24 y/o oppinion of long island (Nassau) (Yonkers, Huntington: lease, health insurance)
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The cost of living in NYC is much lower than that of Dung Vile-Land...once you factor in the expense of having to have a car.
I live in the Bronx. It's much cheaper up there.
I never, never lived on LI by choice and I will never live there again. I can't imagine why anyone likes it. Nassau Co. NY is the worst place I ever lived. Ugly malls, brainless people, nothing to look at or do. For me it was a living death - I'd rather be a lid on a NYC garbage can.
I really don't like how the OP comments are being discredited because of his age. Sure, his figures are flawed and lacking merit due to exaggeration. However, some of what he says is very true.
At 24 years old, I too find it extremely difficult to live on Long Island. I grew up in Levittown, the most vanilla, safe suburb any June Cleaver would wish to raise her children in. I received a great education, loved the resources the Levittown Library offered our community, the Levittown Pools, I loved walking to the village greens, and loved having my grandpa and aunts close by. Then I went to college in North NJ...
HELLLOOO diversity!! Every one of the friends I made at college spoke another language and/or was 1st generation. Little downtown shops and restaurants for every type of ethnicity. I actually started getting a complex because I felt so white. Mentality of most people was still obnoxious (oh look at my BMW, look at my big fancy house I can't afford), and the WORST part: cops were AWFUL! pulling me over every five seconds since each town has their own force, county cops, sherifs dept cops, state troopers and don't forget the undercover cops! absolutely ridiculous (I swear I'm not even a bad driver!). Plus, North NJ was too far from the shore! Sitting in 2 hours of traffic every time I wanted to go to the beach? No thanks!
Then after college I lived in Manhattan.. diversity.. yes! cops yes, but too busy fighting real crime to harass little ol' me. Parking tickets.. BAD!! beach? no! Culture? yes! yes! yes! I love Manhattan. I was paying $1350/month for 2 bdrm apt in NJ, but roomed with great girls in a nice sized apartment in UES, my share costing $1100/month. Plus I didn't need a car! I got exercise and used mass transit! I didn't have to worry about being stranded at the end of a night out without a ride home, or riding home with drunk drivers! I met so many interesting people! Mostly people who were ambitious, independent, motivated!
Then I lived in Spain! Wooah! Met people who live to live, and not live to work.. Went to restaurants that doubled as bars/art galleries/boutiques/hooka bars..Experienced the joys of an afternoon siesta..No road rage/steroid rage/pretentious people..WOo whoo!! I loved every second I was there. I didn't want to come home!
But here I am, writing from Ltown until I figure out where to move next. I would love to stay in Long Island to be close to my family. Yet I want to be able to walk to places, and meet new interesting people. I want to be able to afford to go out to dinner after work. I want to be able to walk my dog in a nice park or on the beach.
My desires will not be fulfilled in Nassau...Within the six years I've been gone, the negatives of Nassau have been adding up too quickly! Young people from my hometown used to be good-natured, skate/surf types.. NOW, everywhere I look, it’s obnoxious “NJ Shore” types..Going to the gym, going tanning, driving fancy cars AND living at home with mommy and daddy, MOSTLY because the parents are enabling them! It is not normal to be 30 and still sleeping in a twin size bed from childhood..Just watch “Nassau County State of Mind” on youtube, and you may understand what I mean.. I agree with the other poster who said the friends who left Nassau for college and stayed out of Nassau are doing better financially, socially, mentally, morally, etc. etc. I am ashamed to say people that I have known all my life started a petition to keep Muslims/a mosque out of Levittown (diversity seems to scare the folk)....Traffic has definitely become more congested within the past 6 years..Nassau county is bullying drivers on the road, turning into NJ with the red light cameras (gov't harassing the little guy just cuz they can)...I’m surprised we can still drive on the parkways and LIE without paying a toll....Mass transit between towns is non-existent, cabs cost $45 one way no matter where you want to go, a nice Indian restaurant I liked just got turned into a sports bar (like we need more of those here) and I got yelled at for walking my dog in Eisenhower Park! When did that rule come around? Jones Beach is now $10 per car vs I think $6 in 2004! (although still cheaper than Belmar in NJ where it’s $7 per person)....Going shopping for clothes is a joke here, paying 8.625% tax where NYC and NJ are tax free... Groceries are def more expensive than NJ and about the same as NYC...You can’t even read the local newspaper Newsday online for free, (although Time Out New York or even NY Times is way more interesting and free99!). Apartments here are outrageously expensive, because as another poster pointed out, we have a lack of supply and landlords price gouge those in need. On average, I have not seen anything cheaper than $1500 per month plus utilities for a 1 bedroom apartment in Nassau County. LI needs more apartment/co-op/condo complexes that young people can actually afford. Not $400k "luxury" 1 bedroom condos in cookie-cutter developments.
