I work from home and whenever I need to go downtown I just use public transport, and worst case there’s the occasional uber/lyft

Aside from being unsafe using a car to transport building materials is a pain in the .................................................................................................................................................................

., has a walk-score of 100, public transport score of 99, and bike score of 99, seriously such an incredible location.

If you are going to focus on that find an area that is closer to public transport going to other feeder cities and check out the crime stats on any neighborhoods.

I'm looking to purchase a newly renovated 2 family home in Jersey City Heights less than a block from public transportation into the city.

They actually have some 'better' features in that they have to survive being transported to the job site, so framing tends to be larger and in some areas doubled up to keep it ridge during transport. 

Tenant quality will depend on the neighborhood, proximity to transportation, highways, schools, food, shopping, etc, and quality of rehab workmanship.

Mildford and Hamden are very quiet places and limited to transportation ( you must have a car!)

With STR's still being relatively "new" in terms of the tourism market, it has been quite unregulated at the state level.  

I could agree with that, though it would be hard to prove that a person knowingly transported an illegal unless he is trafficking humans.