My wife works in Paramus so living in that direction appealed to her. I am stubbornly loyal (same barber for 14 years) so while I thought the area around Watchung Plaza was beautiful I was grumbling about potentially giving up on Jersey City.

Speaking of barbers I used to go to Ernie's on Montgomery St next to Citizen Kane's (now McGinley Sq Pub) during college. Where he moved to on Bergen Ave just became a "cute" French place.

In any case we just signed up both kids for Taekwando on Central Ave which I am sure they will love.

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My wife had a thing for moving to Livingston for a while. Her friends bought homes there for the school system, which they all praised.

Moving to a suburb partially in a floodplain and putting up with a long commute to work was not exactly thrilling for me.

Montclair?

Brewster, my older son was in the first kindergarten class in 1997. When his group hit 5th grade, the class was tracked. My younger son's class was not tracked because the principal said his class was far more homogeneous.

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It baffles me why tracking is a PC non-no in many schools while magnet schools, tracking on a broad scale, are OK. The main criticism I could make of LCCS was no tracking, particularly for math. My kids were better prepared in Science than the AEP kids, but were a year behind in math, which basically meant they couldn't take calculus at McNair without taking a double math year in preparation.

We were lucky getting into LCCS, but I've spoken to parents who are perfectly happy with k-8 schools like #5, 16 & 37. I'm not as familiar with the Heights, but no doubt it's similar or getting there, as families like Chris's stay.

This is a relevant topic for our family with kids going into Pre-K4 and kindergarten at PS 26 in the Heights in September. Last year they both seemed to enjoy their time and learned a lot there in Pre-K3 & 4. I really liked their teachers, principal & the general positive vibe I get from the school. From what I have heard the kindergarten teachers are good as well. As they get older I guess we will need to monitor if they are challenged enough - not sure if this will be an easy thing to judge?

From a general neighborhood perspective the parks are a big plus. We live closer to mosquito park and go sometimes but more often go to Pershing Field. We really get our moneys worth there with them both playing baseball/tball, the playground redone in 2015 and the water play area. We also get to pool from time to time and there is ice skating/hockey/now roller skating. I have done a lot of running on the 1/3 mile track though I prefer it before it was paved last year. It is a little more than a mile walk but for a change of pace we sometimes go to Riverview Park. I also hope that the reservoir is open more regularly in the future as I have had some great times there.

In fall of 2014 I seriously contemplated moving to Montclair. Something seemed to happen in my brain at that point as I had just passed half my life in Jersey City (from 18 - 36) so I had a nostalgic change of heart and we decided to stay. I had already gotten used to the drawbacks like some unkempt houses, litter, and traffic congestion so any positive changes like new restaurants/etc have felt like a win. One way to get less stressed by the traffic is just walking whenever possible - the kids have gotten used to it.

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My one tenant that had two kids moved because of the public school (Heights). The school was safe, but his son was going insane with boredom. He was already doing long division and fraction whilst the rest of the class was still trying to learn addition / subtraction, etc.

I think he tried to see if he could get him into PS16, but there was no room for an out of district kid. He decided moving was more affordable than private school.

My other tenant who has a kid has a god parent paying for her daughter to go to St. Nicholas in the Heights.

I am looking to put mine in one of the Montessori schools (budget willing). There is a group trying to open a Montessori charter school (grades K thru 3). They re-submitted their application after the Murphy administration blanket rejected all charter school applications. They seem to be making progress to getting approved now...

This 100%. These listicles are always useless.

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Why would any family settle in JSQ? There's no parks at all. So much for "city planning". If you can't afford DT, the Heights has the best quality of life.

MDM, there's a lot of middle class people keeping their kids in the public schools, even if just till middle school, which makes them better just by itself. After that there's A1 and MS4 if they can get in.

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For my tenants, unless they can afford private school, they head for the suburbs when their kids hit kindergarten or 1st grade.

What makes a neighborhood great for families is typically a sense of community! Here are a few Jersey City neighborhoods that are particularly popular to raise a family in JC.

http://jcfamilies.com/the-best-neighb ... -a-family-in-jersey-city/