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My husband works in midtown East (or is 59th St UES?) we've been looking further south like Montclair, Glen Ridge but realizing his commute is still gonna be around 90 min each way. We'd really like to shorten that, now we are thinking near the George Washington Bridge or the Hudson River towns. Any suggestions of a cute family-oriented town with good schools, stuff going on for kids, etc? I am not familiar with North jersey at all really, having grown up in Middlesex County and then we lived in Brooklyn for a while.
Look in northern Bergen County. Those are all pretty much good towns that are relatively close to the GWB. You didn't specify a budget but if you were looking in Montclair and Glen Ridge I would think most of the northern Bergen County towns would be in a similar price range. Some towns to consider: Ridgewood, Wyckoff, Ramsey, Glen Rock, Oradell, Westwood. Fort Lee itself is not a bad option at all and obviously would offer the best possible commute to the GWB.
Also look at the town's closer to the Hudson River going north like tenafly, cresskill, demarest and closter. All good family oriented towns but they don't offer a train option.
Tenafly/cresskill/demarest/closter are good options, with Tenafly the furthest south (shortest commute). What time is his commute? From Tenafly it's under 1 hour door to desk by bus to his location (assuming cab from PABT to office) if you leave before 7, but increases quite a bit after that. Add a few minutes at night as you have to take the subway back to PA. Add a few minutes more for each town further north. If he wants to drive it can be incredibly quick in the morning but very slow at night, and parking near there is very expensive unless he's far east. That office location is a bit annoying for anyone who commutes through port authority or penn, unfortunately.
Leonia is probably your best bet RIGHT near the bridge. Fort Lee isn't a bad town and the schools are pretty good, but it's more of an "urban" suburb and definitely doesn't feel family-oriented.
Leonia is probably your best bet RIGHT near the bridge. Fort Lee isn't a bad town and the schools are pretty good, but it's more of an "urban" suburb and definitely doesn't feel family-oriented.
Yeah its been the evening commute thats much longer. He leaves at 5 on the dot to get home at 6:45, we are in Middlesex County right now, we were going to buy here close to family so we rented for a year but there is no way he can do this commute long term. Have to figure out a place so we can start house hunting again in the Spring. He's tried the Uber estimates but says the estimate by car is longer than the subway to PABT. Isn't there another bus terminal up north near the GWB? We were thinking that would be shorter to cross over to the east side up there and come down rather than crossing at midtown. He's at 59th and Lexington. Maybe I'm mistaken about the options up that way though.
The GWB terminal is brand new. There busses there don't run quite as often as the ones out of PABT but it's a good option, especially at night since there is rarely traffic. Going in it's not as good because there is no dedicated lane for busses to get over the bridge so you are stuck with regular rush hour traffic. .The jitneys that run across the bridge and on route 4 are great if you can get from your house to route 4 (either parking near there, getting picked up/dropped off/uberlyft). A decent option if you live in the northern bergen co area is take a bus into PABT in the morning and take jitney home from GWB in the afternoon.
The biggest issue though in getting to the GWB terminal as the only way to get there is on the A train. From the east side you either have to walk to columbus circle or take the E train and transfer at 42nd (at which point you may as well just get on a bus at PABT!).
Another option if you are interested in leaving near the GWB is to drive in and park up in east harlem somewhere. I imagine garages are cheaper and he can take the 4/5/6 straight down.
Leonia is probably your best bet RIGHT near the bridge. Fort Lee isn't a bad town and the schools are pretty good, but it's more of an "urban" suburb and definitely doesn't feel family-oriented.
I'd agree with this. Leonia is right near the bridge and has a really pretty good school system.
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