Make Me Move to New York City/Tri-State Area

[JetBlast]

So as I said in my Seattle thread, I'm contemplating a move to live closer to where I'm based and one of the potential bases is New York City.  Primarily I'd be flying out of JFK and LaGuardia, but some Newark trips are a possibility. Anywhere in the region could work as a place to live since I'd likely only be commuting to and from the airport a couple times a week at most. 

I'm intrigued at the possibility of selling my car and renting a place in Manhattan or Brooklyn and relying on public transit/rideshares, with most every city amenity within walking or public transit distance.  It would be a completely new lifestyle that I've never tried before.  If you were mid-30s, recently single, trying to build a social life but not into the club scene or showy wealth any areas you'd recommend checking out?

At the same time, I do enjoy outdoor activities like hiking and golfing, and I can't see those being viable options for me if I go that route. That has me considering northern New Jersey, southern Hudson river valley, and SW Connecticut as well.  Somewhere with good access to outdoor activities, safe with low property crime, and the basic city amenities like grocery stores, libraries, coffee shops, etc... close by is what I'm looking for. 

Since my seniority would allow some higher paying positions in New York as compared to Seattle, I could reasonably afford $2,500 per month rent within New York City for a 1-2 bedroom apartment after considering the additional NYC income tax, while still stashing away to get to FI.  Outside city limits I'd stick to a similar budget as I assume much of my tax savings would be consumed through higher transportation expenses.

Thanks for any opinions on life in the area and recommendations.

[Jorey]

What is most important? Hiking and golfing?What do you want to get out of living in NYC, if not interested in nightlife, restaurants, culture, etc? Are you looking to remain single? Do you want to be dating?

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[Dollar Slice]

I love living in NYC, but if I had to go to JFK or LaGuardia twice a week, I might off myself. They are not convenient airports for frequent commutes. JFK is about 90 minutes each way on transit or a ~$50 taxi ride for me; I live in Manhattan near the upper end of Central Park. I don't know if there's a suburb that they are convenient to... New Jersey you have to drive through NYC to get there; Connecticut and Westchester is a minimum 30 miles of driving to get there. Maybe you're OK with that, I don't know - it would depend a lot on what time of day you were driving, rush hour commutes of that length could be awful. If you were flying on weekend days, not so bad.

Reading your post I don't see a lot of reasons to move to NYC. What appeals to you about it? Have you ever visited? There's a little "city life without a car sounds good" in your post, but that's about it. You could get that in a lot of places, and many of them would be better for you with easier access to airports and outdoorsy activities. I used to live in Cambridge, Mass. and it would be right up your alley - easy access to airport/train, great (but laid-back) restaurant/cafe/cocktail scene, good transit, super safe, very walkable, very bikable, easy to get a car and head out of town for skiing or hiking day trips or weekend trips. New York isn't that place, it's hustle and bustle and crowds and noise. I love it because I like people and I like the attitude of New Yorkers and how open they are to strangers, and I love how New York has such unique opportunities to experience culture (music, museums, film, street festivals, food and culture from everywhere in the world, etc.).

If I were you I would need a lot of "I am dying to live in NYC to experience X Y and Z" before I would be willing to put up with the airport commutes... maybe it's there, but I am not hearing it in your post.

[ctuser1]

NYC is not the best place for the road-warrior types. Commuting to/from the airport a couple of times every week is a lot!

If you love NYC for other reasons (mostly cultural/intangible reasons) then it makes perfect sense to live there and put up with the practical issues you will face in accessing the airports. However, unless such strong reasons exist, I'd not recommend NYC.

I used to travel for work. I was based out of CT and would try to fly in/out of Hartford as much as possible to avoid the crazy traffic closer to NYC. Every other person I'd meet on the road like me seemed to live in either Chicago or Dallas. Have you considered living in downtown Chicago? It has much lower cost of living compared to NYC, is more central, better connected, and offers it's own unique flair of city-life parallel to what NYC/Boston does.

Dallas is very practical, but appeared to be a soulless city to me. I'd much rather live in Austin and put up with a smaller, less connected airport if Dallas/Houston/Austin were my only options.

