Mountain Lakes, by many accounts, is a highly homogeneous scenic paradise in Northern New Jersey. Homogenous, in this context, refers to the high proportion of affluent, white, and Christian residents, as opposed to those of other socio-economic statuses, races, ethnicities, and religions. I sought to find a reason for these differences, as outwardly Mountain Lakes is a beautiful town that all must have been flocking towards for generations as a peaceful suburb to raise children. What I found were multiple accounts of a residential and discriminatory Gentlemen’s Agreement.
The United States has a long history of Gentlemen’s Agreements, at both a national level, most famously between Japan and the U.S. all the way down to a city level. A residential Gentlemen’s Agreement, specifically, refers to an informal or unwritten agreement wherein a certain group or minority agrees to not move into a neighborhood for fear of discrimination or intimidation by the majority group in the neighborhood. However, no such agreement would be in place in the twenty-first century, surely. Well, these malicious practices have been channeled into and deeply ingrained into a more systemic and legal means of exclusion: housing discrimination.
I decided to poll several current and past residents of Mountain Lakes to find out their experiences with housing discrimination, and while the overwhelming majority reported no such instances, it is important to listen to the stories of those who did.
History of the Gentlemen’s Agreement
The Gentlemen’s Agreement in Mountain Lakes primarily discriminated against Black, Jewish, and Catholic families from moving into the area. This can be corroborated by census data of Mountain Lakes that shows that zero Black people can be found living in Mountain Lakes before 1990, save for servants and house staff. Oral recitations of the Gentlemen’s Agreement can be found as early as the 1930s in a documentary by the title of “Chanceman’s Brothers and Sisters: The Origins of the 20th Century Morris County Black Community,” where Gwendolyn Boyce recollected that ”when [she] lived in Mountain Lakes, [she] don’t know if it was written but everyone seemed to know that there were no blacks to live there, no Jews to live there, no Catholics to live there.” Another specific and anti-Semitic account of the Gentlemen’s Agreement can be found in a passage in The Enduring Community: The Jews of Newark and MetroWest by William B. Helmreich, in which he recounts how the “substantial Jewish population in Rockaway Township… were not welcome in nearby communities of Mountain Lakes and Lake Arrowhead.”
Because there were apparently no laws against discrimination in housing, there were no Blacks, hardly any Jews, no Latinos in town that I was aware of. My parents told me that the real estate agents just would not show the available houses to people they deemed “undesirable.” This subject came up when they noticed that I was dating the son of the “only” Jewish family in town. They didn’t object, just mentioned it in passing. This boyfriend lived during the school year in Florida and went to military school there… From a teenager’s perspective, the “greasers” lived in Boonton, and black women came out of Newark on the bus to house clean.
An oral recitation of the Gentlemen’s Agreement by Abbie McMillen
One of the main issues, however, with exposing and ending a Gentlemen’s Agreement has to do with its nebulous nature, as it was never actually codified. It even begs the question as to whether the agreement still exists. Although the latest census data has shown an increase in diversity, now only 84.1% of residents self-identify as white, that number is still staggeringly high considering that only 71.1% of New Jersey residents self-identify as white.
Housing Discrimination
In my poll to community members I asked whether they experienced any instances of housing discrimination, to gauge whether the Gentlemen’s Agreement may have taken on a more subtle approach to accommodate the niceties and performative activism of the twenty-first century. While the overwhelming majority of residents, including BIPOC and Jewish residents, did not report having faced housing discrimination, some did.
We looked at a LOT of houses in Mountain Lakes. My family toured basically anything that was available in 2013/2014 in this town. I was too young to notice if we were treated differently during showings because of our race/religion, but my parents mentioned that a lot of realtors were really dismissive towards them. My mom said that many realtors seemed to think that my parents couldn’t afford the houses they were looking at.
— Anonymous
It was very challenging for us to move into Mountain Lakes. We had several housing deals fall through. In addition we had a negative experience with one of the realtors in town who was very obviously racist.
— Anonymous
The realtor discouraged my grandparents from living in Mt. Lakes and insisted that they speak with the 1 Jewish family in town before buying.
— Anonymous
Many refusals to rent to us. When we chose to purchase property the seller’s real estate agent actively tried to find other buyers when we put our offer in and seemed disappointed in us purchasing the property.
— Anonymous
The seller initially tried to back out. When we asked why and did it have anything to do with our religion, we were told no; it was because the seller didn’t want to sell to lawyers. Seemed like a very odd answer.
— Anonymous
My parents were rejected from the Mt Lakes Club and were told by friends it was because they were Jewish.
