Living in Philly
Just received an offer for a position that is wayyy too good to pass up. This job will set me up nicely to achieve some of my career goals. Only problem is that I have to work on location in Trenton, NJ - no remote work option.
Not too keen on living near Trenton at all. Crime is terrible. There's not much to do for a young professional. One thought is to live in or near Philadelphia and commute. Not ideal doing a reverse commute but seems like a much better option.
Anyone know of some good options for living in/near Philly or South Jersey? Position doesn't start for a few months so I've got some time to look around.
Ain't no two ways around it, Trenton is absolutely ass. I'm sorry haha. If you did live in Philly/South Jersey and did the reverse commute during normal commuting hours, it would still be a bit of a slog... 95 is always jammed up with traffic especially given the never-ending construction. That said, plenty of people do long commutes in the Philly metro. Not sure how old you are, if you're looking to rent or buy, or what you're looking for lifestyle-wise, so I could possibly provide some more tailored recommendations if you give some additional context.
Rent for sure. Won't have this position for more than two years. I'm still relatively young. No family, no girlfriend. Timing is definitely right for me to take this job. That said I'm getting to a point where I'd like to get serious with someone sooner than later and Trenton is absolutely not the place to do that.
Hugh Myron beat me to the punch and covered a lot of the same things I was going to suggest. At this point all I'd add is for you to think long & hard about what's important to you, and what you prefer to have access to daily / during weekdays vs. what you don't mind having only weekend access to, and balance that against your preferred work commute and choose a neighborhood accordingly. This is honestly a tough one. Princeton could be a nice happy medium since it's a college town and there are a lot of young people. If you had a family, Bucks County would hands down be the easy choice.
A few ways to do this, depending on what exactly you're looking for and what stage of life you're in. Note, if you live anywhere within Philly city limits, you'll be subject to the wage tax, which is just under 4% of your topline income. That 4% may as well be lit on fire because you'll receive nothing appreciable in return from the city.
- If your office is in walking distance from the Trenton transit center, you can reverse commute via train from Center City to Trenton. The train itself will be about an hour, but at least it's productive time on the laptop.
- You can live in one of the hipster neighborhoods like Fishtown or whatever they're calling the gentrifying part of Kensington these days (South Kensington / Olde Kensington) and do the reverse commute up 95 which will not be enjoyable. I'm not really a fan of those neighborhoods, for what it's worth. Honestly you could probably pick any neighborhood along 95 and this works, but those are the farthest north that have any type of appeal to most people.
- You can live in a south NJ town like Collingswood (Haddonfield if older / have family + kids) and reverse commute via 95 (there's a light rail called the Riverline but it's like ~90 minutes from Camden to Trenton). Collingswood is a nice little town with direct PATCO access to CC for nightlife / trips into the city.
- Princeton could be another good choice and a reasonable drive to Trenton. You'll be roughly equidistant from Philly and NY.
- If you're older/have a family, any of the nice towns in Bucks County like Newtown or Yardley would be great choices.
Sorry bro but Trenton sucks.
never thought I'd see these 2 cities mentioned on this site. I did a church service trip in Camden, that was scary.
Another option could be to find a place to live in Jersey City. PATH to Newark and then ~40 min NJT train to Trenton. NJT runs a lot more frequently than SEPTA, and Jersey City is much safer than Philly (not to mention you're right across the river from Manhattan for nightlife).
This is a good option, seems like that could also be cheaper for strictly commuting than Amtrak every day. Not sure what Jersey City rents are though.
You could take the Acela (Amtrak) from DT Philly to trenton - says it’s 24 minute ride? I’m not sure how much it costs to do that daily, but I don’t think it’s super expensive.
Also don’t know how reliable the train is. You could probably do a mix of driving / taking Amtrak and figure it out. Philly seems like a decent city TBH. It’s no NY, but solid if the career option is worth it.
Somehow I didn’t even consider Amtrak here. Would easily be the best commute if his office is walkable after getting off in Trenton. Could live along the western edge of Rittenhouse and walk to 30th st. Looks like a monthly pass is running $550 these days, though.
what in the fuck good job is there in Trenton? If work offered commuting fees, like others mentioned taking the Acela from 30th Street would be great and a nice way to rack up a lot of Amtrak points to use for personal travel (really convenient imo for travel to NYC, especially from Philly).
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