[brooklynmoney]

I travel to LGA or JFK about 2-4x a month sometimes more during normal times from Brooklyn. I usually leave pre-dawn so traffic is ok it’s also against traffic. But doing home for the airports which usually is afternoon or evening is hell. Also it’s like $20 to $80 each way depending on which airport and traffic. I don’t care because my job pays but if they didn’t that would be. A major cost. I take Lyft. The subway takes forever and involves transfers and buses or whatever. Nightmare.

[2sk22]

Jersey City on the waterfront area (say Newport) would meet your requirements pretty well. You will be able to take Path into NY City and from there via A train to JFK. LGA is a bit more of a nuisance but you can always take M60. Getting to EWR is also feasible via PATH and NJ Transit. Jersey City has some excellent Indian restaurants too.

[Dave1442397]

I've spent many hours on the Van Wyck "Expressway" going to and from JFK. It's not something I'd do voluntarily.

Uber Copter would be my preferred mode of transportation, if someone else were paying for it :) 

https://www.afar.com/magazine/what-its-like-to-fly-uber-copter-from-manhattan-to-jfk-airport

[Rdy2Fire]

Reading your post I don't see a lot of reasons to move to NYC. What appeals to you about it? Have you ever visited? There's a little "city life without a car sounds good" in your post, but that's about it. You could get that in a lot of places, and many of them would be better for you with easier access to airports and outdoorsy activities. etc.

If I were you I would need a lot of "I am dying to live in NYC to experience X Y and Z" before I would be willing to put up with the airport commutes... maybe it's there, but I am not hearing it in your post.

I am with Dollar Slice. First let me say I live in the Metro NY area (no longer in NYC) and did the road warrior life for years. You will NOT be happy wasting the time, money and well, time is money, going to JFK/LGA and even EWR (depending on where you settle). Additionally NYC is probably more expensive then you believe it to be. It isn't just about the rent which is absurd but EVERYTHING. You laundry/dry cleaning, eating out, buying food, transportation etc. This may or may not make up for not having a car payment, car insurance etc. A

As Dollar said if you don't have the Dying to Live in NY desire I would go to a cheaper place. I no longer do the warrior life being FIRE'd and love NY but plan on getting out. I'd suggest doing an old school pro's & con's but if your pro's are all around life style, shows, travel, broadway etc, things that WILL come back then NYC is great but I think you'd have a VERY tough time finding a 2 BR for $2500 and a 1BR might be VERY small for that much depending on where you want to live.

[JetBlast]

 First, thank you all for the replies. 

Reading your post I don't see a lot of reasons to move to NYC. What appeals to you about it? Have you ever visited? There's a little "city life without a car sounds good" in your post, but that's about it. You could get that in a lot of places, and many of them would be better for you with easier access to airports and outdoorsy activities. I used to live in Cambridge, Mass. and it would be right up your alley - easy access to airport/train, great (but laid-back) restaurant/cafe/cocktail scene, good transit, super safe, very walkable, very bikable, easy to get a car and head out of town for skiing or hiking day trips or weekend trips. New York isn't that place, it's hustle and bustle and crowds and noise. I love it because I like people and I like the attitude of New Yorkers and how open they are to strangers, and I love how New York has such unique opportunities to experience culture (music, museums, film, street festivals, food and culture from everywhere in the world, etc.).

If I were you I would need a lot of "I am dying to live in NYC to experience X Y and Z" before I would be willing to put up with the airport commutes... maybe it's there, but I am not hearing it in your post.

What's most appealing to me when I think of New York City are those cultural opportunities you mentioned.  I've visited several times and have always enjoyed my time in Manhattan.  Wonderful museums, theater (loved Bryan Cranston's performance in Network), and great food everywhere.  The crowds in the city have never bothered me, but I also only deal with them for a few days at a time at most before leaving.  I honestly don't know if i'd still feel that way after six months or a year, but I'm open to trying it and finding out.

New York also the best base at my company for rapid advancement.  What I'm trying to figure out is whether it's worth it to me to sacrifice some of the outdoor activities to have those plusses to New York City so close, and to figure out what the downsides are that I'm not aware of, having only visited and not actually lived in the city.   

While I love the Boston area and would be intrigued by Cambridge, unfortunately Boston is not a base for my airline and would defeat the purpose my move.  Perhaps in the future as it's been rumored to be a possibility in a couple years.

Jersey City on the waterfront area (say Newport) would meet your requirements pretty well. You will be able to take Path into NY City and from there via A train to JFK. LGA is a bit more of a nuisance but you can always take M60. Getting to EWR is also feasible via PATH and NJ Transit. Jersey City has some excellent Indian restaurants too.

