Hi all -

Thanks for the replies! -- a1penguin, re: budget -- thanks, I forgot to include this. Prefer to stay <$1k if possible, but there is a bit of flexibility here for finding a bike I'll have for a while.

I'm able to ride around the potholes (so far!) -- there are some short boardwalk (wooden planks) sections and gravel is in areas of mostly compacted-dirt trail. The commute is ~90% pavement if I were to guess.

Re: flat bar vs. dropped bar -- I've been comfortable on both (provided I can reach the brakes on the drop bars) so have flexibility here too.

Thanks again!