Fleetwood section of Mount Vernon (New York, Bronxville: co-ops, buying a house, neighborhoods)

[stook1]

My wife and I are considering moving to the Fleetwood section of Mount Vernon from Fairfield Cty, CT. We'll be starting a family relatively soon and understand the school issues beyond 6th grade. Nonetheless, that gives us a solid 12-13 years before we need to worry about moving (or private school).

Can anyone provide any specific feedback about the various sub-neighborhoods within Fleetwood? Any specific feedback with respect to Traphagen school vs. Pennington school? Are there any parts of Fleetwood that tend to have more young couples? Is there a significant Jewish population in Fleetwood? Any temples?

Lastly, I realize that posting realtor referrals, etc. is not allowed in the forums. I'd appreciate referrals via PM to a realtor who is very familiar/knowledgeable about Fleetwood.

thanks!

[metromom]

My wife and I are considering moving to the Fleetwood section of Mount Vernon from Fairfield Cty, CT. We'll be starting a family relatively soon and understand the school issues beyond 6th grade. Nonetheless, that gives us a solid 12-13 years before we need to worry about moving (or private school).

Can anyone provide any specific feedback about the various sub-neighborhoods within Fleetwood? Any specific feedback with respect to Traphagen school vs. Pennington school? Are there any parts of Fleetwood that tend to have more young couples? Is there a significant Jewish population in Fleetwood? Any temples?

Lastly, I realize that posting realtor referrals, etc. is not allowed in the forums. I'd appreciate referrals via PM to a realtor who is very familiar/knowledgeable about Fleetwood.

thanks!

I lived in Fleetwood for about 5 years and loved it. Very diverse, villegey feel. Tons of different architectural styles to choose from and some great deals to be had but taxes are really high. If you are buying a house, try to stay north of East Lincoln Avenue and east of Gramatan Ave. South Mount Vernon starts south of the train tracks and should be avoided while the area between East Lincoln and the train tracks is okay but the nicer areas of Fleetwood are closer to Bronxville. If you are interested in co-ops, stay north of West Broad Street to be in the Pennington school district. It's a lot more difficult to sell co-ops near East Lincoln Ave as they tend to be considered on the lower end and are a little further away from everything.

Definitely don't go to Traphagen. It gets good grades on paper but I sent my daughter there for 1st grade and had to take her out and put her in Catholic school. The teachers are good and the school does a good job but the students are 'rough'. My daughter was threatened and roughed up repeatedly in the bathroom and was terrified to go in there alone. She also came home telling stories about girls in 5th grade talking about being pregnant!

Pennington is definitely the only way to go if you go public. A couple private schools that are excellent and are in Fleetwood are The Milestone School (a bit expensive)and St Peter and Paul (affordable and goes to 8th grade). There are also a couple Catholic schools in Bronxville (5 mins away) and Tuckahoe (8 mins away)

As for where there are young families, Fleetwood is a relatively small area and I would say there is no one place with a concentration of young families. Regarding the Jewish population, I'm not Jewish so don't really know much.

[7 Wishes]

OK here's the real scoop on Fleetwood and Traphagen:

Jewish - 2 synagogues - Free Synagogue of Westchester (Reformed) - on Columbus Avenue near the border of Bronxville. Fleetwood Synagogue (Orthodox) on Broad Street.

At one time Mt. Vernon had a substantial Jewish population, heavily in the area where Traphagen school is, but that area (the part of Fleetwood south of the Cross County Parkway and east of Columbus Avenue (with East Lincoln Avenue being the southern boundary using the 10552 zip code as the definition of Fleetwood)) experienced a substantial "white flight" in the 1980s and early 1990s (later than the "south side" of Mt. Vernon did in the 1960s and early 1970s). Now unlike the "south side" (though exceptions there too), the blacks in this neighborhood are mostly working middle class or upper middle class.

Traphagen, which represents this neighborhood, is about 90% black. But unlike the other "mostly black" elementary schools in Mt. Vernon, the students are mostly middle class and above. So there are few real "urban school" problems here, but a "ghetto" pocket is part of the school district which may explain the "rough spots" (to mine and more my wife's surprise, our 2nd grade son and kindergarten daughter actually thrive there, we still want to try to move/private school when he gets to upper elementary or 6th grade, and the training program I'm in will probably lead to a relocation to somewhere in CT in a year or two anyway.

The diverse part of Fleetwood (which I would say in terms of school kids is about evenly white and black and pretty upscale) is the neighborhood represented by Pennington Elementary School (everything north of Broad Street and the Cross County Parkway, though I think the extreme eastern part north of the Cross County is zoned as Traphagen, the few white kids at the school either come from there or the East Lincoln Ave coops). The few Jews with families left in Mt. Vernon (mostly in this part of town) usually go to Free Synagogue of Westchester.

I hope this helps.

[ckhthankgod]

Information on Traphagen and Pennington:

Traphagen School - Mount Vernon, New York - NY - School overview

Pennington School - Mount Vernon, New York - NY - School overview

and What about Lincoln? : Lincoln School - Mount Vernon, New York - NY - School overview Wouldn't it be considered to be in the Fleetwood area?

and for the Mount Vernon SD: http://www.greatschools.net/new-york/mount-vernon/Mount-Vernon-City-School-District/schools/ (broken link)

[wrongfully convicted]

Mt. Vernon is a politically corrupt cesspool running a kangaroo court.