Jersey City is an option I thought might be a good fit, but I don't actually know a whole lot about it other than I've gone under it on the PATH into lower Manhattan from EWR.  Obviously it would be a little longer getting to JFK and LGA from there but doable.  I commute by air right now so anything where I can drive or take transit is a big time saver.

I'd appreciate any more thoughts you might have on the plusses and minuses to Jersey City.

I used to travel for work. I was based out of CT and would try to fly in/out of Hartford as much as possible to avoid the crazy traffic closer to NYC. Every other person I'd meet on the road like me seemed to live in either Chicago or Dallas. Have you considered living in downtown Chicago? It has much lower cost of living compared to NYC, is more central, better connected, and offers it's own unique flair of city-life parallel to what NYC/Boston does.

Dallas is very practical, but appeared to be a soulless city to me. I'd much rather live in Austin and put up with a smaller, less connected airport if Dallas/Houston/Austin were my only options.

Dallas is just about the antithesis of what I'm looking for.  Although I haven't been everywhere in the metroplex, everything I've seen of the area just seems totally unappealing to me.  I just see an endless expanses of highways, parking lots, sidewalk-less roads, and McMansions.  I'm sure there are redeeming qualities but I haven't found them the times I have visited.  I've spent some time in Chicago and enjoyed the areas around downtown and Wrigleyville, but it isn't a base for my airline. 

[JetBlast]

I am with Dollar Slice. First let me say I live in the Metro NY area (no longer in NYC) and did the road warrior life for years. You will NOT be happy wasting the time, money and well, time is money, going to JFK/LGA and even EWR (depending on where you settle). Additionally NYC is probably more expensive then you believe it to be. It isn't just about the rent which is absurd but EVERYTHING. You laundry/dry cleaning, eating out, buying food, transportation etc. This may or may not make up for not having a car payment, car insurance etc.

Thanks for your thoughts Rdy2Fire.  That is a good point about everything being expensive in the city. I've got some extra built into my budget for that, but it is hard to know just how much more I'd spend on things like groceries or laundry compared to the rest of the country. 

[Jorey]

Seems like Brooklyn on the A/C is the best option here. But only if you can commit to JFK  You could easily have a very nice 1BR in somewhere like Northern Crown Heights in your price range, with access to the culture of both Manhattan and Brooklyn(close to museum, prospect park, botanical gardens) and an easy bike ride to places with more vibrant nightlife like Bushwick/Ridgewood.



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[Rdy2Fire]

Seems like Brooklyn on the A/C is the best option here. But only if you can commit to JFK  You could easily have a very nice 1BR in somewhere like Northern Crown Heights in your price range, with access to the culture of both Manhattan and Brooklyn(close to museum, prospect park, botanical gardens) and an easy bike ride to places with more vibrant nightlife like Bushwick/Ridgewood.

I would 100% agree with this from a cost perspective. HOWEVER if I was moving 3000 miles to NYC I'd want to be in Manhattan at least for the first year or so

[Jorey]

Seems like Brooklyn on the A/C is the best option here. But only if you can commit to JFK  You could easily have a very nice 1BR in somewhere like Northern Crown Heights in your price range, with access to the culture of both Manhattan and Brooklyn(close to museum, prospect park, botanical gardens) and an easy bike ride to places with more vibrant nightlife like Bushwick/Ridgewood.

I would 100% agree with this from a cost perspective. HOWEVER if I was moving 3000 miles to NYC I'd want to be in Manhattan at least for the first year or so

Fair assessment. This is in line with how I moved to the city as well. You can also get GREAT deals on rentals in Manhattan atm

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[jrhampt]

I agree with everyone else that JFK, La Guardia, and EWR are not particularly convenient airports to get to.  That said, I do tend to fly out of one or the other a couple times a year because sometimes you just can't beat the cheap direct international fares.  I love NYC and visit (in non pandemic times) several times a year; it's a straight shot by train from where I live in CT (vs the THREE separate trains I have to take if I want to get to JFK airport). 

The only other thing I have to contribute to this discussion is on the subject of Dallas - I lived there for 10+ years and totally agree with your assessment - it is soulless and HOT and almost entirely paved and has horrible traffic and I would never do it again.  It does have its good points (mostly food related), but they are not worth discussing here.

