What is the best NYC suburb?

[Robert.Dinero]

Getting to this thread late, but everything you mentioned looks and sounds like New Rochelle. Of course not all of the city is like that, as it has an old and redeveloping downtown, and some seedy areas (yet nothing dangerous). New Rochelle is very liberal, very diverse in every single neighborhood, whether it is poor, working class, middle class, upper-middle class or upper-class. The northern areas of New Rochelle have a wide variety of large houses, mostly historical houses, with a mix of Anglo-Saxon whites, Blacks of various ethnic backgrounds, Jews, Arabs, Hispanics, South Asians, East Asians, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Polish and so on.
Similar socio-economics are to be found in neighboring Larchmont and Mamaroneck, though slightly less diverse than NR, and also in the town of Eastchester (Eastchester, Bronxville and Tuckahoe, the latter being the most diverse of the three). The Northeast of Yonkers also checks many of these boxes (Crestwood in particular), and the Pelham Manor section of Pelham.

[sweatpants]

Originally Posted by Conrad4402

Age old issue of unicorn hunting is definitely in play here and it comes down to a few issues.
1. If you want 2+ private acres, regardless of budget, you have to accept less diversity and less socially open/liberal communities.
2. If you give up the 2+ private acres to get that diversity & socially open/liberal community, you have to accept higher crime rates and higher taxes.

FWIW my top contenders at the moment are Westchester, Mamaroneck, Valley Stream, Providence RI, Montclair NJ, Stamford CT and Hillcrest CA. Clearly focusing in on Proximity to NYC but still searching for comparable spots. If not for the property size, crime rate and taxes it would be Brooklyn hands down. That 4% tax with no land is rough though.

So you're looking for 2+ acres in a socially liberal suburb of New York, but Valley Stream (LOL), Providence RI (what?), and Hillcrest CA (WHAT?) are all on your shortlist. Am I missing something?

[sweatpants]

Originally Posted by 85dumbo

Pre-crime spike, gentrified Brooklyn would totally be your cup of tea.


I use to own a condo in Dumbo, and sold it 2015 after Comrade Deblasio was elected. My wife is still friends with many people in our former building. I find satisfying delicious irony that all my liberal white trustfund neighbors who adamantly hated Giuliani for cleaning up NYC, now have also fled back to their rich parents' houses in Westchester/LI. Its also ironic that they claim Trump is a Nazi who is taking away your freedom, yet it is Comrade Deblasio and Cuomo who are abusing their power and using COVID as the excuse to have state control over everything. But thats the benefit of being a rich liberal, you can talk the talk when the times are good (due to Republican policies), but when the S goes down when the D's run the show and mess it up, its back to the safety of the suburbs.

There is no (and has been no) crime spike in gentrified Brooklyn. The nice Brooklyn neighborhoods only really cleared out for the summer (when people rented houses or traveled to their vacation homes). It made driving/parking fantastic, but things have been back to normal for 6+ months now.

The pandemic did hasten families moving out to the suburbs, but only families who would have moved out in the next ~3 years anyway.