Like I said, I used to drive the Schuylkill every morning for 8 months. The usual tie ups are from Passyunk Ave. to South St. and from Green Lane to Conshohocken. From South St. to Manayunk is smooth sailing.
If you're leaving home at 7am for work the drive won't be that bad . . . and don't ever drive on the Vine St. Expressway during rush hour. You take Market/JFK instead.
You asked about utilities - Comcast is $63 a month for internet and you get basic TV with that. If you want all the channels minus the HBOs then it's more like $100. That should change once FiOS comes into the picture. gas and electric really just depends on how drafty your place is, how old your heater is, how big your place is, what floor you're on, etc. I had an 800 s/f apartment in a 3rd floor walk-up. It was a brand new place, well insulated, new windows, new mechanicals and it had gas cooking, hot water, and heating. My biggest gas bill, for January, was about $120 and that same month my electric would be about $30. It also had really low ceilings, which was great trying to keep warm in the winter. In the summer, as soon as my downstairs neighbor turned on the AC all of the heat she displaced came right into my place so my electric bills were around $180 but my gas would only be about $40. But January and July are the extremes. In April and May gas and electric were usually about $80 total. September and October were usually the same.
My house is about 2000 s/f and 3 floors, 2 of which have 10 ft. ceilings. My first January here my gas bill was $480. A few degrees cooler on the thermostate, a new furnace, a few new windows, and a whole lot of cans of "great stuff" later I'm down around $220 for January . . . but you get the point, it just really depends on your place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CLTGoBlue
ok, here's a nice looking intersection near East Falls. seems like parking here would be less of an issue, quick to Manayunk but places to hang out here, any thoughts? is this area on the way up? lots of 2 br listings w/in my price range ...
loc: Ridge Ave at Midvale Philadelphia PA US - Google Maps |
There's nothing wrong with Ridge & Midvale. A little quiet, there are maybe 3 restaurant/bar type places, a coffee shop, a yoga studio and that's about it. It's sort of like it's own little town, cut off from everything else. It would get boring FAST. The bus service isn't great and the train is a bit of a hike up the hill. East Falls is a solid n'hood that got a little better when the prices in Manayunk shot up but I wouldn't expect a wave of new bar openings or anything like that.
Roxborough and Manayunk are very different places in terms of housing size/style, demographics, prices, things to do, etc. Places in Rox might look like they're close to the 'yunk but that's only because you can't see the 80 ft. cliff on the map. In Manayunk they call Roxborough "up the hill." Most of the streets in Rox just dead end at a staircase as they head down towards Manayunk because it's just too steep to put the road through. If you've been to Pittsburgh before you know what I'm talking about.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fNRmpokYW0...0/IMG_8566.jpg
Parking is easy in Rox and Ridge Ave. is decent for daily conveniences but you won't get much in the way of restaurants and there's not much more than your average neighborhood pubs . . . nothing fancy. The transit - in the form of express buses - is actually really good on most of Ridge Ave. and all the buses stop at the Wissahickon Transfer Center, and you can get just about anywhere in the city from there.
Ridge can be excruciatingly slow during rush hour, especially trying to get out towards Conshy and/or 476. As Green Ln. is the ONLY way to get from Manayunk/Rox over to 76 that's not a whole lot of fun during rush hour either.
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