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Car ownership is pretty uneven. Generally, Eastern Queens and Staten Island have a far large proportion of people with vehicles. Much of the rest of the city and not just Manhattan often uses other modes of transportation aside from personal cars. Rideshare and carshare services to some degree have made this a lot easier.
What I'm seeing a large bump in these days are bikes and e-bikes and other electric one to four wheeled
"alternative mobility" devices. It's pretty fun to see the large variety.
Rideshare did make my trip back to LaGuardia much easier than it would have otherwise been. Is there a reason for there not to be a train connection there? Seems... odd.
And those Citibikes are awesome. They're everywhere, and so easy to use.
Car ownership is pretty uneven. Generally, Eastern Queens and Staten Island
— both beyond the reach of the NYC subway system; the rapid transit line that runs down Staten Island's east shore was supposed to be connected to the 4th Avenue subway in Brooklyn via a tunnel under the Narrows, but that tunnel never got built —
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have a far large proportion of people with vehicles. Much of the rest of the city and not just Manhattan often uses other modes of transportation aside from personal cars. Rideshare and carshare services to some degree have made this a lot easier.
What I'm seeing a large bump in these days are bikes and e-bikes and other electric one to four wheeled
"alternative mobility" devices. It's pretty fun to see the large variety.
Much of New York is well suited for such vehicles; Long Island and Manhattan below 96th Street are pretty flat.
Rideshare did make my trip back to LaGuardia much easier than it would have otherwise been. Is there a reason for there not to be a train connection there? Seems... odd.
And those Citibikes are awesome. They're everywhere, and so easy to use.
There are a lot of reasons for why there isn't a train connection or why they're so rare in the US. Capital construction costs are absurdly out of line with the rest of the developed world, so it's horrendously expensive. Another is that there are some maybe well-intentioned rules about the pot of money available for capital construction of transit to the airports that often have requirements that disallow for that transit to be used for other purposes. As such, you often get really stupid feeder lines from other forms of transit such as the Airtrain to JFK from the airport instead of a direct single seat ride. Doing so with LGA would have been quite a long ways, and the proposed solution that was just recently nixed was particularly stupid with an Airtrain-like system that would go out to a station even further away from Manhattan to make a transfer.
Yea! The Citibikes are great! There are also an increasing number of electric Citibikes which really makes the bridges a breeze to cycle over.
Don’t forget that in New York, you also have the option of living across the Hudson walkable to the PATH. You can get to most Manhattan attractions in less time than most New Yorkers.
Personally, I think it depends on how you spend your time. I was talking to a friend at the beach the other day. She summers at her parents house in coastal Massachusetts. She owns a co-op on Manhattan. She finds huge value in being 10 minutes from the opera. If you’re looking for those cultural things, you simply can’t top New York.
There are a lot of reasons for why there isn't a train connection or why they're so rare in the US. Capital construction costs are absurdly out of line with the rest of the developed world, so it's horrendously expensive. Another is that there are some maybe well-intentioned rules about the pot of money available for capital construction of transit to the airports that often have requirements that disallow for that transit to be used for other purposes. As such, you often get really stupid feeder lines from other forms of transit such as the Airtrain to JFK from the airport instead of a direct single seat ride. Doing so with LGA would have been quite a long ways, and the proposed solution that was just recently nixed was particularly stupid with an Airtrain-like system that would go out to a station even further away from Manhattan to make a transfer.
Yea! The Citibikes are great! There are also an increasing number of electric Citibikes which really makes the bridges a breeze to cycle over.
Part of it, however, is also that the airports were smaller when the subway lines were extended to their vicinity.
But that capital-cost bit is also exaggerated in New York. Cleveland in the 1950s, Washington in the 1970s, Philadelphia in the 1980s and Chicago in the early 2000s all built rail lines to their airports that are part of their general rapid transit or regional rail systems, which means that no FAA money went into their construction. San Francisco built a one-station spur from a BART line to its airport around the time Philadelphia's Airport Line opened; that may have been eligible for FAA funding therefore.
Part of it, however, is also that the airports were smaller when the subway lines were extended to their vicinity.
But that capital-cost bit is also exaggerated in New York. Cleveland in the 1950s, Washington in the 1970s, Philadelphia in the 1980s and Chicago in the early 2000s all built rail lines to their airports that are part of their general rapid transit or regional rail systems, which means that no FAA money went into their construction. San Francisco built a one-station spur from a BART line to its airport around the time Philadelphia's Airport Line opened; that may have been eligible for FAA funding therefore.
Yea, that's true and they didn't extend to the airports back then and the years since mass transit hasn't been a huge priority for the US as a whole.
NYC looked for the cheap way to do it and it got a pretty bad system. There should have been either a direct LIRR or subway connection to both of the airports in Queens and either PATH or NJT Trains to EWR. It'd probably be awesome if the LIRR trains went straight to the airports and did a combined line with NJT Trains that also went to EWR and so the livery can be done specifically well-suited for people coming to and from airports. I think the FAA funding part of not having it go into the extension of existing transit or being usable for such is terrible policy though and this is an area where both Chicago and Philadelphia do better.
