House of the Day: 439 East 19th Street
We’re liking the look of this single-family house at 439 East 19th Street in Ditmas Park—the original built-ins and coffered ceilings are stunning. The 2,800-square-foot house changed hands in 2002 for $775,000 and just hit the market now for $1,249,000. That comes out to about $450 per square foot, less than what this house a…
We’re liking the look of this single-family house at 439 East 19th Street in Ditmas Park—the original built-ins and coffered ceilings are stunning. The 2,800-square-foot house changed hands in 2002 for $775,000 and just hit the market now for $1,249,000. That comes out to about $450 per square foot, less than what this house a couple of blocks away recently sold for.
[Brooklyn Hearth] GMAP P*Shark
thank you doug & arch! i have alot of thinking to do. it will all depend on whether my oldest gets into a really good public school or we get financial aide for private school. that will really set the tone for the younger ones. school is big for me & making sure my kids are happy and that they have a great upbringing. so if moving to the burbs is it, then i will have to bite it!
Also, the door-to-door school bus can’t be beat. As much as I miss city life, not having to schlep a multitude of kids to a bunch of different schools has, in some, way given me my life back.
Ringo –
Can’t beat Pound Ridge elementary. Talk about idyllic. Gorgous new library with rotunda, playing fields, etc… They actually have to keep snow boots and bibs at school so they can go sledding in the winter!
Since we were limited to the Northern Westchester/Fairfield area, we opted for more space (3.5 acres, pool, etc…) instead if something more neighborhoodish, although I miss sidewalks, walking to shops, etc., which you can have in a place like Pelham or Irvington. I also think taking care of the property is a real chore (landscapers charge astronomical rates, but there’s no getting around hiring leaf guys in the fall….). My husband, however, doesn’t seem to mind it, so I suppose I shouldn’t either 🙂 It is amazingly beautiful. Sometimes I look out the window and think I’m living in the middle of Prospect Park (in the wee morning hours, before people actually arrive…).
My youngest will be attending PR elementary in a few years. I have kids at Fox Lane, too, and am very satisfied. There is actually some cultural diversity there, too, as Mt. Kisc is also zoned for Bedford Central School District.
If you want land and don’t care about the commute (it’s over an hour to mid-town and parking is tough), it’s great. If you live in Bedford Village or Bedford Hills you can get on the waiting list for a parking spot there.
You can always get a spot in Stamford if you only have to be in the city now and then. About 20-25 minute drive from PR. Everything in PR is minimum 2 acres zoning. Nice public pool complex with incredibly cheap day camp (less than $500 for SIX WEEKS). Also building brand spanking new community center which will be an asset. Local food shopping is no worse than the city pricewise and you can get all your basics and indulgences in PR. Target and things over in Mt. Kisco. New Canaan is 15 minutes away and has lots of shopping, restaurants, as is Ridgefield, also very lovely. The Lewisboro School District (The Salems, Katonah) is also excellent, and lots of land around there, too.
Architerrorist,
Ive heard great things about the Pound Ridge grade schools. Do you hear the same? We live in Brooklyn Heights and only really need to be in the city about 4x a month. Thinking I’d prefer land over something closer in (I grew up in rural so hopefully I know what I’m getting myself into)
Hi Bklyndoug – If we still had a Manhattan commute, Pelham would have been a definite choice for us. However, our move was dictated by a job offer in CT… Just too much of a commute from Brooklyn (we tried it for 6 months…). Northern Westchester was a quick hop, skip and a jump from Greenwich on backroads – we ended up in Pound Ridge. Very beautiful, but a tad isolated and that much further out. Pelham seems to me like a great alternative for Brooklynites, expecially DP types who love that sort of period architecture… still see your neighbors, fantastic schools, nice shopping, so close to Manhattan! I’m envious!
BKNY –
my wife and i were the same as you. she wanted to move, i wanted to stay. that said, i can tell you that the thought and buildup of moving out of bklyn to the burbs is a bigger strain than the reality.
all last summer, while contemplating our move i had trouble sleeping and even thought about walking away from our deposit. i really did not want to go. now that i have been here a year i can see that i wasted a lot of energy and put myself through so much stress for nothing. living in the burbs, while different, is actually quite nice.
we moved to pelham from DUMBO for the schools and the space. i went in with the mindset that the restaurants and the neighbors would probably suck. the former was definitely true. pelham and many other burb towns are culinary wastelands. restaurants used to be a great sourced of enjoyment for us – no more. now we have dinner parties and spend time with friends. just a different brand of fun.
in terms of neighbors, i have been amazed at how great people have been. pelham is filled with what i’ll call bklyn “ex-pats”. people who had no intention of leaving but for whom space and schools became more important as their families grew. i have actually found that people here are friendlier than they were in bklyn. i think it’s because they all realize they are here for a while and so it makes sense to invest in the community and in relationships. bklyn folks, at least in my neighborhood (DUMBO/heights) were more likely to be transient and less involved in stuff. this could also have a lot to do with our kids growing older, which naturally gets you more involved with other parents. whatever the cause, i have been able to build in a year a broader network of good friends than i did in 12 years of living in bklyn. which i never expected.
