NY Area - to dream the impossible dream

smiledr

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 11:55 am

edison/highland park has literally everything on ur list. its a very warm friendly welcoming community, great schools, sephardic shul, mikvah, takeout, train station goes to city, close enuf to teaneck and city, not a huge community to get lost in, the jewish area is pretty and real estate is a little cheaper. pm me if u want more info.

amother

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 2:33 pm

OP here. WOW! Thank you all so much for the suggestions! I am adding some of these places to our list of places to go look.

It looks like I'll be checking out Fairlawn, Englewood, Bergenfield, maybe West Hempstead, White Plains, Mount Vernon/Fleetwood, maybe Yonkers/N. Riverdale, and Stamford. Probably Holliswood too.

As to the others, Deal/Long Branch are too far away, KGH is too large of a community and too yeshivish for us, Manhattan Beach is too far (and I think Mill Basin will be too, although it sounds great), West Orange is probably too modern and also too far, Elizabeth is definitely not for us, and we already live in Riverdale and think it is too big, too transient, and not altogether very friendly.

I agree with Abby1776 that the 1 hour to midtown west is quite limiting, but my DH is unwilling to commute more than that because his hours at work are so long. Can't say I blame him.

Any more ideas? Thank you all so much!

mommyhood

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 2:49 pm

Edison/Highland Park is not within an hour commute. It's an hour train ride plus the car ride to/from the train and getting from Penn station to work. Also I think the train is around $12 each way which adds up.
Englewood/Bergenfield are also not really within an hour commute, it could be an hour but a lot of times it's more, and almost never less.

abby1776

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 2:58 pm

Contact R' Shmuel Hain the Rabbi of the Young Israel of North Riverdale - nice young guy (35 yo) can help you out checking the neighborhood. Or PM me for some other contacts if North Riverdale and Stamford.

abby1776

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 3:00 pm

Also, I believe there is an up and coming Sephardic community on the East Side of Manhattan, but I dont think housing is particularly affordable (though I think you can find a 2 bedroom for under a million now). But it would be a good commute for your husband.

chocolate moose

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 3:04 pm

You might think of which of those items are dealbreakers.

At one point, dh was set on moving to Jersey, and I wanted a brick house, near the bus line, with central air and some other features. We couldn't find it, affordably, and we stayed where we were.

Eventually we bought an apt in our neighborhood but it wasn't dh's first choice.

amother

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 3:33 pm

abby1776 wrote:

OP here. The UES violates too many of my conditions. We'll never get any space there and that is so important.

I will PM you tonight about N. Riverdale and Stamford though! Thanks Smile

amother

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 3:37 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

CM, I totally agree with you. I feel like Goldilocks trying to find the right neighborhood Smile

I tried to make needs vs. wants because if I considered all these things "needs," we'd never be able to move. As people suggest more places, I am beginning to see which things are more in my needs column and which are more like wants. For example, we are mixed Sephardi/Ashkenazi so we like having the option of both but if it came down to it, I am not sure that a lack of a Sephardic minyan would be a dealbreaker, whereas a really big community is sounding less and less appealing.

wifey

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 3:46 pm

Also check out Scarsdale though I'm not sure if you could do everything under 3K...there is a small nice sephardic shul called Magen David and young israel of scarsdale is a liberal MO but very warm and friendly community.

amother

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 3:56 pm

wifey wrote:

Scarsdale is way too expensive. We will probably look at New Rochelle, but I fear it is too big and too modern, and may well also be too expensive.

smiledr

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 6:18 pm

mommyhood - u clearly are very unfamiliar with englewood/teaneck/edison/highland park. teaneck/englewood are a 30 mins commute and edison/hp is an hour commute - shorter if u drive. and unless ure taking a subway to work commuting is expensive...and you can buy monthly ticket books that are discounted.

amother

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 8:08 pm

abby1776 wrote:

My sister lives in New Rochelle and I can put you in touch with her - but where she lives is very expensive and everyone has a lot of money.

I know that many people live in New Rochelle but go to YI of Scarsdale. Then there is the other side of New Rochelle where people go to YI of New Rochelle. The YI of Scarsdale side is much more expensive. For sure we are priced out of that side. I would have to look into the YI of NR side and see if there is anything more reasonable over there. Property taxes are very high in Westchester no matter what you do. And I do have my other concerns about it.

amother

Wed, Sep 14 2011, 9:06 pm

smiledr wrote:

Smiledr, you are correct.

Another thing, OP - the Sephardic congregation in HP is very mixed - lots of Ashkenazi/Sephardi families, as well as Sephardim from different ethnic backgrounds, unlike in some other communities.

amother

Thu, Sep 15 2011, 2:25 pm

amother wrote:

OP here. WOW! Thank you all so much for the suggestions! I am adding some of these places to our list of places to go look.

It looks like I'll be checking out Fairlawn, Englewood, Bergenfield,

Bergenfield is Teaneck- they aren't distinct communities. I would think that Teaneck is better than Bergenfield since there is a Sephardic shul and people have a community from that shul- so even though Teaneck itself is big, you can feel smallness if you put yourself in the right place.

Englewood is big and expensive.

Fairlawn might be a good option.

amother

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 1:36 pm

Different amother here. Thanks OP for starting such a useful thread!
Can anyone tell more about Fairlawn? There seem to be a few orthodox shuls there. What are they like? Where do the kids go to school? Are young families moving in?