Question about Mt. Kisco/pros/cons

[dreamofmonterey]

Thanks. Brahmos, I understand what you are saying about the conversions. LI/Nassau County went through that issue, multi-family dwellings. I don't want to live in an area like that. Mt Kisco must be VERY built up- (Starbucks again-lol) I remember the late 80's they had little shoppes and wooded areas.

artsfan- for the houses on 1 acre, that is what we would be interested in What average price are those older houses going for? I believe Horace Greeley is still a good school?.

[artsfan]

Sorry, I am not having any luck with the Edit button but I meant to write that Katonah is on the electrified Harlem line. The Hudson line is, of course, the one with the million-dollar views.

[artsfan]

SunnyH, you can find lovely 3-4BR houses $600,000 and up on one acre in the town. The school is not Greeley; that's Chappaqua. It's Ossining High School. Offers loads of Advanced Placement courses, top college admissions for motivated students, and an experience of diversity that is great preparation for life in the global village. http://www.ossiningufsd.org/ohs.htm (broken link) It is a huge plus to send kids to a school where, unlike some other towns around here, they don't end up feeling deprived if they don't have their own BMW.

[dreamofmonterey]

Thanks for the site info. We will probably drive up sometime in late Jan. to check it out!.

[Itlhermits]

I was born and raised in Ossining. Ossining taxes are steep. I've had a love/hate relationship with Ossining for a long time. They can't figure out what to call their High School mascot. We were the "Ossining Indians" forever but that's not PC, even though the town is named after the Sint Sink Indians and the DPW trucks still have Indian heads on them. And we don't need the $2 million public library (the old one is only around 30 something years old and very big, we needed more parking!) We definitely do not need Astroturf instead of grass on the high school football field!

As far as the illegals, they are ILLEGAL. Duh!! No, I do not hire them nor would I ever. My tax dollars have paid enough for them, i.e., the lovely waiting station for them.

I have lived in both the Spring Street area (near Sing Sing Prison) and I now live in the town-outside. The houses in this area that are for sale have been for sale for at least a year or more. They are asking at least $500K for 3 Bd on 1/4 acre.

On the plus side, our crime rate is very low. At least here in the town. Since the bussing was implemented in the 80's, the schools are pretty good. When I was a kid it was "neighborhood schools" and we had some lovely race rioting in the village and in the high school in the turbulent '70's.

And the best part of Ossining is the view of the beautiful Hudson River. I do get some great sunset views from up here on the mountain. Oh, and it's home. I just keep coming back here. But once the teenagers are out of school, I think we're going to have to move for good because the taxes really are killing us blue collar workers.

[artsfan]

Albany decided it was not ok to have the mascot be an Indian; agreed this was overkill on the PC, but you can't blame the town. They have now settled on calling the team the "Ossining O," since the kids tend to call the place O-town anyway, and now that they have a beautiful Astroturf field there is now huge school spirit, with the high school football games a big draw for the whole community. Agreed that they didn't need 3 Astroturf fields, and I have heard others complaining about this.

Although the taxes are high relative to the house prices, they are not high relative to the bricks and mortar. The same house on the same beautiful acreage would cost at least 50-75 percent more in Chappaqua or Briarcliff.

The housing market is soft all over the area right now, not just in Ossining. Good time to buy a house.

[amiwill]

In Mt Kisco there is an illegal immigrant worker stationing site. Its city sanctioned and embraced by the local community. Most people that live in Bedford/Mt. Kisco are white collar commuters. They have expensive homes and try to keep costs down by hiring the immigrant labor force and paying them cash. Problems arise when local contractors (many with families) clash with the immigrant population over jobs. Horticulture/Landscaping is one of the hot bed areas that causes problems. Landscape contractors often take continuing education classes at the new york botanical garden in order to keep up with the industry and its changing practices. These classes arent cheap, neither are business taxes, fuel, insurance, etc. These local business'es have a higher overhead than the immigrant population which in turn causes their prices to be higher. Combine this with the aggresive policing by the westchester dept. of consumer affairs for business licenceing and you have problems. There have been MANY altercations and a few immigrant deaths blamed on the growing tensions between the contractors and the immigrants. The local homeowners support the illeagles because they pay less for labor. What they dont understand is that the industries involved have protocols and standard practices to assure quality and longevity of the work performed. However, the educated contractors DO know. As a result quite a few contractors have left the area finding their source of incomes have dried up. The sentiment" I have to leave before I hurt these people" is not only shared but understood. I recommend anyone thinking about moving into westchester go and talk to the local blue collar population. Go to the stone yards, and the nurseries, go talk to hardware store owners, and the gas station attendants. Find out about the town you want to move to before you move there.

[disco gizmo]

I just moved to Mount Kisco from NYC and love it. We're in the Chappaqua school district and live in the more affluent part of Mount Kisco in the Lawrence Farms East area. I love Mount Kisco because you have access to all the cute little mom and pop shops, ethnic restaurants like Japanese, Spanish and Indian cuisine, even mainstream shopping like The Gap, Borders, etc..., and even big businesses like movie theatre, car dealerships, etc.

As for the illegal immigrants, they don't bother me at all. They are hard-working, courteous, and keep the cost of labor down for landscaping, contracting, and other things needed around the house. I see them around when I go driving to shops but it's not like they participate in violent, criminal activities or anything!

As for Ossining, I grew up in Croton, which is a town that borders Ossining. The idea of being near a maximum security penitentiary Sing Sing doesn't sit well with me. The area seemed ghettoish and dumpy.

[Swurgen]

Originally Posted by artsfan

Re illegal immigrants, Mount Kisco has had a big problem with bar fights and other violence among this population. Ossining has built a waiting-place for the dayworkers with restrooms and access to educational materials. The immigrants are hard-working and, in a very short time, have raised their standard of living phenomenally.

It's amazing what you can do when you pay no taxes and get free healthcare and divide your housing costs by 30. We should expect all Americans who want to improve their lot to live 30 in a room and sleep in shifts.