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Bedford NY Holds the Traditional Turkey Trot Road Race | Bedford NY Real Estate

For the Cotter’s of Bedford, the Turkey Trot is a family affair—though they travel to New Jersey each year for Thanksgiving, they make sure to return in time for the 5K run back home, an event that has expanded from 225 runners in 2005 to the 400 participants expected for this year’s race.

The fitness-oriented family—Amy, her husband, and their three children, ages 13, 15 and 16—have participated since the event’s inception, and each year have different goals. “Sometimes the kids want to beat their Dad, or best their own personal time—or just finish the race,” she said. “It’s just a great thing to do—run on a crisp day and see your friends and neighbors.”

Building a community event, where people could reconnect in a fun and healthy way, was exactly what the organizers had in mind when they first came up with the idea, said Jennifer Schwartz, one of the event’s founders and annual organizers.

“We wanted to begin a tradition that was about family, health and the town—one last thing to do together before everyone goes into hibernation for the winter,” she said.

The 3.1 mile course is challenging: after starting at Bedford Village Elementary School, runners immediately head to to Seminary Road, then toward Indian Hill Road for a 200-foot climb; those who make it are rewarded with a coast downhill, and to a flat finish through the village, ending at Bedford Village Memorial Park.

Because the goal was to host a family-friendly event, a children’s “fun run” has been a part of the Turkey Trot from the beginning, said Wendy Camerik, publicity coordinator.”One of the best parts has been seeing kids who started in the fun run move on to the full race,” she said. “From under 12 to over 70, we’ve got eight major age categories.”

Awards donated by Small Joys will be given to the top overall male and female finishers, and the top three male and female runners in each age grouping. Certified race results were made possible three years ago when they signed on a company to record each runner’s time via individual tags, said Schwartz. “That’s when we knew the race hat hit its stride as a high-caliber event, drawing runners from all over Northern Westchester,” she said.

And though they have the planning “down to a science” now, the first year was a bit hairer, according to Schwartz. After the town board unanimously approved their idea, they had only six weeks to throw it together.

“We’ve been so lucky to have such generous sponsors from the beginning—and we hope it brings potential shoppers to the area. All of the proceeds go directly toward running the race,” she said.

Full Article

Robert Paul: Third-quarter growth revised up to 2.5 percent | Bedford NY Real Estate

via rpaulrealtor.blogspot.com

The Cost of Living in NYC | Bedford NY Real Estate

The Price 20-Somethings Pay to Live in the City

ABE CAVIN QUEZADA, a 22-year-old aspiring music producer, lives with two roommates in a three-bedroom apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Mr. Cavin Quezada, who works as an unpaid intern at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, has kind words for his building, a renovated tenement near Marcus Garvey Boulevard, and for his apartment, for which he pays $500 a month and has a 10-by-6-foot bedroom. But as for the neighborhood, he is less enthusiastic.

“Before this I was living in a loft in Bushwick,” said Mr. Cavin Quezada, who grew up outside Washington. “This apartment is nicer, and has more amenities, but the neighborhood is noticeably fishier. In Bushwick, I never really felt threatened. Now, the sounds around are more aggressive. I’ll see 20 guys ride by on motorcycles, or hear gunshots outside my window.

“And one day,” he said, “in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, I saw a guy on a motorcycle with a handgun. It was not a reassuring sight.”

Mr. Cavin Quezada often works until 2 a.m. or later, and the first few nights after moving here, he considered asking one of his roommates to meet him at the subway after work and walk him back to the apartment.

Does his mother, who’s paying his rent, worry about him? “I don’t think I’ve given her enough details for her to worry,” Mr. Cavin Quezada said.

New York City was home to nearly 1.28 million people in their 20s last year, up from 1.21 million in 1980. In many respects, Mr. Cavin Quezada’s situation mirrors the way large numbers in that age group are living, three years after the Great Recession began.

To be sure, earlier generations had their share of hard-luck housing stories. But statistical evidence suggests that today’s new arrivals have a tougher struggle to live well, or even adequately, compared with their counterparts of just a decade ago. Battered by the one-two punch of persistent unemployment and the city’s high housing costs, they are squeezing into ever smaller spaces and living in neighborhoods once considered dicey and remote.

They are doubling, tripling, quadrupling and even quintupling up. According to the New York City Planning Department, 46 percent of New Yorkers in their 20s who moved to the city from out of state between 2006 and 2008 lived with people to whom they were not related, up from 36 percent in 2000.

Moving back in with parents is fast becoming the new normal. Those who do fly the family nest are paying an ever larger percentage of their often meager income for rent. Between 2006 and 2008, according to the Planning Department, the portion of New Yorkers in their 20s who moved to the city from other states and who paid at least 35 percent of their income for rent was 42 percent, up from 39 percent in 2000.

Even young people in high-paying fields like finance have to make sacrifices. There’s the investment banker who can afford only a 450-square-foot studio, and the financial analyst who lives in a third-floor walk-up studio illegally divided into two rooms.

In the words of Allison Gumbel, a 28-year-old photographer who lives in a third-floor walk-up in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn: “There’s always a compromise. And when I say compromise, I don’t just mean that you don’t have nice floors or good light.”

