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We're a family of 3 looking to move from the city to Westchester. I'm South Asian and my spouse is white. Our biggest priorities are excellent schools, walkability, and a quick commute to GCT. We are currently WFH, but my spouse's workplace in midtown east has communicated that they will require employees to go back into the office at least 3x a week later in the year. Bronxville is a beautiful town that checks all of the above boxes, but its lack of diversity and history of overt racism and exclusionary practices are well known. I grew up in a predominantly white town and never had problems making friends, and still have plenty of white friends to date, so the fact that most Bronxville residents are white doesn't bother me in and of itself. However, I had to deal with my fair share of racism and ignorance on a regular basis growing up and I don't want that for my child.
Is Bronxville's lack of diversity the result of racial/ethnic/religious minorities self-selecting to live elsewhere because they have other options like Scarsdale where they can have a greater sense of community? Or is it because the residents are actively exclusionary and unwelcoming toward people who don't come from a white Christian background? If the latter, I'm sure they're polished enough to be polite to my face, at least when sober, but I couldn't deal with people covertly excluding me or subtly treating me differently -- or worse, doing it to my child -- because we're not white.
Is it even worth considering living in Bronxville, or should we just shift our search to Scarsdale where we wouldn't have the same concerns about feeling unwelcome?
In recent years, I think it is self-selecting, as you have suggested. Nowadays, it is extremely easy for anyone to find out exactly the make-up of a town/school district. Anyone looking at Bronxville has the financial means to live almost anywhere, and I think certain racial minorities/jewish families will simply go to other areas.
Ironically I briefly talked about this in another long running thread in the Westchester forum regarding Mt. Vernon and how someone was comparing Fleetwood to Bronxville.
I am Jewish and in my 50s and grew up in Mt. Vernon. When I was a kid, basically the idea was Bronxville was where "old money" (i.e. WASPs) lived and Scarsdale was where "new money" (at the time Jews but as I got older Asians too) moved to. If one goes back far enough, Scarsdale was like Bronxville as well but long ago they accepted newcomers of wealth and demographic change. Another place similar in this regard (but much smaller and a tiny bit less rich than Scarsdale) is Ardsley, it too was once an "old money", WASPy kind of town, but eventually saw a significant Jewish and Asian population. Pelham also was once this way and still has less Jews and Asians percentage-wise than Scarsdale or Ardsley, but has also become a place where well-to-do African Americans have started to go (Pelham is the only village in Westchester other than the more middle class and urban-ish Ossining to be over 10% black, though barely....I had a Jewish friend who grew up in Pelham in the 1970s and he was very uncomfortable there).
I had heard that Bronxville was the "last bastion" of this in Westchester and hasn't changed, but maybe that is incorrect. I do not know of any Jews who live in Bronxville (I used to do a lot of lower Westchester SAT/ACT tutoring and had a lot of Jewish and Asian clients from Scarsdale and Ardsley, but never from Bronxville, they were always (based on last name) WASPs), but if the post that the school district is 7% Asian is true, then yes it is finally entering the 21st century too. Good to hear!
It always surprises me when someone wants “affluent” and great schools yet wants diversity. Based on my experience it doesn’t exist in America.
Mamaroneck school district is great! But many people who want “great” schools avoid it. Why? If you want the diversity it’s as good as it gets! Even their elementary school that’s rated 4 (or 5?) is great.
I also agree that Bronxville is filthy rich. Look at the price of those co ops!
It always surprises me when someone wants “affluent” and great schools yet wants diversity. Based on my experience it doesn’t exist in America.
Mamaroneck school district is great! But many people who want “great” schools avoid it. Why? If you want the diversity it’s as good as it gets! Even their elementary school that’s rated 4 (or 5?) is great.
I also agree that Bronxville is filthy rich. Look at the price of those co ops!
Affluence, great schools, diversity. You have to pick two. It's very difficult to find all three. It's even difficult to pair diversity up with one of the other two.
Affluence, great schools, diversity. You have to pick two. It's very difficult to find all three. It's even difficult to pair diversity up with one of the other two.
In the NY portion of the NYC area, the Half Hallow Hills SD on Long Island may be best bet in terms of having all 3 and dare I say is universally looked upon as a good school district, which in and of itself can be loaded or based upon personal feelings. https://censusreporter.org/profiles/...l-district-ny/
Affluence, great schools, diversity. You have to pick two. It's very difficult to find all three. It's even difficult to pair diversity up with one of the other two.
Surprisingly the western 1/3 of Greenwich might fit the bill.
Surprisingly the western 1/3 of Greenwich might fit the bill.
Possibly though the diverse part isn't particularly affluent (if we're talking about Bryan). I think it will become more common in the future, depending on how you define diversity. I think we'll reach a point where neighborhoods we now call diverse will no longer be considered diverse, just as neighborhoods that mix Irish, Italian and Jewish ethnicities are no longer considered diverse.
I have never actually sought out ethnic diversity. I picked my town partly because it had economic diversity (lower middle class to wealthy range) but my central requirement was low crime, a nice look and feel to the neighborhood/town and good schools. All those considerations came before ethnic diversity and will continue to for me.
Once you get above the level of seriously underperforming school districts, 'school rating' is mostly just a measure of affluence. Quality of instruction doesn't vary much.
Once you get above the level of seriously underperforming school districts, 'school rating' is mostly just a measure of affluence. Quality of instruction doesn't vary much.
Quality of instruction doesn't vary much amongst any of the suburban school districts, even the underperforming ones. The underperforming ones underperform because a significant percentage of their students come from single/young parent households where school attendance/studying/homework is either not emphasize or insufficiently supervised/enforced, and the neighborhoods/social contacts reinforce these less-optimal home lives.
In other words, what makes a good school good is the type of families from which the students come from. This sets the culture of the school. If you took the student body of Mt Vernon HS and enrolled them at Scarsdale HS, and then enrolled the student body of Scarsdale HS at Mt Vernon HS, Mt Vernon would instantly be a good school, and Scarsdale not.
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