Dorothy

Your daughter is British. Are you going to look for an area that's predominantly British?

What does it matter if your child is a different colour or religion than the other children? Surely it won't affect her learning to be in a classroom with Jews or white children. It never hurt my children as non-practicing 1/2 Jewish 1/2 Russian Orthodox going to a school with children in a vast range of colours and religions.

Pulaski

No! Westchester adjoins the Bronx, they share a county border, so in some sense getting from the Bronx to Westchester is a zero distance journey! The southern most point of Westchester is (just)11 miles from Columbus Circle, the customary point for measuring distances to/from Manhattan. FWIW White Plains, the county seat of Westchester is 26 miles from Columbus Circle, so maybe that is what you're thinking of, and White Plains certainly is very commutable to Manhattan. I had an 8am start in NYC, and despite working just a couple of blocks from Grand Central, I decided that commuting from CT was impractical, because it would have meant an insanely long day.

Michael

You are correct. I didn't think she was referring to the Yonkers area but further north near White Plains. My bad for making assumptions.

Rete

Actually Westchester County abuts the Bronx. I live on said border. And yes, Westchester County was and is considered the bedroom community of NYC, i.e. suburb of Manhattan. I live in Yonkers, approximately 100 yards from the Bronx and 25 miles from 42nd Street in Manhattan.

I've never heard that White Plains is considered part of the NYC greater metropolitan area. Please give the link that supports this.

Remember Westchester is a COUNTY and is comprised of many towns and villages. Westchester is not a city, in and of itself.

Rete

There are other towns, besides Yonkers, that abut the Bronx, i.e. Phelam Manor, New Rochelle, Mt. Vernon.

Nutmegger

I've commuted from Brewster, the terminus on the Harlem line of Metro North, and from Danbury, a terminus on a spur of the New Haven line. The length of commute was pretty similar, but the killer is always the parking. If you actually live in the town you commute from you get first dibs on a parking pass; if you don't, you hope for the best on a metered space -- which may be OK if you leave at the crack of dawn, but for folks like me who can't get up in the morning, it's hopeless.

Pulaski

So I was right to flee NY (all commuting options looked unattractive or worse, among other factors) rather than buying the best I could afford to the north of NYC.

Michael

I've seen them lumped together on several cost of living calculators such as the following. I'm not sure what they are referring to when they include White Plains in the name.

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/...131231181731:s

Orangepants

Great little place - a London office staff fav! They took me there several times in 2009.

Pulaski

Per the US Census web site: NYC metropolitan area.

BillyLondon

I think I am overthinking. And as someone pointed out take stuff on the internet with a pinch of salt.
Oh I have no problem that my daughter studies with Jewish or any kids at all lik I said we move around so much we are very open minded. But I read a few posts that suggested that certain communities can be clanny and racist. Especially in westchester. i don't have an issue with moving in to any neighbourhood. As long as people in that neighbourhood are accepting of it. It would be awful to be isolated because my daughter isn't getting invited to any birthdays or events because she is 'different' Which in this day and age in the US I can't imagine. But as someone said. Don't let certain peoples negative posts of Westchester affect you.
I will try and find the posts and paste them here. It basically said. That areas with certain majorities actively keep others out of their community and estate agents even refuse to rent out to people who racially or religiously don't fit the bill

Someone asked about our background. (Which really isn't a factor in my decision making) but here u go
Me; Dutch mother Pakistani dad. Grew up in Amsterdam
Hub; British Asian ( Indian dad and Bangladeshi mum) Muslim but very progressive. Grew up in London.
My daughter. British. Only speaks English and a bit of Spanish (trying to teach her Dutch). Our home language is English.
Religion; Muslim but not very practising.

But I am not looking to live in any neighbourhood to fit our religion or ethnicity.
As we are more British and Dutch than anything else. As long as the neighbourhood is welcoming.

Just a lovely neighbourhood with no extreme forms of racism.
Reading all your posts it sounds like westchester is lovely.
The main decider in the end will be schools and short commute to gct. And of course socially pleasant.

Michael

I suspect you are over thinking it. New York is an extremely liberal state even in the boonies but as you get very rural, people tend to be more conservative. It may not be as fully integrated as California, but is very tolerant. Of the 27 congressional districts, only 6 are republican (conservative) which includes the 1st, 11th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd, and 27th.

As far as real estate agents refusing to rent to someone because of race or religion, they would be taking a very risky chance since it is against federal law and New York state would likely not be tolerant of that.

BillyLondon

Yep. Ur absolutely right. Gonna stop the overthinking.
Been to ny so many times. Lovveedddd it!!

Pulaski

First, yes, I think you are over thinking it, and worrying too much. That said you do bring up some points and ones worth discussing.

The US does, especially on the east coast and in the mid west, suffer from similar "inner city school" issues as the UK, with very similar causes and symptoms: poverty, broken families, and English not being the language spoken at home, and therefore poor performance, poor attendance, and a high drop-out/ non-graduation rate. The US has tried to remedy this by forced "bussing" (moving children to schools far from their homes to mix up the racial and economic mix in schools, as mandated by the Supreme Court in "Brown v Board of Education" in 1954).

The effects of several decades of "bussing" have not been entirely effective, with inner city schools still having a poor reputation, and often poor results. Therefore I suggest that you have a choice to make: is it more important that your children attend a highly diversified school, or one that provides the best academic education? While not everyone will agree with me (and some will probably come and shoot me down in flames!), you will generally find the higher performing schools in the suburbs, and as in Westchester, these areas typically have a higher percentage of white families. This is not universally true, but is certainly something to bear in mind when you choose an area to live in and therefore a school district. From what other posters have mentioned above, there may be some parts of Westchester where there are more racially diverse communities, which might suit you best.

scrubbedexpat099

Would there be a local Mosque you could contact and discuss your concerns?