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I've accepted a job in the upper west (160s) side but plan on living in the upper east (low 70s) side. How bad would my commute be? I currently live in another state and drive 10 mins to work so seeing that it would take me about 45-50mins via public transport ( I will sell my car prior to moving) sort of worries me. While speaking to the management company about this I was told there are people that do that commute but I just find that I might get really tired of spending that much time on the road. Is this a typical commute time? What's your average commute? Anyone doing this?
I would love to stay downtown west but it's painfully expensive and plus my housing would be cheaper (300-600, but more amenities and more space) if I stayed in the upper east side because it's work housing. I don't have to use a broker either so I don't have to worry about that expense.
Also, I have read much about the east vs west and uptown vs downtown. I'm single 30F, would I be bored to death in the upper east side? those that live there how do you like it?
Would spending more in the areas that I'd like to live in - Chelsea, West Village, Soho- be worth having a tighter budget? Would it be a drag to go downtown on a weekend?
I know a lot of questions 😁... I hope this is not a question that has been asked multiple times, as I tried a search and couldn't find much. Thank you for answering!
Why don't you just look for a place in the Upper West Side and cut out over half your commute? You'd have a straight shot to your job, much easier and quicker commute, still be in a good neighborhood, and still have easy proximity for getting around the city for when you want to go out.
I wouldn't call the 160s the Upper West Side, that's most definitely Washington Heights. I would live up there west of Broadway. You could also go up to the Bronx as Riverdale and that area north of 230th is nice.
The commute you're describing -- live East 72nd St area, work in Washington Heights @ 160s -- will need two public transportation methods (subway and crosstown bus) with an outdoor transfer, can be cold in winter, although frequent.
It'll take an hour door-to-door, and most of the public transpo (at least the crosstown bus at rush hour part) will be standing up.
Use searchwords and read up on Washington Heights. To me, even with the problems of WashHeights, that's the place to live, within walking distance of work. Although it is a noisy neighborhood, that Express A subway Station at 168th St. skips many local stops, so gets you to Midtown and the other social neighborhoods you mentioned pretty fast, compared to local subways with many stops.
If you live in walking distance to work, you might even find you don't need to buy the monthly unlimited card (what is it now, around $116?). Instead, pay for single rides ($2.50 rountrip) when you go socialize somewhere. I haven't crunched that math lately since fares went up, but IIRC if you travel fewer than 5 rountrips in a week, you're better off not buying an unlimited monthly card but pay by the ride.
Since you're currently accustomed to a 10 minute one-way quiet automobile commute to work, it'll be a big difference to suddenly be using up 2 hours every workday to commute via public transportation. For that reason, I'd encourage you to read and consider living in Washington Heights, especially if you can be in walking distance of work and that station at 168th/Broadway.
There's also a bus that heads south through that part of Washington Heights, goes crosstown just above Central Park, continues down Fifth Avenue to 72 and beyond. But it's a slow trip stopping every two blocks. It'd also be an hour commute one-way, if you lived at 72nd St. say near Fifth Ave or walking from that ave. I don't recomend it.
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 12-06-2015 at 10:43 PM..
My suggestion is to take the Upper East Side housing, since it's work housing and you don't need a broker. It's a nice place to live. If you want to see what businesses are around, you can go to yelp and type the work "Everything" in the search box, then your specific E. 72nd St. address and use the filter for a 4 block radius and see what comes up.
If you don't like the commute, you can move after a year (or whatever your lease term will be with the work housing).
The main reasons I am suggesting this is because the UES is a good neighborhood, your rent will be lower as you stated in your post because it's work housing, AND you will not have to go through a painful housing search as a newcomer.
In your first year, you can get to know the city and make a decision if you want to move after you know your way around.
Henna, I missed the phrase "work housing" and thought OP was just comparing 2 neighborhoods.
