The reverse commute (another moving to NY thread) (Hempstead, Rockville Centre: sales, apartment)

[cbus05]

Hey, i'm 23 years old, graduated college about a year ago in Ohio and i'm Moving to NY for a great job I just landed.

In any case, my job isn't in the city, but rather on long island in the hempstead area (it's a sales job involving the greater hempstead area).


As most 23 year old single guys, i'm not looking to settle down in the burbs and live a boring life. At the same time, i'll need to be able to get to and from work within a reasonable time. As such, i've been looking at areas in queens & some areas in long island closer to hempstead. I feel living in areas such as rockville centre and eastern queens is interesting, but they don't sound that "up and coming" and I can get an apartment share for just about as cheap in places like Astoria.

My only problem, is that I'll be driving a company car to work, so i'll need a place where I can park. Is this available in most Astoria (or some other "nice" young areas closer to Manhattan)? My other main question, is how would the commute to work be? I've looked up Google maps, and it says around 30 minutes for driving, however it also says 1 hour during traffic. It's not horrible, but i'd rather not drive an hour to and from work every day if possible. The thing is, I'm not sure i'll be facing too much traffic as i'll be going backwards on the highways against the grain of everyone else (who would be going into manhattan area). So I suppose my main question, is how long could I expect a commute from western queens to hempstead to be via car?

I'm not opposed to living outside queens either, it just seems most everywhere on long-island is suburbia, which being from Ohio is what i'm trying to get away from.

[babadi]

I said this on a similar thread a while back, but my fiancee and I used to live in Astoria and she was commuting to Rockville Centre (a few miles from Hempstead). It was an hour each way pretty regularly. If you're especially unlucky, it can take 20 minutes to get out of Astoria onto the parkway without even getting anywhere. Obviously it'll vary to some extent depending upon timing, etc. but I wouldn't count on this being pleasant drive just because it's a "reverse commute."

In addition, driving and parking in Astoria is a nightmare and there are very few public parking lots or garages available. Some people will rent out their garage or alley spot on Craigslist or the like, but of course there's no guarantee of finding a suitable arrangement near where you live -- we didn't find one till halfway into our lease. And in the time we were parking on the street, that car got keyed, its taillight was smashed by a bad parallel parker, and we had to replace the driver-side mirror twice.

You might not guess it from what I'm saying, but I actually really like Astoria and would like to move back some day. But I'd suggest that you consider this: what are you going to do after work every day? Are you going to go out constantly, or are you going to go home and watch TV and maybe just go out a few times a week? There's really not much use putting yourself through that commute every day unless you're planning to take advantage of it pretty much every day -- otherwise, you might be better off living near work (Rockville Centre would be a decent choice) and just going to Astoria or the city as needed.

[Cyclops99]

What time will you be leaving in the morning and what time will you be returning? I think that if you leave early...7 to 730ish...that won't be too much traffic. Coming back...for whatever reason, there seems to be traffic unless its a lot later.
I agree with alot of what babadi said...unless you plan on going out very often, it might not be worth it to live in the city. Might as well live closer to where you work and go out to Astoria and the city when you have plans.

[Atsushi]

Do you have to use the company car to commute? Can you keep the company car at the company location? If so, it opens up all kinds of possibility by using LIRR to reverse commute. Then, even living in Manhattan becomes a possibility--putting the cost aside, of course. This is actually, my girlfriend is going to be doing with me soon. We plan to live near Penn Station and reverse commute to Great Neck, NY.

[Fred314X]

How about this as a suggestion? As long as you're driving to work, there are some nice neighborhoods in the east Bronx (Pelham Bay Park, Throgs Neck, Morris Park, City Island). From that borough, the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges will get you into eastern Queens--and you'll avoid most of the city traffic.