Northern Westchester
Northern Westchester refers to the upper portion of Westchester County, New York, a suburban area north of New York City. Lying north of Interstate 287/Cross Westchester Expressway, these communities are distinguished by distance from New York City and their more rural character from those of Southern Westchester. The area is notable for its general affluence and high degree of watershed for New York City, being home to two major collection reservoirs supplying drinking water to it, the New Croton Reservoir and the Kensico Reservoir. Municipalities. In New York, there are three types of political subdivisions (i.e. municipalities ) of counties: cities, towns, and villages. While cities are incorporated entities, towns are not. However, areas within a town can incorporate; when this occurs, the resulting area is called a "village". Villages have their own additional level of government along with the government of the town the village lies within. Please note that sometimes a town contains a village with the same name; this village usually contains the town's center. Furthermore, certain areas of the incorporated (non-village) part of a town often develop their own identity, based around perhaps a school district or zip code; this unofficial formation  is known as a hamlet and may or may not be acknowledged by the United States Census for statistical purposes. No matter how closely its residents may identify with their hamlet, a hamlet is not technically a town and has no political meaning. Rather, it could be described as a "mock village". Hamlets have and can incorporate into their own village if a charter is drawn up and the state government approves.