Moving to Sleepy Hollow area (New York, Ossining: apartments, rental, high crime)

[jmfors]

Might be making a career move to the Sleepy Hollow area of New York within the next couple of months, though don't know much about the area. Any info would be helpful. What surrounding towns are good to live in, where to find apartment rental info, etc. etc.

Thanks

[brahmos]

Well there is a bad area (downtown and towards the river) and there is a nicer area (around Rte. 9). When I mean bad area I do not mean its just not really as nice, and I believe there is an illegal population. But Sleepy Hollow is overall a quaint little town and if you enjoy the Washington Irving Tale it can be even cooler.

Look into Tarrytown as well. They border each other and are both filled with mom and pop stores. Tarrytown has lots of apartments available for rent. The two towns have this old school 20's feel.

Hope this helps

[mead]

Yeah there are lots of illegal aliens (read: Mexicans) in some areas of Sleepy Hollow. This is the case in nearly all of towns in Southern Westchester.

On the whole though, even neighborhoods with illegals in Sleepy Hollow are pretty nice. Perhaps this won't be the case in a couple of years once the illegals have had a better chance to trash up the neighborhood, but at the moment this area is pretty nice.

[eslteacher]

I love the Sleepy Hollow area. If you want to rent I would suggest also looking in Tarrytown and Ossining. If schools are a concern you might want to look in Dobbs Ferry. The rent is more expensive but the educational system is excellent.
How much are you looking to spend? What specific questions do you have?

[jmfors]

Schools aren't really a concern for me, as I'm in my mid-20s w/no kids. I had a feeling that rent would be more expensive than I'm paying now (I currently live in Maine), but wasn't sure how expensive and whether or not the cost of living balances out well with the average income for the area. I've actually never been to NY at all, so I'm sort of going blind at the moment. I suppose some other questions...how are taxes (high/low) and what is taxed?, , good transportation system - is it better to commute to the area?, etc. But my key concern at the moment is housing/rent.

[samyn on the green]

This area Sleepy Hollow of Washington Irving literary fame seems to have a tremendous population of Illegal Aliens. this is a recent development and the Aliens have poured in by the thousands every year. Legal Citizens are a minority in this town. Most Aliens work as day laborers or toil in customer service jobs. The area is currently safe as these people are hard working but I can only imagine that the tremendous amount of children that these Illegal Aliens produce will not be content to toil for the poor wages of their fathers. American culture will surely shift this population from their hard working values to the degeneracy/entitlement attitude of American Ghetto thug culture. It will take one generation flat.

Look for this area to decline into high crime/low class in the near future. When making long term plans in Sleepy Hallow anticipate this looming class/safety decline.

[artsfan]

Au contraire, many of the children of these immigrants are playing on soccer teams, learning musical instruments, going to college. Corny as it may sound, these hardworking immigrants subscribe to the American Dream. They remind me of my own grandparents.

[GCGuy]

Yeah, illegal immigrants. Does a town good.

[mead]

Like I said before, Sleepy Hollow has a lot of illegal immigrants, as does most of Westchester, but the town is still nice. Somehow it doesn't come across as somewhat rundown and dirty like other, more urban, parts of Westchester.

[brahmos]

yeah mead hit it right on the head. But I do not think Westchester overall has a very high pop of illegals. They usually settle in villages (never in the towns) or cities because they had apartments. These cities and villages were mildly dumpy so once they started coming in they just made it worse. But I digress...


Sleepy Hollow still has this charm to it...but I guess the horseman had something to do with it.I guess if it was still called "North Tarrytown" (its old name) it would have suffered.


But like I was saying check out Tarrytown...it is probably what you are looking for.

And since you are coming from Maine, this whole area will be shockingly different. At least you are not living in NYC, talk about culture shock.