If "work housing" means you can skip the longdistance apartment search, then I really agree with Henna. Saving a brokers fee isn't reason alone, but out-of-town apartment search is hard to accomplish and land well. You'll know the city's transit system and those 2 neighborhoods much better after a year, and can decide then to move closer to work if that's your preference. You'll also know people from work who live nearby to ask for leads or ask about the neighborhood by specific blocks for noise and safety questions.
Meanwhile, for next year, anticipate your commute will be an hour each way by public transit, which includes the walking and layover/transfer times between subway and crosstown bus and wait times for the train.
A real "commute time" needs to include the wait for first train, station walkthroughs twice, layover time for the bus or train transfer, and walk time to each building. Sometimes people, especially brokers, describe a commute as "X minutes by train.." meaning from the moment your foot touches the train car until it pulls in to destination station. A more accurate estimate of commute time includes all the walk and wait times, especially important here because you must transfer train-to-crosstown bus. It's very different timing than when you own a car that's parked alongside your building waiting for you!
If that commute sounds too awful to you, then come to visit for an apartment search closer to where you work.
You're on the right track to imagine moving here with no car. Driving crosstown between those two neighborhoods will be slow due to city traffic and lights, especially midday, especially rush-hour. So even if you might do it in 25 min on an early Sunday morning, plan for an hour as a work commute, unless maybe you have a graveyard shift.
As a commuter you can't count on finding all-day free street parking around W160; I lived and would circle up to 30 min there sometimes before getting lucky. So you'd have to budget in a monthly parking lot fee near work. If you lived in Wash Heights you could actually learn it well enough to invest your home time to find free parking curbside good for a week, except you have to move it once weekly midday for Alternate Side Street Parking, so you don't get ticketed or towed. For a moment I thought maybe you could live in Wash Heights and keep the car that way by buying parking in the neighborhood. But you're really better off in Manhattan having no car. It's an expensive nuisance to park and dodge all the ticketing.
Is there an all-train way someone here can identify from "E 72nd to W 160's area" in Wash Heights? Because the transfer to a cross-town bus, which then has to move slowly through street traffic, is a time-consuming part of your commute. Or, somehow take a 4,5,6 train up the east side to a different bus that does the crossover well north of Central Park?
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 12-07-2015 at 08:30 AM..
Is there an all-train way someone here can identify from "E 72nd to W 160's area" in Wash Heights? Because the transfer to a cross-town bus, which then has to move slowly through street traffic, is a time-consuming part of your commute. Or, somehow take a 4,5,6 train up the east side to a different bus that does the crossover well north of Central Park?
I don't have time to try it at the moment, but the MTA trip planner allows you to select your mode of transportation. So you can select "subway only" or allow it to also give you bus and train (railroad) options.
Just Google MTA trip planner and plug in the start and end addresses and click the right boxes.
Thank you guys for the responses. I'll do a better search of Washington heights but from what I've heard by a couple of people I know, it's not a great area. I also want to stay closer to places that have a lively social scene. I'll be working 4 days a week, so it's important that I'm also considering my time off of work.
Yes, the UWS or Midtown west would be a better fit for my budget and in closer proximity to my job, but the housing provided by the job seems like too good of a deal to pass up. It's not free or cheap by any means but definitely cheaper and I would spend less money upfront which is major for me right now because moving from out of state is expensive on its own. If I absolutely must, then I'll spend on brokers fee and more rent, but from what I've heard from posts on this forum it's best to keep rent as low as possible while getting the most out of it because it's expensive to actually have a social live in Manhattan.
Also, google maps has many options to get to Washington heights from UES and one of them is taking the M101, it's a bit longer than taking the C or the 1 and then transferring to another bus, but it's a straight shot. Do you guys think that when the 2 subway is don't in the summer my commute would be better? Thanks again!
To the OP: you've gotten some good advice from Henna and BrightRabbit. But you didn't say if you're doing shift work. I assume you're working at a hospital. Will you be on call? Or working long shifts with odd hours? If so, and you're living on the Upper East Side, can you afford cabs? That would otherwise be a tough commute at 3 a.m.
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