already busy intersection and I’m glad that gas station is moving. The traffic is always crazy when I try to run to the hardware store.

  35. There’s also an Enterprise on Bloomfield Ave. right next to the Jag dealer. I guess both Enterprise offices are “grandfathered.” Or maybe it’s just those Hertz/Avis swine that need to be kept out.

  36. Soon, you’ll have Uppah Moanclah and Uppity Moanclah!
    PICK ONE:
    afford to live in town
    afford to shop in town
    Imagine a town without a tire store!
    Or a Jaguar dealer!
    Heaven forfend 😉

  37. It used to be a Rolls Royce dealership too! See how bad the neighborhood gotten – now it only sells Jags.
    (*kidding)

  39. “I’m glad the town stopped the plan for a drive thru bank in Watchung Plaza – it would have created a traffic nightmare.”
    The Town DID NOT stop the plan. It’s still up for approval. And I wouldn’t count on the outcome, either.
    If/when we find out when the next meeting is we should all attend and express our opinion.

  40. >>”I’m glad the town stopped the plan for a drive thru bank in Watchung Plaza – it would have created a traffic nightmare.”
    >>”The Town DID NOT stop the plan. It’s still up for approval. And I wouldn’t count on the outcome, either.
    >>”If/when we find out when the next meeting is we should all attend and express our opinion.”
    PEACEMAKER: You can only use the drive through if you bought your tires or your Jag in town.
    – Ah the wisdom of Solomon!

  41. ‘Concerned citizen of Montclair,’ you might also wish to be somewhat concerned about the civil rights of registered offenders. Because they still have them, no matter that they also still remain sleazeballs. Yet it is equally low-rent to make insinuatory posts that lead (inevitably) to the mock-“revelation” of their home addresses.

  42. OH please spare me the self righteous bleeding heart statements, they fail to sway me. I have zero sympathy for scum who prey upon innocent children, or is that not a concern of yours?

  43. Ah, your Concernedness (as if, thereby, you somehow “care” more fully and deeply about this issue than others), but I am also worried that innocent children will be screwed up by the displays of bigotry in the home such as are seemingly evidenced by your, uh, “concerned” posts.
    And honey, don’t you dare ever call me a “bleeding heart.” Anybody who reads my posts here, let alone knows me a bit, alreadly realizes that’s the last thing you can ever term me. But I also don’t wear a bedsheet for nighttime meetings nor do I carry a conveniently noosed length of hemp over my shoulder.

  45. Well, I’m always curious about stuff, so I poked around that website. It lists people – photos, names, addresses – whose sole conviction is “Endangering the welfare of a child.”
    Can someone with more legal knowledge than I have explain what this means & why it implies a sexual offense?

  48. In short it’s a catch all kind of charge–and usually struck during the plea -so an offender who has sexual contact with a minor would plea to a count of Endangering for example.

  49. And, CS, correct me if I am wrong, there are three tiers of sexual predators, with three being the most severe (i.e., actual rape of a minor).

  50. Again I’m answering my own question: whoever runs these websites is posting information illegally, of course.
    From the NJ State Police site’s FAQ on Megan’s Law:
    Q11
    What information is provided in a notification?
    A11
    In all three levels of notification, the information provided includes the offender’s name, description and photograph, address, place of employment or school if applicable, a description of the offender’s vehicle and license plate number, and a brief description of the offense.
    Q13
    May I share information with friends?
    A13
    You may share and discuss the information you have received with those residing in your household or with anyone caring for your children at your residence in your absence. You may NOT share this information with anyone outside your household or not in your care. You may NOT copy or post the notice. Law enforcement will notify all appropriate community members, schools, organizations, residences, and businesses.

  51. Why is someone a fascist for posting a link to information that is meant to be public information? Am I a fascist because I go to the state police site and see whose new in town every so often? Am I a fascist because I think these creeps are already being treated better then they deserve?
    I’ve beeen accused of being a liberal (on this very site) but there is a big part of me who wouldn’t mind seeing these creeps used for medical testing, or launched into space (once a court of law has done its thing and only if they have been found guilty, of course).
    I’m not trying to start an arguement, just wondering where along the line my outrage turns into oppression.

