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It is so hard to figure out NYC while living somewhere else! I greatly appreciate any help you can offer.
I will be working on Pine St. on the Lower east side. I have 3 children aged 8-10 yrs and a wife. I am looking to rent initially and would spend around $10k per month on rent.
My first priority is good schools. All of my children have mild special needs and one requires a teacher's aid (apserger's/PDD).
The second consideration is commute time.
Third is the community. We prefer somethign not too urban, but we live in a brownstone community now where we walk to do grocery shopping so we are not fragile suburbanites. Still, we wouldn't mind a little less poulation density with people living over and under us.
I have been looking at the burbs in lower Westchester like Larchmont and also some of NJ. But it looks like I have to go into Penn or Grand Central and then take the subway. Is there any way to keep the commute under 1 hour door to door WITHOUT resorting to private school education?
10k a month on rent? But yet you dont want to send your child to private school sounds a little weird to me! Browser Not Supported would be my school of choice in the area but not sure if they specialize in Aspergers. There is a school the upper west side that does.
And again if your looking to spend 10K a month on rent, there are plently of apartments on Wall & Water Street begging for tenants.
Assuming private school tuitions are around $35k per year per child, that would be $115k per year for us. add in $5k per month rent and total is $175k per year post tax.
if the public schools are good, then rent of $10k per month = $120k per year. It is $55k per year (post tax) less to pay more to live in a good school district. Simple math. Plus a high rent district will likely have lower crime, nicer roads, etc.
Westchester has some excellent school districts, but the commute will not be fun. There are many good school districts on one-seat railroad rides to the PATH which will be much more convenient. I'd start my search there if I were you.
Totally understand. But public schools do not cater to children with Aspergers.. trust me I know! Your children will have to have supporting diagnosis and evaluation paperwork to be submitted to the Board Of Ed to get them into either a specialized school on their dime, or just extra OT in a general educational school. Again this takes LOTS of work. But as far as rentals. Again there are plenty down here in your price range. Not much happening down here as far a s quality of living for your children. You’re better off in Battery Park.
I wouldn't rule out the suburb train ride into Penn or Grand Central just because you will be downtown (btw, not the lower east side). The 4/5 express train from Grand Central will be three or four stops to where you will get off. The 2/3 express will be the same from Penn Station.
As someone above said, you might consider NJ towns along the PATH train line that comes into downtown. Or, other NJ towns that are served by ferries to South Street Seaport (close to Pine Street).
Despite the fact that vast swaths of suburbanites claim commutes under one hour, a less than one hour door to door is not easy to accomplish from any suburb. People tend to not include the time it took to walk/drive to the train, wait for the train, transfer to the subway, walk from the subway to office, etc. You would have a 15 minute subway ride from Grand Central or Penn, and a five minute walk to Pine Street. So, any town within a 45 minute or less train ride will be close to an hour, "train to door."
I wouldn't rule out the suburb train ride into Penn or Grand Central just because you will be downtown (btw, not the lower east side). The 4/5 express train from Grand Central will be three or four stops to where you will get off. The 2/3 express will be the same from Penn Station.
As someone above said, you might consider NJ towns along the PATH train line that comes into downtown. Or, other NJ towns that are served by ferries to South Street Seaport (close to Pine Street).
Despite the fact that vast swaths of suburbanites claim commutes under one hour, a less than one hour door to door is not easy to accomplish from any suburb. People tend to not include the time it took to walk/drive to the train, wait for the train, transfer to the subway, walk from the subway to office, etc. You would have a 15 minute subway ride from Grand Central or Penn, and a five minute walk to Pine Street. So, any town within a 45 minute or less train ride will be close to an hour, "train to door."
The much-desired one-hour commute is often requested on the NJ forum, too, but when coupled with good schools, nice neighborhoods, etc., it's generally not something to be found. However, someone mentioned taking the ferries from NJ, so I'll be a little more specific. A ferry runs to lower Manhattan from Highlands, NJ, in Monmouth County, which is the beginning of the Atlantic coastline in NJ. The ferry trip is about 45 minutes and costs $635 for a monthly ticket. There are some nice towns in the area, with good restaurants, theater, etc., and although I don't have a school-age child myself anymore, from what I hear most of the towns have good schools. You might ask on the NJ forum which are the best for special-needs kids.
The down side is that there may be days when weather halts the ferry service, in which case you'd take a train or a bus to lower Manhattan, which would be a longer commute on those days.
The commute from excellent school districts under one hour to midtown jobs does exist for a large number of suburbanites (try Glen Ridge in NJ to Penn, or Scarsdale, Bronxville etc. and many others in Westchester to Grand Central). The problem is being downtown, which is a commute from midtown itself. The upside is if you can get yourself to earning Wall St. mega bucks then you can just buy a nice Brownstone in Brooklyn Heights or a loft in tribeca nand send your kids private.
it looks like the ride on the 4 train from grand central takes about as long as the train ride from Bronxville or Larchmont to Grand central. In other words, because my office is on Wall St., I am screwed. But then, at least I don't have to drive. Train time is better than car time in my book. I already take the subway every day in boston and teh 3 mile commute takes me 45 minutes, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
The next question is whether I can get parking at the train station, but I will start a new thread for that.
No, you're not screwed. Just forget about Weschester, find a good district in New Jersey and commute to the PATH, straight into Wall St.
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