[Dollar Slice]

What's most appealing to me when I think of New York City are those cultural opportunities you mentioned.  I've visited several times and have always enjoyed my time in Manhattan.  Wonderful museums, theater (loved Bryan Cranston's performance in Network), and great food everywhere.  The crowds in the city have never bothered me, but I also only deal with them for a few days at a time at most before leaving.  I honestly don't know if i'd still feel that way after six months or a year, but I'm open to trying it and finding out.

OK, sounds good :-)

I guess what I'd be thinking about in your situation is which commutes do you want to be shorter: airport, or cultural events. How often will you honestly be going to museums, theater, concerts, etc.? I have a lot of friends in NYC that rarely leave their neighborhood other than going to work, in which case you want to 100% optimize for the work commute and make sure you like the character of your neighborhood. I'm a person who does nightlife stuff in Manhattan and Brooklyn 3-6 nights a week (pre-pandemic, obvs), so my commutes there need to be taken into heavy consideration - hence living in Manhattan.

One neighborhood to consider would be Forest Hills near the 71st Ave. E/F/M/R station. Lots of subway options, safe, plus it's right on a commuter train line that I think would take you out to some beach towns (but I'm not 100% sure on that) - and it's pretty convenient to both LGA and JFK. I haven't spent any real time there but looking on the map it seems like it's very walkable with lots of restaurants and shops, plus there's a music venue there that gets a lot of big-name bands (Forest Hills Stadium). It's less citycitycity and a little more residential (most NYCers live in residential areas like that and not in the hotel districts where tourists stay). What you're sacrificing there is proximity to Manhattan/being less central, but if you're only going in to a museum/concert/fine dining/whatever once a week on a Saturday night, being 20 minutes further from Manhattan destinations in exchange for saving a couple hours of commuting every week sounds pretty good. And it's still decent for Manhattan commutes since it's on the express line.

If you're hell-bent on living in a more central neighborhood, then yeah, go for something on the A train in Brooklyn near Manhattan in a neighborhood you like. (Note that the A is the express train and the C is local, so if you are next to a C train stop but not an A train stop your commutes will be a little slower.) Rent is cheaper than it was pre-pandemic so you might be able to find something pretty nice for $2500. I don't really recommend living in lower Manhattan unless you think you're going to do TONS of activities there - it just doesn't make sense to pay Manhattan prices and make the sacrifices to live there without working in Manhattan. You could look at West Village & Tribeca but you'd just be adding a lot of cost and time to your commute for not much benefit. I would rather do downtown Brooklyn/Brooklyn heights than downtown Manhattan in your shoes if you wanted to be super central - better airport commutes, cheaper and near a ton of train lines with convenient transit to everywhere.

[Fomerly known as something]

Personally if I liked bot culture and outdoors in NYC I’d live in Westchester, likely the Tarrytown area and have a car.  It’s a quick shot into the city, and a decent car commute to LGA and JFK using the throngs neck bridge especially if you are not going during rush hour.  Plus it’s not far to Bear Mountain and the like.

[JetBlast]

Thanks to all for the replies.  I'm still weighing my options between New York and Seattle, but the comments have helped me narrow down my priorities and clarified some things for me.  I appreciate all the opinions.

I guess what I'd be thinking about in your situation is which commutes do you want to be shorter: airport, or cultural events. How often will you honestly be going to museums, theater, concerts, etc.? I have a lot of friends in NYC that rarely leave their neighborhood other than going to work, in which case you want to 100% optimize for the work commute and make sure you like the character of your neighborhood. I'm a person who does nightlife stuff in Manhattan and Brooklyn 3-6 nights a week (pre-pandemic, obvs), so my commutes there need to be taken into heavy consideration - hence living in Manhattan.
 

That's a very good point and one I'm mulling over in my mind. 

As long as I have good public transit options into Manhattan, a neighborhood closer to work probably makes more sense from a convenience and cost savings standpoint.   An area like Forest Hills would probably fit the bill. I know a lot of commuting crew rent beds/rooms in Kew Gardens which is very close by.  That said, if I'm not going to be in Manhattan I have to decide whether it's worth the extra $500 a month in income tax by still being in NYC limits, as opposed to the much longer commute from Jersey City but still having that access to Manhattan and an extra $500 in my pocket.

