Thanks this is awesome to hear

Exactly! 😄

Seconded this. Tip the staff and they'll probably do it for you.

I would venture a guess that the person who came up with this menu has no connection to NYC or JC at all. They probably popped open a map and chose what looked to be the prominent neighborhoods in and around NYC. Our geographic proximity fools the outsider into thinking we're just like BK or Harlem, whereas most locals think we're in a different world.

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.

The car is $528/mo lease? Or is that the payment to own?

Thanks for the detailed numbers. I love seeing the comparison.

This isn't really true. Commuting in a car out of Hudson County isn't nearly as bad as commuting in. There's a ton of local traffic but once you get to the true reverse commute on 78, for instance, it's pretty easy. The way back in can be a bit worse, but is only really bad in December with more people headed into NYC after work.

Just ranting here, but how broken are we that in a transit rich community, a simple commute like yours is either ~45 min in a car or 2h15m across two separate systems and probably 3 transfers?

It's probably cheaper to have the car, when you consider how expensive an NJT monthly and a PATH monthly would be.

Yeah it's ~25 min from Greenville to get off the highway with no traffic. It's ~35 min from Downtown. Traffic definitely can add up. I used to do Florham Park to Hoboken and I'd budget 50 min and regularly use it all - not even during commuting hours.

Doubling down on this one. Edgewater and Weehawken for a single person looking for a social scene is...a mistake.

One other comment: you might need to reevaluate not having a car. I'm a huge no-car advocate, love public transit, and I think you can live wonderfully in Hoboken or JC without one. But commuting to Madison on public transit is... harder. Driving (reverse commute) to Madison is reliably ~40 min during rush hours unless there's some big accident (happens about once a month). Your commute on the train is likely better from Hoboken than JC as there's a NJT terminal there, but oddly might be easier from NY Penn Station. Downtown JC might be more like 90 min and something truly insane like PATH to Hoboken transfer to NJT to transfer at Secaucus to Madison.

Newark Broad Street might actually get you the commute you want on the train (frequent service, 30 min to Madison) but I have no idea about the neighborhood.

This is accurate and it's important to separate uptown Hoboken (broadly: strollers and couples) and downtown/PATH adjacent Hoboken (broadly: bro-ish).

Having lived in both places, a lot of Hoboken's "fratty stuff" is actually from people in the suburbs driving in and bro-ing out. It was weird how many outsiders would come in on Thrs/Fri/Sat nights to the same ~5 bars. I don't know why they wouldn't keep going to NYC, but I guess they wanted the scene they got in Hoboken. This definitely happens in Downtown JC as well but not nearly as big of an influx.

For the OP, regarding JC - there's an excellent sticky that addresses a lot of what you're looking for (and plenty of warnings about looking for $3k rent in a new/high rise/luxury). I'm not sure if Downtown JC is in your budget, but if it is, I find Hamilton Park/Harsimus Cove/Van Vorst to be more low key and friendly, Newport to be more transient (out of town transplants who turn over more often/are just looking for clean apts with good commutes and little community), Paulus Hook like Newport but with slightly different cachet. In all of these places you will find lots of families, especially with young kids, it is mostly white and English speaking but far from homogeneous, and as LGBT friendly as anywhere in NYC, even if the LGBT population isn't as high as say, Chelsea. In those ways, it feels very much like Manhattan or inner Brooklyn even if the demographics are a bit different (these comparisons may or may not help you as someone from CA).

PSEG is electric and gas. What's the breakdown of each?

What's your heating situation? Radiators or forced air?

December was very cold, and if your thermostat was up, it's possible you burned a ton of fuel for heating.

People don't typically realize, but especially in a leaky old house, setting your thermostat to 68 vs 72 is a huge difference and can save you 20%+ on your gas bill in winter.

There's also an excellent chance you have an "estimated reading" in there. If it was estimated in October/November, you're just paying for October now. If December is estimated, it's possible you got over billed and will have a very low bill for Jan and maybe Feb. A payment plan from PSEG will fix this for you if the lumpiness is causing you difficulties.

Without the driveway marking, I'm not sure the parking authority would do anything.

Either way, get the driveway marking done ASAP.

Yeah, with the full story (OP responded to my comment above), it's pretty obvious that the neighbor is a huge problem and owns all of the blame here. I would have done the same thing as OP.

With more context: your neighbor is horrible and fully at fault.

It sounds like the whole thing happened over the course of a few minutes. After midnight, at noon, who cares if the car has just been parked? It's unlikely you're waking someone up or severely inconveniencing them and you are the aggrieved party here so you have the right to get it resolved.

Also, you were leaving at 6a! I would much rather you knock on my door at 12:15a if I got in at 12a than knock on my door at 5:50a when you're trying to leave!

While we don't have the full story here, yes, I think I'd be upset if someone rang my doorbell after midnight to tell me to move my car. This appears to be an arrangement that has been fine in the past but OP decided tonight was the night it ends. Again, OP is free to do this, but is after midnight the best time to decide it?

I think the real question is: did you need to get out at midnight, or were you trying to leave very early the next morning? If neither of those is true, why not deal with it at 7a or 8a the next day?

Don't get me wrong, your neighbor sounds awful and absolutely took advantage of you and your driveway. The question is whether or not you could have waited for a more reasonable hour to address it. I'd be pretty pissed if someone came to my house after midnight and asked me to move my car, if I thought it was parked (semi)legally where we had agreed it'd be OK.

Bread and Salt pizza is a different kind of pie, one that really should be experienced. I really loved it. Their bakery is actually more impressive though. They had some amazing bombolini last time I was there - maybe the best I've ever had.

The pricing for the pizza at Bread and Salt is ridiculous. I think it's $23 for a ~medium mozzarella pie (they call this "half") and $46 for an enormous two-box pie (it is exactly double and they call this "whole"). If this were in a fancy sit down restaurant (ie Razza) it would be a high price. But it's a to-go shop.

Good for them, I hope they stay in business forever, but next time I go, I'll skip the long wait and just get a pastry or a bread.

Better to commute from JC than most parts of NYC, to be honest.

Yes, and we've seen how long NYC is taking to get a law implemented (it was signed way back in 2019!) - it will be a long time before JC can get something like this done. With that in mind, I guess that means we should start now.

O Kafe also does Donut Plant I think. Weekends only if I recall.

I did Greenpoint to Downtown for $66 a few nights ago. But it was super late and there was no traffic.

We don't have 24 hour service really.

You can't go WTC to Hoboken on nights or weekends.

You can't go JC to 33rd on nights or weekends without a stop in Hoboken. It's basically a transfer that you don't have to leave the train for, but it's effectively a separate line.