Still young adults swarm to the city, especially those eager to pursue careers in finance, the arts, media and other fields for which New York has long served as the nation’s heart. They come to find work, to find one another and to hang out in neighborhoods like Williamsburg and the Lower East Side that have become almost geographic extensions of college dorm life. Here are some tales from the front lines.

•

Stefan Rurak, 26, a furniture maker, has lived for two years in a former furniture store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His roommate has the front room; Mr. Rurak has the 9-by-12-foot windowless space in the rear, for which he pays $325 a month. The arrangement isn’t legal, but it allows Mr. Rurak, an Oberlin graduate who moved to New York five years ago, to pursue work he loves.

“I really lucked out,” he said. “Without a doubt, I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing now without this space.”

“Like every artist,” he added, “I came to New York after college. I never planned on staying this long, but I did various things. I worked in construction, I worked as an art handler. Opportunities came up.

“It’s not that I like New York so much. But things happen here that wouldn’t happen in other places.”

And he has only good things to say about his neighborhood. “It’s not like Williamsburg, at least not yet,” he said. “You don’t see all those college kids in tight pants. It’s not quote unquote hot.”

NYT Article

Mortgage Activity Logs Biggest Drop of the Year Says MBA | Bedford NY Real Estate

Home loan demand fell 14 percent last week, as higher interest rates sent refinancing down 17 percent. This was the biggest drop of the year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey.

Applications for mortgages to purchase homes fell 5 percent last week compared to the previous week on an adjusted basis. On an unadjusted basis, purchase applications decreased 8.2 percent compared with the previous week and were 11.3 percent lower than they were the same week a year ago.

Purchase applications had been on the rise for the previous three weeks, but “rates increased sharply last week due to stronger economic data and lingering uncertainty regarding the structure and impact of the Fed’s QE2 program. Mortgage applications … dropped in response,” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics.

Here are the average rates:

▪ 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.46 percent from 4.28 percent.

▪ 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 3.87 percent from 3.64 percent.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (11/17/2010)

NAR Article

Bedford NY Town Government | Bedford NY Real Estate

A five member Town Board, made up of the Supervisor and four Town Board members elected at large, functions as the legislative body of the Town and is responsible for the “health, safety and welfare” of its residents. Terms for Town Board members are four years; the Supervisor’s term is two years.

The Supervisor functions as the Chief Fiscal Officer and Chief Executive Officer. A Deputy Supervisor is appointed to assist with the duties of the Supervisor during their absence.

The Town Board is a legislative body, responsible for setting policy, adopting the annual budget, and enacting laws and resolutions for the betterment of the Town’s residents.

Regular Town Board meetings are conducted the first and third Tuesdays each month at 8 pm in the Town House followed by a Public Open Forum. Work sessions are held as announced. All meetings are open to the public and only certain legally sensitive issues may be discussed in executive session.

Members of the Town Board may be reached by contacting the Supervisor’s Office or sending mail to the Town Supervisor’s Office at 321 Bedford Road, Bedford Hills, NY 10507

Supervisor
Lee V. A. Roberts, Supervisor
Two year term ending 12/31/11
Email: Supervisor@BedfordNY.info
Telephone: 914-666-6530
FAX: 914-864-1030

Town Board

Chris Burdick
Town Board Member
Term ending 12/31/11
Email: CBurdick@BedfordNY.info
Peter A. Chryssos
Town Board Member, Deputy Supervisor
Term ending 12/31/13
Email: PChryssos@BedfordNY.info

Francis T. Corcoran
Town Board Member
Term ending 12/31/13
Email: FCorcoran@BedfordNY.info
David Gabrielson
Town Board Member
Term ending 12/31/11
Email: DGabrielson@BedfordNY.info

Town Justices
The Town of Bedford has two Town Judges, each elected to a four-year term. The Judges hold sessions of Criminal Court, Civil Court and Traffic Court.

Kevin Quaranta
Term ending 12/31/11

Erik P. Jacobsen
Term ending 12/31/13

Email: Court@BedfordNY.info
Voice: 914-666-6965
FAX: 914-666-2490

Town Clerk
The Town Clerk is elected to a four-year term and duties include, among many, running the Town Elections and serves as the Registrar of Vital Statistics.
Lisbeth (Boo) Fumagalli, Town Clerk
Term ending 12/31/13
321 Bedford Road
Email: TownClerk@BedfordNY.info
Voice: 914-666-4534

Westchester County Legislator
2nd County Legislative District
Peter Harckham
Westchester County Office Bldg.
148 Martine Ave.
White Plains, NY 10601
(914) 995-2810
Email: Harckham@westchesterlegislators.com

Westchester County Clerk
Timothy C. Idoni
110 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
White Plains, NY 10601
(914) 995-3080
Email: cclerk@westchestergov.com

Westchester County Executive
Robert Astorino
148 Martine Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601-3327
(914) 995-2127

New York State Senate
40th Senate District
Vincent L. Leibell (R-C)
1441 Route 22, Suite 205
Brewster, NY 10509
(845) 279-3773
Email: leibell@senate.state.ny.us

New York State Assembly
89th Assembly District
Robert Castelli
4 New King Street, Suite 125
White Plains, NY 10604
(914) 907-2900
Email: castellir@assembly.state.ny.us

United States Senate
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D)
531 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4451
http://gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/

United States Senate
Charles E. Schumer (D-IN-L)
757 Third Ave., Rm. 17-02
New York, NY 10017
(212) 486-4430
Email: senator@schumer.senate.gov

United States House of Representatives
19th Congressional District
John J. Hall ( D)
1217 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
(202) 225-5441

Bedford NY Homes

Bedford Luxury Homes

Women Are Entering the Man Cave For The Better | Bedford NY Real Estate

Craig Schuelke’s Forest Hill, Md., basement is a testament to manliness. There’s the Arnold Schwarzenegger pinball machine and about $30,000 of signed Michigan and Maryland sports memorabilia the construction superintendent has enshrined on the walls. An air-hockey table commands one corner, flanked by a pool table, shot-glass collection and dart board.

