<story><title>Why It&apos;s So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens</title><url>http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/05/very-brief-history-why-its-so-hard-get-brooklyn-queens/5738</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mbubb</author><text>Heh - I used to live in Greenpoint and would reverse commute up to Queens Plaza to avoid the &amp;quot;G to the L to the BDFQ&amp;quot; into midtown...&lt;p&gt;On the contrary, Hoboken - where I now live -  has a wealth of options to commute into both midtown and downtown NYC. Within a few blocks of my apartment: a subway trip of less than 20 mins to either Wall Street or 32nd (Midtown); ferry (a very pleasant 40 min trip to my office in the 40s); bus about 30 mins to midtown depending upon traffic. I love the ferry - it is the least efficient and most expensive option. I take it about 30% of the time to enjoy the river in the morning or evening.&lt;p&gt;This kind of access to NYC has made Hoboken (and downtown Jersey City) a much more desirable location than other small cities in the area. And I have more options than many of my colleagues in Brooklyn or Queens - and a quicker commute than some colleagues in the Upper West side of Manhattan.&lt;p&gt;Go a few miles further into NJ and commuting becomes a mess. The first time I googlemapped our new datacenter in the Meadowlands of NJ - I was pleasantly surprised that it was ~5 miles from NYC office and roughly the same from my Hoboken apartment. And ~1 mile from a transit stop.&lt;p&gt;Thought I could ride my bike but the trip is through  MadMax NJ wasteland, unmaintained roads on which semis rule  and on which there are no sidewalks. I am not brave enough. Even the wildlife is scary - a giant groundhog grumpily rules the front gate area of the datacenter. And those 8 foot tall reeds are everywhere - I can just imagine full of rats and albino sewer alligators of immense size. I take a $15 cab from the nearest light rail stop.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why It&apos;s So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens</title><url>http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/05/very-brief-history-why-its-so-hard-get-brooklyn-queens/5738</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>paulgb</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s an interesting follow-up article which attempts to debunk the &amp;quot;Great American Streetcar Scandal&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/06/be-careful-how-you-refer-so-called-great-american-streetcar-scandal/5771/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;m.theatlanticcities.com&amp;#x2F;commute&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;be-careful-ho...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>