phooey182 wrote:
Housing question:
I've been shopping for a place to live off-campus. Does anyone know if the majority of off-campus students live in Newark or outside of Newark?
Hey.
I just came back from NJ
Newark is not the greatest area but it's not as dangerous as people make it sound. If you've lived in a suburb all of your life and have never lived in any kind of an urban area then yes...every street in Newark is going to scare you. But honestly the worst thing about Newark is that options are super limited. You're not going to want to really live in most of the neighborhoods. The area right around R-N doesn't have a ton of living options. The area just behind Newark Penn station (Ironbound) has probably the closes and most reasonable places in the area. If you like the suburban living go to Montclair or Irvington.
But I initially thought I wanted to stay in Newark. After hoping on the PATH and heading out to Jersey City I am SOLD!!!!! I love the area around the Grove street Path station/Van Vorst Park area. Also the Newport/Pavonia area near Newport Center Mall is great. And if you're close to the PATH the commute is a freakin' breeeeeeze!
and JC is super close to mid-town manhattan. It's just a few stops from Grove St. and Pavonia.
The housing around JC is tons of brownstones, townhouses, lofts, and rehabbed condos.
I went by Liberty Harbor which is a quick walk from Grove st station on Grand and although they don't currently have any units they have a new building going up and will have more info on rentals in a couple of weeks.
I also checked out Gulls Cove. It's technically only units for sale but on craigslist there's some people renting. Same with the Beacon. There are a billion units @Newport and they're nice. I need W/D hookups and none of their building have that so they were out. Although they have a new building called AquaBlu opening late summer (maybe Aug they're not sure yet) that will have W/D hookups. But that area around Newport is fantatic. Literally right at the PATH station, mall, and Target.
I didn't do Hoboken b/c I just didn't want to! So I don't have any good info.
but I even walked to Penn station at night and not only was I not worried but I didn't see what the fuss was. There's nobody out at night especially if you're at the school headed East towards Penn station. Now...if you're going west or especially south down Broad St. you're headed for some sketchy parts. But there's really no reason to even head that way. If you want to know anything else just PM me.
EDIT: bobthecat R-N has a shuttle that leaves from the law school and goes directly to Newark Penn Station which is where you can catch all the trains/PATH to JC or Hoboken. So I think you could get along w/o a car.
A student pass for the path is ~$40/month. There's a discount on the full unlimited monthly fee, and I there's a fee for parking on the campus in the garages, plus any fee you're going to pay for parking at your place. So you could probably do fine w/o a car. I got along just swimmingly for a week w/o one. Although for getting around and getting to know the area for the first time a car would have been slightly more convenient.