> Isn't new jersey right across the river from new york, with rapid transit lines going into new york?

In Chongqing, map apps will often recommend a "nearby" restaurant which actually is several hundred meters away, vertically; you'll have to descend many stair steps before arriving at that restaurant, even though it looked so close on the map. In other words, the restaurant was not actually "close", when it comes to the time and energy investment required.

In this same spirit, New Jersey is absolutely not "close" to Manhattan, even if it looks close on maps. Traffic sucks, public transportation sucks, bridges and tunnels suck.