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Hello,
I'm interested in keeping my job in NYC but moving to a small town upstate that is within commuting distance. I'd like it to have a very comfy community feel the way that the Gilmore Girls' town of Stars Hollow did. I've heard Nyack, NY is a great place. Any info on Nyack or other suggestions?
There was a small riot in Nyack a few weeks back. There are some long-simmering racial tensions there.
Late post...but I **wouldn't** call this an accurate quote. Nyack is a cute, trendy town, with plenty of families, good restaurants, antique shops, colleges, seminaries, and picturesque Victorian homes. There are some small areas of public housing. I've lived in Nyack for around 6 years and I've seen very little racial tension, except for the fact that people tend to be geographically segmented (which is the case in most towns) and there are people from all races and income levels co-existing in the same small town.
The "riot" was between some local gang members and some gangs from another town...it wasn't strictly Nyack people, and it wasn't race-related (that I know of).
I think that was why the incident was shocking - the village and area is quite well-behaved and pretty much looks like the stereotype of Small Town USA.
Last edited by Scott99999; 09-07-2008 at 10:39 PM..
In terms of your original question - the positive aspects of Nyack are the parks, the river access, restaurants, "quaint" nature of downtown, etc...
The negative aspects are the housing prices ($600k+), taxes ($10k+), what you get for your money (not a lot), and the commute. There aren't any straight commutes to the city, so most people end up taking the train out of Nanuet or Suffern, or Tarrytown. Once into the city, most people have to transfer to the subway, which creates "Drive > Train > Subway" commutes or worse "Drive > Train > Train > Subway." (The latter happens if you're transfering in Secaucus)
There's also various buses.
The irony of Rockland is that it's physically 30-40 minutes out of the city, but REAL door-to-door commutes are usually over an hour, up to 1.5 or two hours, depending on where you're trying to go in Manhattan.
Other places with a similar feel: Ridgewood, NJ; Kotanah, NY; Cold Spring, NY; Piermont, NY. Tarrytown, NY is a bit overbuilt and expensive, but is an "almost." I'm sure there are more... The North Shore of Long Island also has many cute towns, but almost every town like this in the area suffers from an undesirable commute (i.e., over one hour or more door-to-door).
I love Nyack. My grandparents were core residents of Nyack.. I lived there myself for a few years. It's a wonderful town, and very much what you're describing --- BUT---- It is NOT an easy commute to New York City. It's a bus-to-a-train commute, first crossing the Tappan Zee in horrible traffic.
It's just a bad commute.
Someone mentioned Chappaqua. I live there now, and in the process of moving It's a nice town. It's very wealthy, pretty expensive. It's more rural than southern Westchester, but it's not really Stars-Hollow-type. It's simply a nice affluent suburb.
For more of a small town feel-- Pleasantville is right next to Chappaqua. We are also probably moving to Croton on Hudson, which has a definite small-town feel. Only about 6,000 residents or so. A good commuting train. Very few chain stores in the town (No Starbucks.. Instead a local coffee house.)
I've also heard some good things about Irvington but I know less about it.
Last edited by Viralmd; 09-22-2008 at 05:47 PM..
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