Irvington Envy? Nah
Mother-centric reflections on Rivertown life, and how we are really a package deal.
One’s perspective inevitably rosies when the bare trees start to blossom. Friday was one of those action-inspiring days, with the kind of temperate and sunny climate that makes the world clear, the colors crisp. My family went to Irvington for a humdrum task—getting passports for our two children too young to be worth the $120/each price tag—at the post office, and found ourselves lollygagging away half a day.
I have Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow till-death-do-us-part pride, so I hadn’t harbored Irvington-envy back in October when Westchester Magazine rated Irvington the best town in Westchester. In fact, I bristled against their number one as much as Tarrytown's 15 and Sleepy Hollow's dreadful 35. On this day, though, I almost understood.
From the quiet, small-towny post office where the customers all knew the mail matron, we went back to Main Street to order some take-out from the Cupcake Kitchen and Luncheonette. The room is diner-esque with its metal-rimmed tables and sky blue vinyl-topped stools, a blue as sweet and delectable as the frosting on the cupcakes in the glass case. There’s a window seat full of kids' books which we were encouraged to peruse while we waited.
The friendly lady dining on her salad and sweet potato fries next to us revealed she too was a Patch freelancer, and I felt this growing network of Patch Websites would soon connect us all. The Cupcake Kitchen embodied the type of place I was hungering for the other week in my column, lacking only the hummus that was strangely absent from my hummus wrap.
From here we proceeded to the river, where there is ample grass real estate to choose from. We kept going south between the train tracks and the river to the furthest point in the Scenic Hudson Park, where there are ball fields, two playgrounds, benches and…importantly, an open restroom.
All of this would have made me envious if Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow’s own riverfront weren’t undergoing its own major renaissance. I watch daily as the stepping stones (now in their corrected color) come closer to connecting the foot of my street to the tennis courts.
Somehow Irvington's park seemed free of the goose poop that covered the hill adjacent to Losee Field where my family last dined on the river in Tarrytown; how the town achieves that feat, I do not know. No amount of tax dollars seem able to conquer the volume of dung that comes out of these innocent-seeming creatures. Could the Irvington goose be a better-behaved breed?
Then, perhaps most notably, is the parking situation. Coming to Irvington is a dream for the parallel-parking-phobic like myself. You just glide right into the angled spaces on Main Street, meter-free. It feels positively decadent compared with the nearly NYC-quality of Tarrytown’s Main Street, where you can’t even drop your kids off at the Y in a blizzard without getting a ticket (that's me).
Yet for all of Irvington’s cutesy small shops, we here have more necessities, drug stores, grocers, chains, more things people really need, including the folks who live in Irvington. The more people, the more diversity, the less parking.
A fairer assessment by Westchester Magazine might have been to lump all Rivertowns into one town, for surely we who live in these dots along the map blur these boundaries, skipping between them based on whim and necessity.
Having lived in Brooklyn for almost a decade, I take grunginess as almost a point of pride. I wouldn't trade you your cuteness for my toughness anyday. To me, Irvington smacks slightly of the Truman Show, bubbled and unrealistic.
I prefer to root for the underdog town, in at number 35, far behind even Elmsford, faulted by the magazine for our “undeveloped and increasingly unsightly hunk of property left behind when General Motors shuttered its massive assembly plant there in 1996.”
That so-called unsightly hunk is practically my front yard, my view, where I look to see my sunset. Like a crazy family member you defend to the end, I love it in spite of itself.
Heron
4:26 pm on Monday, May 2, 2011
Ha!! Ha!!!! I can't believe you had the nerve to write this piece. (I mean that in a good way.) When I saw the headline, I actually thought it would be more negative toward Irvington than it is.
When my kids were little, you were only supposed to use the waterfront park if you were an Irvington resident. (I thought it was still that way). I kind of resented that, since Tarrytown doesn't prohibit residents of other communities from using our parks, AND because I frequently saw Irvington people in our parks and at our Fireworks display. But, never mind!
Aside from that, I thought that Weschester Magazine article was just plain SILLY, arbitrary, and based on not much of anything.
Heron
9:29 pm on Monday, May 2, 2011
I should have said, "I can't believe you had the courage" , not "nerve".
Truthhurts
5:33 pm on Monday, May 2, 2011
iRVINGTON IS SUCH A CLOSED MINDED TOWN. NO FRANCHISE BUSINESS ALLOWED YET MAIN STREET SHOPS ARE ALL EMPTY AND THE WORKERS/VOL CAN'T EVEN AFFORD TO LIVE IN THAT FANTASY LAND.
Jay Michael
10:33 pm on Monday, May 2, 2011
IRV loves their 96% white school statistics. They can have their high taxes, anti-Semite and bullying issues all day. This country will be 50% Hispanic by the time our kids are in the workforce. T-town/SH experience will hopefully make them fully adjusted adults.
ajetreo
11:28 am on Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Irvington is lovely, but not really my thing. It's a nice place to visit!
