Montclair near the Bay Street train station, good area? (Newark: apartments, living in)

[010helloworld]

I’m a 29 year old single guy, I grew up and lived most of my life in Bensonhurst Brooklyn and Staten Island, for the last 3 years I’ve been living in Italy and I recently moved back to the United States. I need to be able to get to Newark easily but I’m living with my parents in Brooklyn and that’s a nightmare commute. I’m looking at apartments and I see what looks like a nice place in Montclair, NJ right next to the Bay Street train station. Is this a nice area? Safe?

[nybbler]

Montclair is nice. That's kind of a bad area of Montclair, but Montclair doesn't really get all that bad.

[010helloworld]

Originally Posted by nybbler

Montclair is nice. That's kind of a bad area of Montclair, but Montclair doesn't really get all that bad.

If you’re familiar with Brooklyn or anywhere in NYC could you give a comparable area as a point of reference? Is it like Bensonhurst, ie mostly fine but kind of icky in parts and maybe sketchy at night, like Red Hook or the North Shore of Staten Island ie historically pretty bad but improving, or worse?