Is Peekskill a good place to move to from the Bronx with15yr old daughter? If not, why? (New York: apartments, renting)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is Peekskill, NY a good place to move from the Bronx with my teenage daughter? Is it safe? If not why? If so, then why also and what are good places with affordable housing in the Westchester County area?
Peekskill is very diverse and offers; great restaurants, arts - theaters, "light" shopping (not big box), and many new condo developments overlooking the hudson with close access to train. Schools are generally rated low, and there are pockets that include low socioeconomic living, which tends to steer away interested movers. I think it's generally safe, although some may disagree.
Edited from one of my earlier posts on Peekskill:
I lived there for 30 years. It was the only place in Westchester County where we could afford a home and was close to our jobs. We also did not have any children so schools were not an issue. Otherwise we never would have moved there. Peekskill is not a place where you will want to invest your money in a home, in the few years before we moved our neighborhood was becoming over run with illegal immigrants, which the city turned a blind eye to. If and when the time comes to sell your home you will have a very limited market, and more than likely it will be people with lower incomes. People with lower incomes can barely afford to pay the mortgage on their homes let alone maintain them. There are rundown homes in practically every neighborhood, which will have an adverse effect on your property values. So will Peekskill's lousy school system. Ours was considered to be one of the better neighborhoods, picking up litter was a constant chore. Calls to the police about speeding vehicles throughout the neighborhood were repeatedly ignored. Not to mention those loud music systems that rattled your windows as they raced by. We also had drug deals taking place in vehicles right outside of our home, I guess they felt it was safer to conduct their business in residential areas as opposed to downtown. So they would rendezvous in these neighborhoods. There are a whole class of people, middle and upper income that will avoid Peekskill like the plague. It took us over 3 years to sell our home. Our property taxes were over $10,000 a year to live in such a dump of a city. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere Putnam Valley, Cortland, Mahopac, anywhere but there. The farther north you go the better except for Poughkeepsie, or Newburgh. As for me I no longer live in New York State, and I thank God for that.
Is it safe? There have been a few violent crimes mostly associated with those who are directly involved in the drug trade. Most of the crimes are vehicle break in's, burglaries, some vandalism, stuff like that. If you stay out of the more run down parts of Peekskill you should be okay. They tend to be closer to downtown. However there are many illegal apartments throughout Peekskill even in so called "nice" neighborhoods. Which bring a whole host of other problems such as loud get togethers, public intoxication and urination, along with the ever present litter and vehicles parked all over the sidewalks.
Last edited by Ex New Yorker; 12-28-2014 at 09:29 AM..
Edited from one of my earlier posts on Peekskill:
I lived there for 30 years. It was the only place in Westchester County where we could afford a home and was close to our jobs. We also did not have any children so schools were not an issue. Otherwise we never would have moved there. Peekskill is not a place where you will want to invest your money in a home, in the few years before we moved our neighborhood was becoming over run with illegal immigrants, which the city turned a blind eye to. If and when the time comes to sell your home you will have a very limited market, and more than likely it will be people with lower incomes. People with lower incomes can barely afford to pay the mortgage on their homes let alone maintain them. There are rundown homes in practically every neighborhood, which will have an adverse effect on your property values. So will Peekskill's lousy school system. Ours was considered to be one of the better neighborhoods, picking up litter was a constant chore. Calls to the police about speeding vehicles throughout the neighborhood were repeatedly ignored. Not to mention those loud music systems that rattled your windows as they raced by. We also had drug deals taking place in vehicles right outside of our home, I guess they felt it was safer to conduct their business in residential areas as opposed to downtown. So they would rendezvous in these neighborhoods. There are a whole class of people, middle and upper income that will avoid Peekskill like the plague. It took us over 3 years to sell our home. Our property taxes were over $10,000 a year to live in such a dump of a city. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere Putnam Valley, Cortland, Mahopac, anywhere but there. The farther north you go the better except for Poughkeepsie, or Newburgh. As for me I no longer live in New York State, and I thank God for that.
Is it safe? There have been a few violent crimes mostly associated with those who are directly involved in the drug trade. Most of the crimes are vehicle break in's, burglaries, some vandalism, stuff like that. If you stay out of the more run down parts of Peekskill you should be okay. They tend to be closer to downtown. However there are many illegal apartments throughout Peekskill even in so called "nice" neighborhoods. Which bring a whole host of other problems such as loud get togethers, public intoxication and urination, along with the ever present litter and vehicles parked all over the sidewalks.
Thank you very much but however I can't afford places like Cortland or Putnam Valley due to my disability and fixed income. I'm looking for a convenient location which would provide me with easy transportation to the city to visit my mother in The Bronx. Are there any safe affordable cities/towns to live with a good source of transportation in Westchester County?