Personally if I liked bot culture and outdoors in NYC I’d live in Westchester, likely the Tarrytown area and have a car.  It’s a quick shot into the city, and a decent car commute to LGA and JFK using the throngs neck bridge especially if you are not going during rush hour.  Plus it’s not far to Bear Mountain and the like.

I have a friend that lived across the river in Nyack for a few years.  From what I remember he liked the area but I'll have to ask him again now that he's moved around a couple more times to other parts of the US.

[Jorey]

Thanks to all for the replies.  I'm still weighing my options between New York and Seattle, but the comments have helped me narrow down my priorities and clarified some things for me.  I appreciate all the opinions.

I guess what I'd be thinking about in your situation is which commutes do you want to be shorter: airport, or cultural events. How often will you honestly be going to museums, theater, concerts, etc.? I have a lot of friends in NYC that rarely leave their neighborhood other than going to work, in which case you want to 100% optimize for the work commute and make sure you like the character of your neighborhood. I'm a person who does nightlife stuff in Manhattan and Brooklyn 3-6 nights a week (pre-pandemic, obvs), so my commutes there need to be taken into heavy consideration - hence living in Manhattan.
 

That's a very good point and one I'm mulling over in my mind. 

As long as I have good public transit options into Manhattan, a neighborhood closer to work probably makes more sense from a convenience and cost savings standpoint.   An area like Forest Hills would probably fit the bill. I know a lot of commuting crew rent beds/rooms in Kew Gardens which is very close by.  That said, if I'm not going to be in Manhattan I have to decide whether it's worth the extra $500 a month in income tax by still being in NYC limits, as opposed to the much longer commute from Jersey City but still having that access to Manhattan and an extra $500 in my pocket.

Personally if I liked bot culture and outdoors in NYC I’d live in Westchester, likely the Tarrytown area and have a car.  It’s a quick shot into the city, and a decent car commute to LGA and JFK using the throngs neck bridge especially if you are not going during rush hour.  Plus it’s not far to Bear Mountain and the like.

I have a friend that lived across the river in Nyack for a few years.  From what I remember he liked the area but I'll have to ask him again now that he's moved around a couple more times to other parts of the US.

Nyack is awesome. But it's not exactly 30s single and recently divorced wanting to experience NYC awesome. My 2c is that money and saving isn't everything. You clearly seem like to want to experience NYC life. You'd be hard pressed to have a better situation to experiment with that in your life than now, being recently single and having basically guaranteed employment in the area. I would guess you are not going to move there after you FIRE.

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[Rdy2Fire]

Nyack is awesome. But it's not exactly 30s single and recently divorced wanting to experience NYC awesome. My 2c is that money and saving isn't everything. You clearly seem like to want to experience NYC life. You'd be hard pressed to have a better situation to experiment with that in your life than now, being recently single and having basically guaranteed employment in the area. I would guess you are not going to move there after you FIRE.

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I'd agree with this as well, it seems that if you move you are doing so to really experience NYC. As I said earlier in the thread, if you are going to re-locate thousands of miles to be in NY then move to Manhattan and fully indulge in experiencing NYC properly, at least for the 1st year. There is always time to make more money but there will be a time when you won't want this experience, probably after the 1 year haha..

[JetBlast]

Nyack is awesome. But it's not exactly 30s single and recently divorced wanting to experience NYC awesome. My 2c is that money and saving isn't everything. You clearly seem like to want to experience NYC life. You'd be hard pressed to have a better situation to experiment with that in your life than now, being recently single and having basically guaranteed employment in the area. I would guess you are not going to move there after you FIRE.

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I'd agree with this as well, it seems that if you move you are doing so to really experience NYC. As I said earlier in the thread, if you are going to re-locate thousands of miles to be in NY then move to Manhattan and fully indulge in experiencing NYC properly, at least for the 1st year. There is always time to make more money but there will be a time when you won't want this experience, probably after the 1 year haha..

A fair point. Tarrytown/Nyack are not what I had in mind when I first put NYC on the list for possible relocation, but I'm trying to keep an open mind.  But as I've thought about over the last day it's solidified into a hard no for areas that far out.

 

[FIREeh?]

Someone mentioned Brooklyn on the A/C, but something else to look into is using the LIRR to go to Jamaica and then Air Train to JFK. If you wanted to keep close to the city, living near Atlantic Terminal in Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, etc might work. A one bed one bath is going to run you at least 2000 there, if not more, but the lifestyle is fantastic and it’s quick to take the subway anywhere you need to go from Atlantic Terminal.

