Burb Appeal: An Interview About Manhattan, Nyack and Racoons

For many, migrating from a sprawling city to the quieter suburbs is a matter of course.

It's a journey Valley Cottage's Tina Traster undertook—but at a quicker rate. Traster opted for the accelerated course, transitioning from apartments and boisterous cabs to farmhouses and raucous wildlife.

Traster's essays—which have appeared in The New York Post, The Huffington Post and other periodicals—chronicle her experiences, and are now available in a comprehensive e-book collection, Burb Appeal: A Collection of Humorous Essays About A Hardboiled Urbanite Who Softened Into A Suburbanite.

(But you don't need an e-book to read it—you can download it straight to your laptop if need be).

Recently, Traster spoke with Nyack Patch about her essays, experiences and wanderlust:

Patch: Nyack is suburbia, but there are certainly urban elements in the village. What most reminds you of the city?

Traster: The sanctuary of Nyack is Didier Dumas, the patisserie, where not only can one eat a pastry that is pretty close to being in France, but you can hear people speaking different languages. Didier is the eating sanctuary and social sanctuary.

And the [Nyack] Library—I cannot speak highly enough of the attention that a citizen is afforded there. The library has become my favorite place in Nyack. I lived in the city my entire life, and [city] libraries were always cold and impersonal, waiting lists were forever and nobody really went out of their way [to help you].

Nature plays a large role in many of your essays. Is that a subconscious by-product of living in the city, where the landscape is artificial?

I've always had a calling for nature, and as a city girl I thought of it as something I could do on a part time basis; in other words, weekends in the country or commuting out of the city environment.

But when I came out here, I realized how important nature is to me. Becoming part of the natural world has enormously enhanced my life and put me in greater contact with animals and their habitats, and deepened my appreciation. It's been an unintentional wonder of coming up here.

The house we live in is on a mountain; we really do live among raccoons and foxes and turkeys and coyotes. It has made me realize this is where I'm meant to be.

In the city, you fought with your neighbors over late-night noise. Here, you clash with some neighbors over backyard construction. Are neighborly disputes essentially the same, and the arena is just different?

I would say that people in general are not that thoughtful about what goes on beyond their boundaries and how it affects other. I know that's not always true, and I've had decent neighbors in the city and here.

I think that people tend to do what they want to do on their property, whether in an apartment or suburban piece of land. Their attitude is, 'it's my property, I'll do what I please.'

Manhattanites have very particular views of the surrounding areas: Westchester, Greenwich, etc. What's the perception of Rockland?

The funny thing about Rockland is I think it's off the map. I think people have no impression, myself included.

Rockland, to its credit or deficit, is kind of obscure. People in New York City think Rockland is 'upstate;' I think its anonymity is what drew me here. It was by absolute accident that we found [our house]. The fact that Rockland is not really commuter friendly is what has kept the county less developed than Westchester, Bergen County and Hudson County in New Jersey. I think that's what drew me here—it's just countrified enough. There are still parts of Rockland that are untouched and rather beautiful.

How does the disposition of an urbanite compare and contrast with the disposition of a suburbanite?

I don't know anymore if I consider myself an urbanite or suburbanite—I bring my urban sensibility to the suburbs. A lot of us make the transition and [urban] pieces of us remains; we're constantly battling which [sentiment] we relate to and want recognized.

It's more about your experiences than where you are situated.