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Mount Vernon, New York Vacations, Upscale Hotels, Tours and Travel Packages Mount Vernon is the eighth most populous city in the state of New York, as well as the third largest city in the county after Yonkers and New Rochelle. It is a predominantly African-American city in a majority Caucasian county. The northern half of Mount Vernon has a suburban presence with tree lined streets and close knit homes side by side while the southern portion of the city has a very urban feel, nearly mirroring its border city The Bronx. The city's downtown business district is also located on the city's southside, which features the City Hall, Office buildings, and other municipal establishments. Mount Vernon has in recent years undergone a transition from a city of homes and mediocre businesses to a city of regional commerce. Between 2000 and 2006, the city of Mount Vernon's economy grew 20.5%, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the metropolitan area of New York. Mount Vernon is often considered a poster child for cities within the county for having such a large magnitude of diversity for a city of its size. During the 1960s, Mount Vernon was a divided city on the brink of a "northern style" segegration. Many blacks from the South came to the north and settled in the city of Mount Vernon for better job opportunities and educational advancements. At the same time, many well to do Caucasian people from the Bronx and Manhattan looked to Mount Vernon as a new "bedroom community" due to rising crime in New York City (a "white flight" factor entailed as well). As a result, Mount Vernon became divided by the New Haven Line railroad tracks of the Metro North railroad into two parts north and south. The population of the "South Side" of the tracks became almost 100% black while the "North Side" of the tracks was almost 100% white. At the height of this "segregation" in the 1970s August Petrillo was Mayor; when he passed away, Thomas E. Sharpe was elected Mayor. Upon his death in 1984, Carmella Iaboni took office as "acting-Mayor" until Ronald Blackwood was elected. Mr. Blackwood was the first African-American mayor of the city (as well as of any city in New York State). In many ways he was the perfect man to try to bridge the gaps and bring a divided city together. For one thing, he did not come to Mount Vernon from the South but was originally from Jamaica (at the time unlike today very few of the black population was of West Indian origin). His wife was white and he was a former Republican in a heavily Democratic and liberal city. He claimed that Mount Vernon would stand apart from cities that supported segregation and division amongst its people, touting itself as "The City Too Busy to Hate." That characterization was sharply disputed by many of the city's Caucasian residents saying "The city was never divided, we had our side and they had theirs,but it was all Mount Vernon". However, he was popular among Mount Vernonites of all races and soon the black population became the dominant social and political force in the city. By the mid-1990s the school board and Superintendent of Schools was black. Every mayor of Mt. Vernon since Blackwood has been African-American. The majority of neighborhoods on the "North Side" are demographically African-American as well today, though some measure of demographic and political re-diversification has taken place. Mount Vernon at this time consisted mainly of farm lands crossed by two important railroads, the New York and Harlem (that already had a station there) and the New York and New Haven (that had no station until the Industrial Home Association built one for it). Central Mount Vernon remained mostly undeveloped until Charles Crary bought land on Chester Hill in 1869. He laid out orderly building lots and placed restrictions on the use of the lots and who could purchase them. Chester Hill became a privileged community. Mount Vernon Landmarks
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