— Anonymous
A neighbor across the street was a little harsh to my son and husband when she assumed we were renters. I believe that our house was rented at some point before we bought it. We found it odd for someone to assume we were renting our home and to look down upon renting in general.
— Anonymous
People in Mountain Lakes often assume that people of color live in “the townhouses” or in the village. They always seem to be surprised when I tell them where I actually live.
— Anonymous
Lifeguards at the beach harass my kids. They and other people stare and give us dirty looks, and a lifeguard even yelled at my kids “This is a private beach!” before even asking us if we have beach tags. More specifically to housing — our real estate agent informed us soon after we moved here that many people in town are not happy with the diversity and don’t want any black people in town. They feel that white only means “exclusive” and “better” despite several data that this is not always the case. There are several mostly white schools with poor ratings and more diverse schools with better test scores and rankings.
— Anonymous
Local neighbors were excited to tell us about the other Jewish family living in the neighborhood. We were welcomed by our neighbors but it was obvious that they took note of us being Jewish and moving into ML. For the most part, we have felt comfortable and welcome in ML and have not experienced direct acts of anti-Semitism. Although, after the 2018 midterm election, swastikas were drawn in snow on a car on our street that winter. Never saw that before in town. Seemed as though during the Trump years some people felt emboldened to reveal their prejudices.
— Anonymous
These haunting accounts of housing discrimination, blatant racism, and anti-Semitism are too powerful to be ignored. These testimonies only further prove that the story of discrimination and the history of Mountain Lakes will forever be intertwined. It even begs the question if Mountain Lakes can ever shake its racist roots and present and become a community inclusive to all. Furthermore, in tandem with these overtly racist experiences, another mode of discrimination that can more easily be calculated by looking at the median income and the median house cost of Mountain Lakes, $216,250 and $814,100, respectively. An elitist and wildly expensive pattern ensues.
Affordable Housing
Affordable housing is one of the greatest equalizers in opportunity and a key to racial justice in both the entire country at large, and even more locally to New Jersey and Mountain Lakes, specifically. However, affordable housing has been combated by suburbanites for decades for fear of an increase in crime, decline of property values, and a change in property taxes. These claims have been debunked numerous times, but “white flight” and fear continue to seclude the suburbs from diversification and create barriers to affordable housing.
In Mountain Lakes, there is a complete lack of affordable housing; however, New Jersey law dictates that a municipality must have its fair share of affordable housing and must replace it should the unit be lost. The Mountain Lakes Affordable Housing Advisory Committee is committed to bringing affordable housing to Mountain Lakes, including several ongoing projects. However, one does not need to look on Zillow for one minute to understand that while genuine in their pursuit, these ventures have not been largely successful in bringing affordable housing to Mountain Lakes and diversifying the socio-economic pool of Mountain Lakes on a large scale.
The affordable housing “problem” here is only looking for a “solution” that brings zero children to our school district. I believe the “accessory apartment” approach of encouraging parents to “claim an apartment for their adult kids” would be embarrassing if exposed. Seems to avoid having lower income families, including those of color. Because it is very white here, I can only point to how the lower house value communities are treated vs the wealthier ones.
For example, I think the 2020 property tax reassessment was ridiculous. They passed an emergency spend appropriation of $125,000 to do the property tax reassessment during COVID. The neighborhoods of lower value were hit huge (35-45% increase) while the higher home price areas got huge tax cuts.
This town has too many developers, builders, planners, and real estate agents, etc in non-elected (and elected) positions of real power. There are now major renovations, zoning changes, and development plans that raise some ethical questions on what type of people they want here and how they treat the people in the neighborhoods of lower price value.
One concerned citizen provided their opinions regarding affordable housing
When confronted with this reality of the real estate bubble in Mountain Lakes, I saw that the only logical conclusion was that Mountain Lakes simply does not want to know poor people, and much less accommodate them. We are complacent in our exclusion, and there is simply not enough of an effort to end this modern-day discrimination, which disproportionately affects BIPOC families and communities.
The Future
Nearly seventeen years ago a contributor for the New York Times named Kevin Callihane wrote an article wherein he too critiqued the homogeneous nature of Mountain Lakes and how it was largely reminiscent of the Gentlemen’s Agreement. It’s not only disappointing to see that so little has changed in almost two decades, but a testament to the stagnant nature of the suburbs and how recognition of a problem is only the first step towards equity. It is also a testament to the mindset of Mountain Lakes, that seems to still be stuck in the unspoken and tenuous hatred of the nuclear twentieth century suburbs.
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