Wendy Bounds tells Simon Constable and David Weidner why ‘Man Caves’ aren’t just for men anymore.

It’s a quintessential “man cave,” except for one feature: Mr. Schuelke’s wife, Melanie.

“He doesn’t know what we’re doing when he’s not home,” says Mrs. Schuelke. “My female friends, we shoot pool, drink beer and throw darts down there.”

The man cave has a secret: Women use them, too. Their new interest comes as these spaces have morphed from cold garage outposts into tricked-out comfy spreads, complete with flat screens TVs, fully stocked bars, arcade games and plush (clean!) furniture.

As a result, men are learning to share with the family while combating the inevitable intrusion of scented candles, flowers and kiddie toys. While couples often cozy up together or party in caves with friends, a growing number of women say they retreat there—even holding the occasional quilting party—without the guys.

The struggling housing market is partly behind the evolution of the man cave into a multipurpose space. Rather than trade up or build on, more homeowners are squeezing the most out of their existing living quarters—but splurging on the decor. As a result, today’s man caves are desirable and even luxurious pads that the whole family wants to enjoy.

An entire marketplace has emerged in recent years to outfit these spaces. There’s Man Cave LLC, modeled after Mary Kay cosmetics, where guys hold barbecue parties dubbed “meatings” to sell steak and cave accoutrements, such as bacon-scented candles and beer pagers to locate lost brew. Online retailers mancavemarket.com and themancaveoutletstore.com hawk essentials, such as beer kegerators, pool tables and Skee-Ball games.

Higher-ticket items make women feel more proprietary over caves, originally intended as spots where guys could be alone or hang with pals, says Mike Yost, who runs cave community site mancavesite.org. “If the guys spend on the big-screen TV and chairs, the wife typically is going to have to sign off on it, too.”

The Juggle: A ‘Man Cave’ of One’s Own

Further stoking female cave envy is cable TV’s “Man Caves” show on the DIY Network. Episodes feature bling such as a pool table that rises out of the floor. “These are really, really nice spaces, and when the guys want to spend time there, the family wants to spend time there,” says Andy Singer, DIY Network’s general manager.

Cushy chairs Not one, but two cupholders are built into this red-hot Coja Malibu recliner for $1,493.
That’s the case in Robert Butterfield’s Sierra Vista, Ariz., home. His retreat is a 400-square-foot homage to Nascar racers Dale Earnhardt and his son. It also sports a 50-inch TV, couch, hundreds of Diecast model cars, even a Christmas tree decked in Earnhardt ornaments—about a $50,000 investment. Mr. Butterfield, 43, calls it “my space,” but it’s often where his wife Maria and sons also congregate when he’s home from his overseas government-contracting job.

Says Mrs. Butterfield, 45: “I enjoy being in there because it’s kind of like a little getaway from the rest of the house. When I’m in there, I’m not reminded about dishes or laundry.” That’s cool with her husband: “Sure, I like time to chill alone, but I started a family because I wanted to be with them.”

Still, the gender cohabitation raises a nettlesome question: When does a man cave stop being a man cave and become just a family room? “There’s a real blurring of the line between man cave and family room,” warns Minnesota decorator Sue Hunter, who runs mancaveinteriors.com. “I think guys are going to start taking charge back in that area.”

And certainly purists remain, such as Tommy “Buck Buck” Sattler of Islip, N.Y., who rigged his 325-square-foot getaway with New York Giants football paraphernalia, seven TVs, a red-oak bar top, and urinal in the bathroom.

Mr. Sattler flips on an outdoor blue light to let the neighbors know when his “underground lounge” is open, but jokes that women, including his wife, typically stop by only if “they are dropping off food or bringing cleaning products.”

Most guys, however, seem game for co-ed caves—so long as there are ground rules, such as no potpourri or decorative pillows. Ms. Hunter, the man-cave decorator, steers clear of big glass vases and baskets in favor of art, she says, that means something to a man, such as “I want to go kill the buck in that picture.”

Then there’s the “no touch” rule that’s reigned in Mr. Butterfield’s Nascar sanctuary since he found his 4-year-old son’s fingerprints on the display cases with his model cars. “It’s a little bit of an ownership thing,” he says. “I’m really detail oriented, and this is the way I want the room.”

Other regulations are trickier to enforce. Karen Dixon gladly turned over her Friendswood, Texas, garage to husband Shawn, even though parking outside means unloading groceries in the rain. “I’m not controlling, and it makes him happy,” she says. Inside, he’s stationed his Harley Davidson motorcycle, a 1967 Cavalier Coca-Cola machine, pay phone painted Harley orange, and heavy-weight punching bag.