  52. First of all, don’t call me honey, Your male chauvinistic slip is showing. Second of all, you sound like a bleeding heart of the worst kind by trying to defend these predators.

  53. These businesses are the backbone of our town. The rest is glitz, enjoyable glitz, but we need it all to remain interesting.
    McDonough, the privately owned hardware stores, these and stores like them make for the everyday conveniences and for having places where residents can walk for service, know the person behind the counter will stand behind their work and be accomodating. The town will be diminshed without them. Diana Lunin

  54. “…but there is a big part of me who wouldn’t mind seeing these creeps used for medical testing, or launched into space (once a court of law has done its thing and only if they have been found guilty, of course).”
    How about just making the sentences stricter and keeping them locked up longer? There is no known *cure* for pedophila and I, for one, would like to see a study about the percentage of recidivism among these creeps once they are let back out into society.

  55. I am not sure what Concerned is advocating or being so “concerned” about. These people have to live somewhere, I’d say. Perhaps *that* is what concerned is getting at?
    I am glad their domiciles are publicly known. It’s the community’s right to *know* where they live.
    I don’t think anything should be done with the information other than perhaps keep a “peeled eye” at the ready, or encourage the little ones not to trick-or-treat at certain front doors.
    They have a right to live wherever they wish, and we have a right to shun them.

  56. Are you a fascist ffor going over a registry of your fellow citizens and tracking their movements? Yes.
    Are you a fascist because you believe having criminals collared and monitored (a step away from being put into internment camps — oh, but we call them “prison” camps here) is a better idea than having them treated and rehabilitated? Yes.
    Are you a fascist because you are willing to forfeit the civil liberties of all to maintain your own sense of security — though such measure make you and your children no less secure and only foster a culture of impunity between sex offenders and the surrounding community? Absolutely.
    “I’ve beeen accused of being a liberal (on this very site) but there is a big part of me who wouldn’t mind seeing these creeps used for medical testing, or launched into space (once a court of law has done its thing and only if they have been found guilty, of course).”
    It’s funny that nobody would hesitate in calling you a fascist if you made this same statement in referrence Jews, homosexuals, Communists or Jehovah’s Witnesses. By stripping humans of their humanity, you cut to the pure evil that drove the world’s fascist organizations.

  57. If your concerned call the state police Crank and report the website—yes there are 3 tiers–and when it comes to concern-it’s great to be concerned just not obsessed—-watch your children, talk to them, and be aware—now let’s not fight about it. Just be aware there are plenty of faces not on any of those sites that may cause you and/or your children harm and you may not have to look further than your own back yard.

  58. miss m,
    the recidivism rate for male pedophiles is in the 98% range…they don’t seem to be ‘curable’

  60. “Jews, homosexuals, Communists or Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
    None of those groups are known for preying on children and using them sexually. None of those groups led to the creation of Meghan’s Law. None of those groups comprise their own FBI’s (and Oprahs) most wanted list.
    The child victims of these creeps themselves have been striped of their humanity.
    I am not going to treat the criminals better then they treated their victims.
    If that makes me a facists then so be it.

  61. there is a study-I think all you have to do is search under recidivism–however that is flawed.
    The registry is flawed–and unfortunately so is the system—–
    Think about it–how many reports do you question the child’s motivation and reporting—especially if the perp is so very “likeable”. Or a member of the family?
    If you had a child who had been abused would you be willing to go forward with a trial?–Would the child be able to handle the trial? So a plea deal is the unfortunate consequense. And a plea deal doesn’t allow a maximum term unless it’s murder.
    As for the registry numbers don’t report.
    And so for some perps the registry may or may not be a raw deal–for some registering doesn’t matter—and for some it may be enough to curtail for the time being any new offense.
    And for the public it’s the only thing we have for the time being–and it’s window dressing.