CierraSmiley:
You should be able to find something in those area's. I don't know whether you plan on renting or buying. I just would not want to see you have to put your daughter in Peekskill City Schools. When we were trying to sell our home the first thing that buyers with children would ask is whether we were in the city school district. Once we told them that we were they told us that they were not interested in buying our home. If you have to move there because of affordability, then you have to move there. But you should do everything in your power to try to avoid it. You might want to look into either Croton or maybe Tarrytown although Tarrytown schools are not the greatest either. Same goes for Ossining which has the same problems as Peekskill. Maybe Hastings? I sincerely wish you the best of luck.
CierraSmiley:
You should be able to find something in those area's. I don't know whether you plan on renting or buying. I just would not want to see you have to put your daughter in Peekskill City Schools. When we were trying to sell our home the first thing that buyers with children would ask is whether we were in the city school district. Once we told them that we were they told us that they were not interested in buying our home. If you have to move there because of affordability, then you have to move there. But you should do everything in your power to try to avoid it. You might want to look into either Croton or maybe Tarrytown although Tarrytown schools are not the greatest either. Same goes for Ossining which has the same problems as Peekskill. Maybe Hastings? I sincerely wish you the best of luck.
For what it's worth, I know somebody who went to Ossining schools, and he said it wasn't that bad. It had some typical urban school issues, but they had a lot of AP classes and things like that. (Also, look through some of the threads about Ossining to get an idea of the schools s well).
For what it's worth, I know somebody who went to Ossining schools, and he said it wasn't that bad. It had some typical urban school issues, but they had a lot of AP classes and things like that. (Also, look through some of the threads about Ossining to get an idea of the schools s well).
I live in Ossining and know a lot of folks with kids in the schools, and they, for the most part, have nothing but good things to say about the school system.
Cierra, Ossining should definitely be on your lists of considerations, especially if you're looking for a community-minded town. The train is less than an hour into the city, and you also have the Bee-Line bus system (which, with connections, goes into certain areas of the Bronx).
For what it's worth, I know somebody who went to Ossining schools, and he said it wasn't that bad. It had some typical urban school issues, but they had a lot of AP classes and things like that. (Also, look through some of the threads about Ossining to get an idea of the schools s well).
I know people who said that Peekskill Schools weren't that bad either, when in fact they are terrible. Any community that has large segments of impoverished people, children of children, and illegal immigrants have their problems. It's not whether they can get an education or not or what programs the district has. It's some of those children that they have to deal with and the problems those children cause for other students. Indeed it does have it's urban issues. Always has. I could not in good conscience recommend to someone that they place their daughter in any of those schools.
I live in Ossining and know a lot of folks with kids in the schools, and they, for the most part, have nothing but good things to say about the school system.
Hat's off to you for being a cheerleader for Ossining. If I were planning to move to Westchester County, Elmsford, Greenburgh, Mt. Vernon, Ossining, Peekskill, White Plains and Yonkers would be the last places I'd want to live in. Not necessarily in that order. If that's all they can afford then they have no choice, such as I had when I bought a house in Peekskill.
Last edited by Ex New Yorker; 12-29-2014 at 08:47 AM..
Hat's off to you for being a cheerleader for Ossining. If I were planning to move to Westchester County, Elmsford, Greenburgh, Mt. Vernon, Ossining, Peekskill, White Plains and Yonkers would be the last places I'd want to live in. Not necessarily in that order. If that's all they can afford then they have no choice, such as I had when I bought a house in Peekskill.
Okay, so after the other 6 places you named, it is the "last" place you'd want to live. Very nice.
I get that you had a bad time of it in Peekskill, but it doesn't feel like you are speaking from experience regarding Ossining. If you actually talk to people in the district, many do LOVE the schools. You will even find quite a few who could afford elite districts if they wanted. Cost is obviously part of that calculus (they are getting much, much more house in Ossining), but to contrast you really don't see this in the other towns you've lumped it in with (partial exception for White Plains but few that I know of stay through High School).
I admit that ANM and I (and a couple others) are the Ossining cheerleaders on here, but if you looked for yourself you would see a lot of good. To be clear, I don't mean that you *can* get a good education in the Ossining schools as some outlier student swimming against the tide (which you seem to hint is the case in Peekskill). A large portion of the school routinely does quite well and there is without a doubt a culture that values academic success and provides all of the opportunities that you would want your serious students to avail themselves of. The success of the top students always bears this out, and people also praise the strides made with the ESL population (which still brings down test scores, of course).
Sure, if you have $1M to spend, you can avoid the question of "urban issues" entirely. That is not in dispute. But for budgets of 4-600k? It is a no-brainer to look at Ossining when you consider the alternatives.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
