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Hello there! For you to be here you must be tired from all that surfing. Trying to find anything on Co-op City is a pain in the butt. You persevered thru listings for food co-ops, condos, and some kind of cooperative teaching tool. Heck, we should be more well known! For those of you who have no idea what a "Co-op City" is, read on!
Co-op City is a middle income cooperative located in the north-eastern most corner of the Bronx. We are a community of hard working, middle class people that don't mind living in the Bronx. I'm not naive. I know that there's no cachet to living in the Bronx (ask someone from Riverdale where they live). But I like it here just fine. Sure, you could live in Manhattan or Westchester County, but you can't beat the rent here with a stick! And now that the MTA has eliminated our two fare zone, the commute isn't that bad either.
I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in Co-op City. We've got lots of grass, trees, and wildlife. Yes there is wildlife in the Bronx. We regularly see pheasants, egrets, hawks and more geese than you'd ever want to meet. Now we even have skunks! No...not large cats with white paint down their backs. Wild skunks. And I kid you not, I saw an opossum just last year.
It's sort of like someone put a little piece of suburbia in the middle of the city. There used to be a lot of rabbits, but with the construction of Bay Plaza Mall and the new Peartree Mall on the other end of Co-op, I haven't see one in years. But there are still some untouched spaces. See what the Parks Department has to say about Givens Creek Woods adjacent to Co-op City. And then there's Pelham Bay Park just across the Hutchinson River. It's almost like "Over the river and thru the woods..." around here. :o)
I'm still a city girl at heart but living here has enabled me to appreciate nature in a way I don't think would have been possible anywhere else.
The best thing by far about Co-op City is its diversity. You'd be hard pressed to find a country in the world that is not represented in its residents. Co-op truly is a city within a city. Before Bay Plaza was built it was difficult to get people to come and visit. They didn't want to come "way out there". And leaving Co-op was an unnecessary schlep also. We have our own educational park, a private security force, and three Shopping Centers right on the premises. And you can't beat the central air-conditioning with gas and electricity included! Many people who have left Co-op City sorely miss that if nothing else.
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