So Close, Yet So Different: Parenting in Hoboken vs. Jersey City

I've been spending a lot of time in Jersey City lately. My daughter's best friend lives in the Paulus Hook area, and we often walk to the downtown Newport section. We love the well-stocked Asian food section at Morton Williams, and Newport Mall is a fun place to visit on snowy or incredibly hot days. The kids and I pick up our free monthly Godiva chocolate, share an organic frozen yogurt, visit the puppies at the pet store and finish up at the kid section of Kohls before taking the Light Rail back home.

When we were considering options to find more space for our growing family, we compiled two lists. The first included suburban towns, the second included urban areas along the Hudson River, ensuring easy access into Manhattan.

Jersey City was definitely one of the top contenders for nearby urban locales.

We ruled out Jersey City early in our search for several reasons. We preferred the public school options in the Mile Square. As far as private schools are concerned, tuition is higher in Jersey City (Catholic schools charge twice as much). Compared to walkable Hoboken, getting around in Jersey City is much harder without a car. Some of our friends with kids who live in Jersey City come to Hoboken for the wide variety of classes and programs for children.

Toddler art, music, yoga, ballet, puppet shows, swimming, soccer and gymnastics classes abound in Hoboken, many with a drop-in option at a slightly higher fee so we don't have to commit to 16 weeks of classes. In the fall, my daughter will attend free Abbott pre-k a few blocks away from our home while my son visits the daycare downstairs from our condo a couple of mornings a week for socialization, music and yoga classes.

We have a some good friends who love living in Jersey City. Newport/Pavonia is full of sleek, upscale homes very near corporate centers for JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, and the Paulus Hook area is historical and picturesque, with incredible waterfront views for homes along Liberty Landing Marina.

And as much as we enjoy our  friends in Jersey City, Hoboken has proven to be the place where we want to raise our family, send our children to school and walk from the Light Rail Station to our apartment—no car needed. 

To read more about what makes Kathy Zucker tick, check out her blog at http://hobokenmomcondo.com/momblog and follow her at http://twitter.com/zhobokenmom