Rockland county-besides clarkstown schools..... (Ramapo, New City: homes, neighborhoods, best schools)

[mom2gurls]

From what I gather Clarkstown schools are "the" schools you want to be in.

We are researching our move to rockland county by the end of the this year..Or if we find something appealing right before the new school year.

Are there any other schools (please rank in order) that compare to clarkstown? I mean if you had to send your kids to other schools..what else is there besides clarktown.

How is the commute from either of these to jersey city? We would like to live in a subdivision or nice neighborhood with access to parks and local shopping (grocery stores, target)...and not have to drive 20 minutes to these.

I am thinking living along the palisades is the way to go.

Any ideas (specifically towns) that I should focus my efforts on?

[VA Yankee]

I grew up and graduated in the late 70's and I still go back to see my mom in New City. According to the accolades on this site Clarkstown is the best schools however Pearl River and Nanuet also get high praise. You would be better to use some of the online sites to gather facts on the schools as most people are very passonate and might not give a complete picture.

With you working in the Jersey City area have you considered communities in Bergen County? Just a thought because I know many have been highly praised.

For the community, I have lived in several place in the US and currently live in VA. I would not now or ever want to live in New City. As the County Seat and what is considered to be affluent area the town is old, rundown, poorly manged. Let me start at the North End of Town, The Post Office, when it was built they needed to replace the existing one in the center of town (poor parking/too small) so what did they do built the same place with the same problems, nothing solved. Bradley's shopping center, has sat for over a decade empty only recently did they clean it up some so it doesn't look a war zone. Shoprite supermarket, dirty, too small and the parking lot is a disaster. Court House, used to be really nice but they allowed over building and now it's just another dirty building. It's need cleaning for 20 years. Most of main street is a hodge podge of older building, poor parking and weeds. The shopping center on South Main has not been updated since the 70's. I don't mean to sound so negative but after living in other areas New City is just a dirty old town. You mentioned Target, figure 30 minutes with traffic just to get over to Rt 59 where it's located. As my mom says "all they talk about is what they want to do but in 50 years they havn't done it yet" . If you every had a chance to live down south then you'll know what I mean.

My memories of Pearl River are pretty nice, attractive main street, train station (Metro Rail) and just as convientient to Jersey shopping as NY. Good luck and I hope you find what your looking for

[HomerBrink]

this from Wikopedia:

New City is accessible from major Rockland arteries providing rapid access to Westchester and Bergen counties, as well as Manhattan and the Bronx in NYC.
New City contains several particularly affluent neighborhoods which are among the wealthiest in the United States. The community is diverse, however, and more affordable areas can be found closer to the center of the hamlet.
New City has experienced rapid development yielding an affluent tax base. Despite booming development, many of its residential areas have remained tranquil and comprise wooded acres, winding roads, stone walls, trees, lakes, and streams. While undeveloped land for development is scarce, a few small farms still dot the landscape now shared with golf courses, homes and businesses.



Also, median income is 99,000. Sounds like a real dump, doesn't it?

[VA Yankee]

HomerBrink you are correct so with all this affluence why does the town look the way it does? Suffern, Pearl River, even Congers all have attractive towns, why can't New City clean it self up? Read this link from the CHSN school newspaper to see what the students think of their school http://www.ccsd.edu/files/filesystem/2007_Dec.pdf. Start about page 5 the link takes you to page 1.

The area is attractive but not worth the price to me.

[HomerBrink]

VAYANK- I agree downtown could use some sprucing up but you made the entire community sound dumpy. that's all.

[VA Yankee]

I think the residents are unfairly taxed (my mom included) from a town goverment that appears to be inefficent. I grew up there in the 60's/70's even then the problems I listed existed and here we are 30+ years later and nothing changed. New City is an affluent town but for the most part it looks like parts of Haverstraw. In the 70's every other shop was hair or nail salon's.

Down here if a shopping center looked like the one on south main the stores would move out. Our centers update themselves every 10 years or so. If they don't; they lose there buisness. Look at Suffern, they unified the towns appearance and made it a pleasant place to walk around. Even Congers looks nice by the train station, yes that caught me off guard..lol.

When I was young I asked my parents why they didn't stay it Westchester? They told me that the towns were so old looking and the homes too expensive (that was in 58), now in 08 I would have to say New City is that point and needs to change.

Sorry you thought I was slamming the whole Township.

[ghguy]

I copied this from another thread:

Pearl River, Nanuet, Tappan Zee (Orangeburg) and New City are practically the same school-wise. I happen to love Pearl River, but you'll know what's best for you. Last year, the students in Clarkstown North had a sit-down strike because of the rodent problem there, heh. But I heard North has always been a little more rebellious than South.

All of the schools in all the towns you listed offer all the "extras" you asked about and more. I'm partial to the hamlet of Pearl River and it's school district, but you really can't go wrong with any of those schools. In my own order for schools, here's how I'd rank them:
1) Pearl River
2) Clarkstown South
3) Nanuet
4) Clarkstown North
5) Tappan Zee

[mom2gurls]

I would consider bergen..but I dont think what we are looking for will be affordable (my friends tried selling us their home in allendale at a "bargain" for 900k YIKES..and its a 3 bedroom....we have three kids..and they have four...and we are not looking for a mcmansionny lifestyle...but honestly, we are looking for a colonial home and this will be our home till retirement at least. We have three little girls, so schools are important.

Other options include NJ itself( morris, hudson or middlesex county)..but I am clueless to those counties. We know enough about orange county and monroe schools.

Right now we are in the best schools (if there really is such a term LOL)..in dutchess...so we are just researching rockland.

Other areas we have heard nice things about are chestnut ridge, airmont and suffern.

[VA Yankee]

Your right about housing cost but if you look around Montvale and other upper bergan county towns you should find more reasonable prices (reasonable for NY metro anyway) there older homes but nice towns.

Suffern is a cute town with a metro station, Airmont is just down the road. Chestnut Ridge was created to have a contoled zoning area and I am unsure if a town/village center if any exists.

I know I couldn't afford to move back even with my kids in college now.

[antonchigurh]

Originally Posted by mom2gurls

From what I gather Clarkstown schools are "the" schools you want to be in.

We are researching our move to rockland county by the end of the this year..Or if we find something appealing right before the new school year.

Are there any other schools (please rank in order) that compare to clarkstown? I mean if you had to send your kids to other schools..what else is there besides clarktown.

How is the commute from either of these to jersey city? We would like to live in a subdivision or nice neighborhood with access to parks and local shopping (grocery stores, target)...and not have to drive 20 minutes to these.

I am thinking living along the palisades is the way to go.

Any ideas (specifically towns) that I should focus my efforts on?

If you want Rockland CO. try Nyack, Spring Valley, Ramapo