Fresh Direct is good. Reliable. And they insist on carrying them up my third floor walk up, bonus! A little pricier than doing the shopping yourself, but still cheaper than delivery/takeout.

Amazon fresh is fine too, but I hate the shopping user experience. Fresh Direct has a much better shopping site

also if you ever need an alternate to the Pulaski take the trucking route, it's a little less traffic heavy, just as free, and if it does get backed up you can hop off onto local roads.

Then Broboken is not the place for you!

Hoboken's only a square mile, and JC is roughly the size of St. Louis. So rather than trying to make an apples-to-apples comparison, think of Hoboken as Jersey City's most overpriced, parking-deprived, overrun-with-bros neighborhood, and ask the real question, which is, which JC neighborhood do you want to live in.

Personally, I think if you're going for LUXURY, you're overpaying, but anything close to the Hudson River (ie. downtown) is going to be what you're looking for, and anywhere downtown is going to be close to transit.

As for bars/nightlife/meeting people, Grove St. is really the center of things (and also a subway station). No nature trails to speak of, but lots of bike lanes, and believe it or not there are a few good nature spots in Jersey City — the back half of Lincoln Park on the west side is a nature preserve that sits on the Hackensack River (now with much less pollution!), and Caven Point in Liberty State Park is a gem — a little hidden-away beach with a view of the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan, although it's closed in the summer because it's also a fragile migratory bird habitat.

I’ve never had a problem with ShopRite but it might be more helpful to you to ask people in your area since it’s a localized thing.

Been using Fresh Direct for 15 years. No complaints.

I agree with some people. Jersey City 100%. But if the commute is better for you from Manhattan, live in Manhattan. It's an experience you need and it'll be easier to socialize and date. Personally, I don't want to live in Manhattan. But I spent my younger years there. 😏

Wanted to throw Uncle Momo's into the mix here.

when we kiss

Agree to above. Have been in JC for a decade now and absolutely love it here. Couple of additional points:

1. If you plan to take NJ transit, then anywhere close to a path station in JC is same as living next to Hoboken path. Most trains go through Newark where you can change the path that you might take from grove. Plus most of the luxury buildings are around exchange, grove, or jsq path station in JC.

2. For the lifestyle that you’re looking for, if you choose NJ, then JC is the great choice over Hoboken. Hoboken does have some good food spots but it’s just a couple of miles walk or a short train/ Uber/ Lyft ride away.

Rumi’s has been around forever and it is fantastic. If you want to support the restaurant that’s been here since the beginning of downtown’s renaissance, that’s the way to go.

On main st. There are a lot of good restaurants there. Just all a few blocks and check them out and then pick one.

The area around Crooks Avenue has oodles of Middle Eastern restaurants, cafes and shops. A bit closer, there are a bunch of Turkish places around Cliffside Park, Fairview and Edgewater.

I would suggest finding newer luxury buildings in JC that are offering concessions. Apartments.com did the trick for me.

I was new to the area and did that to get a lay of the land, if you will, and it’s served me perfectly with fitting the bill for everything you’re looking for.

Everyone commutes, don’t let these comments scare you. JC is amazing and sounds like exactly what you’re looking for

Where in Paterson? 👀

JC is great. If you’re close to a train station, you can easily commute to Madison / Morristown area. I went to college in Madison, and while Morristown is really nice I don’t think it’s the best place to move if you don’t have anyone already there or have an S/O.

Jersey City is a good move. As is Hoboken. Hoboken definitely has some negative aspects, but it isn’t all that. Either one will be good. I think you’ll have better luck meeting people in Hoboken. It’s a younger, more outgoing crowd. JC is kind of a commuter city, people are in and out, and Hoboken is is more of a small town vibes kinda place.

Have you considered Brooklyn? I love JC but I think that you may really like BK

Working in Madison, you should absolutely live in Morristown. It was where my first apartment after college was and it's a good mix of college town/young professionals/young families. It has a great food scene, tons of bars and nightlife and is close to parks and hiking. I honestly liked it better then both JC and Hoboken, but it's about an hour train ride from the city. Its only about 10-15 minutes from Madison though (Hoboken/JC are going to be about 45 from Madison with traffic).

Dunno if Turkish fits your bill as there are a lot of overlaps. I’ve always been happy with Rumi’s in Paulus Hook. It’s BYO as well.

I used to do a similar commute it's really not that bad with a car. Take 280 you're there in 45 minutes.

Hoboken is just an extension of downtown JC if u ask me. I’d still say JC as it offers more options.

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Yeah absolutely plausible - and frankly still a cheaper car payment than many. One thing to remember is in a few years, you'll have the car paid off and hopefully still functioning (or could trade it in). So technically, you are building a small amount of equity with your current payments. It probably works out to about even vs. transit, if you assume you'll have a $10K car at the end of 5 years of payments.

It’s to own. I didn’t have much credit history before it so that’s why my payment is higher. Still a perfectly plausible situation for lots of people.