McMansions are becoming a big problem in this neck of the woods. Such a big problem, towns are enacting ordinances against them!

I really noticed it the other day. The weather got warmer and I was taking one of those leisurely drives through the backroads on my way home from Tarrytown. One of the nice things about living so far from the city is you can go on a meandering country drive on a warm sunny day through some beautiful countryside.

It's a little bit of an indictment considering my rants about the evils of SUVs and fuel usage but, there are less obvious roads to take when running errands and I don't think it's as great a crime to decide to forego the frenzy of the parkway.

Anyway, one of the roads back from Tarrytown takes you through the Rockefeller estate. The place is gigantic and a lot of people don't realize how much land it covers but thankfully it's largely undeveloped. After you get beyond the border of Sleepy Hollow and enter into the unincorporated parts of Ossining (really Briarcliff) there's a lot of beautiful countryside. It's this hidden valley that's situated between the cut the Hudson makes and the valley for the Pocantico River. There's a couple of golf courses back there and a Pace University campus and then until recently there was a lot of open land.

Over the last five years there's been building with these monster houses going up on really small lots. I don't quite understand the allure of building this monster house just to put it up between other monster houses that are so close to each other you could spit out your window onto your neighbor's window.

All the trees wind up getting chopped down. They look ugly all bunched together like that (there's usually a SUV or two parked in the driveway). It makes me wonder if you had the money to buy one of those things, wouldn't you want a little more privacy? Why not just buy a bigger place in the city?