Talk:Scarsdale, New York

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Contents 1 Scarsdale Zip Code 2 "Get Back" reference 3 Scarsdale zip code 4 Religious composition 5 Unsourced items

[edit] Scarsdale Zip Code

Has there really been a push for non-Scarsdale 10583 residents to disassociate themselves with Scarsdale? Where I live (lower Garth Road) it seems nobody even knows it's technically Eastchester!

• Nobody knows? Where the heck do you send property taxes? Nelson Ricardo 17:23, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)
  • I guess they know that Eastchester has some significance to them, but still honestly think their "town" is "Scarsdale".
    • I frankly doubt the accuracy of this part of the article. I'd almost be inclined to remove it unless someone can cite a good source, but have been holding back since I don't live in the area. Dpbsmith (talk) 18:53, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Sat, Feb 25, 2006

This is my first time at Wikipedia, so I'm not sure HOW to anwer 1 question asked by other user. Somebody has asked if all residents of 10583 are served by Scarsdale Post Office. Well, I live in 10583 PO but pay taxes to (and my kids' school district is) Town of Eastchester, and I'm served by Wilmot Road Post Office (not even sure on which town that PO is, it's so close to the Town of New Rochelle). So the answer to the question is NO, not all residents of 10583 are served by Scarsdale PO; at least 2 POs are doing it.

Also, I think, a lot of residence of Garth Road are renters, so they most likely do not pay any property taxes.

Anyway, I hope this is the way on answering (or editing) Wikipedia

Sun, Feb 26, 2005

Nobody has said that I did not do it right, so here more info regarding request for citation on the teenage sex tape: http://www.wnbc.com/education/3457711/detail.html

[edit] "Get Back" reference

I'm snipping this. If someone has a good verifiable reference for it they can put it back (citing that reference).

Even though the town is not mentioned in the song “Get Back”, JoJo lived in Edgemont a part of Scarsdale New York and that is where he met Linda Eastman who lived in Scarsdale and went to Scarsdale High School and they eventually got married. Paul McCartney then wrote this song telling JoJo to get back from his girl.

According to the Linda McCartney Centre,

Linda's first husband was Mel who she met while attending college at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The marriage was short-lived and it produced a daughter named Heather. (Mel tragically committed suicide in March 2000 at the age of 62.) Linda and Mel's divorce was reportedly amicable...

The lyrics to "Get Back" refer to Tucson as well:

Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona

For some California grass.

This should not be resomeone has evidence that they actually met in Scarsdale, rather than Tucson. Dpbsmith (talk) 18:52, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Scarsdale zip code

I'm retaining the list of neighborhoods in the Scarsdale zip code that are outside Scarsdale, but moving it to a separate section.

If it is true that the Scarsdale zip code confers prestige, increases real estate values, and creates a vague impression that these neighborhoods share Scarsdale's characteristics, it should not be hard to find verifiable source citations that say so. I'll look for some myself. Until somene can find some, I don't think that the article should contain opinions that rest solely on the authority of an editor.

In particular, the assertion that

Though this is intended to drive up real estate values in less prestigious locales (allowing people who technically live just outside Scarsdale to still claim Scarsdale residence)...

needs some kind of verifiable support.

Incidentally: how are letters to the these neighborhoods addressed? That is, does the Scarsdale post office serve Greendale, Wilmot, etc? If so, I can see how the postal zone would confer a Scarsdale aura on them. If not, if it's just a zip code, well, I find it hard to believe that the zip code itself is all that prestigious. Dpbsmith (talk) 14:33, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

90210? Nelson Ricardo 01:33, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

I said that I didn't believe "the" zip code, 10583 is prestigious. 90210 is familiar, but I don't think many other zip codes are. And, frankly, I don't think many people knew what 90210 was until the television program—whose title, significantly, is not simply "90210," but Beverly Hills 90210. Why? Because when the program started, not that many people knew what 90210 was.

