Like Weehawken, this is really 2 cities in one. The downtown (incl. water front) areas have much higher income than the rest including Heights, JSq, Bergen-Lafayette etc. When we speak of JC, some people (like me) only refer to downtown-JC, while others refer to the entire JC. So the impressions, adjectives can be very different.

I basically never ventured outside downtown-JC.

“Bergen-Lafayette has struggled with poverty and high crime for years.”. The moving-in article has even more to say.

Street cleanliness is very different between the 2 jersey cities.

–schools:

Four of the city’s eight high schools are magnet schools. Many more middle school, including one for gifted students. One of the high schools has high ranking, but the SD-average SAT score is well below state average. Mayor acknowledged the problem.

12 charter schools; more than 30 private or religious schools.

Some families are raising kids in JC, but these could still be 2% growing to 2.1%. I still most Chinese parents would move out of JC and it will continue for 30Y.

“Now people don’t move out when they have school-age children anymore.”

“It used to be that people with kids would stay in Jersey City for two years, then buy their house in Short Hills,” he said. “That’s not really the case anymore.”

–Most of the details are from

• https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/realestate/jersey-city-growing-with-many-personalities.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/realestate/the-jersey-city-real-estate-bandwagon.html

–JC advantage over Queens incl RegoPark:
JC has many contract jobs. There’s a good chance I could enjoy a daily bicycle commute.

35 minutes to midtown, comparable to Queens locations

Queens residents pay NYC city tax on total income! Josh confirmed.

–JC disadvantage as a family home, as I told wife
* the safe areas (probably all in downtown) are too costly, even for condos, let alone landed houses.
* public schools are mostly below the top rank. At middle/elementary level, we parents can still push the kids. At high school level, we need to either buy/rent in a better school district, or try religious or charter schools.