Southern Westchester

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Southern Westchester, alternatively called Lower Westchester, is one of two major distinct areas of Westchester County, New York, the other being Northern Westchester. Located in the close-in suburbs of New York City, Southern Westchester is usually defined as White Plains and south, or more precisely, everything from I-287 to the county's southern boundary with the New York City borough of the Bronx.

At the Bronx-Westchester border, the City of Yonkers borders the Bronx neighborhoods of Riverdale, Woodlawn, and Wakefield; the City of Mount Vernon borders the Wakefield and Eastchester neighborhoods, and the Village of Pelham Manor and Town of Pelham border the Eastchester neighborhood as well. Southern Westchester borders both of the Bronx's Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay Parks, both on the city line.

Though known for being affluent, particularly due to the notoriety of towns like Scarsdale, New York, this is hardly the case in cities like Yonkers and Mount Vernon, the largest and third-largest cities in the county, respectively. Yonkers remains distinctly working class; the crime-ridden, run-down, industrial South Side of Mount Vernon in nearly identical in appearance and character to the adjoining Wakefield section of the North Bronx. Both Mount Vernon and Wakefield have the largest black population in their respective counties, as well as some of the highest foreign-born populations.

Though Westchester County becomes more homogeneous and affluent as one moves north, some places such as White Plains and the town of Greenburgh are surprisingly diverse for a suburb. North of White Plains, the landscape sharply segues into Northern Westchester, where it is not uncommon to find large pieces of open land as little as 30 or 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan. This pseudo-rural character has made Upper Westchester an attractive place for many celebrities to own country homes, including Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as the late Christopher Reeve.

The stark dichotomy between the two halves of the county naturally gives rise to a great deal of regionalism, with Southern Westchesterites belittling the northern reaches of their county as "the countryside".

[edit] Municipalities in Southern Westchester

In New York State, there are three types of political subdivisions (i.e. municipalities) of counties: cities, towns, and villages. While cities are incorporated entities, towns are not. However, areas within a town can incorporate; when this occurs, the said area is called a "village". Villages have their own additional level of government along with the government of the town the village lies within. Please note that sometimes a town contains a village with the same name; this village usually contains the town's center.

Furthermore, certain areas of the incorporated (non-village) part of a town often develop their own identity, based around perhaps a school district or zip code; this unofficial formation is known as a hamlet and may or may not be acknowledged by the United States Census for statistical purposes. No matter how closely its residents may identify with their hamlet, a hamlet is not technically a town and has no political meaning. Rather, it could be described as a "mock village". Hamlets have and can incorporate into their own village if a charter is drawn up and the state government approves.

[edit] Famous Southern Westchesterites

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