[Dollar Slice]

Someone mentioned Brooklyn on the A/C, but something else to look into is using the LIRR to go to Jamaica and then Air Train to JFK. If you wanted to keep close to the city, living near Atlantic Terminal in Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, etc might work. A one bed one bath is going to run you at least 2000 there, if not more, but the lifestyle is fantastic and it’s quick to take the subway anywhere you need to go from Atlantic Terminal.

Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, and Clinton Hill are right on the A/C, so it's more or less the same neighborhoods other people are recommending when they say "Brooklyn on the A/C"... the LIRR would be a little faster than the A (11 minutes faster than coming from Hoyt/Schermerhorn, according to Google Maps) but I would assume it costs more and runs less often since it's a commuter train. It's definitely an option though!

[Watchmaker]

Nyack is awesome. But it's not exactly 30s single and recently divorced wanting to experience NYC awesome. My 2c is that money and saving isn't everything. You clearly seem like to want to experience NYC life. You'd be hard pressed to have a better situation to experiment with that in your life than now, being recently single and having basically guaranteed employment in the area. I would guess you are not going to move there after you FIRE.

Yep, Nyack is more for people moving out of the city/having kids/tired of the crowds but still working in the city.

[obstinate]

I'm intrigued at the possibility of selling my car and renting a place in Manhattan or Brooklyn and relying on public transit/rideshares, with most every city amenity within walking or public transit distance.  It would be a completely new lifestyle that I've never tried before.

I live in Brooklyn and have lived in Manhattan and they are great! Just be aware that living in the city can be though of as an expensive productive asset, and if you don't need to be located here you will be paying a significant premium versus what you could pay outside the city.

If you were mid-30s, recently single, trying to build a social life but not into the club scene or showy wealth any areas you'd recommend checking out?

Every activity under the sun has a group or a club here. I have only lived in NYC as a married person, but from my understanding the dating scene is much more favorable for men than women here. (My woman friends have complained that finding a date with a high quality male is difficult, while any man who wants a girlfriend can easily get one.)

Since my seniority would allow some higher paying positions in New York as compared to Seattle, I could reasonably afford $2,500 per month rent within New York City for a 1-2 bedroom apartment after considering the additional NYC income tax, while still stashing away to get to FI.

In lower Manhattan and midtown, $2,500 is gonna get you a pretty bare-bones 1br or a studio, or maybe a small 2br in a less good neighborhood. But that's today. When COVID is over, I don't know if you'll be able to rent anything but a studio in this price range.

[DeniseNJ]

Don't move to NJ for any reason!  The tax laws are obscene. All the stuff NY doesn't tax, NJ does. 529s, 403b, TSP, HSA, EVERYTHING. Can't wait to move.

[ctuser1]

Don't move to NJ for any reason!  The tax laws are obscene. All the stuff NY doesn't tax, NJ does. 529s, 403b, TSP, HSA, EVERYTHING. Can't wait to move.

Come over to CT. Taxes are comparatively lower :-), and there is a strong "fiscal conservative" ethos even among the liberal politicians.

It is also a very different culture. If you happen to dislike NJ/NY for it's "in your face" cultural ethos, you could give CT, with it's more polite but stand-offish and tight-upper-lip variety of culture a try. Old New-Englanders looked down upon the NY/NJ upstarts, some in Fairfield county even got into almost-armed insurrection for the right to join CT back in the colonial days (as CT is a New England state) than stay as a part of NY (looked at as an upstart state full of immigrants of inferior races - probably Germans at that specific point and Italians/Irish later). Some towns that weren't allowed to move (e.g. Rye, NY) had many grumpy residents for a long time.

 

[Mariposa]

My neighborhood in Queens might be an option for you: the Q70 express bus gets to LaGuardia in 20min, and we're also on the E, which goes express to Sutphin Blvd, and you can take the AirTrain to JFK from there. Google says it's ~50min commute from my apartment to JFK door-to-door; you can add ~10 min to that for real-life conditions. That would still be kind of a bad commute for me, but people in this city regularly commute 2-3h.

