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Old 04-28-2014, 01:11 PM
 
Location: NYC
20,550 posts, read 17,567,269 times
Reputation: 25616

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I love this thread, a lot of folks in this forum trashes NJ towns that are far more convenient for you especially with transportation in favor of towns that are much further away. Just last week a guy argued that New Brunswick is a great place to live and is "close" to NYC for less than 1 hour.

So much misinformation from people trying to give props to their home town and not give actual factual accounts.

I hate to say this but anywhere south of Rahway or further West than Cranford you need to prepare for 1hour+ commute with NJTransit. And you have folks saying oh the commute is less than an hour, give me break.

I live in Union and my commute to NY ranges from 37-50min and I'm much much closer than Westfield.

Njtransit today has a 10-15min delay this morning around 8am and that's not too bad consider once every week or two there's a 30-60min delay. in the morning going to NYC or coming back.
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Old 04-28-2014, 01:17 PM
 
Location: NE USA
24 posts, read 38,770 times
Reputation: 11
Hi. I grew up in Short Hills where you go to Millburn High; and I spent every day going to Westfield for my swim team. Loved all of those places.

I had a cousin around the Atlantic Highlands area who took a ferry to NYC. You may want to look more south in your search. It works for Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi

Best wishes,

Wish I lived in Westfield
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Old 04-28-2014, 01:59 PM
 
1,943 posts, read 3,301,482 times
Reputation: 1182
Quote:
Originally Posted by Winnifus View Post
I'm feeling quite discouraged and am hoping you all may have some ideas. I have been pouring over threads here for months and a little while back, I posted about where to move in NJ (//www.city-data.com/forum/new-j...i-missing.html ). To recap, I'm a single parent, mid-40s professional, with 2 young kids with me full time (ages 6 and 3). I'm from LI originally but lived in Manhattan for about 20 years before a brief move to Philadelphia, then came back here for a job in the city (midtown west, 50th and 8th). I wound up renting a house in Westfield and moved in a few weeks ago.

In short, the commute is killing me, and leaves me with no time to see my kids (15 min in the morning, barely an hour at night). I leave at 7:15a and get home at 7p and have a 1 hr 45 min MINIMUM door to door, sometimes longer. Between racing to the Westfield lot to get a spot, dealing with the change at Newark (I am shocked at how awful that is), battling the crowds at both Penn Stations, and there always being delays, it's grueling. And as the sole parent, it is just too much time out of the house.

The tradeoff, in theory, is the great Westfield schools and community. So far, I like Westfield ok, but I'm kind of underwhelmed. Parking everywhere is ridiculous (battling for spots at the library?!?), wait lists for everything (train station parking, pool, etc). The downtown is great in theory, but the reality is that I won't really be driving to town to stroll about on a leisurely Sunday popping into cute stores with a 3 and 6 yo. I have done some errands on the weekends in the neighboring towns (mostly big box stores) and have found the surrounding areas to be gritty, run-down feeling and crowded.

When I try to break down the components of what is making me most unhappy, I was thinking having a direct train ride in would be a huge help, and with a ride as much under 45 min as possible. If I could get my door to door commute consistently down to 1 hr and 15 min that would make a huge difference.

Also thinking being in a less urban/densely populated area might help. Walkable downtown/town center probably not necessary. I more need convenience to stores/places to run errand. I would still like there to be lots of close by activities for my kids to get involved in.

For schools, while I would love "great" I think I have to take it down a notch from Westfield (or Summit or Millburn level) to "very good" schools.

Budget - originally wanted to stay between $500-600k for a house, can revise it up to $675k if I have to but want taxes below $12k.

I'm feeling pretty despondent, like there is just no good way to make NJ work for me and my family. I know what I am looking for is likely impossible, just figured I would try to make sure I have really explored all my options. I honestly don't know where else to go - I don't think I can afford the taxes in Westchester, and really don't want to live on Long Island again, and I don't think there's a miracle option in either of those communities either. And I don't want city living again (can't afford it either).

Anyway, thanks for reading, and for any thoughts you might have :-)
Everyone falls for this trap of NJ/NY life. "I will be on the train line direct so it won't be that bad." However, getting to midtown from Penn Station is a debacle and you can't have one beer or glass of wine after work or you miss the train and then it's an hour wait for the next one.

I use to live in Morristown (great town in western NJ). I work near Grand Central. I did the Motown to NY commute for four years and aged 10 years. I spent the entire weekend catching up on rest. Horrible. I had no life and couldn't sleep on Sunday night because I dreaded that commute. I finally moved to downtown Jersey City. My commute and quality of life are infinitely better. But, I have a smaller place and I don't have kids so I can make JC work.

Overall, NJ is a debacle. The roads are horrible, the taxes continue to increase, most people are power commuters with huge bags under their eyes, and in general the quality of life is not very good if you work in the city. I know a number of people that left places where they had great quality of life for what they thought would be NY income that would offset the loss to Q of L. They were surprised on the downside that the money was not that much better after adding in all the hidden costs.

Sorry to hear about your situation....stay strong.
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Old 04-28-2014, 03:24 PM
 
5 posts, read 6,639 times
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You're saying that it is taking you at least an hour and 45 minutes door to door. I'm guessing the breakdown is:

15 minutes from home to parking lot.
60 minutes from Westfield Station to Penn.
30 minutes from Penn to office.

Even if you were to somehow cut 30 minutes off the train ride, you're still left with a 75 minute commute. I don't see how that does all that much to improve your quality of life.

Commuting stinks.

