That's not that bad to be honest. Yeah, it is comparable to commuting to Flushing or Coney Island time wise. Philly is closer to NY than Boston is as Boston is a 3-4 hour bus ride depending on traffic. And funny enough, I'm hearing Matt Katz's report on All Things Considered right now as I type this. He's going into more in depth on the reason why ex-New Yorkers moved to Philly: good pizza and bagels.It sounds insane to commute, but from CC Philly to NYC is one 1h45min train trip to Manhattan. There are parts of Queens that probably take well over an hour to get there by transit I imagine. My wife's cousin lives in Flushing and works at NYU and she said it takes her over an hour. What's an extra half hour commute if it reduces your housing prices by 50%?
You should come visit though. It's a pretty easy day trip. I go up to NYC every now and then and it's so easy with Amtrak. AirBNB is dirt cheap in Philly too.
I'll see if I can convince my best friend to take a weekend off from work to go with him. He's been to Philly to see a Pokemon concert. Otherwise, I'll go alone and get the obligatory Philly cheese steak and local beer. Got too many events going on here in the city to volunteer at. My best friend lives in College Point and goes to college in Hell's Kitchen. It's quite a trek but he gets it done.
I think one thing I would miss from moving out of NY is volunteering for West Village Halloween Parade. Every year about a few weeks before the parade, volunteers get to go to Rhinebeck, NY to make the puppets for the yearly theme. The organizers of the Halloween Parade live in a massive property that was passed down through many generations. It's quite an amazing experience so I wonder if Philly has something equivalent to that.