I don't know about the single life, but my neighborhood is a great place to live with a young kid. I hear from single friends who live in Brooklyn that neighborhoods there have also been overrun with young kids and families. Multiple express trains go from here go to Midtown in ~15-20min. I used to commute to Lower East Side / Chinatown, and that took ~45min door-to-door. (F and Q trains both run express, with super easy transfer between them going downtown.)

If you're going to be flying regularly, you also have to keep in mind what a horrible airport LGA is. We haven't flown in over a year, but when we did, LGA was cramped and congested, and we would have a hard time finding seats in the waiting area for the 3 of us to sit together. We'd also regularly have to sit on the plane for >30min, waiting for all the other planes ahead of us to take off. We're thinking of flying again in June, and I notice the flights out of LGA all have ~20-30min added to account for the congestion factor, ha.

There's major construction going on at LGA right now, and the airport itself will look very different in the near future. But space is limited here, and I don't see how they're going to build more runways. The only answer is to raze Rikers and build additional terminals there. That's not happening anytime soon, though.

[Dollar Slice]

Old New-Englanders looked down upon the NY/NJ upstarts, some in Fairfield county even got into almost-armed insurrection for the right to join CT back in the colonial days (as CT is a New England state) than stay as a part of NY (looked at as an upstart state full of immigrants of inferior races

I'm guessing you don't work for the tourism board if "come to Connecticut like all the racists did" is your leading argument ;-)

[ctuser1]

Old New-Englanders looked down upon the NY/NJ upstarts, some in Fairfield county even got into almost-armed insurrection for the right to join CT back in the colonial days (as CT is a New England state) than stay as a part of NY (looked at as an upstart state full of immigrants of inferior races

I'm guessing you don't work for the tourism board if "come to Connecticut like all the racists did" is your leading argument ;-)

Huh - that was 200+ years ago. It is a much nicer place now. :-D

I kind of miss the "in your face" culture of NYC, and at the same time have come to appreciate the New England culture more over time. It tends to grow on you and you start appreciate it once you are steeped in it for some time. It is no longer exclusionary as it was 200+ years ago.

[OliveFI]

Hi! I live in CT. I've always liked it - the proximity to NYC and the airports is great but can be inconvenient. I travel a lot for work, pre-COVID, we would get transport to and from the airports. That makes it a lot more convenient, but may not be an option with your employer it seems.

I will say, I appreciate CT a lot more after the pandemic. I though the state was measured and cautious in its approach and vaccine rollout has been great. Hopefully pandemic response won't be as big of a concern in the future, but definitely a nice consideration.

If you want to move to CT, don't go further from the city than Stamford. From a leisure perspective, you can enjoy all things in the city from CT without (1) higher taxes, (2) higher rents, (3) city inconveniences. Keep in mind, Fairfield County is still a VHCOL but not as bad compared to NYC and Westchester.

There are great parks / hiking in CT and Westchester. Easier if you have a car / don't live in the city. But still not impossible from the city, I have plenty of friends who make that work!

If access to the airports is most important, Queens is definitely a good option. LGA has sucked for a while now, but is getting a little better with the construction. Like there were working bathrooms last time I was there. Not too long ago, there was one toilet per gender in a certain terminal. Not a great experience.

Tarrytown in Westchester is also a great suggestion - close to a lot of outdoor activities and still pretty close to the city and great train options.

Personally, I don't like White Plains. I do agree with another poster, if you want to move to be in NYC, live there for a least year for the experience and explore surrounding areas. If you just want to be close and have more access to outdoor activities, I'd say Westchester county, NY or Fairfield county, CT.

[JLee]

IMO the only real reason to live in this area is if you can get a correspondingly higher salary.  It's abhorrently expensive.

[MrThatsDifferent]

Hmmm, living in NYC and visiting it a couple times are two completely different experiences. I love being a visitor to NYC, but hated living there. You don’t generally do all the fun visitor stuff when you live there. You form a tiny circle and try to stay within that bubble as much as possible. And everything is difficult when you live there cause there’s a gazillion people all trying to do the same thing. And forget the outdoors life. Summers, miserably hot and winters, disgustingly cold. Ughhh. Not worth it. You’ll pay a ton of money for a piece of shit to live. As for NJ, unless you love living in a car or living on multiple forms of public transportation, forget it! The only reason to move to NYC is if you’re trying to get rich and all you care about is money and work.

Seattle, is a beautiful city. Only downside is the rain. Would tick every other box for you. Has everything that NYC has with nature all around.