There is no television program about "10583."

I tried some random Googling on things like "10583 prestige" and didn't come up with anything. A Google Groups (USENET) search on "10583" turns up only some isolated hits, only to postal addresses with that Zip code. Ditto a search on 10583 in Google Books turns up only references to Scarsdale. I couldn't find any evidence that being in the 10583 Zip code confers any cachet on a neighborhood. No chatter along the lines of "Those snobs in Greendale think they're hot stuff because there in Scarsdale's zip code," or anything like that. I also did an online search of The New York Times, very hard because there were lots of irrelevant hits, but I didn't see any articles about "Zip code controversy" or "Neighborhoods seek 10583 zip code" or "10583 increases real estate values."

As I say, if the effect is real, it shouldn't be hard to cite some verifiable sources that say something relevant. I'm quite willing to see this material put back when and if someone finds some. I looked myself, and I couldn't. Dpbsmith (talk) 02:44, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

I wrote the Scarsdale zip code section, and everything provided was based on anecdotal evidence from living in "Scarsdale" for most of my childhood and to the present. Trust me on this one, the only way you would know about these zip code controversies is if you grew up here. If you drive along Central Avenue in the Edgemont hamlet of Greenburgh, for example, which is in the Scarsdale 10583 zip code, EVERY SINGLE STORE is "Scarsdale this" and "Scarsdale that", even though Edgemont looks and feels a lot more like other parts of Greenburgh in other zip codes like 10530, 10595, etc. than like the actual Village of Scarsdale. Also, the zip code controversy is not such a trivial manner. Sometimes I seriously feel like punching someone in the face when they say I live in Scarsdale! Wizard1022 06:23, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, it's not the ZIP code per se that causes prestige. It is Scarsdale that is prestigious. If you are in the Scarsdale ZIP code but outside the municipality, you can choose to use "Scarsdale" as your address. The idea is not wrong, but it just needs to be clear. (A similar situation nearby: A chunk of Yonkers is in the Bronxville ZIP code, and many businesses and residents in that section of Yonkers, including Sarah Lawrence College, use Bronxville as their address. Never mind that this can help mail-order sales tax confusion and fraud.) Nelson Ricardo 11:38, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Wizard1022, I "trust you" on what you say about stores in Greenburgh using the name Scarsdale. However, material in the main article name space is subject to verifiability and citing sources, not on trusting contributors. It would be perfectly appropriate to say something about stores near Scarsdale using the Scarsdale name if those stores can be verified e.g in an online Yellow Pages lookup, or something like that. If there's a local newspaper that has written stories about it they could be cited. Surely some editorial writer or letter writer or humor columnist has said something about this. Maybe you could find some real estate listings for houses that are actually in Edgemont that use the name Scarsdale.

What you wrote goes further than that, however. You said that the 10583 zip code had been artificially extended in order to drive up real estate prices. Well, the exact words were:

Scarsdale's zip code of 10583 is infamous for spilling over into nearly every other city, town, or village on its borders. Though this is intended to drive up real estate values in less prestigious locales (allowing people who technically live just outside Scarsdale to still claim Scarsdale residence).

That would require a lot of verification.

• We could conduct a survey and publish it online or even in The Cutting Edge, the unofficial school newspaper.Tom 10:57, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Cool Idea. But seriously The Cutting Edge (Scarsdale High School's satiric all entries accepted newspaper) website and hard copy are both no longer credible sources. Maroon (Scarsdale High School’s actual course required newspaper ) hard copy could pass though.--E-Bod 18:48, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Do people who live in Edgemont really say that they live in Scarsdale? I doubt it. That's quite different from a business using Scarsdale in its name. I've heard that Boston-area realtors use the phrase "on the Wellesley line" to describe houses that are not in Wellesley, but close to its borders, and it wouldn't surprise me if there were a similar phrase used near Scarsdale, but that's RE puffery. I think very few people would "claim Scarsdale residence" if they weren't actually in Scarsdale. The schools their kids attend would be a dead giveaway.