The Dixons, both 38, often play cards together in the cave, but she balks at his suggestion that usage is by “invitation” only. “Really? I think that he doesn’t own it,” says Mrs. Dixon, who believes her husband would be secretly “flattered if I brought my friends in there to have crafts and a book club.” Mr. Dixon’s concern: “I’d be afraid something would be moved and I’d never find it.”

The stickiest time can be during cave construction. Mrs. Dixon advises other women to negotiate time limits. “When Shawn is focused on something, it consumes him. Looking back, what I should have done is said, ‘Spend as much time with your family as with the man cave. If you work out there for an hour, then come inside for an hour.’ ”

Indeed, compromise is critical in any man cave negotiation. Married 36 years, Steve and Pam Flaten, both 56, share space in AutoMotorPlex Minneapolis, a compound of high-end garages ranging from 1,000- to 6,500-square feet for fixing up and storing specialty vehicles.

In the loft living area the Flatens constructed inside their garage, Mrs. Flaten typically quilts while her husband tinkers with his race cars below. Recently she held a quilting party.

Despite the domestic influence, Mr. Flaten has stood his ground on certain points. The racing flames on the toilet seat, those get to stay. The flowers she wanted for an end table, those got moved outside.

Women’s interest in the man cave phenomenon is sparking a logical next step: woman caves. The DIY Network is exploring development of a new show around the concept. Retailer HomeGoods just launched a campaign to outfit what it dubs “Mom Caves.”

WSJ Article

The Powerful Role of Laughter in Small Groups in Bedford NY | Bedford NY Real Estate

Recently, researchers from North Carolina State University used jury deliberations recorded during a capital murder case to study the role of laughter in small group dynamics. They were particularly interested in using the transcripts of jury deliberations (of a capital punishment case) to study laughter because there is very little research on the role of laughter in communication, particularly when divorced from humor.

What the researchers found was that laughter in this situation was used in a multitude of ways; namely to question, control, and regulate relationships, procedures, and information in the group. For example, sometimes laughter was used to signal support for a group member; at other times it was used to signal a lack of support. At times people used laughter as a tool, intentionally and strategically, to control communication and affect group dynamics, or to shift power.

Full Story on Psychology Today

Westchester Magazine List of Top Towns | Bedford Luxury Real Estate

Westchester Magazine Article

Call us gluttons for punishment (and angry letters from you), but this year, we dared to tackle the unthinkable—we’ve numerically ranked (virtually) every place there is to live in our county, from best to worst. Yes, this means there is indeed a Number 1—and it also means there is a Number 40. Read on, and see where your town fell in our rankings.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

Maybe we all ask ourselves these questions at some point: “Did we make the right decision moving here?” “Are the schools better elsewhere?” “Did we pay too much for our house?”

I ask myself why I moved to New Rochelle every time I drive along one of the city’s crowded streets, with the traffic lights so poorly timed that it seems they’re always red, and I can’t move a block without having to stop. Must be that everyone else in the city feels the same way, because they’re all honking their horns. It’s like a massive case of road rage. But then, just as I’ve decided to pack up and move someplace better—and saner—I catch a glimpse of New Rochelle’s shoreline, and I head for it, down to the marina, where everyone is happy and friendly and smiling, and the city seems to have an entirely different personality.

That’s what this article is about: weighing the plusses and minuses of a community. Of course, we all have different criteria for what makes one town great and another town just okay. Good schools may be super-important to a young family, but to a retired couple, less so. A lively downtown may be what a single twentysomething is looking for, but fortysomething marrieds with children may not care at all about how many clubs their downtown has. Nevertheless, how does one go about evaluating a town? How can we determine the best places to live?

“Best” is, of course, subjective. And while a town may look good on paper—good schools, a breezy commute, plentiful parks—that certainly doesn’t guarantee that everyone living there loves it. Nevertheless, there is some merit in trying to determine the livability of an area, and, fortunately for us, there is a load of information available that helped us do so.

We found reams and reams of statistics to pull from. Our county government, in particular its Databook and its Land Use Report, offers information on just about everything in our 450-square-mile piece of earth that 950,000 of us call home. We also used the online site bestplaces.net to procure other data—e.g., how much houses cost and how much homeowners pay in taxes annually for their homes. To determine the quality of a school, we used the most recent SAT scores available (which we obtained from the New York State Department of Education). And yes, we know that SAT scores do not tell the entire story of a public school’s quality—indeed, we have in previous articles pointed out that there is a high correlation between the wealth of a community and its children’s SAT scores—but SATs are still one of the most frequently used criteria for judging a school’s success, and the scores are, of course, one of the factors colleges use to admit or reject students.

In all, we looked at 11 categories to determine the quality of a town: its public schools (high schools, specifically); housing costs; property taxes; proximity to New York City (as measured in commute time, in minutes, from the center of each town to Times Square as calculated by Google Maps); safety (per the violent crime index from bestplaces.net); diversity (as measured by the odds that two random people from the same town will be of different ethnicities); parks and recreation (average acreage of open/green space per residential unit); proximity to water (distance from the center of each town to the Hudson River or the Long Island Sound, whichever is closer); a lively downtown; shopping; and nightlife. Another brilliant option for incredible nightlife has to be Magaluf as they are some stunning nightlife with some of the best clubs, bars and parties anywhere.

