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I know this has been posted a million times but bear with me.
I recently returned from visiting family in Katonah, in Westchester. It is one of the most quaint and simple areas ever, which I'm partial too; there's money there too however. Everyone drives Beamers and Benz's. I also have family on the Island (south-shore but still nice) , which I enjoy as well.
Taxes are incredibly high in both places but which one is higher? There obviously not both the same. Which one has better schools? I've been told a majority of LI highschools have metal detectors and arent as safe as there Westchester Counterparts.
I like the small town feel that Bedford-Katonah-Mt Kisco area has (especially the walkable, quaint downtowns) more than the suburbia feel of Lindenhurst-Babylon area has.
Few things I've noticed in my travels..
The homes in Westchester are more spread out, with bigger yards, and more landscaping.
There's less Italian heritage in Westchester
More of a neighborly feel in Westchester
The water in Westchester isnt as clean LI
Traffic is much less extreme in Westchester
MNR is 24/7 but is almost identical to LIRR
Basically, which one is for me? I come from a small town to begin with and like the feel. Money isnt really isnt an issue but commuting is. I will work in the city but will have to travel a lot. I would like a large lot with at least 3200 sqft. A place with a walkable downtown with lots of small, local business. Friendly people without some much New Yawk accent.
This is a very hard decision for me and I could use some real detailed answers and insight.
What's hard? Generalizing about taxes and schools is pointless, it depends on the respective towns, that's not an LI vs Wstchstr question. But you already know that. Otherwise it sounds like a no-brainer. You set up the criteria and you already know the answers.
Quality of schools are the same, as are the taxes you must pay to fund them. Seriously, you won't find that much of a difference between Garden City and Chappaqua schools.
LI is much more paved over than Westchester for the most part, but there are still places where you can find more space and natural beauty such as Sea Cliff and Cold Spring Harbor. On the flipside, you can find more affluent neighborhoods in LI with better infrastructure and commuting options to Manhattan than Westchester.
So it's just a trade off between one or the other.
BTW, LI has more EPA superfund sites and areas once used for commercial agriculture (ie pesticides), if that matters to you.
With the LIRR you have to commute into Penn...... the most-crowded chicken-fat smelling styroform-strewn claustrophobic diesellly yuk terminal there is. Grand Central is a different world.
of course, you'll only be there for a few minutes each day.
With the LIRR you have to commute into Penn...... the most-crowded chicken-fat smelling styroform-strewn claustrophobic diesellly yuk terminal there is. Grand Central is a different world.
of course, you'll only be there for a few minutes each day.
You'd only be in Grand Central for a few minutes a day. No telling how long you'd be in Penn, desperately waiting for track information on a train scheduled to leave in 3 minutes (but don't worry, it probably won't leave on time.)
Not that I have a preference, I'm just agreeing that they're just different.
A) Less traffic
B) Much more things to do (historic sites, hiking, parks, scenery)
C) Metro-North & Grand Central
D) More space
E) Easier access to New England, Manhattan, West of the Hudson, NY State
The only positives I find about Long Island is the shopping and beach otherwise Westchester is much more superior in almost every way...just my opinion.
There's only a few spots on LI that have higher than average crime but even in those few places, almost all of the crime only happens in the summer/warm months at night and usually affects people who were involved in the 'street lifestyle' as opposed to innocent people.
There are huge differences between those school systems.
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