  63. If your system did a better job of rehabilitating them instead of caging them like animals and compounding the problem, perhaps you wouldn’t have Megan’s Law (which as we speak is facing a challenge), a special FBI most wanted list (which applies only to criminals not yet caught and is fairly ridiculous given not only the relatively low rate of child sex offenses in this country, but the similarly low rate of recidivism) or some figure like Oprah using her fame as a conduit to avenge her own instance of DOMESTIC abuse.
    Sex offenders are a danger to society if only because society doesn’t know how to deal with them. One could make the argument that American society doesn’t know how to deal with sex IN GENERAL, so it should come as no suprise that we’re at a loss in dealing with criminalized sex.
    Your statement that all sex offenders “prey on children” isn’t well-founded either. Did you know that if a man of 19 has sex with a girl of 16 and then goes on to marry her and live the rest of his life with her, he is still considered a sex offender if the parents of the girl report him the first time? Do you know that many of the listed sex offenders are listed because of their running afoul of state statute?
    So yes, you sir are a fascist and it will be a pleasure to lead an uprising against you when you and yours inevitably take power and put all of the intellectuals into camps.

  64. Duke of Earl: sounds like you came out of a bad ’50s song that all the greasers on Bloomfield Avenue used to listen to when they weren’t chasing black kids out of “their” neighborhood.

  66. “Sex offenders are a danger to society if only because society doesn’t know how to deal with them. One could make the argument that American society doesn’t know how to deal with sex IN GENERAL, so it should come as no suprise that we’re at a loss in dealing with criminalized sex.”
    Sex crimes, against adults or children, are not really about sex but about control and domination of someone weaker.
    How would you propose dealing with level 3 sex offenders, Notteham?

  68. I love how it was called “your system ”
    And love the mighty big IF used here…
    “he is still considered a sex offender if the parents of the girl report him the first time”
    That is not the case with any of the people regestered in my area. The nature of the site doesn’t allow me to discuss the specifics, but your example is way off base.

  69. Give the judge leeway in sentencing rather than proposing a mandatory minimum. Ensure that a level 3 sex offender is getting the proper psychiatric treatment while inside and make continued post-release treatment a condition of his or her release. Do not discontinue said treatment and make the punishment for recidivism significantly more steep… longer sentence, time in a halfway house and, if necessary, commitment to a mental health facility.
    How does that sound, Martha?

  70. Have fun tracking the released offenders there, Dog. I’m shocked that the site actually limits what you can say about the people listed. I guess the mob with have to form one torch at a time.

  71. It would sound good if we knew that Level 3 sex offenders responded to psychiatric rehab. All I’ve seen is evidence to the contrary. (And it’s Martta, with no “h”).

  73. Concerned citizen, I don’t care what your true gender is or if you dislike it. I will also call you “honey” if I damn well please. (As Uncle Remus does male children in “Song Of The South.”)
    And again, hon, I am by no means a bleeding heart. Whereas you, again whatever your gender, are a poseur, hiding behind the verbal guise of “concern” for community safety. So you, so to speak, tried to create a polite (iniitally) sort of “whispering campaign” via this site. It’s a time-honored way to write poison pen letters, but it doesn’t make the method any less vile.
    I break company with my fellow trolls to a very minor degree: while I am equally bothered as they are by child molesters, I’m also bothered by those who would hound them to the very watchtowers of hell. This neither makes me kin to notteham or a male chauvinist.
    More importantly, I think you tried to start a sort of chain reaction. In so doing, you even baited a few even smaller intellects, such as duke of earl. But you also got called out for your ploy and didn’t like it one bit, did you?

  74. Hmmm.. Tier 2 offenders too, eh? Very discerning, especially given the fact that Tier 2 offenders seem to be in greater numbers.
    It seems like any answer short of “lock the animals away and toss the key” won’t fly with you guys… though I don’t know how this registry eases your mind if that’s the case. If, as you say, Tier 3 offenders show NO response to psychiatric treatment, then it’s curious that they’d be released at all, or avoid being committed. But, again, despite the warning about harassment, I don’t see how this list could do anything more than promote vigilantes.

  76. “balanced and rational input”?!!!
    This was a thread about Montclair businesses that somehow was hijacked into a discussion on sex offenders!!! I fail to see anything rational in that train of thought.

  77. And a factual correction to both hrhppg and notteham: one small subset of homosexuals is in fact renowned for preying on children. Even advocates it. This is the all-male membership of NAMBLA and its sympathizers, however large they are. NAMBLA is particularly loathsome because it is organized child molestation with a literate face.
    An even smaller subset of this group might be a certain number of Catholic priests (some of whom have been caught as NAMBLA members). And before anyone yelps here, let them be reminded that, in the overhwelming majority, the victims of ecclesiastical molestation have been males. Altar boys are usually ravished by priests, not damsels of the choir. Whether ending clerical celibacy would end this unclear, it certainly wouldn’t happen for a generation or two.

