Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My husband and I lived in JC for a year before we ended up buying in Hoboken--we really liked it a lot! When we first moved to this area, my husband was dead set on living in Manhattan (as many people are). But one of my best college girlfriends had moved here years before and had lived in the FiDi, then Hoboken, then several places in J.C. and I had visited her when she was living in Hoboken and JC and really like it and knew you can get more apartment for your money on the Jersey side of the hudson, while still living in an urban neighborhood.
a month before my husband's start date, we flew to NYC for the weekend and met up with a broker to show us apartments in Manhattan, and a broker than showed us apartments in Hoboken and JC--Our budget was about 3000 for a 1 bedroom. Could we have found a place in Manhattan at that price? Yes--and we found many. Many that were either teensy, the 4th floor of a walk-up, far from a subway, in a no-man's land, many with no laundry in the building, and obviously you can forget about parking in the city. Then we looked at J.C. and Hoboken, where the commute was almost the same door-to-door from the areas we could afford in Manhattan (I mean, in the size apartment we wanted. We could have lived in a studio almost anywhere), plus most buildings gave you a parking space, many building had amenities like gyms or pools, and the apartments were slightly bigger for the same price.
We ended up taking a 1 month sublease off craigslist to buy ourselves some time to make a decision. My husband started work--and lo and behold--3 out of 5 coworkers in his new group lived somewhere in Jersey. So then he started considering the jersey side more seriously.
We ended up lucking into taking over a 2 year lease from a couple who were moving to another state due to a job transfer--and getting a rate below market value for a building between Newport and Exchange in JC--and they'd already paid 2 years of amenity fees, so that clinched the deal and we decided to move to JC for a while and see how it goes.
I'll be honest--we both loved it. My husband is south asian and felt at home in the neighborhood--there is a ton of great ethnic food in JC (middle eastern, indian, philipino, great food at Taqueria, the mall and Target are right there). After working in NYC every day, my husband was happy to come home to a place with a slightly less frantic pace of life. We could ride our bikes everywhere, the waterfront area is really nice for jogging.
When we bought, we bought in Hoboken just because we found a particular place we really liked in our price range, but we were looking in both JC and Hoboken. JC waterfront now has a better public elementary than Hoboken, so that gives the edge for families, but for young singles, you can't really go wrong in either place.
Mayor Fulop likes to refer to JC as America's best medium sized city.
I suppose the breakdown would be
Over 1 million= mega city?
~500,000-1 million= large city
100,000-400,000= medium city
Under 100,000= small city
Just guessing, perhaps an urban studies person could elaborate on a more precise definition.
Population cut-offs are pretty useless distinctions anyway since the size of the city is highly dependent on municipal boundaries. Realistically almost all of Hudson County is one continuous urban center, for example, which would put it into the "large city" category, and if you combined it with the urban parts of Essex and Union Counties, you'd be over a million people in a continuous highly urbanized area that would make it a mega-city by that definition.
Would a city stretching from North Bergen to Rahway be a megacity?
Population cut-offs are pretty useless distinctions anyway since the size of the city is highly dependent on municipal boundaries. Realistically almost all of Hudson County is one continuous urban center, for example, which would put it into the "large city" category, and if you combined it with the urban parts of Essex and Union Counties, you'd be over a million people in a continuous highly urbanized area that would make it a mega-city by that definition.
Would a city stretching from North Bergen to Rahway be a megacity?
Excellent Point. Pretty unfair to compare Jersey City (14 square miles) with Jacksonville (almost 1,000 I believe). Hudson County would be about 650,000 which would be a major city I believe, as would urban Essex+Elizabeth. I believe if you took the 100 square-miles around Newark Bay (roughly the size of Baltimore or Pittsburgh) you'd have a population of 1.2 million, almost as many as Philadelphia. Not sure how much it matters in the grand scheme, by NJ's absurd municipal boundaries really do obscure what is in reality a major urban area.
And I'm sure Mayor Fulop would be quite happy if he could reign over all of that...
I love living in Jersey City because it feels like a small town next to a huge city. Its been a great place to spend the last six years. Its crazy how much downtown has changed since I moved here. I am fortunate to have a landlord that does not increase my rent much. I am paying rates from six years ago. I occasionally look to see what apartments are going for now downtown and its insane!
Hype or not, the plans are in motion to transform Journal Square. Any neighborhood with a PATH stop will see investment dollars from here on out.
I lived in JC 6 years ago and the Path trains were overcrowded back then. I can't even imagine what it's like now, and in the future if the population keeps expanding.
I love living in Jersey City because it feels like a small town next to a huge city. Its been a great place to spend the last six years. Its crazy how much downtown has changed since I moved here. I am fortunate to have a landlord that does not increase my rent much. I am paying rates from six years ago. I occasionally look to see what apartments are going for now downtown and its insane!
JC has been good to me too. The location is very convenient to NY where I work, but JC feels like a small town. I know a lot of people here now in just a short three years. I see them every where around downtown. We have some great food/drink options now and I was fortunate that I bought my place three ago when no one was buying. I couldn't afford to own here now. The only negatives on downtown JC from my perspective are 1) no decent grocery store. It is amazing a Whole Foods, Weigmans or decent operator hasn't opened a store here. And 2) the single woman pool is very weak.
It is a dynamic place today and watching all the changes is exciting. Just don't know how many more winters I have left in me here in the northeast. Getting tougher each year to stay up here.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
