Question for New York, Connecticut, New York people
 

*EDIT* I mean NEW JERSEY too.

My girlfriend is about to graduate college and has 3 potential jobs. 1 is in Atlanta, one in Chicago and one in New York. I'll be moving with her if she goes to Chicago or New York but I know little about the cities. She is from Chicago so I'm covered there. New York is the one I'm curious about.

She'll be working in the Financial Disctrict in south NYC. She recently was flown up to NYC for her 2nd round job interview so there is a good chance she'll get the job. I'm not sure how much she'll make but I'm guessing roughly $50-80k (though I'm not sure how different cost of living is than ATL and how it affects pay). We'd also only be there for 1.5-2years before moving to Chicago. I'll be continuing school full time for another year and a half so I'll bring in little income.

Okay so that's the basic info. Here are my questions/issues/curiosities
- What are good areas to live (in NY, NJ, CT)
- We've considered CT but would be in Stamford area. Is that area just too expensive of an area and how hard would it be for her to get to work
- Does NJ really suck that much worse than NY?
- Is NYC easily accessed from New Jersey
- I'll have guns
- Dog friendly areas?
- any good mountain (street motorcycle and off-road bicycle) riding nearbye?
- What are the areas to avoid at all costs
- Good suburban areas
- avg cost of 2bed apt rental
- I'll have a truck and motorcycle along iwth her having a car

I'm sure I'll think of more later. Appreciate any info

I live on long island and work in brooklyn and the bronx.

Living in the burbs isnt bad but is a lil pricey in some places, plus youre a slave to mass transit to get to downtown manhattan, although thats the same with jersey.

As for the guns, make sure the paperwork is all legit, not many have concealed carry permits here and they are not easy to get. if yo uhave vehicles stay out of manhattan since parking is a nightmare, the outer boros are a little better, but is still a major PITA and you will PAY if you want private parking.

If you look into LI LMK since I can tell ya what areas/towns to avoid ;)

Tom

I only know about CT. Any city in sw CT is nice, Stamford, Darien, Norwalk. It is very expensive and $80K a year in not very much money there. On that kind of salary you'd have to be further east but it becomes a ghetto quickly and Bridgeport in the center of ghetto universe. Fairfield is nice but you are over an hour away by car. She could take the train in the the city though. I lived and worked in Straford. It was ok but a 2 bdr shit hole apartment was $1800/mo.

Guns, yeah your ok there. Think about where the old gun manufacturers started.. in CT. North of Danbury you start to get into some mountainous areas. Good riding up there.

Personally if it was me, and I had no kids, I'd live in Manhattan, but that's just me.

Good luck with your decision.

LI = Long Island?
LMK = ?

We'd consider Long Island but normally when I hear "Island" I think expensive. It'd only be for 2 years so I could "suffer" for 2 years before we move to Chicago (burbs). We both aren't excited to move to NY. Infact she pretty much had her fill staying in Times Square for 1 day. We're hoping for Chicago or Atlanta but want to be prepared way ahead of time if she takes the job.

I'm guessing 30-40miles out is the farthest we'd live (but may make exception for CT). Transit is no problem, it's gotta be better than MARTA (Atlanta's transit). So as long as the rail lines are fairly safe then she should be okay with commuting to NYC from a good distance away.

Oh yeah. Taxes, Tolls, and any other hidden stuff.

Rider: I figured CT would be what you said. But the more liberty a state has the better I like it.

Plus can you buy beer on Sunday or 24hours (NY,NJ,CT)?

Thanks for the help peoples

LI is long island

LMK is let me know

Some parts of nassau and suffolk are uber expensive but many are normal suburban areas. Not sure on current rental prices but we had a 2br with driveway that started out at 1450 amonth, so decent rentals can be found and making 50 to 80k you can live comfortably.

Good question on the beer, I know it used to be you couldnt buy beer from 4am to noon on sundays but I think thats changed.

If you guys rent you wont be hit with many taxes, also if you live in NYC you have to pay city tax, and there are a fair amount of tolls here and theyre NOT cheap however you can get into NYC for free over the 59th st bridge and a few other bridges.

Times Square is a crap. Anywhere where tourists congregate is crap.
Its a totally different story once you leave the tourist traps.

If you are not going to be here for to long. Queens and Brooklyn offer a lot of relatively inexpensive rentals and plenty of spots you do not need a car. Best way to get around is by foot or train. Cabs are usually a waste...unless its party time.

Look into Westchester. Its about a 25-30 minute commute depending on where you live. I'm originally from New Rochelle. Very nice city, the southern part of the city is cheaper to live in than the northern part. Another nice city there is Eastchester...Stay away from Mt. Vernon and Yonkers. White Plains is a nice area too...very metropolitan area, not too far from the train and decent roads about 30min to an hour north.

And i'm not sure if they still do it...maybe Tommy can chime in on this...but on Sundays from like late March to early November they close a streach of the Bronx River Pkwy so bicycles can run up and down it.

That they still do, screwed up a few of our upstate runs.

You can prolly catch metro north back down to the city, similar to the LIRR in long island. I just hate being a slave to the trains/busses.

Tom

Westchester is pricey..

Metro North sucks balls.
I hate it.
I hate hate hate it.

LIRR and I are buddies we go back a few years now. Get yourself a nice quiet car on an express train and yer golden.
Metro North is for dirty Connect-a-Cunts, upstate jackholes and pedophiles. the trains are old, dirty and only assholes ride a train with the wire over head.

I agree on the Busses. They are pretty convenient though.

Update:

She got the job offer but she really does not want to take it. They offered her 46k with a 7500 sign up bonus. She's excited as hell that she got a job offer but she did an interview for a job in Atlanta that she said she did excellent in. She's hoping to get that one. She did a 2nd round interview with a Chicago company and is waiting to hear back from them on wether she makes the 3rd interview. Chicago and Atlanta are our preffered choices.

But we are still keeping NYC on the table so later on today I'll probably look into the taxes of NJ, NY, NYC along with trying to figure out cost of living and crap like that.

Thanks for the help guys.