The best commute in the tri-state area when taking into account zip code, schools, etc. is purchasing or renting a condo/coop in great neck. I have a bunch of friends who purchased in the mid-200s-low 300s for 2-3 bed room units. They live near great schools, a great downtown and a 25 minute train into Penn. You can't do better than that.
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Old 04-28-2014, 03:43 PM
 
882 posts, read 1,664,053 times
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Yea, all these threads complaining about how bad the commute to Manhattan from NJ is leaves me wondering, why don't you people just live in Long Island, Westchester, or southeast Connecticut instead?
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Old 04-28-2014, 05:27 PM
 
Location: Hanover , Virginia
331 posts, read 637,034 times
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I live in Mahwah, work in Times Square (44th & Broadway), although I have been working remotely for the last year. The express train from Mahwah is 55 minutes, including a Secaucus transfer to NYP. From there, I walk, which is about 15 minutes from train to desk. 50th & 8th isn't that far off, but I guess you could always use the subway.

Ramsey on route 17 has a bunch more train options, though. There's also the opportunity to drive down to the North Bergen park and ride, round trip is $9.50 for parking and bus. I did that quite a bit for more flexibility as many of my coworkers come in after 11 on most days.

All that said, the commute still sucks. It's a minimum 1hr 10min commute on the best day. Driving can cut it down to 45 minutes IF you do it very early or very late. I ended up driving mostly because it was cheaper including my car payment, but YMMV.
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Old 04-28-2014, 05:49 PM
 
1,615 posts, read 3,752,929 times
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I think you are doing something wrong if your commute is 1hr 45 each way. I have a 12 minute walk to the bus, a 45 minute bus ride and a 13 minute walk to work. 1hr 10 in. I have a 16 minute walk& subway to Penn, a 44 minute train, and a 15 min walk at night, for an 1hr 15 home. VERY rarely is the train home more than 5 minutes late, and the bus sometimes takes an extra 5 minutes, but not that often
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Old 04-28-2014, 06:26 PM
 
10,220 posts, read 19,136,971 times
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Rutherford (the change at Secaucus is not ideal but it isn't as bad as Newark Penn, plus there's buses), South Orange, Maplewood, Montclair, Glen Ridge, maybe some areas in West Orange. Probably a few other places if you're looking for a bus commute.

The suburban parts of Essex County are less crowded than the Westfield area; big-box shopping for the area is over in East Hanover.
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Old 04-28-2014, 06:32 PM
 
10,220 posts, read 19,136,971 times
Reputation: 10880
Quote:
Originally Posted by MiamiLIFE View Post
Everyone falls for this trap of NJ/NY life. "I will be on the train line direct so it won't be that bad." However, getting to midtown from Penn Station is a debacle and you can't have one beer or glass of wine after work or you miss the train and then it's an hour wait for the next one.
Penn Station is in Midtown, or at least the upper end of it is. OP says he's going to 50th and 8th, which is two subway stops on a frequent line (C or E). The east part of Midtown is another story.

As for a beer or glass of wine after work... there's two trains an hour on the M&E for much of the night; I doubt the NEC is any less frequent. And if it's an hour, guess I'm having two beers :-)

Commutes around here suck. But they don't have to suck THAT MUCH. Provided you can get to the train station on the NJ end, anyway.
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Old 04-28-2014, 07:25 PM
 
9 posts, read 20,012 times
Reputation: 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by sonofagunk View Post
I think you are doing something wrong if your commute is 1hr 45 each way. I have a 12 minute walk to the bus, a 45 minute bus ride and a 13 minute walk to work. 1hr 10 in. I have a 16 minute walk& subway to Penn, a 44 minute train, and a 15 min walk at night, for an 1hr 15 home. VERY rarely is the train home more than 5 minutes late, and the bus sometimes takes an extra 5 minutes, but not that often
Open to suggestions as to what I am doing wrong and how to improve it: I walk out of my door at 7:15a (nanny arrives at 7am, she works from 7a-7p). Pull out of the driveway a few min later (back out, shut garage door, wait for traffic to pull out). Takes about 10 min to get to the Westfield train station. Have to get there before 7:30 or I have no chance at all of getting a daily spot (and each day it seems I need to be there earlier). Catch the 7:39, which generally comes closer to 7:45. The scheduled arrival time is 8:32, but it hasn't been earlier than 8:40-45. Race off train, through crowds to get to uptown C/E platform, wait a few minutes to get on train, then arrive at 50th/8th at a couple minutes before 9 am, and arrive at my desk at the earliest 9 am (today was 9:15 due to delays on NJT). Return trip, I typically leave office at 5:15 to catch the 5:35, scheduled arrival time is 6:28 but generally arrives closer to 6:40, drive home, get there around 6:50-7 depending on how much of a delay there has been on the train (so yes, the return trip can be a bit shy of 1h45m on a good day).

Quote:
Originally Posted by NJhighlands87 View Post
Yea, all these threads complaining about how bad the commute to Manhattan from NJ is leaves me wondering, why don't you people just live in Long Island, Westchester, or southeast Connecticut instead?
My thread is not complaining about how bad the commute is - it's trying to seek advice from people who have lived here for longer than my 3.5 weeks, to see if/how I can improve my situation. If I can't, I will explore other areas as well, although I believe I am priced out of what I am looking for in Westchester, am not sure it really exists on LI, and believe nothing in CT will be close enough. But thanks for your helpful post (and you too, CaptainNJ, for the helpful comment about how I "need to find a husband").
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