  78. You are correct cathar – sorry.
    Personally, I don’t include NAMBLA with homosexuals – I do include them with child molesters. I do the same with priests involved with children, they are molesters, not members of the gay community.

  80. “Our” system is far from perfect, but it is all we have. Some victims won’t testify and some guilty are free and some have served their sentence and are therefore free. Either way they are free as deemed “rightly” so by “our” system.
    So while we can’t and shouldn’t “hound” them we can keep a watchful eye out. Just because someone has been “reclaimed” in the eyes of the “system” enough to no longer be imprisoned does not mean that they have earned the community trust. Crimes are rightfully *public* information. As such the public should take caution and keep a watchful eye.
    I don’t buy that it is our responsibility to reform criminals, that is up to them 100%.

  81. though, hrh, I’d bet the vast majority of rapes are male against female.
    Not that that says anything about pedophilia.

  82. Hrhppg, I would agree with your general feelings here save for one thing, and it is a very bothersome thing: every year, in the Gay Pride parades’ official line of march in hoth NYC and San Francisco, there is a NAMBLA contingent. (After the revulsion I personally felt years ago when I saw NAMBLA march in the NYC parade twice in a row, I usually check annually on this one.)
    They should not be allowed to march for very good reasons. Yet they are. It is as if the organziers of these parades are giving them, if not exactly their imprimatur, their nihil obstat (there is a difference). By NAMBLA’s marching (and if it’s like any major parade I’ve ever heard of, you do have to apply well beforehand to march as an organized group), they seem to enjoy, if only for one day, a form of respectability within the gay community. Whereas I’d be happy if other gays in fact stoned them out of the parade, how inclusive does “all-inclusive” really have to be, after all?
    And NAMBLA’s members, however you try to circumnavigate verbally around the reality, are not heterosexuals. They are homosexuals who also happen to be child molesters, or anyway supporters of and dreamers about molestation. Of male children, whatever the eventual sexual preference of those children.

  84. I’m sorry cathar, I guess you mis-read me. My post was just saying how I viewed NAMBLA (ugh, I don’t even like typing their name) as a seperate group, and I personally don’t consider them when I think of or discuss the gay community.
    Their inclusion to a pride day parade is what I consider a side effect to free speech. But so is the group that show up in NYC every year to protest the gay lifestyle (and they dress so badly that they stand out even without their offensive signs).
    I have no connection to the SF pride parade, and whatever they do isn’t going to decide my perspective.
    (The St. Patties Day parade won’t let gay groups march – do they think it makes us think there aren’t gay Irish people.)

  85. “Rape has nothing to do with the gender of the perpetrator or the victim. It is an act of violence.”
    Wrong. It has *everything* to do with the respective genders. It is almost always, by wide margin, an act of male aggression against a female victim.

  87. But we’re not exactly talking about rape here, I and hrhppg, but rather a well-defined if small grouping of males who never use the word “rape” in their literature. And, perhaps because they don’t, have somehow managed to “fit in” somehow in a yearly, important manifestation of gay culture that, were its organizes really smart, would never let them march. Again, I find this one very nettling.
    Just as I do, to be fair, the defenses of priestly gayness in Catholicism while the issue of molesting priests (again, almost invariably of males) looms so large and clearly has not been dealt with effectively yet by the Church. And here I am in semi-Baristaville, so imagine how large these concerns might loom as a bar to sexual “liberation” and equality issues in, say, red states.

