Philly Suburbs: NJ vs. PA (Doylestown, Franklin: houses, employment, construction)

[jessnboys]

Thanks to everyone for their input....we're eager to check the area out. Does anyone know a website where we can compare tax rates for varying areas around Philly (both NJ and PA)? PA taxes are pretty confusing!

[soxrelo]

I am in the running for a position that will require 3-4 days a week in Wilmington DE and 1-2 days in NYC. I know this will be daunting, but what is the best area to look at? Some have mentioned getting NJT at Trenton into NY Penn for the NY days. How would a commute from Trenton area (PA/NJ) be into wilmington?

[newmarlig]

You could take the R7 (Trenton) train into center city

http://www.septa.org/service/sched/r7_wk.html

or the R2 (West Trenton)

http://www.septa.org/service/sched/r3n_wk.html

(look at each one and see the stops)

When you get into center city, change to the R2 - which goes to Wilmington

http://www.septa.org/service/sched/r2s_wk.html

[newmarlig]

I just wanted to add that the R7 line is what you would take to Trenton and then switch to NJT to go to New York.

[Mphblues]

Public transportation is the only way to go once you get into Philly. I lived in Collingswood NJ and grew up in South Philly. we moved to Jersey to get out of the city and took the speedline right over the Ben Franklin bridge into downtown Philly where you could route onto any of the other trains or walk or bus it. It was always very easy to commute. The speedline in Collingswood has a huge parking area and a nice terminal for safe travel to and from work in Philly. The schools are very good and you have a beautiful river and lakes nearby for bike riding or just a day out. in the center of town there is a huge park ( Nights Park) . Victorian style houses are the biggest and first thing you'll notice in this area. Worth a look.. . If you like to bike ride, this is a great place also. The Cooper River offers a bike trail that will make anyone happy and is right in Collingswood. I loved living there.

[Thruway]

3 questions

1) Why is there sprawl in South Jersey/PA region when PHI is not growing that much?

2) How bad is the sprawl in South Jersey, and why is it overall green given it's proximity to a major city?
When driving on the NJTP I notiched how just 20 miles from PHI it looks rural, which was weird given how big PHI is, so why was this the case to begin with, why is it changing, and how bad, rapidly or is it more controlled?

3) Why don't you or others consider the commute from DE?

[moneyguy]

I've wondered the same thing about why the southwest portion of NJ has remained so rural and undeveloped while the Cherry Hill/Marlton area has filled in so densely. Maybe it is the access to PATCO. For me, driving into Center City from exit 15 off of 295 is no sweat at all. I hardly slow to less than 65mph the whole way and can be in my parking spot in 25 minutes. I tried the same trip from Marlton, and it took me 45 minutes to get in driving, and 40 with the train.

[Wanna Leave Penciltucky]

Be careful with new developments out in the country in NJ. Do some research on any superfund sites near them. All those rural places in NJ have had some illegal dumping. I grew up in NJ and have lived near UNKNOWINGLY to 2 of them. 10 years ago they dug up Most of a band new Burlington development because the land was tainted with arsenic.
n Mt Laurel where I lived they started a study because so many people had cancer. NJ is tricky. New homes may be sitting on God knows what.

[njscrubs]

choose Riverton and love life.

[philly76er]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

phillyphan, Perhaps it's a matter of what one considers good but I would not say that Norristown has "great schools". Better then some in Philadelphia but if you check them out on Schools, High School, Public Schools, School District, Public High Schools - SchoolMatters, you'll see that the district is performing below the avg. for the state and did not make the NCLB goal of having adequate yearly progress. Norristown Area School District, Pennsylvania Public School District - Overview - SchoolMatters

I have nothing against Norristown, in fact, we lived in nearby Jeffersonville when our daughter was born, but I wouldn't want someone to seriously investigate it thinking it's schools were good.

I have lived in Jersey and PA, so I'm familiar with both areas. I would agree, Norristown is nothing to brag about.

I prefer Jersey...PA only has 2 lane roads and they get more congested than Jersey. The Schulykill Expressway is on par with some of the worst highways in the country (the Balt-DC Beltway, Jersey Turnpike, and the LI Expressway)...If you live in PA and need accessibility to Philly, there are not many ways around the Schulykill (I-76) and it has traffic almost 24 hours a day. Jersey has 3 main bridges (Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Commodore Barry) that you can use to get in and out of philly (a previous poster did mention the $3 toll, but gas is significantly cheaper in NJ...as much as 40 cents per gallon).

Jersey also puts you centrally located between the city and the shore and there is a speed line (train) you can take to get into the city.

I hope this info helps, best of luck.