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[quote=Anonymous]My college roommate, who's pretty granola crunchy, lives in Katonah and she really likes it.  It's a beautiful area with great places to hike nearby and a cute little downtown.  Schools sounds pretty good -- her kids are in h.s. and college now, but attended public K-12.  So that all sounds like it matches your description of what you're looking for in a community.  What might not be a great match is the makeup of the community.  My impression is that Katonah isn't very diverse in the way you describe your n-hood.  Also, I think housing prices tend to be on the higher side, but that's just a general impression.  Oh, another thing to consider -- you can probably bike into the downtown area if you live really close by, but Katonah has more of a country feel with houses spread pretty far apart and winding roads, so it might not be so bike friendly for little kids.  My friend's DH does a lot of cycling as do her kids now, but when they were younger I think this was less feasible.

Another area to consider is Montclair, NJ.  My sister lives there and we grew up in granola crunchy Northern California, so that's a good recommendation.  Montclair is more urban than Katonah and more diverse.  There are several shopping areas in town, and my sister's kids bike and walk to movies, bagel place, ice cream parlor all the time.  Retail is a mix of one-off local places (e.g., sporting goods store, wine shop) and some chains (e.g., GAP, Williams-Sonoma, Coldstone).  There are lots of great restos in town.  The public schools are good, but the desire to maintain a diverse community has led to the creation of a lottery for elementary schools.  This can be daunting, though it worked out very well for my sister's kids, and most of her neighbors seem quite happy with the schools as well.  Montclair doesn't have the natural beauty of Katonah, though there is beautiful preservation area for hiking.  Like Katonah, there's a surprisingly lively arts scene in town with music, theatre and film series.

HTH, OP; good luck!

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