Get rid of the big-box stores! Stop building banks and fast food restaurants! Develop downtowns with small business shops, restaurants, and entertainment! Encourage walking! Stop honking at people who want to walk or bike ride just because they’re cute(GEEZ!!) Maintain the trees that were planted by the county for Pete’s sake! (Streets are well maintained in NYC.. from the plants to the trees to efficient snow removal!) Things look dumpy here in Nassau because there are no garbage cans anywhere for trash! (Unlike in NYC where there’s a garbage can on every street corner)...
For those of you who are not aware of the world beyond Nassau, The New Yorker April 2010 issue listed the following parts of NYC (including Queens and Brooklyn, GASP!) that are perfect for “Young, Single, and Cash-Strapped”: LES, Prospect Heights, E Village, Carroll Gardens, LIC, Sunnyside, Williamsburg, Red Hook, Park Slope and Greenpoint.
So in short, the OP may not have all his facts straight, but being a young, single 24 year old, I’ll take NYC or even Hoboken! (yes, I said it.. NJ!) over Nassau any day.
- if you want diversity, apartments, lower cost of living, etc., stop complaining about Nassau turning into Queens. It's one way or the other... can of worms... can of worms... hell I'm a minority myself, originally from Queens.
- I was in my 20s just over 5 years ago, so I can understand what you guys are saying with all that you've mentioned, but guess what... this is a suburb... you are describing things in cities... stay in the cities, pay rent for tiny spaces, spend your paychecks on drinks, parties, and clothes. We know it's a nice change from being under mom & dad's roof in quiet/safe suburbia the first 17 years of our lives. Just wait until you need a place for a family and see if your wants are the same. When they're not, you'll then compare this suburb with other suburbs, and what they have to offer, not what cities currently offer - and be glad about it. Frankly I don't know why 20-somethings are wishing they could live here if they're not talking about wanting to start a family, or at least SETTLE DOWN... there's only 1 "happening" place on LI and it's always mentioned whenever someone asks... that should give you an idea of what LI is NOT about.
I didn't intend to - but it came back to age didn't it...
At any rate, we've spent most of this summer's weekends at the town beach with our kids who just turned 2 - there are PLENTY of happy, friendly, smiling people here. Plenty of young kids, their respectful parents, not a single rude person there... you get the idea. Maybe we put a little too much weight on the angry guy who's been stuck in traffic instead...
The future of Long Island is not pretty! I find it extremely hard to believe that recent college graduates, young professionals, and young families will raise their children here if they have other options. Once they have the opportunity to leave this Island they are out of here! There is absolutely nothing that attracts young educated professionals other then the beach. Long Beach is really the only positive...but that is not enough to save LI-For the most part it still fails to attract a large number white collar professionals--the majority of individuals in their 20s are teachers, cops, etc. that work on long island.
Why would anyone not married choose Long Island over Manhattan? Why would would any raise a family in LI over Westchester? Unless you wanted to live on water. IT is so obvious to me how much Long Island has deteriorated over the past 10 years. The past few years truly does amaze me! Most of Nassau is an extension of Queens--I have seen it for a long time coming.
WHO ELSE AGREES WITH ME?!?
I don't. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. We really don't need your negative energy on Long Island.
BTW, most Long Islanders don't live on the "water=ocean," many live on the sound, bay or a canal. What is great is that most Long Islanders have easy access to the ocean.
I can show you 50k houses in Wyandanch, Brentwood and other parts of Suffolk).
Really? Please show me. With the exception of the Mastic area I don't think you will find a house on Long Island for under $200,000. 50k? That's an exaggeration, which would then make me question much of what you wrote supporting the OP.
ok but would you want to send your kids to school in those areas? Not to mention, something being said for having a backyard for your kids to play and run around in. Nice areas, perhaps, ideal for raising kids, hardly. I think when you have kids your views will change.
I don't have kids either but I'm not much of an urban person. Love being able to BBQ in the yard and that sort of thing.
Actually a couple of those areas have great schools, severals HS in the city are considered the best in the country. As far as backyards, obviously you don't socialize with many people from the city or at least been in their homes. Many neighorhoods in Queens have a housing stock which are detach SFH with extensive backyards w/ grass. Woodhaven, Cambria Heights, Jamaica Estates, Bayside, Broad Channel, Whitestone just to name a few. My early years in Brooklyn, my parents own a brownstone in Carroll Park we had a front garden and a nice backyard again w/ grass. Every summer my relatives in Midwood and Park Slope invite my rather large familiy to their homes (a tudor style colonial and a brownstone)for backyard cookouts.
Long Islanders are so insular and provencial that it's no wonder they are quick to call judgment on towns they don't live in or just see at "face value" drive throughs. That's why we produce kids like the OP who leave and get a bit of culture shock then fail to see what makes LI so great. I love Long Island but at times I question its denizen.
