Irvington, New York

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Irvington is a village in Westchester County, New York, USA. The population was 6,631 at the 2000 census.

The Village of Irvington is located on the western side of the Town of Greenburgh. The village is north of New York City.

1 History
- 1.1 2005 Mayoral Election
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Education
5 External links

[edit] History

The village was founded in 1850 as "Dearman," but in 1854 changed its name, by popular vote, to Irvington, after the American author Washington Irving, whose nearby residence, "Sunnyside", still exists today, preserved as a museum. Although it was considered to be part of Irvington at the time, the neighboring village of Tarrytown incorporated first, and when the official boundaries were drawn, Sunnyside ended up in Tarrytown rather than Irvington. Sleepy Hollow (formerly North Tarrytown) is the nearby village after which Irving wrote his most famous work, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Among Irvington's other famous residents was Madame C.J. Walker, America's first female millionaire. An African American woman, she made her fortune in creating the first ever hair-straightening method, which included a shampooing technique along with a chemical product that helped the process. In 1917, Madame Walker had a $250,000 country home built on Broadway in Irvington. The neo-Palladian-style mansion still stands today; recently, however, several plots of the land have been sold to make room for newer homes.

Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz also lived in Irvington. His estate, "Shadowbrook", is less than a mile from both Washington Irving's home and the Walker mansion. Irvington is also home to one of the few surviving octagon houses.

As with all river communities in Westchester County, Irvington is traversed by a stretch of the Croton Aqueduct (about 3-miles of aqueduct run through village).

Today, Irvington is home to several important businesses, companies, institutions and people including:

Eileen Fisher, clothing design company
A division of Barry Diller's InterActive Corporation which includes iWon, Excite, MyWay, SmileyCentral, CursorMania and other web sites.
The Nevis Laboratories of Columbia University
The Student Center, community site for teens & college students, with membership over 900,000.

[edit] 2005 Mayoral Election

The controversial 2005 Irvington mayoral election was held on March 15, 2005, but was not decided until October 27, 2005. The race between Republican incumbent Dennis P. Flood and Democratic challenger Erin Malloy ended up being decided "by lots", as required by New York state law when a village election is tied (847 votes for each candidate).

The count that took place on election night gave Flood a one-vote lead. On March 18, the Westchester County Board of Elections recounted the votes, giving Malloy a one-vote lead. Turning to two unopened absentee ballots, the board found that one was for Flood, resulting in a tie. The other absentee ballot was not opened as the name on the envelope did not match any names on the voter-registration list. Susan B. Morton, who had registered to vote as Susan Brenner Morton, stepped forward three days later and demanded that her vote for Malloy be counted. For several months afterward, various suits, motions, and appeals were filed in state courts. On October 20, the Court of Appeals, New York State's highest court, denied requests by Malloy and Morton, leaving the election in a tie. To comply with state law, the village had to use random lots to decide the winner.

State law does not specify the method of drawing lots, so the village opted to draw quarters from a bag. Eight quarters were used. Four had a bald eagle on the back and represented Malloy. Flood was represented by four quarters with the Statue of Liberty on the back. Village Trustee/Deputy Mayor Richard Livingston, a Republican, drew a quarter from the bag. It was handed to Village Clerk Lawrence Schopfer, who declared Flood to be the winner. Flood was then sworn in for his sixth two-year term as mayor of Irvington. [1] [http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20051101/NEWS02/511010319/1026/NEWS10] [2][3]

Months later, to complicate the situation even more, it was learned that an Irvington resident who has two houses and dual citizenship in both Irvington and a Long Island suburb, inadvertently broke the law by voting in both elections, although his intent was to cancel his Irvington voter registration. He was an adamant supporter of Flood.

[edit] Geography

Irvington is located at 41°2′4″N, 73°51′56″W (41.034371, -73.865471)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 10.5 km² (4.0 mi²). 7.2 km² (2.8 mi²) of it is land and 3.2 km² (1.2 mi²) of it (30.94%) is water.

Irvington is adjacent to the Hudson River.

Commuter service to New York City is available via the Irvington and Ardsley-on-Hudson train stations, served by Metro-North Railroad.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 6,631 people, 2,518 households, and 1,812 families residing in the village. The population density was 917.7/km² (2,377.4/mi²). There were 2,601 housing units at an average density of 359.9/km² (932.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 88.66% White, 1.45% African American, 0.11% Native American, 6.95% Asian, 1.16% from other races, and 1.67% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.79% of the population.

For population by religious background, Irvington has a strong Jewish population totaling over 30% of the total 6,631 residents. However, more current local estimates rate the Jewish population above 35%. (See note---) The rest of the population is made up of a variety of Christian faiths as well as a myriad of other faiths which have not progressed as fast as the Jewish population, or the Christian majority. NOTE: In the last decade, the Jewish population of Westchester experienced a boom of Jewish residents, with the total population growing by over 40%. In Irvington, this change has reflected the society there. Current estimates show that on average, over a quarter of new sold houses are sold to Jewish families. The Jewish population is now the largest non-majority religious group in Irvington.

Irvington is also home to a large number of Unification Church members (pejoratively referred to as "Moonies"), including several high-ranking families. This is due to the fact that there are several Church-owned estates and buildings located in Irvington, or in the neighboring village of Tarrytown. In fact, Reverend Sun Myung Moon himself, the leader of the Church internationally, has a large private residence located in East Irvington. His residence there probably led to the large influx of Church members.

There were 2,518 households out of which 37.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.2% were married couples living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.0% were non-families. 24.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the village the population was spread out with 28.2% under the age of 18, 3.9% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.5 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $96,467, and the median income for a family was $120,895. Males had a median income of $85,708 versus $50,714 for females. The per capita income for the village was $93,457. About 1.2% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and 0.9% of those age 65 or over.