Relocating from Texas to NY (White Plains, Poughkeepsie: best city, schools, college)

[sram]

I am a recent college grad that just got a job in Peekskill. I was wondering what the best city or place to live in NY would be thats close to work ~30 min drive, not super expensive, and has a younger demographic. I am born and raised in Houston and went to school in Austin, so this will be a big change for me. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[TAK8]

Well, the closest thing to Austin around Peekskill is Peekskill. Not that it's close by any means, but I understand it has an artsy, urban vibe, which is not true for anyplace else in the area. (Some are artsy, some are urban, but I'm not aware of any others that are both.)

Sounds like, if you are to have concerns about schools and the like, that's still years away. If so, I'd think you'd want to find one of the nicer bits of Peekskill itself, or the immediate environs. I expect that others on this board could help you in narrowing that down more specifically, if you're interested.

Poughkeepsie is also nice, with Vasser College and great Hudson views, but that would be about 30 miles and, with the likely traffic at rush hours, a bit beyond your stated commute tolerance.

Good luck with the move, and the search.

[john70]

Your best bet is White Plains. Dowtown Peekskill is coming around and has some charm but its not one of the nicest areas of westchester. Its borderline ghetto. Not as bad as downtown Poughkeepsie and certainly not as bad as the cesspool of Newburgh. Stay south of Peekskill - it gets real hickish if you go north of that area. Great for families but not a young person looking to meet someone and have fun - slim pickings upstate.

I say this from experience.

[ld75]

Originally Posted by john70

Your best bet is White Plains. Dowtown Peekskill is coming around and has some charm but its not one of the nicest areas of westchester. Its borderline ghetto. Not as bad as downtown Poughkeepsie and certainly not as bad as the cesspool of Newburgh. Stay south of Peekskill - it gets real hickish if you go north of that area. Great for families but not a young person looking to meet someone and have fun - slim pickings upstate.

I say this from experience.

I agree with john70 100% You will for sure enjoy White Plains much more. Newburgh is bad news .

[TAK8]

I had been thinking White Plains would be too far, but it is just around the outer limit of your range, so I agree it's worth considering.

Sounds like the other posters have direct experience with Peekskill, and I'm basically going on reputation, so I wouldn't argue it. You may want to visit and ask around, though, because the reputation I'm picking up on comes in part from folks living in the area, and avoiding the 1/2 hour to WP each day, each way would be a plus. Also, WP doesn't have much nightlife. (More I suppose than the rest of Westchester, but nothing special.)

The real advantage of WP is that it has lots of express trains that will get you to midtown Manhattan in about 1/2 hour, or to 125 St. in about 20 minutes. That makes NYC much more doable as a semi-regular destination than it is from Peekskill. (You can check the train schedules at: http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_form.cfm but be warned, many destinations are now showing much slower times than usual, due to a repair project. Whether the times for Peekskill and White Plains are equally affected by this may be important to you, but I don't know the answer.)

[sram]

Thank yall so much for all of this information.

I greatly appreciate it, and will def look into WP more.