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Ok so here is my new situation: I am working in Greenlawn NY. Now I feel like if I wanted to live close to work, Huntington is the place for me. What I can't figure out is if I want to live closer to the city, what are good options? Queens? I'm really unsure And could use help. 45 minutes max commute while driving is what I am looking for and a relatively safe/ young / easy access to the city but also minimal pain to get to work is what I am looking for. THanks!
I am from that area, but you will have to give a little more information in what you're looking for.
Greenlawn itself is a suburban residential area with a strip of businesses/downtown along Broadway near the train station. Not a terrible place to live, good place to raise a family, but not too exciting. If you're young and you're looking for a place to live nearby, Huntington village is decent. There's a good mix of bars, restaurants, theatres, etc. all within walking distance and there's a fairly big crowd of people there on the weekends, mostly college kids/recent grads. It would be a 5 minute drive at the most to get to Greenlawn. The train from Huntington to Manhattan is a little over an hour on the express line, so its doable to go to the city on the weekends if that's what you want.
Most of Queens is residential until you go farther west towards Manhattan. The nicer, younger areas of queens are primarily in Sunnyside, Forest Hills, Astoria, LIC, and parts of Woodside. Without traffic, it takes me close to an hour to drive from Astoria to East Northport, so if you are working in Greenlawn, I would suggest you avoid Queens. I really think Huntington would be your best bet. Unfortunately, most of Long Island is set up for families and home owners and the local population is particularly hostile towards renters. Huntington village, Bay Shore, Rockville Centre, and Long Beach are really the only places I could suggest would be fun places to live for a young 20 something, otherwise its standard suburbia.
I just am looking at something that doesn't take over an hour to get to the city. Also I play basketball and I assume there would be more as far as organized basketball leagues go the closer to the city you get. Something so can have maybe a 40 minute ride to work, and a 30 minute train to the city, so I'm not just limited to exploring the city on the weekdays. Does something like that exist?
what's more important...local nightlife/short commute or being able to hop on a train and experience the city after work during the week? If it's the latter, maybe something like Mineola would be good for you.
Mineola may work as stated, but I would probably live in Huntington and just take the train to Manhattan, even during the week. Driving 40 min and probably 20 miles each way to work is going to cost alot more money and wear and tear on you and your car than riding off peak on the LIRR 1-2 days a week. You could always drive to Hicksville or Mineola from Greenlawn and take the train from there, if you want more train time options , especially when returning home later at night. Huntington and surrounding area has a few spots you can hit during the week, and then you can hit NYC on weekend and maybe 1-2 evenings if you are up for it.
Though, no place on LI is going to compare to living in a more urban type of setting like Brooklyn or Manhattan or Western Queens, like Astoria... You could reverse commute from those areas, by LIRR possibly or by car. The car gets rough though, especially during evening rush no matter what direction your going.
Mineola or Hicksville would be your best bet then. Drive from Hicksville to Greenlawn is about 20 minutes without traffic on the Northern State(and you'd be heading against traffic). Rentals are mostly going to be illegal basement or attic apartments in the area due to local opposition to legal rental property in the $1000-1100/mo range. Mineola has more of a downtown area around the train station although parking is kind of rough. From Hicksville figure 40 minutes to Penn Station, Mineola is more like 30-35 minutes. Again, I prefer Huntington if only for its local scene and good restaurants, but to be honest most of towns along the LIRR Port Jeff line are good. Then again, if you plan on really exploring the city, your best bet is to buck up and live in the city and deal with the crappy commute to work. If your job is near the train station in Greenlawn, then you can take the train to work and not worry about traffic.
i currently live in somerville MA (davis square, for anybody who is familiar with the area). here I am 30 minutes from Boston on the T, 30 minutes to work. There are a lot of restaurants and bars in the area but I love that I am close to the city as I play basetball in/around the city.
honestly, i don't know anybody in the area and at 26 I feel less motivated to go out and aggressively make new friends (in comparison to when I was 22, moved to boston from arizona and had 1 friend in the area who became my default best friend). nowawadays i go to work, go home, grab a bite to eat and play basketball. I have only been to NYC twice for one day a piece. I like walking around the city alone and would love to look into frequently attending knicks games (I am a lakers fan and I now love Carmelo and Amare since they are out of the Western conference. Also, the Knicks seem to hate the celtics as much as I do). I am also concerned for late nights in the city. I have a lot of friends who will be frequently visiting, and I guess it would be nice once to not have to take a 1 hour trip home late on weekend nights where I might be prone to throwing up if i had to be on a train that long. I also hear that NYC is known for not picking up until like around midnight with a lot of nights going until 4 am. i hope this helps you all help me!
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