As you also found out, it is, but not a pleasant time. It took a while! We stayed at a high-end hotel a block off Times Square. Came in from New Jersey, left out JFK.
Yeah, Uber would be our next choice. Public transit works in NYC, but there is a level of hassle when unfamiliar with its specifics.
Had I not had heavy luggage the M60 from terminal C to the metro station and a .3 mile wall would have been easy peasy. The bus picked you up on the curb at the exit of the terminal and dropped you feet from the stairs up to the metro platform and the N line got me directly to midtown Manhattan and a five min easy walk to the hotel Penn had I not been lugging two 48# cases with three weeks of cloths in them.
I stayed in NYC for a week then went to Atlantic City/Philly for a week via Penn station and the ACELA line to Philly and the ACRL back and forth too Philly. Penn station has working elevators and checked luggage a much better way to train travel. I wish America had high speed rail like Europe and Japan and China so much better for under 500 miles than flying.
Philly also has metro train service from downtown subway with elevators directly to the Philly airport check in, brilliant.