lulz.

short commute FTW.

i car pool with my wife because she works within 5-6 miles of my office. door to door to door, it takes me 40 minutes. compared to what some of my co workers drive, i feel pretty fortunate.

Joe u think u can be happy with all that crowded mess and no car? Or the crowds and a hellish comute? I couldnt but thats just me.

Joe, don't get all cought up in the 1 hr commute dilemma. thebeerbaron is right about commuting. You get used to it. I loved commuting 1 hr TO HIGH SCHOOL when I lived there. I was a nice time to close your eye's and relax or read the paper and now you can do thing's like check your email (couldn't do that in the 90's). I commute 45 minute's now by car and it suck's. I sit in stop and go traffic and have to deal with people who can't drive. I'd much rather use public transportation but unfortunately here in FL it's a joke. My father lives in the BX and works for the MTA. He knows alot of people from the different boro's and probably knows of some rentals.

All Im sayin is that you can live a good life in NYC. There's WAY more to do up there but of course it has it's draw back's just like everywhere else but in the end it's all what you make of it.
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A word of warning about apartments on craigslist:

Just because they look like a deal doesn't mean they are. Until you see them in person, don't believe everything. The pictures and description often leave much to be desired.

I did a great deal of searching on CL both for my previous apartment (found on CL) and my current (not on CL), and the places that really ARE worth it IMO are de-listed/rented in a matter of 1-2 days.

I was actually going to say this. In the $2k range you are going to look at a lot of apartments that have all their windows facing a shaftway, need renovation or say they are in one neighborhood but are really in another sketchier neighborhood. And make sure their is no broker fee if that's what you want. Because they will show you one with a broker fee and then five others with a fee because 99% of the apartments will be shown to you by a broker. (It actually made me want to be a broker. All they do is open a door and get paid.) Mostly the better ones will have fees. I had to look at at least twenty apartments to find one that was no fee, in my price range, where I wanted to live and not crappy. It is about half the size of where I lived in westchester for $800 more a month.

The commute on public transportation is anything but hellish. And there are crowds in midtown, not the whole city. And every city has a lot of people.

Well, I've been wondering about that.

As an example, would somebody please take a look at this and tell me what's up? http://no-fee-rentals.agilityhoster.com/midtown.html

$1,250 to $1,800 in midtown seems awfully cheap.

I'm pretty sure that's a scam that is only advertising fake apartments in order to promote their credit checks. If it's too good to be true it is.

The Christopher Street PATH station is right near Houston/Hudson. You could very easily have a nice commute in from Jersey (I forget which areas) to that station. The staten island commute sounds like a biatch.

the "no-fee" broker listings are almost always scams. watch 'em carefully and you'll see the same place listed, month after month, at different locations. it's bait-and-switch, pure and simple - they bring you in to show you the "no fee" apartment, which is a dump. you look appalled, they say "well gee, i've got this great apartment over here, but i do have to charge you the fee"...

in this rental market, don't sweat the fees. they can very often be negotiated away, there are articles in the Times about it recently - people are getting fees paid by owner and even breaks on rent. generally though if you use a broker and pay the fee, plan to live in that apartment for a couple years to recoup the "investment" in the fee.

that said - I found my place on Craigslist. I was first to email and see it. It looked far too good to be true. I told him right then and there I wanted it, had almost all of my docs with me, ready to go. He showed the apartment to five people that day, four wanted it, all were qualified on application (and then some), i got it because I was first. (of course I saw dozens of terrible places before this).

this downturn has really affected the rental market. You'll find deals you wouldn't believe now, but it'll still take some legwork.

also - don't be conned in by the college-dorm style luxury buildings downtown in the Financial District. Their ads are all about their gyms, playrooms, roofdecks, etc. But stop by downtown after 5pm, or on the weekend, it's dead. Maybe you're the frat type, dunno, but those places LOVE to roll out the carpet of "awesome views" and "active lifestyles" which does usually mean views of another building and neighbors who work 20 hours a day (or used to until they were downsized...). You may have to visit one to just see for yourself, but unless you're 21 and fresh out of college, not very cool.

Staten Island:

Express bus
Ferry and Train

Brooklyn:
Express bus
Train

Queens:
Express Bus
Train

Jersey:
Path Train
Train

---

Yeah really, my wife takes about 10 minutes to get to work, me about 18.

I used to drive 25 miles and it would take 25 minutes in the morning, and closer to 1.5 hours going home. My wife used to drive 5 miles and it would take her over an hour both ways....

The only drawback is it takes longer to listen to books on CD. I forgot what gas stations look like too!

Also, this is a great site for directions using public transportation.

HopStop.com - Subway Directions and Bus Directions for New York City (NYC)

Sorry Joe, didn't see ur question...

Do NOT think about driving to the ferry in Staten Island unless you happen to be very close by. You want to take side streets, and short romps on the expressway here, and in rushhour this is just too congested to make it worth while. It would easily take me 35-40min to drive to the ferry with NO traffic (I'm in extreme opposite end of the island..aka furthest point), you could easily double that or more in rushhour.

Typically you take the the train, to the ferry. 25min is about right for the Ferry ride, I'd say add another 15-25min for the train ride depending on where you live in SI.

Or as Sam stated an Express bus straight in, might have to make a transfer once in the city. I'm not up to date on the routes

ps--the area of SI that you saw which is where the ferry docs is crap...not typical of SI and for sure not where you want to be living.