who knows, maybe it's not really that bad and I'm ignorant here, it's possible.
But my point is that if you don't own a car there's automatically a limited range of movement that you have. It might be better in NYC (it probably is), but we have areas like that too. We also have public transportation in the form of buses rather than subways and they stop a lot so it can take longer but you can get anywhere in this city via bus, including the suburbs.
You can absolutely pick an area for its walkability and use the bus transport to move around the rest of the city. But to leave the city will require a vehicle or a greyhound.
> who knows, maybe it's not really that bad and I'm ignorant here, it's possible.
You answered your own question.
NYC most definitely has far longer commute times than this area.
Even in rush hour traffic, 20 minutes implies driving from 1 side of this city to the other, some in NYC are reporting commute times of over an hour.
if you don't want a 2 car garage then fine, move downtown.
You can get _anywhere_ in this town in 20 minutes or less. We flat don't have the traffic that places like NYC does. rush hour might be a bit slower depending on where you go, but not appreciably slow.
I feel like people who don't live in these areas have a lot of misconceptions.