Middletown, NY (Monroe, Wallkill, Montgomery: for sale, crime, house)

[johnp]

My wife and I are considering moving to Middletown, NY. I currently live & work in Manhattan and would like to live in a quiet enviroment. I would like to know what the commute is like? I also would like to know about the area and things to do with the family. I have a 5 year old son. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Jason_Els]

There is a Metro North train you have to drive to that will get you to Hoboken where you can transfer to the PATH.

Middletown is home to the largest "Miracle Mile" in the county including another smaller one at the other end of town. Crime is increasing, the downtown can be dangerous, there's a battery reprocessing plant and a tape factory which spew all kinds of nasty things into the air. The Wallkill River is contaminated with toxic waste from the nearby Al Turi landfill (a superfund site). There are three adult book stores, a mental hospital, and the roads can't handle the volume of traffic.

I HIGHLY suggest you look elsewhere in Orange unless you're the intrepid type. With a five year old though I would never send him to Middletown schools. The surrounding schools are much better.

Middletown still has a small town character despite its size. I do find a lot of the people there are scraping to get by working in the region's low-paying retail jobs. They're tough, not terribly polite, but in general, very real down-to-earth people and genuinely nice once you get to know them. They've seen Middletown's decline and it's saddening; most are looking to get out when they can afford to. Middletown government has had severe corruption problems with the former mayor being indicted for ties to organized crime and the police force that services half the Middletown area was taken over by the state for the same reason.

Middletown is a place to shop or eat. If it was just you, I'd say maybe but only if you had to. But not with a kid.

Please come up and spend a weekend looking at the area. I think you'll find that Orange county is a very nice place save for its 3 cities.

I might get flack for this post but having worked in Middletown the last 11 years I know it very, very well. My grandmother has wonderful stories of growing-up there in its heyday and it pains me to see Middletown turned into one giant strip mall. I wish the best for Middletown and its residents.

[winnie]

I don't recommend living in the city of middletown. You should look for the outskirts with Goshen or Minisink Valley schools.


Better yet, look into Goshen and Monroe, Washingtonville areas.

[wendyt]

I would have to agree. Middletown is a major shopping area (Macy's, Best Buy, etc) and has great transportation near everything. Here is an example of a house for sale in that area so you can see what it is like: Moderator cut: spam. I would also recommend Montgomery, Goshen, Pine Bush or Campbell Hall. Good luck.

[midcity123]

Dont move to middletown they have one of the worst school in orange county and they have crappy buses, unless you send your kid to pine bush school and live in middletown

Copy and paste this link

See its one of the worst buses number 4 worst bus

[Taboo]

I went to school in the Minisink Valley District ( many moons ago) but it was a very nice district with great teachers and sports. Worth a look. Back them all the grades were on the same campus, not the same building but on the same piece of land which is good if you have one child in elementary and one in middle... only one place to go for conferences,back to school night etc....

[louiesgirl]

On the outskirts of Middletown is a town called Scotchtown. They're all newer developments, very family oriented. Not too far from Middletown itself. The school district is Pine Bush, much better than Middletown. I, myself went to Pine Bush schools my entire life and just graduated in 2001. Every school has it's issues but Pine Bush is good.

[settlepa]

Yes, Pine Bush schools and Scotchtown is very nice. My home is in Scotchtown and for sale, want to buy it? LOL No really its nice there.

[ggrantmd88]

Hi,
The Town Of Wawayanda is a great place to live. I have a place in one of the hamlets called New Hampton. It is near to Middletown but zoned for Goshen Schools. Others in this area are zoned for Minisink Schools. Both of these are very good school areas.
One note to add of the Metro North train. You can tansfer at Secaucus and go into Penn Station. This quick and easy. It used to be only Hoboken and get onto the PATH but Secaucus, the new transfer point opened about 4yrs ago making life much easier. The Metro North on this end is actually operated by NJ Transit.
The other alternative is taking the Shortline bus to NYC Port Authority.

[Arrgh]

NOOOOOOOOOO! do not pass Goshen. Middletown is the pits. I moved out 7 years ago and am very glad I did.