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For 27 years I have lived in Baldwin, NY, on the south shore of Nassau County, Long Island.  Baldwin is  4 miles from my childhood home in Uniondale, where my mom lived from 1947 to 2000, when she moved in with me.

If money were no object, I would move to Manhattan. I lived on the Upper West Side from 1964 to 1974, in Chelsea from 1974 to 1981.  My daughter, two of my grandkids, and almost all of my old friends live in Chelsea. For what we pay for a four bedroom home, even with high taxes, we would be lucky to afford a Manhattan studio.

 Baldwin seems the best of both worlds--a 38-minute train ride to Manhattan where I always get a seat and a 15-minute car ride to Jones Beach. My four daughters got an excellent education in the Baldwin public schools. They all attended PAG (Program for the Academically Gifted), a two-day-a-week pullout program from third grade through six grades). PAG's stimulating creativity  and the excellent honor classes in middle school and high school prepared them superbly for college, graduate school, law school.

In 2007   Money Magazine  named Baldwin the 25th most desirable place to live in the United States.

This mid-Long Island town stretches to the bays of the southern shores of the island, but it's by no means a summer beach town. Rather, the area is a haven for families and draws a diverse population who move to the town for its schools, and its proximity to healthy job markets and beaches. Baldwin's waterfront park is chock full of amenities like a skate park, roller rink and spray pool. Community boosters are everywhere in Baldwin, helping to keep the area's charm, even as it copes with fast growth.

One factor in Money's choice was Baldwin's unique racial diversity.  Long Island is one of the most segregated areas in the United States. Towns are usually either mostly white or mostly minority.  Students are not truly prepared for living in the multiracial 21st century. Baldwin is the exception. Compare the racial makeup of Baldwin to that of  more affluent Rockville Centre, whose town line is 2 and one half blocks from my house, and to Oceanside, immediately  to to my south. 

 This week I checked out RVC's  senior center, with excellent programs and services. The problem is that I have met exactly one person who was not white.  During the 53 years my mother lived in Uniondale (zip code 11553), it slowly changed from primarily white to its present day composition. My mother commented: "being in a room entirely full of white people gives me the creeps." I understood what she means.