Second, I have no idea how zip codes are assigned by the Postal Service but if neighboring towns had somehow influenced the USPS to incorporate parts of them in the Scarsdale zip code, that would a) be very interesting, but b) truly require verifiable evidence.

There's a factual question I asked that you haven't answered. Is all of 10583 served by the Scarsdale post office? That is, do people living in these neighborhoods receive mail addressed to "Scarsdale, NY, 10583?"

Anyway, IMHO Wikipedia policy requires your finding a verifiable source for this, something beyond your personal testimonny. Dpbsmith (talk) 13:53, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Here's something relevant, but not good enough to cite: http://www.freshyarn.com/1/printer_ready/print_ford_helen.htm . freshyarn is "an online salon for personal essays." One Katie Ford, in a not-very-well-written essay states that "In my Italian-American town of Eastchester, New York - population 147,000 and two Democrats, girls played a more traditional role - they were sluts. In rabbit coats and platforms. By the way we were Scarsdale Post Office so I didn't even know we lived in Eastchester until my first days at Eastchester Junior High School." So it would seem that everyone in 10583 does have a Scarsdale mailing address. Dpbsmith (talk) 16:24, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Um, Eastchester, New York has nowhere near that many people. Try http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown_zip.jsp for some interesting results. Nelson Ricardo 17:03, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Here's something better: http://www.homes101.net/new-york-realtors/edgemont-c15543/ "Edgemont is a portion of the unincorporated area of the Town of Greenburgh. There are approximately 2,800 households in the area. The majority of Edgemont residents have a Scarsdale post office address." I think I'll take that as confirmation that all addresses in 10583 are served by the Scardale post office and thus have a "Scarsdale, NY 10583" mailing address. Dpbsmith (talk) 16:55, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Religious composition

I'm removing the recently added phrase "with a large Jewish population" from the sentence

Scarsdale is both a town and village in Westchester County, New York, USA with a large Jewish population. As of the 2000 census, its population was 17,823.

for three reasons. First, it does not cite a source. Second, it is not appropriate for the lead sentence. Third, it has no context and it is not clear why the "large" Jewish population is of interest. A well-sourced paragraph or table detailing the breakdown of Scarsdale's population by faith would be perfectly appropriate, and should probably go in the "demographic" section.

Parenthetically, in a suburb of New York City, the presence of an active Quaker meeting is probably more unusual and hence more worthy of note than the presence of Jews. I believe Christian Scientists and Mormons are also represented. Dpbsmith (talk) 15:17, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unsourced items

These items are unsourced and their wording makes them sound pretty dubious, so I'm moving them here. Do not reinsert without good source citations. As always, urban legends and local tales need not be true, but a published source saying that they exist as legends must be cited. Dpbsmith (talk) 23:13, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

• The Scarsdale Glory Hole-located in Butler Woods, the Scarsdale Glory Hole is said to bring good luck to those who toss a silver dollar into it's depths. It was named in the nineteen thirties, when the term 'glory hole' apparently carried a different connotaion than the one in use today. The unfortunate association of the term 'glory hole' with sexual acts has lead the Scarsdale Glory Hole to wane in popularity steadily since the 1970s to the point that it is considered by many to be no more than an urban legend told to entertain immature teens.

• The Haunted House in Edgewood-located on Edgewood Road in the eponymous neighborhood, this house has been abandoned since the late 80's. Said to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered orphan, the house seems to be stuck in the past, with ancient cars parked in the driveway and a Miami Vice poster visible on the kitchen wall through the back window.

• The Gates of Hell-it is said that the Gates of Hell lies somewhere beneath the Scarsdale Municipal Pool. This is most likely false, but many a resident will tell you that a secret tunnel leads from the surace to a huge stone gate marked with the inscription "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here." This is of course the inscription which in Dante's The Inferno marked the gates of hell.