"the problem is that it could be a 30 minute subway ride to midtown add another 10-15 to downtown" This is actually quite a reasonable commute, by NYC standard

"the problem is that it could be a 30 minute subway ride to midtown add another 10-15 to downtown" This is actually quite a reasonable commute, by NYC standards. It's not uncommon to have a 1 hour commute each way. I myself used to commute in to the City 2 hours each way. That's 4 hours of my life pretty much wasted every weekday. In comparison, commuting from Washington Heights would have been a blessing. One of the nicest commutes I had was from Brooklyn Heights, which was just a 4 minute subway ride from Wall St. Very nice neighborhood too. I would highly recommend it, if you can afford the rent.