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You should also consider that the food and wine industry inNYC is very fluid, and you may find yourself out of one job and in another overnight. In a completely different place with a different commute.
I agree. I've taken the subway at all hours of the night and never had a problem. The subways always have riders.
This.
I've been serving in Manhattan at night for years. Sometimes I've lived 10 blocks from my job and sometimes I've been hours away. I've never had a problem traveling late at night. I'm a 26 year old female.
But I don't travel with much cash on me, just to be safe (though I've never been robbed). I go to the nearest bank ATM and deposit.
I suggest Astoria and Sunnyside in Queens. Both are very quick commutes to Midtown. (Most parts of Brooklyn are not a quick commute to Midtown.) Sunnyside is on the 7 train, which runs frequently and is quite busy at night. I am not sure about the Astoria trains.
You can look up schedules of how frequently the trains run on the mta.info site by clicking on schedules and then the train line number. For example, the 7 train runs every 20 minutes in the dead of the night every night of the week (2 am, 2:20, 2:40, 3:00, etc.)
I strongly suggest against living off the 7 if you have a job such as bartending where you will likely need to come home late ON THE WEEKENDS.
The MTA has been doing weekend trackwork on the 7 between Manhattan and Queens over the weekend, leading to a complete shutdown of service from late Friday night (midnight) to early Monday morning (5am or so). This is expected to continue on-and-off until 2015.
While it's still safe to take the N/Q to Queensboro Plaza and then transfer to to the shuttle bus (to LIC stops) or to the 7 (to further out stops... the train runs only from Queensboro outward into Queens when this construction is occurring), this will add a lot of inconvenience and time to your commute. If I were getting off work at 3/4/5am I would want to just get home quickly and go to bed not wait 20 min for a train, and then another 20 for a transfer/shuttle.
The advice for Astoria is good. The N/Q line is all over midtown, runs out to Astoria without a transfer and is pretty much always running (though it does occasionally skip a couple stops if there is trackwork... ideally find a place near an "express" stop).
Also, I have ridden the trains at all hours of the night and as long as you are riding through safe neighborhoods (ie. don't go hanging out around the Broadway Junction stop in the middle of the night but you have no reason to be in East New York regardless) you should be fine.
I strongly suggest against living off the 7 if you have a job such as bartending where you will likely need to come home late ON THE WEEKENDS.
The MTA has been doing weekend trackwork on the 7 between Manhattan and Queens over the weekend, leading to a complete shutdown of service from late Friday night (midnight) to early Monday morning (5am or so). This is expected to continue on-and-off until 2015.
While it's still safe to take the N/Q to Queensboro Plaza and then transfer to to the shuttle bus (to LIC stops) or to the 7 (to further out stops... the train runs only from Queensboro outward into Queens when this construction is occurring), this will add a lot of inconvenience and time to your commute. If I were getting off work at 3/4/5am I would want to just get home quickly and go to bed not wait 20 min for a train, and then another 20 for a transfer/shuttle.
The advice for Astoria is good. The N/Q line is all over midtown, runs out to Astoria without a transfer and is pretty much always running (though it does occasionally skip a couple stops if there is trackwork... ideally find a place near an "express" stop).
Also, I have ridden the trains at all hours of the night and as long as you are riding through safe neighborhoods (ie. don't go hanging out around the Broadway Junction stop in the middle of the night but you have no reason to be in East New York regardless) you should be fine.
I didn't realize this was going on right now. I looked it up and see that it will continue through April of this year. Press Release (I don't see where it says that the work is ongoing through 2015.)
I am not sure, though, that advising against an entire subway line makes that much sense, unless you are sure they are not about to start upgrades on the other lines, such as the N line in Astoria. Has the N line been upgraded yet? I can just imagine someone moving to a neighborhood in order to avoid track work on a certain line -- and then have the track work start on the line near where they just moved to.
I didn't realize this was going on right now. I looked it up and see that it will continue through April of this year. Press Release (I don't see where it says that the work is ongoing through 2015.)
I am not sure, though, that advising against an entire subway line makes that much sense, unless you are sure they are not about to start upgrades on the other lines, such as the N line in Astoria. Has the N line been upgraded yet? I can just imagine someone moving to a neighborhood in order to avoid track work on a certain line -- and then have the track work start on the line near where they just moved to.
The big difference is that the N/Q does have an express track (though it isn't regularly used on a daily basis) and so they can re-route the trains onto the center track. They already do this regularly for random track work occasionally mi-day or weekends.
The 7 does not have an express track until you get further out into Queens and so track work = complete shutdown of that section of the track.
Believe me I live in the Vernon/Jackson area of LIC, and I love 90% of things about my neighborhood, but I absolutely WOULD NOT live here if I had to work late evenings on the weekends. This completely goes against the concept of a "short commute." It will add an extra 40+ min to the commute when this is going on... very unpleasant to wait at a shuttle stop with a couple other people for ages at 3am when it's freezing out. I've made a habit of staying over at friends apartments and sleeping on couches if I go out on weekends when this is happening.
The only transportation alternative to the 7 is the G-train around here, and that service is spotty even during the day.
They did this to the 7 last fall as well. They ran the trains over the holidays and then started back up again. The only reason the trains have to re-start in April is baseball season. They will start work again as soon as that is over.
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MTA Website:
"Substantial work remains, however, and this means continued 7 line service changes for several years."
Also I have seen on posters in the stations (at least the ones from last falls shutdown) that work will be ongoing through 2015.
News article from last fall:
"A crowd of angry straphangers gathered near the Vernon Boulevard 7 train station in Long Island City to protest the suspension of the 7 train for four weekends. Nearly three dozen times in the three previous years, the line had shut down due to construction."
"The culprit is the continuing maintenance of the Steinway tunnel that carries the 7 train under the East River, and the installation of a new signal system, which an MTA spokesman said would be a “three- to four-year project.”
MTA Press Release:
"It is important to note that work on the 7 Line will continue beyond these weekends. Service diversions facilitating CBTC installation, additional Steinway Tube maintenance work and other work along the line are scheduled to take place in Fall 2012." http://www.liqcity.com/wp-content/up...ur-April-2.pdf
Look into Astoria, by the Astoria Blvd. or Ditmars Blvd. stops on the N train.
Even when there's construction going on with the N line, it will still stop at these 2 stations. Plus the area is great. You should be able to find an apt in your price range as well.
When I was serving and getting off work at late hours I would get on the subway and ride the train next to the conductor's car, then take a cab for the few blocks from the station to my apartment. Then I started just walking it, realizing I was worrying about nothing. As long as you are in a neighborhood where there are people out and about you will be fine. Otherwise, just grab a cab for a few blocks to get to your door. It's only a few dollars and if you feel the need it's money well spent.
They pick you up?!? I Usually can't get a cab to take me home.
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