While most of the categories are measurable, the last three—a lively downtown (cafés, restaurants, pedestrian activity, general atmosphere, cultural offerings); nightlife (quantity and quality of bars, clubs, evening dining, and evening activities); and shopping (the quality and quantity of, and accessibility to, retail establishments)—are all subjective, of course. We used our knowledge of the county, as well as that of our trusted writers and sources.

Obviously, every one of our categories is not equally important. Many of us would be willing to do without a few music clubs for safe streets; diversity may be important to some of us but not to others. So we weighted the categories. How did we come up with our formula? We asked visitors to our website to tell us which of the 11 categories are most important to them. We also asked our friends, families, and anyone who would talk to us. And then we hashed it out in our offices (“I don’t care how close I am to the river,” one editor declared. Argued another, “It’s one of the first things I considered when I looked for my new apartment.”) And this is what we worked out, in terms of importance:

Schools	25.3%
Housing Costs	15.4%
Property Taxes	12.1%
Proximity to NYC	9.9%
Safety	7.7%
Diversity	6.6%
Lively Downtown	5.5%
Shopping	5.5%
Parks and Recreation	4.4%
Nightlife	4.4%
Proximity to Water	3.3%

(total equals 100.1% due to rounding)

Is your hamlet, village, or town not specifically ranked? Blame it on the county. As we all know, our county is a confusing hodgepodge of incorporated and unincorporated villages and hamlets tucked into towns, cities, and municipalities (e.g., the town of Rye, which is bigger than the city of Rye, contains two villages—Port Chester and Rye Brook—along with the Rye Neck section of Mamaroneck. Got that?). Which municipalities (very loosely speaking) to include and how to group them was largely dictated by the availability of the stats and how taxes are collected, etc. In all, we looked at 40 communities. Also, since some communities are served by more than one high school, we calculated weighted composite average SAT scores for those towns.

Our goal was to assimilate all this information, weigh the variables, crunch the numbers (we enlisted the help of Pace University Mathematics Professor Augustine B. Mascuilli), and come up with our rankings. Disagree with us? Go online and use our sortable data chart to view which factors you deem most important. Read on for a community-by-community analysis.

Businesses along Irvington’s idyllic Main Street beckon patrons with ample alfresco opportunities.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[1] Irvington

Diversity: 4 / Housing Costs: 5 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 4 / Proximity to NYC: 7 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 9
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 7 / Shopping: 6 / Downtown: 7

Who isn’t smitten with Irvington? Charming, quiet, green, with a darling Main Street, stunning river views, a burgeoning dining scene (Been to the Red Hat lately? What about Day Boat Café, Chutney Masala, or Mima?), this unassuming rivertown is pretty near perfect. Tucked in next to the mighty Hudson, Irvington, named after Washington Irving, who had the smarts to not only write The Legend of Sleepy Hollow but to live in town (Sunnyside, his cottage, is now a tourist destination), scored the highest in our tally, getting a perfect 10 for safety and proximity to water (duh); a 9 for its schools (where the average SAT score last year was 1778, or 267 points above the national average); and an 8 for its green space (23 percent of Irvington land is reserved for parks and recreation). While no one would claim that Irvington’s houses are bargains—the average house costs $585,780—they are below the countywide average of $725,000. And there are alternatives, with co-ops, condos, and smaller wood-frame houses along tree-lined neighborhood streets going for far less. What’s more, the commute to Manhattan isn’t bad at all: in less than 40 minutes, you can zip into Midtown on Metro-North. All in all, a great mix.

Ossining’s dated but charming main street wends its way down to the Hudson.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[2] Ossining

Diversity: 10 / Housing Costs: 9 / Parks & Recreation: 6
Property Tax: 9 / Proximity to NYC: 4 / Safety: 8 / Schools: 5
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 5 / Shopping: 5 / Downtown: 6

We understand why Mad Men producers chose to locate their star couple (now, alas, divorced) smack in the middle of Ossining. This rivertown (population 24,146) scored two 10s—one for its nearness to the river and the other for its diverse population (45 percent of its residents are non-white). And in our pricey county, it’s actually among the most affordable towns in which to purchase a home: the average price of an Ossining house is $383,330, which is $341,670 less than the average price of a house in the county. Ah, but what about property taxes? They’re among the county’s lowest; indeed $6,654 less than the county’s average of $16,689. And while it may not be a hop, skip, and a jump to New York City (it takes 50 minutes to get to Midtown), its schools are above average (SAT scores were 1659 out of a total 2400). Plus Ossining, architecturally, has a charming downtown with underappreciated cast-iron buildings (though the shops can use an upgrade), as well as a historic area (many village structures are on the National Register of Historic Places), and lovely streets that wend their way down to the shoreline.

Despite being on the river, Dobbs Ferry doesn’t have as much open space per resident as some of its neighboring towns—but look at those views.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[3] Dobbs Ferry

Diversity: 7/ Housing Costs: 7 / Parks & Recreation: 3
Property Tax: 7 / Proximity to NYC: 8 / Safety: 8 / Schools: 6
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 7 / Shopping: 6 / Downtown: 7

This densely populated rivertown (population: 10,893), just 20 miles north of Midtown, offers a mix of two-family homes, Victorians from the 1900s, mid-century split-levels and Colonials, and sprawling estates. The average cost of a house is under a half-million, significantly lower than the county average of nearly three-quarters of a million, and its property taxes are relatively low, too: $13,451. Its quaint downtown offers a variety of dining and shopping options, a welcome asset to those whose first choice is small-town living. The village’s public parks—however lovely they may be—are not quite enough to serve the 3,967 households in the village. School performance was above the mid-point but not as high as neighboring Hastings-on-Hudson.

