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I recently left Powell, Ohio and returned to Rye with my family and have no regrets. Rye is by far the nicest of the towns you are considering. Great schools, small town feel, terrific library, lovely down town area, nature center, town beach and pool. I decided that, while the Harrison homes are a bit nicer for the money, the overall benefits of being in Rye outweighed the slightly nicer house.
I lived in Harrison for just under 8 years, graduated from middle/high school(public) and I'd recommend staying clear of it. The downtown is very poorly planned, meaning you get a lot of turnover with stores and it's completely dead.
The schools are poor(relative to nearby towns), you can look at some meaningless rankings, but having been through the public schools(with a year-long stint at a nearby private school) I can say the drop off in quality of staff/overall quality was pretty noticeable from the private school. Some of the police are nice, but they have very serious issues within the department, do some googling and you'll come across all kinds of bad press.
The taxes are very high, and only continue to increase and it really isn't much of a traditional town, more a collection of homes that share a zip code.
I don't mean to harp on the downsides, it is nice having a train station in downtown that takes you into NYC/CT, there are a couple good restaurants and the high school football(just about the only thing they properly support at the high school) games can be entertaining.
If I was objectively advising a friend from out of state that was considering a move to the area, I'd tell them to aim for Rye, Scarsdale, White Plains, Larchmont or Mamaroneck. There are some serious problems in Harrison and if you're considering spending this kind of money, you should get more bang for your buck.
I was wondering if anyone on this board lives in Park Lane Reserve, in West Harrison, and if so, what are your thoughts? Are there pros/cons you can share? We are deciding between pursuing Park Lane, or focusing more on Rye/Armonk.
Hi- we are in basically same situation as you were and would love to know how it all worked out for you. We are considering a home in park lane reserve or a more modest home in armonk or chappaqua/pleasantville. Any info you can share would be greatly appreciated! Biggest concern is the harrison school district. Thanks!
Hi- we are in basically same situation as you were and would love to know how it all worked out for you. We are considering a home in park lane reserve or a more modest home in armonk or chappaqua/pleasantville. Any info you can share would be greatly appreciated! Biggest concern is the harrison school district. Thanks!
We very briefly considered Park Lane Reserve...If I am correct, this is the development of large fairly new homes near Purchase?? We decided to focus on Chappaqua/Armonk over West Harrison.
We ultimately went with Armonk because we found a house that we liked. The homes in Armonk tend to be newer overall than Chap, similar to Park Lane Reserve/Estates (whatever its called). Plus, there is no village nearby unless you want to hang out in West Harrison/Silver Lake or go into North WP/WP.
The schools in Armonk and Chap are much better than Harrison; there is a great gym nearby, and the new town center is great....we live close to the village. Plus Chappaqua/Mount Kisco/Bedford/Greenwich and White Plains are all only 10 mins away.
Not sure what your budget is but considering that you were looking at Park Lane I will assume its over 1M...if thats the case, take a good look in Windmill Farms in Armonk -- beautiful and not over the top like Wrights/Sands Mill Estates.
People in Chap tend to think they are more sophisticated and refined than the folks in Armonk and they are probably correct. Armonk was basically hick town 20 years ago before construction started.There is more old money in Chap and Armonk tends to be new/flashy, however, we have been here for a year and really like it, despite people tending us to avoid Armonk. That said, people are money conscious here in a way that is a little different from other towns...that is a turn off to some.
Thank you so much for your helpful reply. We are actually big fans of Windmill Farms. Could you elaborate a little on what you mean by money conscious ... Do you mean in a competitive way? Also - are you commuting to NYC? if so, how are you finding that? my husband will be commuting by car (Sometimes to brooklyn), which is why we expanded our search to Harrison (so that he could potentially save some time each way). Thanks again!
Thank you so much for your helpful reply. We are actually big fans of Windmill Farms. Could you elaborate a little on what you mean by money conscious ... Do you mean in a competitive way? Also - are you commuting to NYC? if so, how are you finding that? my husband will be commuting by car (Sometimes to brooklyn), which is why we expanded our search to Harrison (so that he could potentially save some time each way). Thanks again!
By money conscious I mean that the money is a litte more in your face....kind of like in the Hamptons (Armonk) vs. Nantucket/MV...(Bedford) Its not terrible but more noticeable when we lived in lower Westchester... Armonk is young and many work in finance. There is a keeping up with Jones's mentality and a sense of entitlement among the young japs (no offense)... Everyone has to drive a RR or a MB GL (sadly my wife belongs to that club... but she also has her own successful career)..There are also tales of tawdry affairs with trainers/tennis instructers and the like, but I guess you find that everywhere. ..These are generalizations of course..
It does not bother us as our kids have adjusted well and we have made some good friends through our kids.
i am only in NYC about once a week and I drive...Otherwise my office in in Westchester. It generally takes me about 40 minutes to get to midtown if I don't hit traffic and I can make it to downtown Brooklyn in under hour down the FDR and over the BB..again trafffic dependant. The key is that you can jump right on 684 and down to the Hutch where traffic usually moves quickly to the Bronx.
I was brought up in Harrison and left after college because of my career. I moved back here to my family home which I inherited 18 years ago. First, I am not Italian I am WASP. Nor I might add am I white trash. I don't know where you read that insulting statement but there are no more white trash here than you will find in any of the other towns you mentioned. That said, there is a large Italian population that dates way back as there is a large Jewish population. But the latter I do not believe to be as large as it was in the 1950s-60s when I was a child/teenager here. You will also find a large number of Italians and Jews in Rye now days along with WASP and Irish. The schools are relatively the same but with Rye a bit better in recent years probably due to the fact that Harrison High School had become regional and so is much, much larger than Rye. You are correct that downtown Harrison as far less attractive than downtown Rye. But my family had always done a lot of things in a Rye including church, beach club, etc. Taxes are higher in Rye than in Harrison. Probably due to the fact that it is on Long Island Sound whereas Hsrrison is a couple of mikes inland. But it only takes 5 minutes to drive to the beach. Hope this helps. It just depends on what is most important to you and your family.
You are correct that downtown Harrison as far less attractive than downtown Rye.
Was in downtown Harrison today and noticed it's a bit nicer than it was in the past- but still pretty unfortunate looking as far as affluent Westchester towns go, obviously nothing like the charm of Rye. It seems like it has the infrastructure potential other towns could only dream of, the wealth is there too, so I'm curious what people think is the reason it hasn't really been made more attractive in the past 50 years?
Every town in Westchester has an Italian and Jewish population. Some more than others, but it's always stated on this forum as if this population would be somehow different than any other affluent household in the area.
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)..There are also tales of tawdry affairs with trainers/tennis instructers and the like, but I guess you find that everywhere. ..These are generalizations of course..
