Letter from a New Resident

Dear Joanne: I just wanted to write a quick thank you on the articles you provide through your internet newspaper. We just moved over from London in January as I found a more exciting career opportunity in New York. Having grown up in Germany and lived in London close to the last 10 years my knowledge on US regional politics was embarrassingly low. But thanks to your page I now feel like I know what is going on, which despite not being allowed to vote already makes one feel more included.

I obviously haven't lived here for long to have a strong view on a lot of the issues but overall I got the sense a lot of the people complaining in the comment section of your articles don't realize what they have here. Moving from overseas we could have gone anywhere in reasonable commuting distance to Midtown. But we choose Scarsdale as on top of the great schools, we liked the feel of the area and everyone we meet so far was great - the quality of life is just fantastic. Yes of course no one likes high taxes but I think one has to differentiate between paying high taxes that get lost in the system and paying to high taxes and getting a getting great services for it, which is the case here. Also I think people forget that it is tough to keep a place attractive for young and old, which is a tough compromise. Comparing it to affluent areas in U.K. and Germany I know (anecdotal) it is a real achievement to keep pupil numbers flat as the balance usually tends to tip towards the elder. So on all I can see the non-partisan government did an amazing job - people are just complaining on a very high level.

I'm not a great writer (both in English and German) and rarely write feedback or comments as it takes me forever. But I just figured you had some very busy weeks with some less friendly feedback - so it might be nice to hear that you won another reader.

Thank you very much,
Heiner Luz