Hastings-on-Hudson’s blend of artsy stores, hot restaurants, and quaint mom-and-pop shops make the village an appealing choice for many.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[4] Hastings-on-Hudson

Diversity: 4 / Housing Costs: 5 / Parks & Recreation: 5
Property Tax: 5 / Proximity to NYC: 9 / Safety: 4 / Schools: 9
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 6 / Shopping: 7 / Downtown: 8

This rather artsy rivertown is right off the Saw Mill River Parkway, about a half-hour drive to Midtown with good schools and some terrific river views. And the combination of all that plus an un-gentrified but nevertheless charming downtown, a couple of “wow” restaurants, and an interesting array of living choices (houses at different price points, condos, co-ops, apartments, and affordable units) add up to one of Westchester’s top places to put down roots.

Mamaroneck offers a thriving, bustling downtown in Westchester.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[5] Mamaroneck

Diversity: 7 / Housing Costs: 5 / Parks & Recreation: 4
Property Tax: 2 / Proximity to NYC: 7 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 8
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 9 / Shopping: 7 / Downtown: 9

Mamaroneck bustles with energy along its main drag, with an array of restaurants and shops reflecting a diverse populace. (Indeed, the odds of someone of one race bumping into someone of another race in Mamaroneck is 50/50.) Check it out on a Thursday night—the town is jumping with music, outdoor dining, and shops open late for business. As for proximity to water, you couldn’t get much closer, and there’s plenty for everyone to do along the Long Island Sound shoreline, from the weekly farmers’ market in the warmer months to opportunities to kayak and sail, and playgrounds and ball fields for youngsters.

Traffic moves smoothly during most hours in the downtown, thanks to many pedestrian-friendly crosswalks and a lack of traffic lights. Like Hastings, Mamaroneck offers a variety of housing, making it an attractive place to live for people of many different income levels—although property taxes are high: $22,738 per year on average.

[6] Pleasantville

Diversity: 6 / Housing Costs: 6 / Parks & Recreation: 4
Property Tax: 6 / Proximity to NYC: 4 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 7
Proximity to Water: 4 / Nightlife: 10 / Shopping: 8 / Downtown: 9

This central Westchester village (it’s virtually smack-dab in the middle of the county) couldn’t have a more appropriate name. With the Jacob Burns Film Center (in its scant nine-year existence, it’s become a Westchester institution that not only screens top-notch films but frequently hosts the actors and/or directors of those films for enlightening discussions), quaint shops, quality restaurants, and tree-lined streets along which children can safely walk to school (all kids walk—or are driven; there are no school buses here), the town lives up to its moniker. Shopping, nightlife, and the downtown are all admirable. And if you yearn for a lovingly restored Victorian with front porches to rock on and greet your neighbors, this is the place. Usonia, an enclave of low-slung cantilevered houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects, shares a zip code with Pleasantville (but is outside the village proper). The town offers an easy commute to Midtown, with many residents living within walking distance of the Metro-North station, and is nestled almost equidistant between the shopping/dining areas of Central Avenue to the south and Mount Kisco’s Main Street to the north.

[7] Scarsdale

Diversity: 5 / Housing Costs: 2 / Parks & Recreation: 7
Property Tax: 1 / Proximity to NYC: 7 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 10
Proximity to Water: 6 / Nightlife: 6 / Shopping: 10 / Downtown: 8

Scarsdale is virtually synonymous with great schools. It should come as no surprise that this quintessential upscale village came in in the top 10, thanks in large part to top scores for its schools (the high school’s students collectively got the highest SAT scores in the county: 1899—or 159 points higher than the county average of 1640 and 388 higher than the national average); safety; and shopping (Wilson & Son, La Dentelliere, BoConcept, Space.NK.apothecary, et al). Which may explain why housing isn’t cheap in this beautifully manicured town of 17,672 residents. The average cost of a house in Scarsdale is $876,740, making it the sixth most expensive place to live in the county. And when it comes to property taxes, it’s among the worst towns to live in (it, along with Bronxville, Harrison, and Rye rated a 1 out of 10—ouch!).

[8] Croton-on-Hudson

Diversity: 5 / Housing Costs: 9 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 8 / Proximity to NYC: 3 / Safety: 5 / Schools: 7
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 3 / Shopping: 3 / Downtown: 4

Croton is a little gem of a village—right on the water with lots of parks. It also offers a variety of price points when it comes to housing. But in order to live here, one has to relinquish desires for a quick in-and-out of Manhattan. A daily commute is doable, but it’s still a hefty 35 miles north of the city. It also lacks a sparkling nightlife scene and shopping options are sparse. But the point is—and Crotonites will tell you this in no uncertain terms—you don’t move here for those kinds of amenities. One moves to Croton for its green space, its seven miles of waterfront, its opportunities to hike and boat, and wondrous experiences like witnessing rainstorms barreling across the Hudson from the opposite shoreline.

Bronxville buzzes with one of the loveliest and most vibrant downtowns in all of Westchester.

