New Jersey Walkable towns (Newark, Jersey City: apartments, for rent, lofts)

[rodrigo1974]

a bit harsh, moderator. ombudswoman from manhattan once told me that the truth lies somewhere in the middle of a variety of opinions.

[rodrigo1974]

you will be renting. consider union twp., nj, or less traffic prone secaucus, both right by the public library. there's a bus stop that goes right into the port authority and there are no buildings in the vicinity. the downtown area where you will be has a stop & shop, ice cream parlor, and coffee joints. however, the traffic is hellish during the rush hour. westfield is absolute magazine country, similar to scarsdale, but you'll be paying for it. should you wish to have more for your money, the latest is somerville, right on the railroad line, dunellen, cranford, rahway, south amboy, red bank, long branch, oceanport, asbury park, or even ocean grove, which is architecturally divine and is right on the oceanfront.

paulus hook, the grove street area, and newport, in jersey city, resemble long island city, queens. the riverfront walkways are great, and the PATH train is safe 24 hours a day, unlike the NYC Subway system, although you may be waiting as much as 30 minutes for the choo-choo to depart from 33rd Street, or for it to arrive at Grove Street in Jersey City. although it's far cheaper than manhattan proper, it's considered costly and big city by standards in li'l old new jersey. the extra-adventurous might consider the little india area within walking distance of the journal square area, where they have hoards of lofts and new buildings for rent at more reasonable prices that are not on congested, traffic clogged streets. young folk who are usually students and/or straight laced yuppie's love hoboken. once again, you're not going to get a lot for your money rental wise by jersey standards, but the train ride from hoboken to 33rd street during the business hours is swift, safe, and efficient.

fort lee is great, but has a high rate of air pollution. it's hilly and cooler than it is down in hoboken or jersey city. li'l jitneys go across the bridge so that you can connect with the A train at 181st Street, but the train is menacing, especially after 9pm or so. if you are using an uber, lyft, or the dyckman car service to and from the 181st st. bus terminal after 9pm, it might be doable but it is time consuming.

basking ridge is heaven and out of a storybook, right on the train line. summit is a lesser westfield. the adventurous may score a great deal near the netherwood train station in plainfield and devour its tasty latin american restaurants in the downtown area, although the school system is deeply challenged, so private or parochial school utilization may be a plus. good luck!! i left the bronx 20 years ago and haven't regretted it for a moment.

[jobaba]

None.

You need a car, except for JC and Hoboken, which are technically ... Brooklyn West.

The 'most' walkable city in terms of being able to co-exist without a car I would say might be New Brunswick.

The places listed are all upscale, upper class. So, while there's walkability in an urban planning sense, everybody is wealthy enough to own a car.

In New Brunswick OTOH, there's people who cannot afford a car, so the local places cater to that somewhat. There's also students who don't have cars.

So, the businesses cater to pedestrians.

So, that would be my vote.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by rodrigo1974

a bit harsh, moderator. ombudswoman from manhattan once told me that the truth lies somewhere in the middle of a variety of opinions.

There is no truth in saying that the only public transportation in New Jersey are the trains to Penn Station New York, not in the middle or anywhere else, and no harshness in calling out a poster who consistently and bizarrely enjoys providing misinformation and untruths. Hell, I myself took the train to HOBOKEN for thirty years.

All one has to do is be able to type in NJTransit.com, or look at the Wiki link I provided.

As we moderators are told, we are not here to moderate truth, we are only here to moderate the TOS, which is why I posted as a lifelong resident of New Jersey and not a mod. I can't punish someone as a mod for lying, but I sure can call them on it as a poster.

[OyCrumbler]

I've never lived in New Jersey, but have done some pretty long term stays and have some friends who have moved there (a surprising number of people who actually moved *back* as I met several while they were living in NYC who were originally from New Jersey). Aside from the Hudson County and very urban Newark and Elizabeth suggestions, I thought Maplewood and South Orange seemed pretty quaint and packed a lot in for a small downtown and with pretty frequent transit service. I also really liked Asbury Park though I'm not sure how family friendly that is. Rahway also seemed pretty interesting though that was admittedly a pretty short stay for me. I'm supposed to visit Summit at some point and have heard good things about there.

I think in an age of a lot of delivery, a lot of internet, rideshare, carshare/rental whenever you need it (Turo is great in NJ and can often deliver), and e-bikes / scooters and fairly lightweight winter clothing now, a lot of small walkable downtowns are probably doable for the day to day and the rest is pretty easily covered by all the other things mentioned. I think one thing to consider for mass transit is that aside from looking at the bus map, maybe also look at the timetables/frequency for the train station that'd be in walking distance. Some stations have several lines serving it as part of a segment of stations and track where there's more than one service so along that shared segment there's a lot more frequent service for if you wanted to have more areas accessible to you by walking and train.


