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Long story. Bronx County was once part of Westchester County. Gradually pieces broke off to join New York County. What is now Mt. Vernon and some parts of the Bronx were in the town of Eastchester. Mt. Vernon broke off and became a city. As the Bronx became urban so did the City of Mt. Vernon.
Eventually lower income people moved in and wealthier people moved out. Housing was cheaper in Mt. Vernon than other places in Westchester and more lower income people moved in.
Schools deteriorated. Nothing to do with geography, Bronxville (still in Town of Eastchester) has excellent schools and is very upscale.
As jobs moved out of NY City to Westchester and Fairfield County CT, many commuters drove to work in White Plains, Purchase, Armonk, Stamford and Greenwich. They could live a greater distance from Manhattan and drive to work. Availability of mass transit became less important. People moved to newer towns with newer houses, low crime rates and great schools.
Basically because it is a city with a high population density that borders the Bronx with significant "light industry". Also that unlike neighboring Bronxville and Pelham, the "city culture" was very "unexclusionary" (in the first half of the 20th Century it had a majorly significant Jewish and Italian population when many other Westchester towns were very prejudiced against either group moving in, then it became a typical "white flight" area and gained a significant black (and within that group West Indian/Caribbean) and Brazilian/Portuguese population. This is the reason why Pelham, though it borders the Bronx too, is mostly "suburban" in character (though they have an extension of Mt. Vernon's "light industry" right on the Bronx line too and in recent years became the only "rich" suburb in Westchester to have an African-American population over 10%)
You probably were mostly looking at the "South Side", the area south of the New Haven Line tracks, though even within there there are a couple of "nice" neighborhoods (like Langdon Terrace). But going north from the tracks to the Bronxville border, it progressively gets more and more suburban looking until just south of Bronxville it essentially looks like that town, except for a lot more ethnic and racial diversity amongst the neighbors (Bronxville is one of the last bastions of essentially "WASP only" suburbs in Westchester).
Wow. I can't believe I'm part of an ethnic group that was actually discriminated against. It's news to me. I'm in my 60's, grew up in Westchester, and thought that Italians actually built the place and kept it the upscale area that it was. Hmmm...members of my family were members of Westchester Country Club way back in the 40s. Maybe i missed something, but the people of Italian background that I know are mostly professionals, affluent, etc.etc. Which Westchester was this?
Italians are still discriminated against. Compare real estate prices in Chappaqua, Rye and Larchmont to Harrison and Eastchester. Many times when I inquired about living in Eastchester, I was told it was "too Italian". I will at least say that from my experiences there, it appears that many more affluent people there appear to be blue collar affluent (i.e. owners of a plumbing or contracting business) vs. where I now reside, half the town or more are bankers. Not that I find anything wrong with it, but I do sense that the bankers and lawyers put themselves above many of the other professions, and I don't get the sense that those are stereotypically Italian professions.
Had Italian and Jewish friends and friends of the family. I grew up in Mount Vernon but live in South Carolina. "Ove the south especially the warm weather. Haven't had any snow. Mount Vernon and here arw like nighPt and day. _
The northern half of Mount Vernon--especially Fleetwood--is very charming. In fact, what I like about MV is that it lacks much of the pretension that I find repulsive in the rest of Westchester. And, the nicer parts have a nice racial and ethnic diversity balance also, relatively speaking
Keep in mind, if you have kids it has to be private school above elementary. The schools are well-run but the middle -school and high school are totally ruined by the "ghetto" element from the southside of town.
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