Others mention the solid schools.
Academically solid schools and a North Shore country setting near Long Island Sound help to give Shoreham its appeal.
This year Lafayette is by all appearances humming like the solid school it was meant to be.
Mr. Williams says he came to appreciate the country air, solid schools and racially mixed populace.
Of the 13,300 newcomers who arrived between 1990 and 2000, many are like Gena Rinaldi, who moved here from Belleville three years ago, lured by affordable homes, solid schools and quiet neighborhoods.
The apartment quickly became too cramped for a family of four, so the couple bought a house in Corte Madera, an upscale Marin town with a solid school system.
Couples starting families who want space and solid schools can now afford the pricey suburbs of Bedford, Briarcliff, Larchmont, Pelham and other communities, including some that half a century ago had deed covenants or broker agreements barring house sales to Jews.
Nearly 2,000 people turned out recently for a candlelight memorial service honoring Middletown's dead and missing, most of them breadwinners in their 30's and 40's who cherished the township's solid schools, affordable split-levels and proximity to Wall Street.
Devon Palmer, who rents an apartment on 65th Street between 16th and 17th Avenues with his wife, Agnes, sees the area's appeal as universal: ample public transportation, low crime, solid schools and enough businesses to make shopping and going out convenient.
Aasland outlined the "enormous machinery and many cogs" essential to fostering discovery, innovation and advancement, from a solid school system that supplies the higher education system with knowledgeable and motivated students to a universities that facilitate researchers in their quest for new knowledge and inspire new recruits to research.
