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I have to say that I normally cringe when Westchester Magazine ranks anything related to our local communities. My own home town of Ossining is often left in the shadow of the more affluent communities, and believe me, Westchester has some affluent towns. Yet the October issue of Westchester magazine has ranked Ossining 2nd out of 40 places to live, and unapologetically so.
The article took the following criteria into consideration:
- Diversity
- Housing Costs
- Parks and recreation
- Proximity to NYC
- Safety
- Schools
- Proximity to water
- Nightlife
- Shopping
- Downtown
Taking all that into the ranking criteria, Ossining came in 2nd to Irvington and ahead of 37 other communities. I have criticized author Elsa Brenner before, and even as the father of bi-racial children I wonder aloud at her preoccupation with race. That said, diversity should be a positive thing when evaluating a community, and I think in this case she framed the conversation fairly well. Other criteria, such as schools and safety I can’t touch, but Westchester magazine certainly can, and this gets people talking. Ranking places by raw property value or college entry is obvious and seldom very creative, and it results in great matches being missed.
Some people could give a flip about proximity to water or nightlife perhaps, but there is an entire chart online with all the stats that can be viewed so you can make your own determination. Different things might be weighted differently, and as editor-in chief Esther Davidowitz says in her column this month, great places to live are not always obvious.
I concur, and added in the comment section that my wife and I had many options, but we chose this area ourselves.