You can livemin Hudson County NJ and get the benefits of being a short path ride to Manhattan, while also keeping the luxuries of amenities you would not have living in Manhattan. (ie, having a car and being able to access State Parks (Palisades, Passaic Falls, etc), Beaches (The Shore), Mountains (Poconos, NJ Highs, Catskills, Berks) etc). You don 't have that 'trapped and cannot leave' feeling you get living directly in Manhattan.
I think Weehawken/Fort Lee/Edgewater/Bayonne/Harrison/Hoboken/JC is a win-win if you have to work in NYC.
Since rents are up 40%+ YOY in Manhattan, a lot of people have gone to Jersey since the rent increases are less substantial and the price points are a good portion lower. I know one person whos Manhattan rent increased from 3600 to like 4800.. something like that. Never shut up on how greatit was to live in Manhattan. Then she moved to Jersey and is in work faster and takes far more daytrips. Has a bigger apartment for like 3300.
That's because NYC sits between the Hudson and East Rivers with NY Harbor at its base you dolt. Did you forget about how integrated those are into the city's fabric? Parts of Queens and Brooklyn sit on the Atlantic but that's still a poor comparison to Chicago's waterfront as you should base Chicago's against Manhattan and not further outlying boroughs. The more apt comparison when you're making a statement like yours would have been that NYC doesn't seem as integrated into its natural waterfront as Chicago's does. I highly disagree with this assertion as NY has one of the largest natural harbors in the world and is frequently named the best natural harbor in the world. Add to that how stunning the Hudson River waterfront is and the continual development of that with such projects as Hudson Yards, Little Island and all of the redeveloped piers/parks. Furthermore NYC is finally leveraging its massive waterfront over the last 10-15 years after decades of extreme neglect and corruption. In the next 20 years it will be drastically different than how it looks today and way more expansive than Chicago's.
I love Chicago and it's the most NY like city in the US in terms of built environment. I'm not ripping it at all as it has its own gems and there's things I prefer about it over NY. That said, it is NOT NYC. Stop trying to dumb the equation down for your purposes. For someone from laid back Cali, yeah, a cute, inner ring suburb in Chicago is probably more your speed than the hustle/bustle of the Apple. You'd probably complain about not having a car in the world's greatest city lol. Stick to Cali car culture dude.
I"m glad NYC is finally getting around to making their waterfront into an amenity, but I don't think that will matter as Chicago has a great lake beach right off of their downtown.
Thanks for helping make my point with your post by bringing up a harbor (lol), something that doesn't really rate as a leisure/recreation area anywhere in the world no matter how big. I'm sure watching cartage being offloaded is thrilling, but I guess its just the old school "cali" person in me that prefers traditional waterfront activities like surfing, swimming, paddleboarding, kayaking, etc.
You can livemin Hudson County NJ and get the benefits of being a short path ride to Manhattan, while also keeping the luxuries of amenities you would not have living in Manhattan. (ie, having a car and being able to access State Parks (Palisades, Passaic Falls, etc), Beaches (The Shore), Mountains (Poconos, NJ Highs, Catskills, Berks) etc). You don 't have that 'trapped and cannot leave' feeling you get living directly in Manhattan.
I think Weehawken/Fort Lee/Edgewater/Bayonne/Harrison/Hoboken/JC is a win-win if you have to work in NYC.
Since rents are up 40%+ YOY in Manhattan, a lot of people have gone to Jersey since the rent increases are less substantial and the price points are a good portion lower. I know one person whos Manhattan rent increased from 3600 to like 4800.. something like that. Never shut up on how greatit was to live in Manhattan. Then she moved to Jersey and is in work faster and takes far more daytrips. Has a bigger apartment for like 3300.
The trapped and cannot leave feeling is more like what happens if your on a budget that's difficult in Manhattan (and yea, it is expensive!) rather than a quality of Manhattan itself. I've been fortunate enough to have a decent budget so we often travel outside of NYC whether by car, plane, or train or some combination of such. I think what would really make this nice is if the three commuter rail networks worked together to have frequent through-running routes and that in the further out stations there was greater availability of carshare/rental services. We've in the past taken commuter rail out to the general direction of where we'd like to go and then get off at a station where there was a car rental available and that's been pretty good for us as driving in the urban core can be really annoying.
I"m glad NYC is finally getting around to making their waterfront into an amenity, but I don't think that will matter as Chicago has a great lake beach right off of their downtown.
Thanks for helping make my point with your post by bringing up a harbor (lol), something that doesn't really rate as a leisure/recreation area anywhere in the world no matter how big. I'm sure watching cartage being offloaded is thrilling, but I guess its just the old school "cali" person in me that prefers traditional waterfront activities like surfing, swimming, paddleboarding, kayaking, etc.
You can do those activities on the oceanfront parts of the city (generally the outer boroughs and especially in the Rockaways in Queens) though there is some kayaking and other water activities along the rivers.
NYC's been adapting the waterfront as an amenity for a long while now. However, wading into / swimming in the East River and Hudson River has its issues.
I'd like to see the FDR somehow removed though. I'd also like some alterations to Lake Shore Drive. I don't think it should be an expressway and I don't think it should cut through parks.
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