I really don't like how the OP comments are being discredited because of his age. Sure, his figures are flawed and lacking merit due to exaggeration. However, some of what he says is very true.
At 24 years old, I too find it extremely difficult to live on Long Island. I grew up in Levittown, the most vanilla, safe suburb any June Cleaver would wish to raise her children in. I received a great education, loved the resources the Levittown Library offered our community, the Levittown Pools, I loved walking to the village greens, and loved having my grandpa and aunts close by. Then I went to college in North NJ...
HELLLOOO diversity!! Every one of the friends I made at college spoke another language and/or was 1st generation. Little downtown shops and restaurants for every type of ethnicity. I actually started getting a complex because I felt so white. Mentality of most people was still obnoxious (oh look at my BMW, look at my big fancy house I can't afford), and the WORST part: cops were AWFUL! pulling me over every five seconds since each town has their own force, county cops, sherifs dept cops, state troopers and don't forget the undercover cops! absolutely ridiculous (I swear I'm not even a bad driver!). Plus, North NJ was too far from the shore! Sitting in 2 hours of traffic every time I wanted to go to the beach? No thanks!
Then after college I lived in Manhattan.. diversity.. yes! cops yes, but too busy fighting real crime to harass little ol' me. Parking tickets.. BAD!! beach? no! Culture? yes! yes! yes! I love Manhattan. I was paying $1350/month for 2 bdrm apt in NJ, but roomed with great girls in a nice sized apartment in UES, my share costing $1100/month. Plus I didn't need a car! I got exercise and used mass transit! I didn't have to worry about being stranded at the end of a night out without a ride home, or riding home with drunk drivers! I met so many interesting people! Mostly people who were ambitious, independent, motivated!
Then I lived in Spain! Wooah! Met people who live to live, and not live to work.. Went to restaurants that doubled as bars/art galleries/boutiques/hooka bars..Experienced the joys of an afternoon siesta..No road rage/steroid rage/pretentious people..WOo whoo!! I loved every second I was there. I didn't want to come home!
But here I am, writing from Ltown until I figure out where to move next. I would love to stay in Long Island to be close to my family. Yet I want to be able to walk to places, and meet new interesting people. I want to be able to afford to go out to dinner after work. I want to be able to walk my dog in a nice park or on the beach.
My desires will not be fulfilled in Nassau...Within the six years I've been gone, the negatives of Nassau have been adding up too quickly! Young people from my hometown used to be good-natured, skate/surf types.. NOW, everywhere I look, it’s obnoxious “NJ Shore” types..Going to the gym, going tanning, driving fancy cars AND living at home with mommy and daddy, MOSTLY because the parents are enabling them! It is not normal to be 30 and still sleeping in a twin size bed from childhood..Just watch “Nassau County State of Mind” on youtube, and you may understand what I mean.. I agree with the other poster who said the friends who left Nassau for college and stayed out of Nassau are doing better financially, socially, mentally, morally, etc. etc. I am ashamed to say people that I have known all my life started a petition to keep Muslims/a mosque out of Levittown (diversity seems to scare the folk)....Traffic has definitely become more congested within the past 6 years..Nassau county is bullying drivers on the road, turning into NJ with the red light cameras (gov't harassing the little guy just cuz they can)...I’m surprised we can still drive on the parkways and LIE without paying a toll....Mass transit between towns is non-existent, cabs cost $45 one way no matter where you want to go, a nice Indian restaurant I liked just got turned into a sports bar (like we need more of those here) and I got yelled at for walking my dog in Eisenhower Park! When did that rule come around? Jones Beach is now $10 per car vs I think $6 in 2004! (although still cheaper than Belmar in NJ where it’s $7 per person)....Going shopping for clothes is a joke here, paying 8.625% tax where NYC and NJ are tax free... Groceries are def more expensive than NJ and about the same as NYC...You can’t even read the local newspaper Newsday online for free, (although Time Out New York or even NY Times is way more interesting and free99!). Apartments here are outrageously expensive, because as another poster pointed out, we have a lack of supply and landlords price gouge those in need. On average, I have not seen anything cheaper than $1500 per month plus utilities for a 1 bedroom apartment in Nassau County. LI needs more apartment/co-op/condo complexes that young people can actually afford. Not $400k "luxury" 1 bedroom condos in cookie-cutter developments.
Get rid of the big-box stores! Stop building banks and fast food restaurants! Develop downtowns with small business shops, restaurants, and entertainment! Encourage walking! Stop honking at people who want to walk or bike ride just because they’re cute(GEEZ!!) Maintain the trees that were planted by the county for Pete’s sake! (Streets are well maintained in NYC.. from the plants to the trees to efficient snow removal!) Things look dumpy here in Nassau because there are no garbage cans anywhere for trash! (Unlike in NYC where there’s a garbage can on every street corner)...
