The Bergen County Homes Blog

     Trolley service was  used in Bergen County until the advent of the Automobile Age in the 50’s and 60’s which made them seem old fashioned and restrictive.  You could drive anywhere in a car at any time – not so with the trolley.  Another change was development of large scale shopping malls on Route 4 and Route 17.  The Bergen Mall and Garden State Plaza were the first major shopping malls opening in the late 50’s.  People flocked to these new malls in their cars.  Even with a great business district locally, if you owned an Englewood home, chances were that you drove to these malls.   

In the affluence of the post World War II era, the American Dream of owning a home with your own backyard and a car in the driveway took over.  Soon even public buses  linking all 70 communities in Bergen County became a thing of the past.  People went everywhere in their cars.  I remember watching trolley tracks being paved over on Broad Avenue in Leonia when I was a young girl.  Everyone was proud of how “modern” Leonia now appeared.  But, times have changed and trolley service is one of the advantages of owning an Englewood home.

Green is in which means using public transportation to commute to work, shop and dine out is  more important than ever.  People who are thinking of buying a home now use such websites as Walk Score to measure how accessible homes are to basic services. 

In December of 2008 the City of Englewood began an experiment – free trolley service to the downtown business district where an Englewood resident could connect to NJ Transit and Coach USA express buses to work.  In addition to  normal rush hours, the trolley operates until 8 pm during the work week so commuters can shop and dine downtown on their way home at night.  (Saturdays it runs from 1 to 8 pm).  Having this free service is quite an advantage if you own an Englewood home.

The trolley experiement has been a huge success and is another benefit for Englewood homes.  For more information , Englewood has a detailed brochure and a map of the trolley line .

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Bergen County has the advantage of being just a short hop across the George Washington Bridge from New York City’s attractions which include world class theater and entertainment.  But did you know that there are wonderful shows and concerts here as well? 

 The Bergen Pac (Bergen Performing Arts Center), located right in downtown Englewood, is where you will enjoy live performances – everything from the New Jersey Symphony to international stars. PAC performances have included Ray Charles, Pink Floyd, Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole, the Beach Boys and comedians Don Rickles, Bil Cosby and Wanda Sykes just to name a few.

Begen PAC is extremely popular – world class entertainment that’s easy to get to; you don’t have to drive to Manhattan and pay the exorbitant parking fees of NYC garages.  Plus it’s so convenient for a full night out. 

Many people take advantage of the many excellent restaurants in downtown Englewood and then take in the show at Bergen PAC.  When the weather allows, Englewood has a downtown that is filled with people during the evening enjoying dinners, cappucino or just walking up and down Palisade Avenue looking at all the shops.

Bergen County also has many local theater companies including the Garage Theater Group in residence at Fairleigh Dickinson University and very popular community theater groups such as the Bergen County Players and The Player\’s Guild of Leonia. We even have our own opera company - The New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera.  

There’s another performing arts center that you can take advantage of  as well; Ramapo College has the Berrie Center for the Performing Arts.  This theater is situated on a beautiful campus and is host to quite a variety of plays, concerts, lectures.  Located in the northern end of Bergen County, it’s convenient for both northern Bergen County residents and folks from Rockland County, NY, too.  

As you can see, theater and the performing arts are very important to people in Bergen County.

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Whether it’s  Tenafly homes, Englewood homes, River Vale homes, Westwood homes or anywhere else in Bergen County, what’s happening in the housing market is important and always of interest.  USA Today has great interactive graphs from Moody\’s  that track 5 critical measurements of the real estate market.  What these interactive charts show is solid improvement across the board beginning with the 4th quarter of 2009!

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