NYC Residents...
 

Or, more specifically, those who either live OR work on the island of Manhattan, or have done so in the past.

I am interested in hearing your commentary on EITHER:

1. Living some distance outside of the city and commuting in via LIRR, Metro North, PATH, etc., or
   
2. Living within the city itself (specifically Manhattan), insofar as the technical minutiae of:

Assume that I find long commutes to be a significant quality-of-life penalty, and that I am accustomed to paying $1,700 per month in rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in California and would not find $2,000 - $2,300 (or so) to be outrageous for a DECENT place. I don't give a shit about trendy / artsy neighborhoods, assume that I just want something that DOESN'T suck and is relatively convenient to midtown east (42nd at 3rd), so that would basically be anything that hits either Grand Central or 42nd / Times Square Station.


Yes, I know that it gets cold in NY. Yes, I know that it's noisy and crowded. I have, in fact, lived in Manhattan before, but only as a temporary worker, staying in hotels or corporate housing arranged and paid for by someone else, eating Chinese take-out every night, etc. So I'm familiar and comfortable with the fundamental concepts of city living, but completely ignorant to the surrounding geography as well as to the nitty-gritty details of arranging housing, motor vehicle management, etc.

I moved the Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO area of Brooklyn in my early 20's, and stayed there three years. It was my foray into leaving the nest. I really enjoyed it there.

It is the first stop in Brooklyn when coming from Manhattan. The view from my window was the classic shot of lower Manhattan that is commonly shown. Very nice neighborhood, think Huckstables, and the commute to mid town on the 2 train wasn't to bad, ~20 min.

It's not the classic NYC experience though, the streets are tree lined and mostly quiet, the brownstones are beautiful. If I hear correctly, the DUMBO area is the new Silicon Valley. Might be worth checking into.

Good luck with your search.

I don't know that I'd want to live on that island. My users that work there live elsewhere happily.

Of course it usually all comes down to money and the type of lifestyle you want.

Joe Perez speculation thread needs an update.

Get a place in the city and enjoy all the conveniences, rent a garage(cheaply) in Jersey near a train station so you can drive in the country when you want to do so.

There's an awfully wide variety of places, depending on how you define "long commute." If you want to live on Manhattan, I don't know that you can get much for $2300. You should be able to swing a decent neighborhood in one of the outer boroughs, though. Keeping a car in NYC can be a big problem or a big expense, so Older Guy's suggestion is right.

The commute from Greenwich to GCT is about 1:06. Bedford Hills is about the same. Mamaroneck is 0:42. They're all good areas with a lot of trains, and you should be able to find a decent place for under $2K. An hour on the train with a smartphone and a cold beer > 1/2 hour on subway >1/2 hour driving anywhere in greater NY.

BTW - some NY politician has been talking about burning city money to support the local "Silicon Alley." Maybe you could become bi-coastal.

Well, a long commute varies in definition somewhat, but in general, I'd say 30 minutes is near the top of the spectrum. I'm finding this would be easily doable if I live in Hoboken very near the PATH terminal, and then use CitiBike once I'm on the island to get from 33rd & 6th to 42nd & 2nd.




That's where I get hazy. Looking around places like Trulia, Renthop, Zillow, etc., I'm finding quite a few smaller places in the upper-east side. But I have a lot of unanswered tactical questions, such as:

1. Say one expects to receive a FedEx package, and one lives in a typical Seinfeld-style walkup without a doorman. What do?
   
2. Say that one is moving in. I assume that one cannot simply drive a U-haul truck into midtown, park it on east 80th, and start unloading shit. What do?

I'm also counting time to get from my house / apartment to and from the nearest train station, so that's a concern in a lot of ways.

Also, an hour on the LIRR / Metro North / NJTrans / whatever is NOT better than a half-hour on the subway. For me, time is an absolute when it comes to commuting. I'd rather spend half an hour listening to N'sync while driving a Kia than an hour in a private car on the LIRR getting a foot massage from Grace Park*.

It it not the EXPERIANCE of the commute, but the opportunity cost of the time spent commuting which could have otherwise been used for non-commute purposes.



* = to be clear, there are certain other things which Grace Park could do which would tip the scales in favor of the hour-long LIRR trip.

The fact is, you can do things on the train that aren't reasonable on the subway and impossible while driving. Anything you can do on a laptop including the two hours each day on mt.net....

I just took a look at some listings on Trulia. There used to be an additional cost roughly the same as common charges in a condo for many places that had amenitites like doormen, health clubs and such. Might have changed, but I'd be surprised. A lot of the prices I saw looked pretty attractive - 1 bed 1 bath in midtown west with doorman, health club and views for about $2200 seems like a deal to me. I can't help feeling there's a catch....