For those of you who are not aware of the world beyond Nassau, The New Yorker April 2010 issue listed the following parts of NYC (including Queens and Brooklyn, GASP!) that are perfect for “Young, Single, and Cash-Strapped”: LES, Prospect Heights, E Village, Carroll Gardens, LIC, Sunnyside, Williamsburg, Red Hook, Park Slope and Greenpoint.
So in short, the OP may not have all his facts straight, but being a young, single 24 year old, I’ll take NYC or even Hoboken! (yes, I said it.. NJ!) over Nassau any day.
lol...omg so true.
Don't agree with much else stated here though. Have you been to Williamsburgh? Cheap...yes...but it's a dump...used to be nice, but all the hipsters moved in, no one has $$ there and it isn't taken care of and has turned to crap. You want cheap living, great, but don't expect it to be nice.
Things look dumpy in Nassau? Yeah there may be garbage cans on every street corner in the city but the garbage still piles up on the streets and there are still bums going through it looking for uneaten food and leaving the discards on the street. NYC is dirty and dumpy...parts of Nassau perhaps, not all...not even most.
- if you want diversity, apartments, lower cost of living, etc., stop complaining about Nassau turning into Queens. It's one way or the other... can of worms... can of worms... hell I'm a minority myself, originally from Queens.
- I was in my 20s just over 5 years ago, so I can understand what you guys are saying with all that you've mentioned, but guess what... this is a suburb... you are describing things in cities... stay in the cities, pay rent for tiny spaces, spend your paychecks on drinks, parties, and clothes. We know it's a nice change from being under mom & dad's roof in quiet/safe suburbia the first 17 years of our lives. Just wait until you need a place for a family and see if your wants are the same. When they're not, you'll then compare this suburb with other suburbs, and what they have to offer, not what cities currently offer - and be glad about it. Frankly I don't know why 20-somethings are wishing they could live here if they're not talking about wanting to start a family, or at least SETTLE DOWN... there's only 1 "happening" place on LI and it's always mentioned whenever someone asks... that should give you an idea of what LI is NOT about.
I didn't intend to - but it came back to age didn't it...
At any rate, we've spent most of this summer's weekends at the town beach with our kids who just turned 2 - there are PLENTY of happy, friendly, smiling people here. Plenty of young kids, their respectful parents, not a single rude person there... you get the idea. Maybe we put a little too much weight on the angry guy who's been stuck in traffic instead...
haha please don't tell me long beach. That place is so ridiculously not "happening."
Seems lots of people answering with their hearts and disregarding their heads. For one, LI is a horrible place for anyone in their 20's to live. LI is a cultural wasteland. Funny that people will defend it by saying, "well it's 45 minutes" from NYC" and then discount NYC as having a cost of living "10x that of LI." Fact is, most new mortgages for any home on LI ($400k and up plus taxes) will run at least $3k/month. You can rent a lot of nice Manhattan apartments for that and live in real decent digs in the boroughs for that and be able to walk to amenities and hop a subway to the largest cultural activities in the world. If a young professional wanted to BUY a home, why on earth would they look on LI unless they really needed to stay close to family. Dozens of great college towns (Raleigh, Austin, Ann Arbor, Charlotte, Dallas, many others) have thriving high tech economies, new developments with sparkling new amentities at half the cost of LI, lower taxes, shorter commutes, more young families). Sure there are tradeoffs...proximity to beach, weather. The argument of schools and jobs is long past and just resides in the arrogant imaginations local residents. It's a big world out there. With the internet, wifi and the corporatization of America (ie, hello Starbucks, bye bye Luncheonette), those "boondock" places that NY'ers used to shun are now more modern and illustrious than much of NY.
Hard for me in good conscience to tell a 28 year old to buy a 1947 Levitt Cape on Long Island for $400k+ and $11,000 taxes when he can buy a $250k custom home built in 2007 with central A/C, wired for cable and internet on a larger lot with lower taxes, community pool (newer than Levittown's), new elementary school with lots of great transplanted teachers from NY, Chicago and Cali. and many high tech corridors and startups with equal to higher wages and lower unemployment, in one of many cities thoughout the country.
My wife regrets not listening to me and moving in 2006 when my son was born. Our net worth has dropped significantly as we work our asses off and our equity has plummetted. Even with reductions in salary we would have a lower monthly nut and better quality of life in many other places. We make over $150k combined and live paycheck to paycheck after mortgage, taxes and daycare. Not much quality of life at all.
You can even get a decent (not as good as LI of course) bagel in some of them now. Isn't that really the bottom line?
"the majority of individuals in their 20s are teachers, cops, etc. that work on long island."
Do we have any reason to believe this is true?
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