This thread has given me a lot of places that I think I'd enjoy doing a weekend trip to.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by pc1985

The real question in NJ is, aside from environmental reasons, why not own a car? There is plenty of free parking everywhere, and even in today's inflated market you can buy a beater for $1500-2000 (a couple short years ago you could get one for $700-1000; let me guess, there's a 'shortage;' sometimes there is, but think for the most part, people are just taking advantage and to some extent, responding to actual currency inflation). Insurance is like $700-800/year if you have good credit and driving record, registration $50 per year, oil change $30-40 every 6 months, so not crazy expensive to maintain. As I said above, it can be done, I just don't think it's worth it personally. Even if I only needed a car once a month I would still own one just to have that freedom and flexibility.

Obviously as you're pointing out, cars aren't free of time, space, or money at time of purchase or over the years. Meanwhile, the rise of rideshare, carshare and delivery really makes things pretty easy without a vehicle in a lot more places than it used to be. New Jersey has the bonus of a surfeit of small walkable towns, a pretty extensive rail backbone and some places with decent bus service. Its density also means that rideshare and carshare are generally quick and accessible. Rideshare also means pretty good nights out without designated drivers. I also enjoy doing Turo rentals as the variety of vehicles on there has been pretty fun. Ultimately, how worth it a car is depends a lot on your own habits and preferences.

[46H]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

There is no truth in saying that the only public transportation in New Jersey are the trains to Penn Station New York, not in the middle or anywhere else, and no harshness in calling out a poster who consistently and bizarrely enjoys providing misinformation and untruths. Hell, I myself took the train to HOBOKEN for thirty years.

All one has to do is be able to type in NJTransit.com, or look at the Wiki link I provided.

As we moderators are told, we are not here to moderate truth, we are only here to moderate the TOS, which is why I posted as a lifelong resident of New Jersey and not a mod. I can't punish someone as a mod for lying, but I sure can call them on it as a poster.

It is also disingenuous to the poster to say that you could live in NJ (outside Hoboken, Jersey City, or Newark) without a car. There is not enough mass transit, even in train towns with bus support, to reasonably consider living without a car.

Occasionally taking a leisure trip to the mall by bus is not the same trying to squeeze a trip to the mall into a busy schedule or visit a doctor's office 4 miles from your home and nowhere near a bus route.

I live in a Bergen County train town less than a mile from the train station. When I was commuting by train to NYC, I always drove to the train station because I did not want to add 20 minutes each way to my 1:20 commute. Once we had kids, we had daycare drop off and pickup in our town and then there was before care and after care during elementary school. This would be impossible to do the drop offs/pickups and commute by train without a car.

Here is some other things to consider for walking:
The 2 lane roads we all use to drive all over NJ do not always have sidewalks or any safe space to walk.
There is year around variable weather in NJ.
The sun comes up late and goes down early in Nov/Dec/Jan making it hard for drivers to see walkers.
Walkers are not common and therefore unexpected to drivers.


The reality is you need a car to live in NJ.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by 46H

It is also disingenuous to the poster to say that you could live in NJ (outside Hoboken, Jersey City, or Newark) without a car. There is not enough mass transit, even in train towns with bus support, to reasonably consider living without a car.

Occasionally taking a leisure trip to the mall by bus is not the same trying to squeeze a trip to the mall into a busy schedule or visit a doctor's office 4 miles from your home and nowhere near a bus route.

I live in a Bergen County train town less than a mile from the train station. When I was commuting by train to NYC, I always drove to the train station because I did not want to add 20 minutes each way to my 1:20 commute. Once we had kids, we had daycare drop off and pickup in our town and then there was before care and after care during elementary school. This would be impossible to do the drop offs/pickups and commute by train without a car.

Here is some other things to consider for walking:
The 2 lane roads we all use to drive all over NJ do not always have sidewalks or any safe space to walk.
There is year around variable weather in NJ.
The sun comes up late and goes down early in Nov/Dec/Jan making it hard for drivers to see walkers.
Walkers are not common and therefore unexpected to drivers.


The reality is you need a car to live in NJ.

I think one thing to ask when someone says this is if they buy things online, if they have Uber/Lyft installed and have used it, if they know how to use the transit feature on Google Maps or similar, and if they have ever used an app based car rental service. Another big one is if they have a frequent commute that is horrendously longer without a car.

I definitely know people living without a car in New Jersey and not in Hudson County nor Newark, so I'm somewhat skeptical that they live in a separate reality as they cannot exist in this one.

[HudsonCoNJ]

You can absolutely live in many Bergen County towns very easily without a car. I’m sure many people do. Between buses, trains, and Uber it is very doable. If you have young kids, that’s a different story. Plenty of people live here without a car.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by pc1985

Also want to add regarding the South Jersey towns, that if you have the budget for Amtrak and Amtrak Acela (about $35-50 vs. NJ Transit approx $20), you can cut the leg from Trenton down to 55 minutes and 45 minutes respectively (vs. NJ Transit about 1hr5 min/1hr10min express and 1hr25min local). Riverline cost is pretty negligible $2-4.

I feel like if they're considering going to South Jersey, then they should consider Philadelphia as well.