NYC vs Chicago suburban amenities (rent, buy, good schools)

[jrss]

I'm in the process of relocating from a Chicago suburb (Park Ridge) to the NYC area. Initially we'll rent in Jersey City, but ultimately want to settle in a similar as possible situation as we have now. My question has to do with taxes.

While fiscally conservative, I'm sympathetic in theory to the liberal idea that high taxes buy better services. While IL is in no sense a low tax state, NY and NJ have significantly higher income and property taxes, so what am I getting for my money. For example in Park Ridge, I get the following:
- Great schools (schools all rated 9 or 10 on great schools)
- New outdoor community pool ($7+ mln renovation) with an annual membership fee of only $160 for family of 3
- Nice community center with 2 indoor pools for approx. $60 / month for family of 3
- Park District skating rink, batting cages, etc..

Looking at NY / NJ, I seem to get
- Generally good schools
- Likely an outdoor community pool (membership fee of $350 - 750+ / year)
- Only indoor pool is likely a Y or JCC
- None of the other amenities

My income tax will go from 3.75% in IL to >6% blended in either state, and from my initial research, property taxes will climb from ~$10k to at least $15k, and highly likely $20-30k

What am I missing?

[JerseyGirl415]

Ok, one, you get great schools in most of suburban New Jersey. Most are probably better than IL schools since NJ schools consistently rank higher, almost always top 5 and recently top 1-3 out of 50.

There are various outdoor community pools in suburban NJ and I imagine NY as well. My town alone has 3 separate pool centers (each with multiple pools within them), and they're all clean and updated or in the process of being updated. One of these also has an indoor pool and gym. Membership depends on the town or individual pool center.

There are plenty of community centers in this area. My town has one and I know all neighboring towns do, as well. Many have built in gyms, libraries, spacious rooms, and outdoor areas among other random things like that. In our community center, there are sewing and quilting classses and the PAL cheerleaders often practice inside. The recreational children's basketball teams play there and we recently started an indoor winter artisan market there as well.

You're looking for skating rinks and batting cages? Yes, we have them here. All over.

I'm not sure if you're trolling or just didn't look very hard. You can find everything you're looking for and more here. Sure it may be more expensive but you'll be living in the NYC area (where amenities are plentiful and QOL is great) and that's just how it is. I just googled Park Ridge and there are plenty of NY and NJ NYC suburbs just like it in terms of wealth, schools, and amenities. Places like that are run of the mill around here.

Sorry for the deleted message above, for some reason this message posted twice.