An Ode to Westchester

As I mentioned in passing a few days back, we have come to the end of an era, for the moment at least. For the first time in 60 years or so, no members of the Berridge clan live in Westchester County, NY. 

There are some who would say good riddance. Westchester is not an easy place to do things. The roads are narrow and suffer from being in a high cost area. Stores are crowded. Basically, Westchester -- like most of the New York metro area, is like an extension of New York City where people go about in cars and the things that make the city challenging are marginally less challenging.

But the converse is true as well. Westchester has many of the best features of the City, first and foremost its diversity, which provides for the possibility of finding little pockets of magic here and there if you look for them: the perfect little Italian deli or a pizzeria dating to the 20s or an H Mart hiding around the corner where you least expect it. There are also fine public libraries. And merchants who can scale up the speed and efficiency to cope with rush hour but are also constant presences in communities. 

I will miss many if not all aspects of the place, often if not always.