May as well make a down payment

It can depend on your preferences. I think the brownstones in downtown around grove street are equally as nice as the ones in Brooklyn. They both are very diverse in the types of neighborhoods that exist. I tried to lay out why I think JC > Brooklyn in the rest of the post, when I said nice I meant it in an overall sense.

NYC’s Mac & Cheese truck??? In Jersey City????

Lol at 15 dollar mac and cheese

What ice rink is this

I can’t get my Mac and cheese on for 16 bucks, I’m POOR

My partner and I are in our fifth year here in JC, after living in the Upper West Side and various areas of Brooklyn, and I think it compares highly favorably.

For us it was a no-brainer, we save five figures annually on taxes living on this side of the river. You should talk to your accountant or tax attorney about this, and if you don't have one, it seems like it's past time to get one. If that sounds too daunting, your bank can probably make somebody available. This is too big a consideration to rely on your best guesses or something you read online, there are a lot of potential concerns about moving across the river that a bunch of extra money in your pocket can fix.

That aside, on to quality of life concerns.

First, I'm honestly surprised to see people who are supposedly used to the MTA complaining about the PATH. The PATH isn't perfect, but it's better than the MTA. And you're two stops from Grove to the WTC. That essentially makes downtown Manhattan part of your neighborhood. People travel further than two stops in NYC and still consider themselves on their home turf, but somehow the state line predisposes people to think they're further than they actually are. I blame the MTA map.

Second, along the same lines, it genuinely might be difficult to get people from NYC to visit you. . . at least the first time. In our experience, convincing somebody to cross the Hudson is like pulling teeth, but almost universally, the reaction is "it's actually really nice here! And I can't believe how easy it was to get here!" We threw a few big parties when we first moved in and really haven't had a problem since in getting Manhattan and Brooklyn folks in to spend time. (I will say, our Queens friends have a standing invitation to stay in our guest bed overnight, as Queens is genuinely fucking far.) But like, from World Trade Center, we are a five minute train and a ten minute walk along safe, well-lighted pedestrian boulevards. We're closer to downtown than most of Brooklyn and even most of Manhattan itself.

It's easier to get away from the city for the weekend from JC than it is from Brooklyn. We love to camp in Upstate New York, and our dear friends in Park Slope usually join us. They're less than an hour from us by transit, but somehow it usually takes them two hours or more just to get out of the city (leaving on Fridays during the summer leaves them susceptible to lots of traffic). We can leave at the same time and be at the campground hours before them. A two hour drive vs. a 4 - 5 hour drive is a big deal when you're just making a weekend trip.

As for the urban fabric, it's so similar to Brooklyn that I would worry less about you having the urban experience you want, and I would worry more about your girlfriend not being happy because the move wasn't dramatic enough. If she wants a bigger place and more space, and you want to still be able to get into the city easily, I'd look in downtown just past the high-rise district, roughly around Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park. For context, we live roughly halfway between the two, we have a ten minute walk to the Grove Street Path, and we have a 1200 square foot 2-bed/2-bath with a roughly 900 square foot private garden that we spend a lot of time in. After a rent hike we now pay $2,800/month. Old construction, which we prefer.

Finally, you know what nobody realizes until they live here? We've got the best views of the NYC skyline. ;-)

fuhgeddaboudit , women were always right.

no bagels --> plenty of mid eastern food

prospect park --> liberty state park & board walk

crowd -> space

old apartments -> new mostly renovated/larger

no parking -> parking

Brooklyn bridge pic --> the entire Manhattan skyline in a single pic. easy walk reach.

bike everywhere -> bike somewhere (at least to major internal destination)

BQN & traffic -> almost none of it in comparison (except if you hang on the holland tunnel)

cool vibe -> less vibe, less fuss too, can still be surprised by nice events in JC

coney island & rockaway -> sandy hook via seastreak (faster,better imh)

destination location -> living location

museum --> no museum

[deleted]

