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The most outstanding fact, however, is that the

communities which were poorest in 1950 grew still poorer over the succeeding two decades! And this while the northern towns became increasingly wealthy as they suburbanized; while those municipalities wealthiest in 1950 remained so though did not increase their wealth as rapidly as the northern towns. The crucial point is that income segregation has increased both in terms of geographical regions of the County and in terms of the disparities between rich and poor communities.

This fact can be seen by observing the rate of change in each quintile, by focusing on the net difference in population.

TABLE 6

The change in population of Westchester County
1950-1970 by Quintile group

Thus, while the SMSA as a whole, experienced a 20%/ growth in each quintile, Westchester County had a change in the fifth (wealthiest) quintile three times that of the first two poorest quintiles.

Although the county as a whole became wealthier during the period 1950-1970, and the rate of change was greatest in the wealthier quintiles, there are significant disparities among municipalities. Two particular groups are representative of these disparities of income distribution, and in particular of growing segregation.

The first group consists of the poorer municipalities poorest relative to Westchester as a whole and the wealthier communities, though not in comparison with the SMSA. In fact, their populations tend to be evenly distributed in each quintile and are more balanced relative to the nation as a whole. These communities consistently have the smallest proportions of families and unrelated individuals in the fifth and wealthiest

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quintile and the highest proportions in the bottom three quintiles of all of Westchester's municipalities. The communities have remained fairly stable in income distribution over the twenty years and have experienced a modest total population growth of 44.7% compared to the overall county growth of 64.5%.

All of Westchester's cities are in this category of poor municipalities, with the exception of Rye City whose population and housing profile is more representative of an old wealthy suburb. These cities are Mount Vernon, Peekskill, Yonkers, White Plains, and New Rochelle. In addition, the following towns and villages are also relatively poor: Elmsford, Mount Kisco, North Pelham, North Tarrytown, Ossining Village, Portchester, Tarrytown, and Tuckahoe.

The second group of communities is particularly interesting because of the significant changes that took place between 1950 and 1970. Located in the northern part of the county, they were fairly rural in 1950 until they experienced an enormous growth rate of about 175%, nearly three times the overall rate of the county. On the average, half of their population change was in the fifth quintile. In all of these communities the proportion of the total population decreased in the lowest three quintiles and increased dramatically in the fifth and wealthiest quintile. These towns contain almost all the vacant land in the county, making it probable they will continue to grow. of the vacant land zoned for residential development, over 50% in each town is zoned for lots of one acre or more.*

These ten northern towns are: Bedford, Harrison, Lewisboro, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Pound Ridge, Somers, and Yorktown.

* It is important to note that these towns were not the only ones in Westchester to employ zoning regulations restricting residential development to signle family detached houses on large lots. But because of their geographic contiguity, their proportionately great use of large lot restrictions, and because they possess the greatest amount of available vacant land suitable for development, they were classified as a unit for purposes of this study.

The choice of communities to include within this group was difficult in a few cases. One town, Cortlandt, is spatially a strong part of this northern tier of Westchester. because its zoning is primarily in classes under one was excluded.

However, acre,

it

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The remaining municipalities are varied. None is as poor (i.e., well balanced) as the poorer communities. These include some of the wealthiest old communities, such as Scarsdale, Pelham Manor and Pelham Village which have remained overwhelmingly wealthy. A few have bimodal populations of very wealthy and very poor.** Between 1950 and 1970 their growth rate averaged 101%, although there was a great deal of variation between communities.

The more detailed analysis which follows focuses in particular on the ten northern towns and the thirteen poorer communities. Map B shows the geographic distribution of each of these groups of municipalities.

⭑ (Continued)

The Town of Harrison was included because of the vast amount of land zoned for one acre or more 86%. Harrison contains

a great amount of developable acreage zoned in its Purchase section. But it is also the case that a significant amount of the older sections of the Town have permitted multi-family development and some housing opportunities for families of modest incomes. A more precise analysis of Harrison might exclude from incorporation with the data relating to the northern communities those sections of Harrison outside of Purchase. The 1970 Census reveals that the Purchase section of Harrison had a median family income of over $46,000, whereas the median family income for the town as a whole was only about $14,000.

**There are several communities in Westchester Ossining, Rye Town, Briarcliff Manor which have an unusually larger proportion of their population in the first quintile. This phenomenon stands out particularly in Bronxville, Briarcliff Manor and Rye Town because they are comparatively wealthy communities with sizeable percentages of their populations in the fifth quintile as well as in the first. In Briarcliff Manor, Ossining Town and Rye Town the large disproportion in the first quintile can be explained by the fact that these municipalities contain a large number of unrelated individuals with incomes of less than $3,000. In Briarcliff Manor and Ossining Town, many of these individuals are probably residents of Briarcliff College, Kings College and Maryknoll Seminary. No public or private agencies were able to identify the population characteristics of Rye Town's low income unrelated individuals. The fact that Bronxville's population falls disproportionately in the first and fifth quintiles may be explained by the physical division of the village between areas of expensive single family homes on large lots and areas of older apartment buildings.