I live in Staten Island NY (the Willowbrook Community, vs. the nearby New Springville community, also with a strong chabad presence), and i love it, though the majority of the community is older and slowly dying out.
Willowbrook is a great commute to downtown NY (35 minutes for me door to door) and 15 minutes from boro park, with lots of different shuls and minyanim (though no regular carlebach minyan) all week and shabbos, plus a classic chabad shul with R Katzman and chabad cheder and yeshiva, yet it feels very out-of-town and suburban with no crime and lots of trees and parks. Tuition is cheaper than most places (15k for 2 kids is full tuition) and houses are pretty cheap with low RE tax (but u pay NYC tax).