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hi there! I'm a young dude just graduating college and I'm moving with my parents to either Dutchess or Orange County. we're moving from a very religious Jewish community on Long Island (we just got into contract to sell my childhood house). we're Jewish but not religious at all and we don't want to be surrounded by extreme religion in any shape or form anymore. I just want to reiterate that we're not anti-Semitic in any way whatsoever and this isn't coming from any place of hate. our lifestyle just doesn't mesh with any super religious lifestyle, and we really want to live in a more diverse community/neighborhood/town now.
we've been house hunting in Dutchess County but not so much in Orange County yet. this is mainly because we know there are Hasidic communities in Orange that are doing the same types of things to the surrounding towns/communities that happened to the place we're moving from. we're super sensitive to this type of thing because we've been dealing with it to a lesser extreme for the past 15+ years.
how much of Orange County is affected by this? as far as I know, the Hasidic communities seem to be mostly near Chester/Monroe, but are they spreading? for example, would a place like Newburgh/Marlborough be affected by this? basically, what towns are completely unaffected that we would be happy in, in terms of diversity and safety? we don't want to be too far from NYC (really not any farther north than the towns at the bottom of Ulster County) because we need to commute to Manhattan every once in a while and don't want the commute time to be too killer.
Hopefully someone else will chime in with specifics, but most of Hasidic activity appears to be in the areas you mentioned and some into Sullivan County. I don’t know if a lot of people know, but there is also a Jehovah Witness enclave by the name of Watchtower in Ulster County(named after their alternative name the Watchtower Society). They are HQed in Warwick in Orange County.
Marlboro is in southern Ulster County and doesn’t have Hasidic activity. Same with eastern Orange County.
You could also look into the Middletown area in a place like Scotchtown, a very culturally diverse and middle class community in the town of Wallkill/Pine Bush SD. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...k,US/PST045218
Thank you for the info, I appreciate it and hope to get other opinions as well! I honestly still feel anxious about Orange County and I don't know whether it would be best for us to just steer clear of it and stick to Dutchess. Is this an overreaction? Marlboro seems to have some houses we might like, but I'm anxious about its proximity to Orange County and also Newburgh, which I heard has safety issues, but I need to look into that more to verify.
I don’t believe Marlboro is impacted at all from any safety issues in Newburgh, as it is some distance away and is actually across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie via Highland(another Ulster County option)So, it would put you close to that city as well.
Places in Orange County like Cornwall and Highland Falls south of Newburgh and the Washingtonville, Valley Central SD(Walden, Montgomery, etc.) and Goshen areas west of Newburgh/east of Middletown are other parts of Orange County that are worth looking into. With the first 2, you still have access to Dutchess County by crossing at Newburgh into Beacon. They will also have more of a West Point influence, especially Highland Falls, as well.
What is also interesting about the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metro area is that it is one of the most culturally integrated metro areas in the country for those in the top 100 in population. Same in regards to having some of the smallest per capita income gaps between whites and people of color(blacks, Hispanics and Asians). So, there are multiple communities within the area(Orange and Dutchess Counties) that would likely fit what you are looking for.
Safety issues in the City of Newburgh are very much limited to just the city of Newburgh. You can live very close to there and not be affected. You will absolutely not be affected in Duchess County. Indeed, you go just a few blocks in Manhattan, Brooklyn etc and you can go from extremely unsafe to perfectly safe, so being one town over (or more) from the City of Newburgh is no big deal. Also note that the Town of Newburgh is different and is very safe.
Something else to keep in mind OP is that there is commuter train access in Orange County as well. For instance, the previously mentioned Scotchtown(town of Wallkill) has a Metro North station in the immediate area. So, that may be something to consider in terms of where to look in Orange County. http://web.mta.info/mnr/html/mnrmap.htm
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 03-20-2020 at 06:28 AM..
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