Church Street closes to cars one weekend a month through October, part of a pilot the township is calling Summer on the Street. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on those weekends, the block between Bloomfield Avenue and South Park Street — home to some of Montclair’s best-known boutiques and cafes — belongs to whoever shows up on foot. Depending who you ask, that’s either the best thing to happen to downtown in years or a headache with a schedule.
We partnered with Two Cents, the app that lets you send feedback straight to local businesses, anonymously if you want, to find out where Montclair actually lands. Where do you stand on Church Street? Take our poll
This isn’t a new idea. In 2019, resident Lucy Ziesing started a petition asking the township to make Church Street pedestrian-only, arguing it needed to be safer and more enjoyable; it gathered more than 100 signatures. The idea returned in 2020, when the Business Improvement District pushed weekend closures to help restaurants add outdoor seating during the pandemic.
This year’s version runs through the township’s Complete Streets program, led by director Jacob Nieman, who has called it a genuine pilot — citing research suggesting pedestrian-friendly streets can see stronger retail sales, while noting the town still wants real feedback before deciding anything long-term.
What Montclair Business Owners Think About Church Street Going Car-Free
Joe Longo has run Blu Lotus at 20 Church Street for 31 years, and he wants the closures every day, not once a month. He also knows exactly why he’s an outlier on his own block.
“If it was this way all the time I would be very happy,” Longo said. “But I’m not a restaurant. There are nothing but restaurants on the street. And they like the access for the customers to drive up and double park and get their takeout or their valet and get to dinner. But that doesn’t help me at all. I’ve been here for 31 years.”
Ashley would push back on the restaurant half of that math. As manager and chef at Dutch’s Montclair, she’s watched foot traffic become the story of every closure weekend, not the missing cars. “Honestly the foot traffic is really high currently without the cars coming through,” she said. She’d braced for delivery chaos that never came. “It’s just the delivery drivers usually come on bikes so it doesn’t really impact us as much.”
Not every business is seeing a lift, though. At Java Love, a barista, Emma, said the extra bodies on the street haven’t turned into extra coffee sold. “At least the last two times it’s happened, I feel like it’s been the same type of business,” she said. “Sales-wise, it could bring it up a little more.” She’s not against the closures. She just wishes the closure would do a bit more for her business. “I wish that we could put more tables out on the sidewalk,” she said.
Java Love owner Jodie Dawson raised a sharper concern. An active driveway at the end of her building means the block can’t be fully closed at all — a wrinkle that stings more now that downtown parking rates just went up for the first time in eight years. That, she said, “really impacts the flow of traffic. It takes away parking spots.” Deliveries have had to reroute too — her dairy and UPS orders now come from Park Street instead, “which then causes more traffic and congestion.” She’s also unconvinced the closure is being used as intended: “All the restaurants have big wide sidewalks, so they’re not putting tables in the street, there’s no big activations happening,” she said. “It’s literally just the street being closed.” Her bottom line: “honestly, just not a fan unless there’s a huge effort to really transform the street into some big pedestrian activation — it’s just falling flat.”
For Toastique, which opened on Church Street exactly a month before this reporting, the timing has been more useful than the sales. “It’s been great for new businesses like my own,” said Zairah Ahmed, of Toastique Montclair. The only real friction shows up before the customers ever arrive. “It’s a bit challenging when we get our produce orders in, but overall it hasn’t been like a major impact,” she said. What she’s noticed instead is who’s walking in. “Definitely a lot more foot traffic, a lot of families, a lot of strollers.”
What Montclair Residents Near Church Street Think
Not everyone weighing in runs a business there. Some just live near it, or spend enough time there to have opinions anyway.
Tyler lives on Church Street and doesn’t drive on the block. For him, the closure removes a problem he never had.
“I don’t mind it being closed,” Tyler said. “I don’t drive on this street, I park elsewhere down the street, so it makes it easier for me to cross the street. I can walk to the different stores, so I don’t mind it being closed. It’s not an inconvenience to me.”
Another neighbor, Aaliah, lives a 10-minute walk away and comes to Church Street often enough to have strong opinions about what it should become.
“This is phenomenal,” she said. “It’s a perfect pedestrian thoroughfare. I love seeing the activations, and I hope to see more over the summer and into the fall.” She’s not pretending the tradeoffs don’t exist. “There’s some people who don’t like it because it would maybe close off deliveries and people who have accessibility concerns,” she said. “I mean, nothing’s perfect.” Her hope is that the town builds around those gaps instead of stalling over them. “Net net it’s really good for promoting the vibrance of the town.”
Michelle isn’t on Church Street at all. She runs RecRoom, the coworking space at Lackawanna Station, and she’s watching this play out from a few blocks away with the same wish Aaliah has: that the town doesn’t just declare victory. “I love Church Street being pedestrian only,” she said, with the caveat that any permanent plan needs to account for residents who need parking access and business owners worried about losing car traffic.
What Montclair Hasn’t Decided Yet
The closures are still a pilot, not a permanent policy. Deputy Mayor and Councilor at Large Susan Shin Andersen said the township is watching how the block performs before it decides anything else.
“There’s going to be a lot of looking at data, to see how this affects foot traffic, how long people spend in businesses, whether or not it results in more people coming to Church Street,” Shin Anderson said. “We’ll also make sure that we check with the residents and the business owners to find out how it worked out for them.”
Groups hoping to bring programming to the block have until July 31 to apply. Everyone else just has to show up.
🗳️ Do you think Church Street should stay car-free permanently? Take our Church Street poll
Image Credit: Gemeni / Google Street View