I am with you on the GM thing. It's my side yard, and it has become a great place for watching birds. When it gets developed, all the shore and river birds that are reclaiming the area will have to go elsewhere. Right now it is a peaceful place for them to hang out.
Plus, I like post-apocalyptic-looking industrial-riverfront landscapes. Really.
Benjamin Sands
5:17 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
Good article. We also prefer Tarrytown, even its main street (despite the parking), but thoroughly enjoy Irvington.
Suzy Byrne
7:53 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
The commenters on Patch really surprise me. Bashing Irvington? Really?
Irvington, Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow are three great places. I argue that it's not "closed minded" to prohibit franchises. I live here and I prefer not to have McDonald's or Starbucks, but instead the Cupcake Kitchen as Krista mentioned, Il Sorriso, Chutney Masala and Geordane's Market -- and the many other thriving businesses that make up this village (Mima, Red Hat, etc.).
To those uninformed, Irvington also has affordable housing. Over a decade ago, they started incorporating these units... long before it became mandated by Westchester County. So people who work here can actually live here.
And I don't understand why race is even a factor in this lifestyles piece about motherhood in the Tarrytowns.
I love all three towns and look forward to when Sleepy Hollow develops the waterfront. It will bring a lot to a town that already has a lot. Tarrytown is such a great town too. I'm in both towns almost daily going to the Y or Coffee Labs. And I love Tyrynda.
I guess I don't get all the negativity of the comments. "Closed minded," "fantasyland"... Why so negative? Makes you seem envious... And if you love Sleepy and T-Town as much as you say you do, you shouldn't be envious at all.
Wonderboy
8:50 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
I don't like Irvington. You see these people at 7:15 in the morning speeding down Harriman Rd. in their BMW's or Polar Bear saving Hybrid Prius', doing at least 50 MPH, because they couldn't time their morning better. Then, when you drive thru their settlements (condo complexes) at the posted speed limit, they flag you down, like you don't know how to $#@ drive while walking their Golden Retreiver, a dog that probably eats better than most Americans. Most of the people employ "obvious" illegal aliens to watch their kids, cut their grass, paint their houses. most are liberals and think it's okay, plus they get to talk down to them. The local restaurants are too clicky, everyone knows everyone's business, bunch of fake people in that town. As the next financial collapse approaches, you'll see Irvington and other "upscale" riverfront villages... die, it happened in the 80's, it'll happen again, there's just a lot of money market babies in their 30's and 40's, hanging on, another 401k collpase, that's it.
Krista Madsen
11:16 am on Friday, May 6, 2011
I agree with Sue; we needn't be so harsh on beautiful Irvington! Wasn't at all my intend. Of course everyone's entitled to their opinions, and people certainly partake of this expression-outlet on Patch, but truly, is there really any reason to be sooo negative?
My ultimate argument in the piece was we are all connected, all this amorphous Rivertown thing of which I, for one, am so very PROUD.
Heron
9:32 am on Saturday, May 7, 2011
You say that people are being "soooo negative" , but the title of this article "Irvington Envy --NAH" is the first thing that everyone is reading and it DOES suggest that it's going to be an article that talks about WHY people CHOOSE to live in Tarrytown over Irvington. Many people who move to Tarrytown make this choice in spite of the fact that they are told that the schools are "better" in Irvington. and in spite of the fact that (silly) magazine articles rank Irvington much higher than Tarrytown. I can give lots and lots or reasons why we chose Tarrytown over Irvington - the diversity of the population being the top reason -- and that's what people are doing here.
Heron
9:38 am on Saturday, May 7, 2011
Oh, and in response to Suzy saying that she "doesn't understand" why race is a factor in this piece about Tarrytown vs. Irvington - race is a MAJOR factor. Tarrytown has a much larger "minority" community than Irvington does (although they aren't the "minority" anymore) and it plays into a lot of peoples decisions about where they would rather live.
Truthhurts
12:33 pm on Friday, May 6, 2011
If small cute business are so great why can't they last other then geordanes and zarellies? Also where is the pharmacy? and isn't Sunoco a franchise so its good for keeping out McDonalds yet you all will come to Tarrytown to do your food shopping and fast food that town is so messed up needs to get a clue. Funny in the morning you see all the BMW's fly to the station and the immigrants come to take care of there houses and raise there kids. As for the low income housing above the library that's a joke no village employees live there because they can't afford it do research before you talk about that.
J. Cattano
11:09 pm on Saturday, May 7, 2011
I lived in Irvington for 12 years - it was fine - but I am so glad my children have been in Tarrytown for the last three years and will continue to grow here - ... in the real world.
We are all so lucky to live along the Hudson - I for one prefer the view from Tarrytown.