Urban community between Trenton and Philadelphia - Bristol and Burlington? (Camden: rental, condo)

[sam&john]

My husband and I are moving with our twin 18 month old daughters this summer for my job. I'll be working in Hamilton Township, and he thinks his best job prospects are in Philadelphia. We'd both prefer to commute by train. It looks like SEPTA would be better than NJ Transit, since he'd have to transfer in Camden. We'll be renting and on a budget since we'll just have one income for some indeterminate period of time. Schools are not really an issue, since our kids are so young. However, daycare nearby would be important.

We're city people, really, and have lived in the same place for 17 years, so this will be a big change. We'd love to find a town that has an urban center, a little bit of edge/not just suburbia with condo cities, a neighborhood cafe, and access to outdoors.

It seems like the area around Bristol or Burlington might split the commute well. Other areas that I've seen mentioned are Cinnaminson and Bordentown. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

We're also considering looking for a short term rental (like 6 months?) while he looks for a job. Anyone know if this would be feasible?

Thanks!

[deere110]

Originally Posted by sam&john

My husband and I are moving with our twin 18 month old daughters this summer for my job. I'll be working in Hamilton Township, and he thinks his best job prospects are in Philadelphia. We'd both prefer to commute by train. It looks like SEPTA would be better than NJ Transit, since he'd have to transfer in Camden. We'll be renting and on a budget since we'll just have one income for some indeterminate period of time. Schools are not really an issue, since our kids are so young. However, daycare nearby would be important.

We're city people, really, and have lived in the same place for 17 years, so this will be a big change. We'd love to find a town that has an urban center, a little bit of edge/not just suburbia with condo cities, a neighborhood cafe, and access to outdoors.

It seems like the area around Bristol or Burlington might split the commute well. Other areas that I've seen mentioned are Cinnaminson and Bordentown. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

We're also considering looking for a short term rental (like 6 months?) while he looks for a job. Anyone know if this would be feasible?

Thanks!

I would say your best bet is Bordentown City. Bordentown is a small city, decent schools, safe, funky little restaurants and cafes, and an actual "Main Street" area. Bordentown is just over Hamilton's southern border so even if you're commuting to the far nothern part of the township you're probably looking at a 20 minute commute absolute maximum. As for your husband there's two options. If you live right downtown he could take the NJ Transit Riverline (it's walkable from most parts of Bordentown City) to Camden and change to the PATCO high speed line. OR he could drive to Trenton Station and take SEPTA from there, but that would require getting a monthly space at the garage. If your commutes work out you might be able to drop him off in the morning too.

[sam&john]

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll look further at Bordentown.

[pbergen]

Originally Posted by sam&john

My husband and I are moving with our twin 18 month old daughters this summer for my job. I'll be working in Hamilton Township, and he thinks his best job prospects are in Philadelphia. We'd both prefer to commute by train. It looks like SEPTA would be better than NJ Transit, since he'd have to transfer in Camden. We'll be renting and on a budget since we'll just have one income for some indeterminate period of time. Schools are not really an issue, since our kids are so young. However, daycare nearby would be important.

We're city people, really, and have lived in the same place for 17 years, so this will be a big change. We'd love to find a town that has an urban center, a little bit of edge/not just suburbia with condo cities, a neighborhood cafe, and access to outdoors.

It seems like the area around Bristol or Burlington might split the commute well. Other areas that I've seen mentioned are Cinnaminson and Bordentown. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

We're also considering looking for a short term rental (like 6 months?) while he looks for a job. Anyone know if this would be feasible?

