Just to clarify a bit, if you live within the boundaries of Bronxville "proper," the public school is free. If you live across the border in Lawrence Park West, there is a tuition. If you live in Yonkers "proper," the public school is "free," tax funded by Yonkers residents.
"But straddling a divide has benefits. Pondfield Cafe, which anchors a tiny retail area on Pondfield Road West, is popular for breakfast, but its lunch-counter layout is too narrow for strollers, Ms. Bancroft-Lewis said."
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I took your meaning a different way. I was thinking the "benefit" of the Pondfield Cafe's lunchcounter layout being too narrow for strollers was that you could enjoy your breakfast without having to deal with screaming kids, haha!
I was also shocked to read that public school costs money. Out here, public school is free and we pay for it through our property taxes.
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@Hat Trick, ha! I thought pretty much the same thing about the cafe, although it's not always the kids bothering me. It's the strollers themselves. Some of them are the size of SUVs, and just as much of a nuisance.
I have never heard of having to pay to attend public school. It goes against what public schools are supposed to be about.
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I always wonder--other than Zillow, which is too general to be useful--where the writers of these articles get their impressions, not to mention their "facts." My family lived in Bronxville for 25 years, and nearby for another 10, and I was in real estate there for 30 years. If I were to write an article such as this, I think a reader's understanding of the area would be somewhat different.
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This is a great location. The best kept “secret” in Westchester. There are beautiful homes, prewar coops and a great 50s era co-op. Some have doormen but all the supers in the neighborhood are great. No I’m not a realtor- just a long time resident.
Coops attract young couples looking to buy their first apartment, middle aged couples and recent retireees who are downsizIng. The LBGT community is growing and an integral part of the neighborhood. (Parking for coops can be challenging if you aren’t willing to walk 2 blocks.) More and more young couples are buying homes and using the neighborhood public school as they welcome the diversity the schools offer and the mix of houses in the area (ranging from modest homes to grand tudors).
The train to Grand Central is only a 30 minute ride and the station is walkable! restaurants, movies, farmers market, libraries, walking/running path along the Bronx River, boutique shops and the supermarket are walkable too. Yet it’s a quick drive to H Mart, Whole Foods, Kohl’s etc. or to small shopping center in Eastchester (TJs, Lord & Taylor, Brooks Brother’s etc.). Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers offers lectures, concerts etc.
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They should call it Yoinkers for the way they yoink the money out of your pockets.
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Yonkers has a lot of nice areas. We looked at houses on Park Hill a bit over 20 years ago. We didn't buy a 1920s stucco cottage on a little hill, with its brick walk and half-buried raspberry bushes, because we decided Yonkers was too far from our aging and ailing parents.
There's also an area closer to the Hudson with lovely Mediterranean-style houses, but I don't know its name.
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@B.near a sewage treatment plant that serves all of Westchester, but beautiful houses
A sewage treatment plant. Oh.
On the other hand, we have several in New York City, one at the old West Side Highway across from upper Riverside Drive . . . .
But you might be right.
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Way back in the 1980's when i was an avid long distance cyclist, I would start my journey in Queens cross into Manhattan then up into the Bronx along the Grand Concourse thru Woodlawn, climb that steep hill along Hillview Reservoir and make it a point to travel through Lawrence Park West area. I would take extra time to travel through the neighborhood slowly, admiring the beautiful scenery, then head to the bike path along the Bronx River and up to my destination some 20 mile further north. On the way back, i would ride on the closed-for- cyclists- Bronx River Parkway on Sundays. A beautiful area, sadly i can't afford a house there for if i could, i wouldn't think twice about buying one . A very enjoyable article.
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It's obvious that property prices and taxes are due to poor schools. For a family with 3 or more kids, it makes more sense to live in the Bronxville school district and pay 50K in tax rather than pay 10K in the Yonkers and 75K a year for the said 3 kids to attend Bronxville schools, or privates which could run even pricier.
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@Irina House prices are substantially higher in Bronxville than in Yonkers. It is not only a tax differential.
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