DEAR MONTCLAIRVOYANT,
In 2019, mansions dating back to 1865 and 1907 were demolished near Eagle Rock Reservation to make way for a proposed 60,000-square-foot mega-mansion bigger than the White House. Was that huge home ever built?
Sincerely,
No Kvelling Over Dwelling
Yes, construction of the White House started in the 1790s.
DEAR MONTCLAIRVOYANT,
But the Montclair mega-mansion didn’t happen. Now, the latest plan for the “Lloyd Estate” site proposes seven fancy homes. Could you address the pros and cons?
Sincerely,
Not Seven Samurai
If the homes are built, and if the buyers include professional athletes and white-collar criminals, I might address those pros and those cons after they move in. Then again, I might not want to speak to them.
DEAR MONTCLAIRVOYANT,
The positives of the proposed homes?
Sincerely,
Fusses Over Plusses
They’d bring Montclair quite a bit of new property-tax revenue, even as some of the owners might send their kids to private schools — saving our town some new public-education costs. Finally, if the homes have views of Manhattan, I’d be impressed because Manhattan, Kansas, is 1,300 miles away.
DEAR MONTCLAIRVOYANT,
Negatives of the proposed homes?
Sincerely,
The Minus Touch
Loss of some open space in a crowded Montclair, and, not surprisingly, none of the seven homes would be “affordable” in a town that’s sadly becoming too pricey for many people. I knew things reached a tipping point when Dostoevsky’s novel “Poor Folk” couldn’t afford to stay on the public library’s shelves.
DEAR MONTCLAIRVOYANT,
But wouldn’t the developer have to pay into Montclair’s affordable housing fund to make up for not building any non-pricey “Lloyd Estate” homes?
Sincerely,
Diversity Diversion
Yes, but that’s a token requirement no wealthy developer will lose sleep over, according to the sleep experts at Mattress Firm on Bloomfield Avenue in nearby Verona.
DEAR MONTCLAIRVOYANT,
Meanwhile, the tenants at one of Montclair’s few remaining affordable apartment buildings — the 50 Greenwood Avenue-based Union Gardens you mentioned in last week’s column — have been dealing with an ownership that hasn’t adequately kept up the place for years. Leading to the question of whether…
Sincerely,
It Ain’t Easy Being Greenwood
…a town can be truly progressive when it has a housing “landscape” like ours — with “Lloyd Estate” and Union Gardens just two examples. Sure, I know the initials of that posh proposed place and that actual/neglected place spell “LUGE,” but living supine on a flat sled isn’t a realistic alternative.
DEAR MONTCLAIRVOYANT,
No one said it was. Is our municipality hopefully doing something about Union Gardens now that the problematic conditions there have been brought up by that building’s residents at multiple Council meetings?
Sincerely,
It Was Comment to Be
Time will tell. Hope — like 1865 and 1907 mansions — can be demolished.
Dave Astor is the author of the MontClairVoyant. His opinions about politics and local events are strictly his own and do not represent or reflect the views of Montclair Local.
