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We are currently living in Mamaroneck (very recent Brooklyn transplants) and are thinking of expanding our search to Pleasantville Briarcliff Manor. Any information on either would be welcome and appreciated. In conversation with a co-worker she casually mentioned the Pleasantville has "it's own set of oddities" -- she didn't seem inclined to elaborate, but does anyone have a thought about what that may or may not mean?
Some specific questions/areas of interest as we explore these towns are:
Schools - are they highly competitive environments? Supportive? are there zoning issues w/in the towns? any specifics with respect to areas of specialty are also appreciated (sports, STEM, fine arts, music, etc)
Is there a dedicated children's library?
Is there a newcomer's group? Or other methods for parents/newcomers to meet other grownups?
Is there a Farmers Market?
Are there Town summer camps?
What are the town's recreational services? For children and adults?
What is there in terms of nursery schools options? Is there a Montessori school?
Restaurants?
Public Pool?
Performing arts?
Traffic in town and on relative highway?
Walkability to shops and trains? To children's classes/services?
I don't think there is anything odd with P-ville schools/village relative to other suburbs, maybe except that it is less ethnically diverse. There is a downtown with a Key Foods but not much going on. Note however that you can reach nicer establishments and nature parks like farmers markets within a few minutes by car so not sure if they have to be walkable. For performing arts one can drive to Caramoor and I'm sure there's always something going on at Pace U, and you're only 15 minutes drive to Tarrytown which has the Tarrytown Music Hall.
Briarcliff - Don't know much about it but you may want to google "Briarcliff Manor Fill for Fields" and see what comes out.
Last edited by Forest_Hills_Daddy; 01-13-2014 at 12:33 PM..
Sounds like you might also want to look at Ossining (especially on the diversity part). It's one stop over from Briarcliff, and depending on what part of Briarcliff Manor you live in, you might be part of of the Ossining school district anyway.
I can't tell you much about the schooling, but there's an amazing library, farmer's market every Saturday, a recreational center with pool (Village of Ossining - Recreation and Parks Department), summer day camps, and has walkability to both the central business district and to trains (especially from the Village, particularly if you live on the east side of Rt. 9, which also has even more walkability to more retail and the library). You won't find that walkability in Briarcliff Manor. There are a a few restaurants (like Goldfish, Brassiere Swiss, Keenan's, Okinawa, Yama Fuji, Wobble Cafe, and Landmark Diner), but you may find yourself going to neighboring towns to expand your palate outside of that. There are plenty of ethnic takeouts and delis, three supermarkets, and a lot of need-based retailers, but if you're looking for big box stores like Target or Home Depot, you'll have to drive 15-20 minutes. Traffic is okay, but can get congested in the rush hour. You can usually skip the slow parts (Croton Ave, Rt 9 by the high school and Main Street) by driving through the residential areas.
Not sure about performing arts, but there are a lot of artists living in the community. We're a fairly short train ride or drive away from Peekskill, which somewhat of a better arts community, as well as some of the river towns to the South.
I just moved here over the summer and haven't taken part in any newcomer's group (or have been made aware of any) but there seems to be a lot of activities through the town and library. Our neighbors are pretty friendly and have made a point of introducing themselves.
Let me give you some comparisions between the two. I live in Briarcliff. Both are great places to live. Dont know of any oddities in Pleasantville as both are nice laid back small towns with small good school districts-one middle school, hs and elem school. However in both towns you could wind up in another school district-Briarcliff -Briarcliff(majority) or Ossining, Pleasantville-Pleasantville(majority) or Byram Hills-Armonk. Pleasantville is a much more walkable town(2sq miles) and does not have school busing.
Briarcliff I think is more spread out and property sizes are bigger. Pleasantville definitely has a bigger village-more shops restaurants and the Jacob Burns film Center. Each have a decent number of preschools, activities and sports hrough rec departments, pools and summer camps.
One other thing-during big rain storms, parts of Pleasantville(including near the center of town) tend to flood due to proximity to Saw Mill river. Saw Mill parkway is often closed. Otherwise-both have good accessibility to Saw MIll Pkwy and Taconic Pkwy, road are generally easy to navigate.
Diversity-not too much in either although people are generally welcoming
That being said I think either town is a great choice and their proximity to each other lets me enjoy them both!
ANM1982 -- Is your review of Ossining? I haven't heard very good things about the Ossining schools, so I don't think they're on our list. Although good to know, since they're right next door.
My husband had some concerns about proximity to Indian Point. Is this a concern?
Also, I did read about the disturbing Briarcliff "Fill for Fields" -- That has been addressed, correct?
If your husband thinks Ossining is too close to Indian Point then he will have the same concern about Briarcliff and Pleasantville as all three are next to each other and the distances are negligible and really irrelevant in terms of Indian Point concerns.
Other than schools, your life in the two towns won't be very different and you will drive to the same libraries, farmers markets, stores, restaurants, etc.
If Indian Point goes we are all screwed so I wouldn't let that sway you one way or another.
I live in Briarcliff village but and Ossining schools. The schools are very diverse and b/c of our ESL population the test scores are not so good - kept us from looling at Oss for a while. However, if you pull out the scores for the English speakers, the stats are not so grim - quite typical actually. I have a kid in the schools and have been very happy with them. But it's not majority white English speakers so if you'd be uncomfortable with that, then you'd be better looking elsewhere. But we have a great library, farmers market, community pride etc.
Bcliff has a great town pool and a fun (and relatively inexpensive) summer camp. And b/c I have a Bcliff PO, I get access to these so an big bonus for me. Pville also has a pool but I've not been so don't know how it is - I do think Bcliff's is in a nicer location. Both towns have great schools, children's libraries, etc. Pville seems more walkable and from people I have met, a smidge more down to earth. But that's just personal opinion. You really can't go wrong with either - though not a ton of diversity in either.
You are correct Pville does NOT have buses for school.
There's at least one exception to P'Ville's lack of busing.
I live on the Chappaqua side of the P'Ville Chappaqua border, and the folks on our street who fall on the P'Ville side do have busing. A small bus comes and gets them, so it's actually more convenient than the Chappaqua busing (where you have a short walk to the stop.) I'm told this is an exception made because they are so far from the school.
Anyone who is interested in P'Ville but put off by the lack of busing might look into such small niches -- there may be others, for all I know. (If you're interested in our precise location, feel free to PM me.)
the fields in Briarcliff have been addressed. One field has been remediated and the other one will be soon. Anywhere in Westechester is close to Indian point so it does not really matter where. Possibly private busing for those Pleasantville people in Chappaqua, there is no busing in Pleasantville. Ossining schhol district is a LOT bigger-multiple elementary schools and an enormous high school. They have some good programs like bilingual program but like PP said scores are brought down by ESL. I have heard elementary schools are better than high school. Lots of diversity in Ossining schools.
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