  88. As for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in NYC, hrhppg, consider that its organizers hardly wish to offend the institution that has been the true succour of Ireland throughout so many of its travails, the Church. Against this understandable wish not to rile the hierarchy (which I don’t necessarily brand as homophobia), the prohibited marching as a group of some 50 or so loud representatives of our modern culture of grievance doesn’t bother me all that much. It is not only “when in Rome…,” but also “when in the Vatican and trying to get along with the Curia….,” so to speak. There is a point where I suspect the gay Irish folk merely wish to provoke or even revive old tales (perhaps you remember all those old rumors about tomato-cheeked Cardinal Spellman and his coterie of priestly hunks?), and I simply wish they might find another day on which to do so.
    Again, however, to be fair, for many years I was in fact still embarassed by my co-religionists on March 17. Recall those “England out of Ireland” banners that even grade school kids were allowed to carry? Too often I fear there was more genuine malice behind that parade “theme” than mere yearning that Ireland should be united. One of the things I hope Irish Catholics (particularly Irish-American Catholics, who are far less sophisticated about this stuff than your average “Prod” or “Papish” on either side of the Irish border) have to answer for to Satan’s interns is their support of the murder of their innocent fellow Irishmen (usually but not solely, inconveniently, Protestant) and of equally innocent Brits.

  89. I always liked the idea that the big St. Patrick’s Day parade in greater Baristaville takes place in a town named after William of Orange.

  91. Well, I guess I have a reason to finally get a tattoo…I’ll support the “alternative” buisnesses in town!
    Speaking of which…is anyone else hugely dissapointed that “Let It Rock” closed down a few weeks ago?

  93. Being called poseur by the likes of you is laughable and utterly pathetic. You are nothing but a mean spirited a**hole with your holier than thou pronouncements throughout this website. I have seen you do this to others, but you don’t seem to be able to cope well when someone like myself decides to fight back. or maybe this is how you secretly get your thrills in order to try and forget your daily insignificant existence, you creep.

  94. I was a big fan of Let It Rock. Friends of mine didn’t like the owner because he seemed aloof, but I just think he picked his moments to speak or spoke when spoken to. His selection was fairly impressive and on par with a place like Sounds on St. Mark’s. I think his inventory could’ve fit in a shop like Generation Records, given what he used to have up on his Web site. I agree with a poster’s previous assertion about the record store near Jinx Proof. I just wonder how worthwhile an enterprise a record store even is anymore. New Jersey’s a big state and I can only think of two shops that are worth a damn (Vintage Vinyl in Fords and Princeton Music Exchange).
    I’d love to start a directory of Montclair “alternative” businesses.
    How’s this for starters:
    Jinx Proof
    Powerhouse
    Rainbow
    The falafel place at the end of chuch street
    Montclair Book Center
    Bloomfield Ave. Cafe
    The Wellmont (not owned by a chain, $7 tickets, gorgeous old-school interior, red birch beer and RC cola and Lindt’s chocolates and cookies)
    The Wiccan shop on Church
    The hardware store on Blfd
    any others

  95. Dear “Concerned citizen of…”
    I seem to do “this” (whatever this is other than a refutation of your pettiness) pretty well to you, based on the obvious aggravation in your most recent response. What you really object to, I’m guessing, is that I called you out on your cheap “Le Corbeau”-like tactics, which you offered up under the guise of community concern.
    So I think I’m coping with your ire rather well, all things concerned, concerned…..

  96. Concerned Citizen of Montclair,
    take a chill pill, dude, your insignificant existence is boring…yawn
    Now back to rearraranging my argyle socks

  101. notteham, i had a major crush on the owner, haha…he made me kind of nervous.
    other katie, giiiiiiirl, you best step off mah man!!!

  104. “The Ice Daddy” has now changed his name to “Ice Diddy”…he now got his posse of k(K)atie’s.

  106. I am no one’s. As was said of Raymond Chandler, “Only his cat(s) knew him well.”
    But Ice Diddy? To make you more approachable, right? But P. Diddy is a wimpy white-suited coward who surrounds himself with 9mm’ed thugs and flees the scene of incidents (which he caused in the first place). So I much prefer “50% Ice,” whose motto is “Get rich or get put on ice.”

  107. Well, you could use a rapper who already has ice in his name…Ice Cube or Ice T? Two birds, one stone I guess.

  108. But P. Diddy is a wimpy white-suited coward who surrounds himself with 9mm’ed thugs and flees the scene of incidents (which he caused in the first place).
    His name’s just diddy now. He changed it when he hosted the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards.

  110. Personally, when I think of the Iceman, I think of Richard Kuklinski. Our Iceman is nothing like him, though.

  111. The Iceman moniker is too reminiscent of the serial killer so Ice may have to morph into a more fan friendly name…stay tuned…I guarantee it won’t ‘mazie’s bitch’

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