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You have the option of relocating to one of these cities. For whatever reason, you will not have access to a private car. With that in mind, here are the median home prices in each:
New York City: $768,000
Philadelphia: $233,564
Chicago: $318,690
I've seen plenty of people claim that NYC is really the only place where car-free life is possible.
Is that true to the extent that this cost disparity would be justified?
You have the option of relocating to one of these cities. For whatever reason, you will not have access to a private car. With that in mind, here are the median home prices in each:
New York City: $768,000
Philadelphia: $233,564
Chicago: $318,690
I've seen plenty of people claim that NYC is really the only place where car-free life is possible.
Is that true to the extent that this cost disparity would be justified?
Who said this? There are several cities where one can truly live car-free... Chicago and Philly are two of them. Add Boston, DC, San Francisco, and if including Canada, Toronto and Montreal.
Who said this? There are several cities where one can truly live car-free... Chicago and Philly are two of them. Add Boston, DC, San Francisco, and if including Canada, Toronto and Montreal.
Usually in this context (not usually in this sub though), someone's trying to defend the fact that a large city has little to no mass transit and they say "well, really every city except NYC has bad transit." Maybe more on reddit than here.
I've been living car-free and renting in NYC (LIC, Queens to be exact) for the past decade and am not sure if I could improve my QoL anywhere else in the country.
I have everything I need within a 10-15 minute walk (parks, grocery store, pharmacy, barber, medical offices, dozens of bars/restaurants).
Public transportation takes me to just about anywhere I want to go in the city for $2.75.
It's easy for me to bike anywhere within a few miles of me either by using my personal bike or the city's bike share system (Citi Bike).
I never have to wait more than a few minutes to catch an Uber if needed.
The ultimate x-factor is that I live in affordable housing so I pay well below market rate for my apartment to live in a pristine building/location.
I've been living car-free and renting in NYC (LIC, Queens to be exact) for the past decade and am not sure if I could improve my QoL anywhere else in the country.
I have everything I need within a 10-15 minute walk (parks, grocery store, pharmacy, barber, medical offices, dozens of bars/restaurants).
Public transportation takes me to just about anywhere I want to go in the city for $2.75.
It's easy for me to bike anywhere within a few miles of me either by using my personal bike or the city's bike share system (Citi Bike).
I never have to wait more than a few minutes to catch an Uber if needed.
The ultimate x-factor is that I live in affordable housing so I pay well below market rate for my apartment to live in a pristine building/location.
I'm guessing you voted "yes", but it can be argued that everything you listed can be found in other places.
I live in a semi residential area and have everything you listed within one mile of my condo to include a light rail station. I walked past three "bodegas" (if we're allowed to call them that on the west coast) in another semi residential area in two blocks yesterday
I've been living car-free and renting in NYC (LIC, Queens to be exact) for the past decade and am not sure if I could improve my QoL anywhere else in the country.
I have everything I need within a 10-15 minute walk (parks, grocery store, pharmacy, barber, medical offices, dozens of bars/restaurants).
Public transportation takes me to just about anywhere I want to go in the city for $2.75.
It's easy for me to bike anywhere within a few miles of me either by using my personal bike or the city's bike share system (Citi Bike).
I never have to wait more than a few minutes to catch an Uber if needed.
The ultimate x-factor is that I live in affordable housing so I pay well below market rate for my apartment to live in a pristine building/location.
I grew up in Montreal... And this sounds like Montreal to me.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE NYC, if anything, for the sheer scale of it, and how generally safe it feels in most places despite the size.
I just don't think that what you listed is really unique to NYC alone.
You have the option of relocating to one of these cities. For whatever reason, you will not have access to a private car. With that in mind, here are the median home prices in each:
New York City: $768,000
Philadelphia: $233,564
Chicago: $318,690
I've seen plenty of people claim that NYC is really the only place where car-free life is possible.
Is that true to the extent that this cost disparity would be justified?
You can definitely live car-free in Philadelphia, but location within the city is going to have a big impact on your travel times and, honestly, sanity. As a longtime Philadelphian, I personally would only consider a couple dozen neighborhoods in the greater center city area. And this of course takes that city-wide median home price that you reference above way up, as the neighborhoods near the city core are the most affluent and expensive. That's the true big difference between NYC and basically every other U.S. city. NYC is probably the only U.S. city where you can live everywhere within the city car-free and still have relatively easy and rapid transport.
With this said, Philly's public transportation services are really quite good.
I think the time horizon matters. You can easily live in parts of Chicago or Philly without a car. But after a while, seeing the same few areas over and over will get old. Whereas NYC has so many vibrant areas that are connected with transit it's a lot easier. Plus it has a great commuter rail system and a whole network of weekend bus companies that cater to the carless for when you want to get out of town.
I've been living car-free and renting in NYC (LIC, Queens to be exact) for the past decade and am not sure if I could improve my QoL anywhere else in the country.
I have everything I need within a 10-15 minute walk (parks, grocery store, pharmacy, barber, medical offices, dozens of bars/restaurants).
Public transportation takes me to just about anywhere I want to go in the city for $2.75.
It's easy for me to bike anywhere within a few miles of me either by using my personal bike or the city's bike share system (Citi Bike).
I never have to wait more than a few minutes to catch an Uber if needed.
The ultimate x-factor is that I live in affordable housing so I pay well below market rate for my apartment to live in a pristine building/location.
Chicago is the best value for the money for a car free lifestyle IMO.
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