I want to know what kind of churro is 3 bucks. It must be stuffed with truffles.

im lactose intolerant

Jersey city is great and 3.5k budget is reasonable. You can find a spacious one bedroom in that range. Possibly 2 bed but smaller common areas. Anyways, jersey city and Hoboken are an easy commute to the city and safe. Jersey city is pretty big but if you stay downtown or near the water, you’ll find it’s a similar vibe to Brooklyn. The food is great but the night life is definitely much slower paced here. Nothing a quick path into the city can’t fix though. I’d recommend spending some time in the area before making the decision. I’ve never lived in Brooklyn but I love it there. I’d choose jc or Hoboken personally.

[deleted]

Brooklyn similarly to jersey city has its nice areas and not so nice areas. I think a major pro for jersey in general is that it’s safer. “Nice” is definitely subjective. I personally adore Brooklyn but wouldn’t leave jersey for it. Just personal preference.

The pump could either be blocked or malfunctioning

Lol JC with NY prices.

Cool. So yeah, maybe some blockage. It sounds like you don't have any visibility to where the water exits though (under the sidewalk?), So may be a bit harder to fix. Can you run a snake/auger up the pipe and see if anything is lodged?

Thanks. I think it may be a blockage in the pipe. Wondering if anybody has had a problem with pumps leading outside freezing after the rain and immediate temp drop we just experienced.

I disconnected the pipe and tried running the sump pump and it's pumping water, so I think the problem might be in the pipe or if there's an air lock.

Post this on r/HomeImprovement

Where is    "JC's MAC & CHEESE FOOD TRUCK"?   At the Wollman Rink?

[deleted]

NYC city tax is between 3-3.8% depending on your tax bracket, if you make 250k it’s about 10k a year, not 10k in extra income, like 10k after tax.

Yea, floods due to malfunctioning sump pumps happen when you have long cold stretches. Same if you've got a condensate line for a dehumidifier in the basement (assuming it's damp enough to run in the winter).

If you don't see water lowering, and no water exiting, it's likely frozen. The motor cools itself by being submerged in water. But it's designed to run briefly. If it's running for hours, that water is going to heat up.

One option is to get a hose and connect it to the sump pump, then pump it somewhere else for the moment to keep things under control. Just make sure it's somewhere downhill so you're not just creating a loop. It's a shitty option, but a common one in weather like this. That hose might freeze too if it's kept full of water, but you could take it inside for a few hours so it can thaw, or just lift and let it drain before it freezes. This is actually a pretty common workaround. Some people do this every snowstorm. Depending on the home and land around it, alternatives are expensive. Some people also just have some extra pipe in the garage and unscrew the clamp on the exterior and route it through that makeshift pipe after a snowstorm. Then when the snow melts put it back to the original plumbing.j

Given things are pretty frozen, you could also get a bucket and just empty it a dozen times or so if a sink is nearby. Odds are the ground is relatively frozen, so after a dozen or so times there should slow down. In a pinch that's an option but IMHO too much work.

Hopefully later this week things will warm up during the day at least and give things a chance to thaw.

I'd look around and see if there's evidence the previous homeowner had an alternate way of getting rid of water. Some pipes stashed away in a corner or under a deck, some hose. It's not uncommon in extreme situations.

Just moved to JC in November after 13+ years in Brooklyn (Williamsburg, South Slope, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights). There was definitely some hesitancy to leave the city and we hadn’t spent much time in JC but family being this way and a new kid in the picture helped push us to look. We instantly fell in love with the town especially Hamilton Park & Van Vorst & Paulus Hook areas. We got a place in Hamilton Park and love it. There’s a bit of a culture shock in just how low density the area feels. I see as many people between our place & Grove Street commute as you see in 10 seconds on the city side. Sometimes we miss the action but we’re still finding lots of great things in JC to get excited about. And it’s so much cleaner. Come check it out at least.

Probably. If you look at this guys Yelp pics...he uses something similar to Stop&Shop fake cheese.