We live by Hamilton Park which is small, but lovely and has a fabulous view of NYC. Weehawken is an odd town that was slapped together from 3 different disparate towns in the 1800s (The Shades borders Hoboken and used to be part of Hoboken, the part of town that goes along Palisade Avenue used to be part of neighboring Union City). Living here might be more convenient with a car, but we are carless and do fine between buses, walking and Uber when necessary. Very walkable in the area we are in that borders Union City. I honestly don't know about vegan restaurants, but lots of Latino restaurants in Union City and we're a hop and a jump from Hoboken. I am from Jersey City, my husband had lived in Hoboken for years before we married and moved to the Jersey City Heights where we lived for 16 years (I had lived my first 32 years in the Journal Square Area). We honestly are kicking ourselves for not considering Weehawken a decade + ago. We wish we'd bought a house back when the market wasn't as crazy. We moved for the combined middle/high school for our son, he was previously homeschooled and we moved for the tiny but good school system. Very happy with our choice!