Thanks!

if your husband is looking to take SEPTA rather than nj transit so as to avoid a transfer in camden, then you should stick with the bucks county, pennsylvania side of the delaware river. bucks county is a northeastern suburb of philly and is served by SEPTA's R7 line, which provides direct rail access to philly's center city (southbound) and to trenton (northbound). from trenton, you can switch to nj transit's northeast corridor rail line or to a bus to get to hamilton.

on the other hand, towns like burlington, cinnaminson, and bordentown are all on the south jersey side of the river and are not served by SEPTA. to get to philly from these towns, your husband would have to take the light rail (nj transit's river line) to camden, then switch to the PATCO to get to philly. to get to hamilton, you'd need to take the river line in the other direction (northbound) to trenton and then switch to a bus or the northeast corridor line.

if you find a nice place on the nj side of the river but your husband is still dead set on taking SEPTA into philly, then you'd need to drive over the river to one of the SEPTA train stations in bucks county or even northeast philly and ride the train in opposite directions from there. or, you could drop him off every morning at a SEPTA station in pennsylvania, then drive up to your office in hamilton. in the late afternoon/evening, you'd have to swing by the station once again to pick him up. while that's certainly feasible, it isn't necessarily the optimal situation. why not live in pennsylvania instead?

you should post this query in the general pennsylvania forum and possibly in the philadelphia subforum as well to get better answers about the bucks county towns.

[dhanu86]

Hi I'm glad more nice people are moving to south jersey, Where are u guys moving from? I don't think Phila necessarily has the best job prospects but I don't know. I'm from Burlington city, it's a nice city except for the area between E.Broad st and rt 130 which is the poor area. I worked in Bordentown (right on farnsworth ave) and Mt Holly (grant st), Bordentown is very safe and more community minded. Riverton/Palmya (has no downtown but Phila does) is good with their bridge and access to good things in south jersey but but bad access to I-295 which goes to Hamilton.

The good thing about Burlington city is that it has a bridge, Bordentown is good but I wouldn't recommend it for someone working in Phila, just takes too long even with driving, because of the 95 traffic. Bristol is worth looking into as well with it's location to restaurants,malls as well as PA/hamilton bridges and access to Phila.. but they have no walkable waterfront like Burlington does:P

i forgot to say, I like how Septa goes into Trenton but once u are in Trenton, u are still a good distance from any of the above towns rather driving or taking riverline, takes to long.

[JerzBoy]

Check out Riverside, NJ as well.

[frankgn87]

we came from Philly and moved to Cinnaminson and it is mot certainly NOT an urban area.. Thanks goodness. If you like the city life, why not in CC Philly?

Originally Posted by sam&john

My husband and I are moving with our twin 18 month old daughters this summer for my job. I'll be working in Hamilton Township, and he thinks his best job prospects are in Philadelphia. We'd both prefer to commute by train. It looks like SEPTA would be better than NJ Transit, since he'd have to transfer in Camden. We'll be renting and on a budget since we'll just have one income for some indeterminate period of time. Schools are not really an issue, since our kids are so young. However, daycare nearby would be important.

We're city people, really, and have lived in the same place for 17 years, so this will be a big change. We'd love to find a town that has an urban center, a little bit of edge/not just suburbia with condo cities, a neighborhood cafe, and access to outdoors.

It seems like the area around Bristol or Burlington might split the commute well. Other areas that I've seen mentioned are Cinnaminson and Bordentown. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

We're also considering looking for a short term rental (like 6 months?) while he looks for a job. Anyone know if this would be feasible?

Thanks!

[subwayfan]

While its not the green thing to do, for your husband - I'd consider just bypassing the RiverLine, and just drive down either Route 130, I-295 or NJ Turnpike (3 routes) to get to a PATCO point (like Ferry Avenue or Woodcrest) in Camden County, and then take PATCO into Philadelphia.

The RiverLine frequency is less (about 15 minutes for each train, at its best), there is outside wait involved (in the severe winter not recommended), and it makes a number of stops before one is able to reach Broadway Camden, and if he has to take SEPTA subway or trolley also once in Philly, it's too many transfers. Another option is for him to find employment in NJ, no city wage tax.

[sam&john]

Thank you to everyone! dhanu86, we're moving from San Francisco. We're not looking in Philadelphia because I don't want to commute from there to Hamilton Township.
City wage taxes ! Yikes... Does that mean you pay city, state, and federal taxes? If so, are there localities in NJ that are like that?

[JerzBoy]

No, I don't believe any municipalities in NJ charge their own local taxes - its just state and federal. Also - if your husband gets a job in Philly, he can deduct the city wage tax against the NJ state tax so that helps a lot.