What are the walkable towns in Westchester? (New York, Yonkers: fit in, health insurance)
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I am looking for help in the campaign to convince my wife to move to Westchester. Her biggest objection is that she doesn't want to feel "isolated" in the suburbs and dependent on a car.
Are there towns where it's possible to walk to the train, to the elementary school, and to the grocery store? I've poked around on google maps so I have an idea of the distances, but I'd like to hear if people actually walk in their daily lives.
Larchmont is walkable if you live near the village. I walk my kids to elementary school, preschool, the library, the playground and music class. I also walk to CVS, the post office, Starbucks, and several other stores and restaurants. My husband walks to the train station. I drive to Stop and Shop and Trader Joe's for groceries, but they are about 1 mile or less away.
Agree that there are a few towns in Westchester that have a sizeable village center that consists of more than just restaurants and boutiques (Pleasantville is another one). If you can choose one of these I don't think you will feel isolated, but you will definitely be dependent on a car unless you can get by with shopping at just CVS. If you have kids, for instance, any time you need to do anything (outside of walking to school in a place like Larchmont), like go to the doctor, birthday parties, friends' houses, you will be in your car.
As someone who used to live in the city, my advice would be to embrace it and see it as the best of both worlds--if you choose your town and house in somewhere with an active village, you get some walkability along with all of the convenience that comes with owning a car. Grocery shopping in a tiny, dirty Gristedes and walking home with heavy bags was one of the worst things about living in the city, IMHO.
We were spoiled in the city, living one block from a new Whole Foods on Houston. Doubt we'll find anything so convenient ever again.
Where I live in Chappaqua, there is a new Whole Foods going into a shopping center, and the people that live in $1m+ homes in the adjacent neighborhood are up in arms about such a big store being so close. As one who's very happy to have the store coming to our community, I just find it amusing that you'll be sad to no longer live a block away. You could always buy a house behind Chappaqua Crossing, and then you'll be able to still walk to Whole Foods! (Just kidding--Chappaqua is not what I'd recommend to someone looking for walkable.)
Around $1-$1.2 though I'm not sure what expenses are like in Westchester, especially property tax.
To give you a general idea. Before we moved we paid $11,000 a year on an 1100 sq. ft. $285,000 home in the semi run down City of Peekskill. My sister who lives in Dobbs Ferry pays $27,000 on a 3000 sq.ft $650,000 home.
To give you a general idea. Before we moved we paid $11,000 a year on an 1100 sq. ft. $285,000 home in the semi run down City of Peekskill. My sister who lives in Dobbs Ferry pays $27,000 on a 3000 sq.ft $650,000 home.
Wow.
So people weren't kidding about the high property taxes. Thanks for the figures.
So people weren't kidding about the high property taxes. Thanks for the figures.
Indeed they weren't. That's one of the reasons, albeit there were many others as to why we packed up and left all of our family, friends and everything that we were familiar with just to get out of that God awful place. Their insatiable demands for more money never ends. By comparison the home we are now living in, in Arizona is comparable to a nice $600,000 home in a nice section of Westchester. Our annual property taxes here are $1600 a year. They haven't changed in the 5 1/2 years we've lived here. We have all of the same wonderful public services that New Yorker's love to brag about to justify the insane cost of living there. Being self employed our cost of health insurance is half of what we paid in Westchester and with a lower deductible. Of course there are many other things to consider, politics both local and state being one of them. If you're Liberal you'll fit in fine. Conservative, such as we are it's a frustrating never ending battle.
One of the reasons the property taxes are so high is that the legislature both state and local is bought and paid for by the teacher's and public employee's unions, UFT, AFSCME and CSEA. "Ask and ye shall receive" should be the motto of New York State's governments. It is also one of the most corrupt in the nation. This goes for both sides of the political isle. Sheldon Silver (D) once speaker of the house had been indicted on bribery charges. Joseph Bruno (R) former majority leader of the senate was indicted on eight counts of corruption, including mail and wire fraud. It's governor Andrew Cuomo is also under investigation:
Quote:
"Federal Investigation Looks at Cuomo and Moreland Commission Referrals. U.S. Attorney Wants to Know if Cuomo or Staff Directed Anticorruption Panel to Keep Cases From Prosecutors".--www.wsj.com/articles/federal-investigation-looks-at.
However that's the type of government New Yorker's choose to represent them. They call it "three men in a room" as they make all of the decisions regarding legislation with little or no input from local legislators. What they say goes. Then there was "Fat Nick" Spano (R) State senator from Yonkers. In 2012 Spano was indicted for Federal Income Tax evasion. My God, I could write pages on how bad New York's government is and has been. No wonder it costs so much to live there.
If you really don't have to move there. I certainly would not advise it as there are many other places throughout the country where you can achieve a better quality of life. For us it was Arizona, Utah or New Mexico as a second or third choice. The southwest is where we've always wanted to be. Now that we're out here I couldn't imagine or have any desire to live anywhere else.
But whatever you choose to do. Do your homework well and plan on making several trips to your desired location(s). Subscribe to the local newspapers to keep up with what's going on there and to get a feel of how the people are by reading the letters section. You'll get a general idea of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's a big move, you don't want to screw it up. Best of luck to you in your endeavor!
Last edited by Ex New Yorker; 10-23-2015 at 04:51 PM..
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