Iselin, New Jersey

Thomas wrote:

dagmaraka wrote:
Jersey has some gorgeous nature reservations, bird watching parks, wetlands. It really has a beautiful countryside.
I know the Oranges and Maplewood well - it's not far and it's a pretty residential neighborhood, with parks with gorgeous vistas overlooking New York skyline.... but the property taxes have skyrocketed in the last decade. And gas lamps, that add charm to these areas.

Hi Dag -- that does sound gorgeous. I'll look into the Oranges and Maplewood.

farmerman wrote:
were you raised near oil refineries Thomas?

No, but when I was born, safety procedures in labs were extremely permissive. If it's a poisonous organic chemical, you can assume that my mother inhaled it at some point.

dlowan wrote:
Then you would come under my criteria for "can't afford it".

Don't be so direct about it please, I'm still in denial.

That's bad for you.

That's where I live, too.....and it means I spend as though I had plenty of money.

Which means I never have money.

We don't want that for you, Thomas!

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dagmaraka wrote:

Many many reasons why to not live in mid-Manhattan even if it's affordable. You have to be a hardcore urban type to want to live in Manhattan. If Thomas is, great. I myself would never live in Manhattan though. Even if I worked there, I think I'd rather commute in from Jersey. It's fun for about a week, then it's torture (for ME.. There is plenty of people who love the City and cannot live anywhere else). I'd miss the trees and grass and quiet.

There is plenty of green in Manhattan. I used to live uptown close to
Carl Schurtz Park and I enjoyed living there. Okay, I was younger than
Thomas and the excitement of the city didn't bother me, on the contrary,
but it is not for everyone, I agree.

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CalamityJane wrote:

dagmaraka wrote:
Many many reasons why to not live in mid-Manhattan even if it's affordable. You have to be a hardcore urban type to want to live in Manhattan. If Thomas is, great. I myself would never live in Manhattan though. Even if I worked there, I think I'd rather commute in from Jersey. It's fun for about a week, then it's torture (for ME.. There is plenty of people who love the City and cannot live anywhere else). I'd miss the trees and grass and quiet.

There is plenty of green in Manhattan. I used to live uptown close to
Carl Schurtz Park and I enjoyed living there. Okay, I was younger than
Thomas and the excitement of the city didn't bother me, on the contrary,
but it is not for everyone, I agree.

Oy! You have made me think of the wonderful parks near the Cloisters (forgot the name).....glorious.

But...for those accustomed to really green cities, Manhattan is a bit of a desert, with wnderful, but very crowded, parks like scattered oases.

Edit: Fort Tryon Park!

I just looked at Schurz Park, and it is lovely, too.

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Gramercy Park, and if Thomas gets an apartment which includes a key for it - nothing better.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Gramercy Park, and if Thomas gets an apartment which includes a key for it - nothing better.

Parks with keys......my son has got one of these in Edinburgh, with his flat tenancy.....class.

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Gramercy Park, this June

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CalamityJane wrote:

Forget Newark and Hoboken - two awful, crime riddled cities.

CJ -- are you sure about Hoboken? I checked your information on Hoboken and Newark against their pages on city-data.com. Judging by the crime rates, it appears you were spot-on about Newark. But for Hoboken, the rates they give for various crimes are way below the national average; and the Hoboken pictures posted to the site do look nice. Your opinion about Hoboken, unlike your opinion about Newark, also contradicts what I've heard from other people so far. Nobody seems to like Newark, but Hoboken is usually summed up as a newly gentrified students-and-yuppies kind of place (which is a kind of place I usually like). You're the only one so far who doesn't recommend it.

May I ask how recent your information about Hoboken is? Could it have been gentrified after you left the area?

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I see Walter is trying to turn me into a New Yorker.

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But only since Chicago would be too far for commuting.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

But only since Chicago would be too far for commuting.

You show me a similarly gorgeous park in Chicago and I'll believe it. As everyone knows, Chicago was founded by New Yorkers who had said to themselves: "You know, we like the crime and the stress level here in New York -- but it just isn't windy enough!"

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Fuggedaboutit!

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Thomas, all this talk about Manhatten, other communities....

You're going to work in Iselin, why not just rent a place in Iselin for 6 months or a year to either (a) see how you like it right there or (b) see what else is around.

Here's a link to CNN Money's top 10, where you can compare any cities.

Comparing Iselin to other cities

At a glance, Iselin doesn't look like such a bad place to live, or at least to rent.

From what I remember of growing up there, well, in my teens when you were more mobile, owning a car and all....nothing was very far away from anything as far as saying, let's go out to eat, see a movie, a club, etc.

Think about it. You will be spending your entire day in Iselin, will be sleeping another big chunk of time, and doing day to day chores.

The only extended time you'll have to actually go out and do anything will be on weekends, and you can travel to a multitude of places from there.

Communting is expensive. I just learned from a friend who now works in NYC, but moved back into Jersey (to take care of his father), that to travel by train costs $350 a month.....plus all that time.

Anyway, just a thought.

