Montclair detectives pulled over over a silver Dodge on Maple Avenue near Glenfield Park Saturday night (10/1) after seeing the driver make an unlawful u-turn. Upon approaching the vehicle, detectives observed a clear plastic bag containing 200 pills on the floor behind the driver’s seat, which were determined to be Ecstasy. The total street value of the drugs is estimated to be $2000.
The driver, who was identified as Darnell Moore, 33, of East Orange, was charged with possession and distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance within 1000 feet of Glenfield School and within 500 feet of Glenfield Park. Moore was held on a $75,000 bail, according to Deputy Chief Todd Conforti.
Saw this driving by the other night, was wondering what was going on. Just moved into the Glenfield Park area, on a really beautiful street with beautiful homes, and have been really surprised at the amount of crime, break ins, and drug activity in the area!
You could easily spend all your time here, and if you didn’t intentionally drive down Maple, New, or Mission Streets, etc (which we hadn’t before, we’re new to the area), you would have no idea any of this goes on.
I feel bad for the families that live in the area, but it does seem like the Montclair police and community do a really amazing job of staying involved and proactive. Props to them and the community.
I’m actually surprised that with the high taxes (house on Willowdale Ave that just sold for $95,000 still pays $11,000 a year in taxes!) and the proximity to the train station this area hasn’t been cleaned up yet just by the market. I’m not saying I want families priced out of Montclair, I’m just saying this is super valuable real estate, and there’s obviously something that is drawing crime to this small, small area, that’s surrounded by an otherwise safe community, and right by a school (a shot was fired right on Maple Ave last week in the middle of the day!) It effects everyone’s quality of life.
Obviously I’m not saying all of this because of ecstasy, but from reading through Baristanet, it seems everyone is aware of the larger problems.
We’ll most likely be moving next year when our lease is up – I just hope the problems here are getting better, not worse for the people who live here.
It goes on every area. More in some, than others, I’ll grant you that. The areas that have LESS (less, does mot mean :none”) aere:
Livingston, Maplewood, West Caldwell, Fairfield, Caldwell, and North Caldwell.
Zidarich, its fine to say that you want this area to be cleaned up and “priced out” of montclair…Its like these 3 blocks were picked up from East St Louis and dropped into lower montclair and its wild that there has been no market correction given montclairs relatively decent school system, access to NYC via train, etc etc…. not to mention bordering glenridge..part of the problem no doubt is the proximity to east orange. Amazing how hood these 3 blocks are.
Sandy, why was Verona or Essex Fells excluded from this category?
I think because of the proximity to East Orange and the fact the public transit travels right through Montclair makes it easy for undesirable characters.
This is my take on it: Many of the homes on Maple are multigenerational.
The Grandparents in this case want to sell the house and move to the Carolinas or Florida to retire, but their children and grandchildren won’t leave. The overcrowding in the home leads to the kids hanging out in the park at all hours of the night. Like-minded kids + Idle Time = the devil’s playground (no pun intended). Then there is crime. This is my personal take on it from 15 years ago when I used to play basketball with the neighborhood kids. The circumstances may have changed but the result is still relevant in this case.
In lighter news, the price of Ecstasy has come down 50% since the 90’s…
while its great that X is cheaper (especially for those in lower income brackets) it along with any other drug in high quantities kills neighborhoods. Jimmytown makes a good observation with respect to the lack of homes trading hands however in and of itself this does not explain the problem. Montclair has a good school system, north jersey and the new york area relative to other parts of the country is holding up pretty well in terms of employment as well and offers relatively cheap higher education. Montclair even has its own freeking college!!! So the question then is, why are these homes multigenerational? Why in a system as begnin as Montclair’s are homes multigenerational? Look, south centeral LA is a different story and even inner city camden, trenton, newark, etc… where the school system, support systems, and economoy suck are different stories. That is not the case in Montclair, wonder what can be done.