Photo by Adam Samson

[9] Bronxville

Diversity: 2 / Housing Costs: 2 / Parks & Recreation: 1
Property Tax: 1 / Proximity to NYC: 10 / Safety: 8 / Schools: 10
Proximity to Water: 6 / Nightlife: 9 / Shopping: 9 / Downtown: 9

Like Scarsdale, Bronxville is a community that some might give an eyetooth to live in. And rightly so. In a number of respects (proximity to Manhattan, high-quality schools, a vibrant downtown, great shopping), Bronxville is tops. And it is just gorgeous. Some suspect that Bronxville must have a housing law that prohibits residents from having anything other than drop-dead beautiful houses with lush green lawns. How wonderful.

But, alas, it isn’t perfect. Indeed, when it comes to housing affordability and property tax rate, fugetaboutit. It ain’t cheap; in fact, it has the fourth most expensive homes in the county ($890,210 is the average cost of a Bronxville home) and the highest property tax rate in the county. And as for diversity? Fewer than 9 percent of its residents are minority.

[10] New Castle

Diversity: 3 / Housing Costs: 3 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 3 / Proximity to NYC: 3 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 10
Proximity to Water: 8 / Nightlife: 5 / Shopping: 8 / Downtown: 7

This town, home to the hamlets of Chappaqua and Millwood, did especially well when it came to schools (Horace Greeley High School is a nationally revered high school) and safety, scored nicely for parks and recreation (14 percent of New Castle is reserved for parks and recreation). It’s home to our former first family, Reader’s Digest’s ultra-green campus (a proposal to turn it into condos is before the planning board), and lots of rolling hills and beautiful countryside. But it’s not as diverse as many other towns (less than 10 percent of its residents are minority), housing costs are high (the fifth most expensive real estate values in the county), and property taxes are significant (on average $17,619 a year).

[11] Mount Pleasant

Diversity: 7 / Housing Costs: 7 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 8 / Proximity to NYC: 5 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 4
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 7 / Shopping: 4 / Downtown: 5

Located in central Westchester, the town of Mount Pleasant includes the incorporated villages of Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, and a small portion of Briarcliff Manor. The remaining area of the town is unincorporated (i.e., not part of any other municipality) and includes the hamlets of Hawthorne, Thornwood, Valhalla, and Pocantico Hills (home to Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture). Eleventh on the livability list, it has a near non-existent crime rate, is filled with parks and playgrounds, and its housing costs are not prohibitive. However, Mount Pleasant (especially its villages of Valhalla, Thornwood, and Hawthorne), doesn’t have much of a nightlife scene or great dining or shopping options.

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Why Social Media Is a Better Investment than SEO

As a blogger, you probably do not have the luxury of having a staff of people to work for you. As such, your time is very valuable and you need to spend it where it will do the most good. We have reached a point in late 2010 where the work required to generate traffic for a normal blog via search engines is much greater than that required to generate an equal amount of traffic via social media.

My thesis is simple: for the majority of bloggers, the time and effort invested on social media is better spent than time spent on SEO.

This post will probably generate controversy. There are an army of people out there who make a living selling SEO products and services. To use an old adage, when you only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail. To them, SEO is the beginning and end of traffic generation.

To be sure, search engines do drive a lot of traffic, however, with the increasing pollution of search engines with content farms, Google’s love of big brands/big media, and the increasing amount of work required to rank for ever longer keywords, SEO is no longer worth the effort for most bloggers.

The power of brands
Google loves brands. The reasoning behind this actually makes some sense. An easy solution to the problem of spam websites was for Google to give extra authority to sites that have large, established brands. This doesn’t bode well for bloggers, however.

To given you an example of how much authority brands are given, several months ago I conducted an experiment. I had an article that I had done some link building on. After several months the article ranked #3 for the keyword I was targeting (behind two large media properties). I had an opportunity to put some content on the website of a very large media brand. I put that article, word for word, on their site to see how they would rank for the exact same keyword. Within an hour, they were ranked at #4, just behind my original article. In a day, they were ranked above me, even though the same content had been on my site for months and I had gone through the effort to do link building.

I realize there is a new content bonus that Google will give articles for a while, but the fact they were able to rank so high, so quickly, even against a previously indexed article with links, shows just how much the deck is stacked against blogs. Google can’t easily tell the difference a legitimate blog from a made for Adsense spam site. If they could, there would be no spam.

If you are in a niche that doesn’t have a large traditional media presence (niches like Internet marketing, SEO, or social media) you might not notice this because there is little media competition. However, if you are in a niche with a large traditional media presence (like travel, politics, news, sports, or food) you might see on a regular basis how difficult it can be.

Brand vs. individual authority
You might think that Darren Rowse has a great deal of authority on the subject of blogging. You would be correct. However, in the eyes of Google, Darren doesn’t have any authority; ProBlogger.net does. This is a fundamental problem with how Google works. People invest trust and authority in other people while Google puts authority in URL’s.

As a thought experiment, lets say Darren sold ProBlogger.net and started up a new blog called The-Blogging-Pro.info (a horrible domain name, but just stay with me). Everyone who reads this site, subscribes to the newsletter or follows Darren on Twitter would know to now go to the new site to get Darren’s advice on blogging. The authority that Darren has developed over the years would stay with him, even if he moved to a new domain. Google, however, would still put its trust and authority in ProBlogger.net, even though the real authority has moved to a different domain.