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Sneaky little vote in here for Wilmington, DE, although you might not enjoy the commute time (you could take Amtrak; Senator Joe Biden does, but in the other direction). Wilmington is quiet, clean, inexpensive and has a lot of green. But seriously if you were to do W'ton then that begs the question of checking out Philly and environs. Philly is more expensive, but closer, and has more stuff to do.

So -- one idea -- stick a compass in a map and draw a circle, with the radius being how far you want to commute (or the time spent commuting that you can absolutely take, such as one hour each way or whatever) and the stem being stuck into the center of Iselin or wherever the office is going to be. Then tell us what's within the circle.

Hoboken is not bad -- it is very gentrified these days. Newark is definitely out unless you want to live in the Ironbound, and even then it's pretty bad. I would not leave a nice car there or anything nice in an apartment there. You do not want to live that way.

Manhattan -- the only area that's at all feasible is midtown as the rest of the island means an even longer commute. Cloisters area? C'mon, that's a one-hour or more commute just to get to where you leave Manhattan to get to NJ! Plus there is the expense and you will be smacked with city taxes in NYC.

In all honesty, I'd stick to NJ if I were you. There are a lot of fine cities and towns.

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Thomas wrote:

CalamityJane wrote:
Forget Newark and Hoboken - two awful, crime riddled cities.

CJ -- are you sure about Hoboken? I checked your information on Hoboken and Newark against their pages on city-data.com. Judging by the crime rates, it appears you were spot-on about Newark. But for Hoboken, the rates they give for various crimes are way below the national average; and the Hoboken pictures posted to the site do look nice. Your opinion about Hoboken, unlike your opinion about Newark, also contradicts what I've heard from other people so far. Nobody seems to like Newark, but Hoboken is usually summed up as a newly gentrified students-and-yuppies kind of place (which is a kind of place I usually like). You're the only one so far who doesn't recommend it.

May I ask how recent your information about Hoboken is? Could it have been gentrified after you left the area?

It could have been gentrified in recent years, however, I did crosscheck
some references before writing down my information to you (since I never lived in Hoboken), and my sources contradict yours.

Quote:

Hoboken's property crime levels tend to be higher than New Jersey's average level. The same data shows violent crime levels in Hoboken tend to be about the same as New Jersey's average level.[/img]

SOURCE

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Can't the company Thomas works for provided suggestions too? Where do the people who work at that location live?

Also, what's wrong with my idea of living in the town where you work? A lot of people do that, you know.

You spend a third of your day in Iselin anyway, and send another third unconscious, why travel and take up the other third?

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I forgot something: check into Cliffside Park and Fort Lee (along the Hudson). I found them much more desirable. Fort Lee is a bit expensive,
but the view of Manhattan is breathtaking. Some of our friends who
worked at the Deutsche Bank in Manhattan lived in Fort Lee.

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Thomas wrote:

Walter Hinteler wrote:
But only since Chicago would be too far for commuting.

You show me a similarly gorgeous park in Chicago and I'll believe it. As everyone knows, Chicago was founded by New Yorkers who had said to themselves: "You know, we like the crime and the stress level here in New York -- but it just isn't windy enough!"

Hahaha, that is spot on.

So, tell us, Thomas. What do you like? Are you an urbanite? Or do you like to wake to birds chirping outside your windows (and i don't mean pigeons)? A mix? Can you handle NYC (I know I can't, not even if I lived smack in the middle of the Central Park or other greenery)? Can you handle the suburbs? In an ideal world, what would your living situation be?

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dagmaraka wrote:

So, tell us, Thomas. Are you an urbanite?

If I'm not wrong, he lives since ages in the Cosmopolitan city with heart ...

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Chai wrote:

You're going to work in Iselin, why not just rent a place in Iselin for 6 months or a year to either (a) see how you like it right there or (b) see what else is around.

In principle, there is nothing wrong with the general idea of living where I work. But in practice, there are two reasons I'm disinclined to do it.

1) People who have seen Iselin, including people in this thread, describe it as primarily an agglomeration of offices and the occasional mall. That makes it very unlikely to be my kind of place. The background is that I prefer to do without a car if I can; it seems to be an option in New Jersey; but as a side effect, I have to like the area within walking distance of my home.

2) I don't feel like moving twice within 6 or 12 months, so I'd prefer to get my location right the first time.

Nevertheless, I'm not ruling out Iselin until I've seen it. As far as I am concerned, "all this talk about Manhatten, other communities" is happening so I can start with a pool of options, then delete them if they prove too expensive, too crime-ridden, or otherwise unattractive. On reflection, I agree with you and Jespah that Manhattan is probably out. The 55 minute commute from Penn Station is near my limit, and I'm not quite sure which side of it. My current commute lasts 30 minutes; maybe I should use this as my limit for now.

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jespah wrote :

Quote:

Sneaky little vote in here for Wilmington, DE

i'll second that ! i'd recommend that thomas rent a suite at the
HOTEL DU PONT in wilmington - quite the place to enjoy the finer things in life :wink: !
you don't even need a car ; they provide limousine service within the city and on weekends two bottles of wine from the dupont estate are delivered to the suite - no need to go out and hunt down a $1.99 bottle of wine .
i'm sure it's the kind of lifestyle thomas would appreciate :wink: !
hbg

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Iselin, New Jersey

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