as evidenced by the fact that i still read bstoner everyday i miss the city a lot (especially the restaurants, the diversity and the energy), and we’ll probably move back when the kids are done with high school. that said, the burbs are a great place to raise kids. they have a lot of freedom, more than they did in bklyn. the schools are great. the neighbors wonderful and fun to spend time with. the economics make sense if you are considering private school. we have a yard, a porch and an extra bedroom. and our house is a 5 minute walk from the train, which takes 28 minutes to GCT.
a suggestion – if you are considering the burbs but want to maintain the ties/feel of bklyn look for the following kinds of towns:
– ~ 30 minutes to midtown
– a strong representation of folks who used to live in bklyn. we found that pelham, maplewood, montclair, hastings and irvington had lots of ex-pats. (i’m sure there are others)
towns like bedford and mount kisco are incredibly gorgeous and much less crowded, but were just too far for us.
hope that helps.
For CGFAN and BKNY:
http://www.westchestermagazine.com/Westchester-Magazine/January-2003/Evaluating-Westchesters-Public-High-Schools/
From 2007 Westchester Mag (spending for 2008 was significantly higher, oddly enough, at least according to our recent budget proposal)
Class Size
Class size is commonly used to determine the quality of a school. The smaller the class size, the bigger the impact the teacher can have, says Ed Lichtenfeld, an adjunct professor at Iona College. This is the standard Terence Peavy, director of Admissions at the Eugene Lang College-New School University lean(s) toward when judging a high school, because, he explains, small classes allow the exchange of ideas, not just the regurgitation of facts and statistics.
In Westchester this year, the smallest average class sizes were found at Fox Lane High (16), Pleasantville (16), Walter Panas (16.4), Dobbs Ferry (17), Briarcliff (18) and Irvington (18). We’re very sensitive to class size, says Robert Maher, Briarcliff High School’s principal. We even run classes when they shrink below ten students.
But here again, forces beyond a district’s control such as budgetary constraints, contractual arrangements with faculty, and increasing enrollment¡ªmay make small class size a difficult goal to achieve. And once again, money helps. ¡°Some communities are willing to pay for the additional teachers needed to keep class size lower, says Stephen Falcone, principal of Fox Lane High School in Bedford.
Student Expenditure
In most cases, the richer the school district, the more it can spend on children. If that money is spent wisely, there is no doubt it can help. As a general rule, Gillette of Yale’s Teacher Preparation program says, the more money spent, the better. To support his point, he notes that schools in Maine, Alaska and Connecticut, which spend more on education than schools in all other states, each year outperform schools in all other states. No parent will go seek a school that knowingly spends less, Gillette says.
The schools that spent the most on their students this year were Scarsdale ($19,098), White Plains High School ($18,480), Fox Lane ($18,417) and Briarcliff ($18,000).
But beware! How much a school spends on a child can be affected by such non-curricular expenses as security, transportation, construction, etc… And some expenditures may be low because the school has few non-curricular expenses. For example, non-bussing school districts like Pleasantville tend to have low student expenditures because they save money on transportation.
I’ve tried to respond to the above posts several times, but they were too long and my computer ate them! Yes, my daugher’s ELA class in MS has 14 kids. Her most crowded class has 22. Many have 18/19.
My kids attended 3 different Brooklyn MS in 2008. I speak from recent experience. No way you can compare 51 to the MS my daughter attends now. It comes down to money. 2/3rds of my taxes (which are hefty) go to local schools. Spending here is 27k per child. In Brooklyn, it’s around 4k. Teachers are great in both places, but you just can’t have the same sort of programs, facilities, etc.. without funding.
Kids in MS can take Mandarin if they choose. Not just Spanish. One Brooklyn school my child attended didn’t even offer languages. I could go on and on… But I won’t.
Had we not been forced to leave Brooklyn, I would never have known what they were missing. Ignorance is bliss. If I knew all my MS kids would end up at Hunter or Stuy for HS, I’d bite the bullet. But most kids don’t get there, even from the better MS. One of my kids got into all the “top” Brooklyn middle schools – Twain, Hudde CIG, 51- I had serious issues with all of them. MS is just flat out better in the suburbs… Elementary and HS? Depends.
10 and 12 year olds should not have to battle for spots in decent MS, but that’s life in Brooklyn. Yes, I miss the city, but would I drag my kids back now? No. Not until the older ones have flown the nest. At that point I suspect we will return with the little one (big gap) in tow – and we will follow Sloper’s model. Private school. I guess that’s the answer – As much as I love city life, if I can’t afford private school, then I won’t bring my kids back.
Gfan –
I had three kids in Brooklyn MS as of last year. Those are recent observations.