Social media solves the authority dilemma. You know who is authoritative and isn’t. I often ask people how many people they can name who have written an article for National Geographic in its 122-year history. Most people can’t name a single person. Yet, if I ask them who is behind their favorite blogs, almost everyone can give me a name. We trust the New York Times or National Geographic because of the reputation the brand has developed over the years. Even if the author of a given article knows nothing about the subject (which does happen), they are assumed to be authoritative just because of the brand they are writing under.

Writers will usually give a list of the publications they have written for as their credentials. Their authority is a second hand authority derived from the publications they have written for. (“I am a successful author because I have written for large, successful publications.”)

Blogger authority is first hand authority. It comes directly from the reputation they have developed over time from their audience.

The power of individuals
The fact that people know who bloggers are is exactly the reason why blogs have a comparative advantage in social media. The New York Times Twitter account might have millions of followers, but they can never do more than pump out links to articles. It can’t have a conversation, talk or listen. If it did, who would be the one doing the talking on behalf of the brand?

The part of social media that actually builds trust and authority is totally absent from most large media properties. They are simply not able to engage in a conversation as a brand. Some companies like ESPN have banned their staff from using Twitter precisely because they didn’t want their employees to develop their own authority outside if the network. If they did, they’d become too valuable and they would have too much leverage when it came time to negotiate contracts.

Bloggers have the ability to do an end run around traditional media precisely because we are capable of having a conversation. That is something a faceless brand can never do.

SEO is time consuming
Critics of this article might point out that if you just worked harder, you could rank for anything you want. They are probably right. It isn’t a question of what is possible. It is a question of the return on your investment. The concept of time ROI is absent from almost any discussion on SEO.

As I stated above, the deck is stacked against the little guy in SEO. Google loves brands and can’t associate authority with individuals. To just keep pace with media brands, you have to put in much more work. The New York Times doesn’t have to bother with link building. You do. That alone should tell you how fair the playing field is.

Bloggers have a comparative advantage in social media. We can appeal to human notions of authority, not algorithmic notions. We can have discussions and conversations, and brands can’t do that. Moreover, it isn’t hard to do. All you have to do is talk and most of you are probably doing that now.

Already you are seeing a shift in some media outlets to superstar journalists. What is happening is the same thing you are seeing in the blogging world. People are putting their trust and authority into people, not the brands they work for. It will only be a matter of time before the superstar journalists realize they don’t need their media masters anymore.

Writing for humans vs. writing for machines
Despite what Google says, the key to good SEO isn’t writing for good content for people. This is a bald-faced lie which anyone who has spent time trying to rank for a keyword knows. Human beings enjoy alliteration, puns, jokes and other forms of word play, which are totally lost on an algorithm. What makes for a good article from a content farm is exactly the thing, which you should not do if you want to covert readers into subscribers. Content created with SEO in mind is more often than not fun to read.

Google’s original rational for the “create good content” argument was that people would naturally link to good content. That is no longer true. People share good content on Twitter and Facebook, which is either closed to Google, labeled as “nofollow”, or doesn’t have anchor text. The world Serge and Brin wrote their seminal paper for in the 1990’s doesn’t exist today.

Traffic as a means vs. traffic as an end
Newspapers have developed an obsession with visits and page views. Many bloggers have the same problem as well. They view raw traffic as the end game because they view the world though an advertising model. Under this paradigm, the more traffic you have the better, regardless how you get it or for what reason, because it will lead to more ad clicks.

Many bloggers have wised up to the fact that advertising isn’t the best way to make money. CPM rates keep falling and will keep falling so long as ad inventory grows faster than online advertising budgets. It has reached a point where to make money via advertising you have to either have an enormous media property or have an incredibly targeted site devoted to a very niche keyword.

Most blogs don’t fit into either category. They don’t have millions of page views per month, and they don’t niche themselves into talking about only instant coffee makers. In this middle space, what matters aren’t raw page views to generate advertising revenue. What matters is growing a loyal following of people who view you as authoritative in your area.

In this model, traffic is just a means to an end, not an end in itself. The real end is getting traffic to convert to subscribers and loyal followers. You will be more likely to get a follower from someone who views you as having authority rather than someone who is just looking for bit of information with no idea of who you are.

Google-proofing
Google changes their algorithm all the time. There are companies who have been destroyed by changes made at Google. Fortunes rise and fall based on how Google decides to rank sites. A major question you have to ask yourself is “how dependent do I want to be on Google?”

All the hard work you put into SEO can be destroyed, or at least significantly altered, but changes at Google. Authority and reputation with other people, however, doesn’t change on a whim.

Also, knowing that Google is going to change in the future, in what direction do you think it is going to change? My bet would be towards a greater reliance on social media and less reliance on links. I’m sure there are engineers at Google right now trying to figure out how to translate the authority and trust that individuals have into their search results.

Choose social media for greater ROI
I am not saying you should block Google from indexing your site. I am not saying search engine traffic is bad. In fact, there are blogs out there that would be best served by an SEO strategy.

What I am saying is that outside of a few things you can do in the creation of your blog, don’t worry about SEO. Make sure your permalinks make sense, create a site map, install the appropriate plugins … and then stop worrying about it.

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