I have a love hate relationship with Long Island

[ShouldIMoveOrStayPut...?]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Utah drivers might not be aggressive in the NY sense, but they are totally oblivious or just don't give a hoot about pedestrians! Also, they tend to get into a lane and stay there. If they are going to be turning left, they get in the left lane...despite the fact that their turn isn't for another 10 miles!

(My personal observations from a recent trip to southern UT.)

Very heavy LDS presence and from what I am learning, families and individuals are expected to remain very active in their church community. That's a fine thing, but my concern as a non LDS is that it would be difficult to be fully integrated into the community. Either way, it is a nice place.

No doubt, Utah is going to have it's unique benefits and drawbacks. The LDS presence affecting someone is situation specific to the individual of course, and is much less an issue in Salt Lake City, and Park City exists as if it where on seperate international soil, arguably the most un Utah-like town in the state. Regardless, If I don't get more proactive about the move I'll probably just fall back into the familiarity an rythm of Long Island life and live out the remainder of my days here.

The greatest benefit IMO is useful winters, cold but DRY, your alot more comfortable out there in 15 degrees with sunshine than here with a chilly damp 40 degrees. What can you really do on Long Island in winter for outdoor recreation, sometimes it seems we get all the drawbacks of winter with none of the benefits. Out there, pristine world class powder snow skiing, snowboarding, winter hiking/camping, backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, winter fly fishing, etc...

And the property taxes? For a house or townhome that would suit my needs about $1,700 to $2,500. But an alternative exists that with multiple daily nonstops from JFK one could make it their "Home away from Home" I suppose.

Oh decisions, decisions!!.....

[Cosmosandmind]

It's a killer And why I am having such a hard time too!

All places have their good and bad points and if not for some of the things I mentioned in my initial post (plus the winters that you pointed out), I would not think about leaving until I was carted out of my house feet first.

I think what makes it so hard is that Long Island really is a nice place to live! We just need to clear out some of the wasteful government (Mayor's and Police Commish's Staff that have their own staff? Come 'on now). There are too many layers of town, country, state government. And of course, we all know that the property tax situation is a debacle (one of my friends pays the same amount of tax for a house in Baldwin that another friend pays in Huntington!). I am fortunate that I can afford to live here but it is no longer the affordable suburbia that my parents moved to back in '62.

None of my nieces or nephews can afford to live here (and all still live with their parents!) unless they had maybe 5 or 6 roommates to divvy up expenses. At least 3 of my nieces looking to leave when they finish college within the next couple of years.

[Tbdm]

I hear you cosmo. I was born and raised On long island. Copiague to be exact. Crappiest town ever, wasnt always like that though. Me and my fiancé felt the same as you and were on the verge of
Killing somebody every day. We moved To Raleigh a few months ago. Different way of living here and we get home sick but then I just remember how I felt every day and it's not worth being angry all the time. Alot of people from new York and other states here. Plus the weather is alot nicer here. Only thing is the beach is hour and half away. And the locals love our accents.

[ilLeopardo]

North Carolina, like every other displaced Long Islander.

I live in Valley Stream too, and personally I'm only going to miss the familiarity and about twenty people when I move to Charlotte this January.

[rh71]

Originally Posted by Interlude

Austin's not bad for Texas but the state as a whole, like most right-wing dominated places, is a hellhole and ranks last or near the bottom of states in most important metrics.

w o w

would love to see one for a lot of other states.

[majortom1981]

I have been to a lot of places and most places do not compare to long island . The only place that really does is california and it has the same problems Long Island does. A lot of places in the south have the same traffic problems.

With all the people moving to north carolina its just a matter of time before they also get massive tax increases.

Long islanders have entitlement problems also. A 3 bedroom condo with fireplaces for $250k is not considered affordable housing here. IT must be 5 bedrooms and 3 baths for $250k with 3 acres of property to be considered affordable housing here.

[woody516]

Originally Posted by Interlude

Austin's not bad for Texas but the state as a whole, like most right-wing dominated places, is a hellhole and ranks last or near the bottom of states in most important metrics.

Listen, I hate Texas and Texans in general just as much as the next person, BUT after reading your link, I'd have to be honest in saying someone must have played around with those stats. (ie. I read recently that Texas has a very low rate of unemployment compared to other states.)

[Yzette]

Originally Posted by woody516

Listen, I hate Texas and Texans in general just as much as the next person, BUT after reading your link, I'd have to be honest in saying someone must have played around with those stats. (ie. I read recently that Texas has a very low rate of unemployment compared to other states.)

The link is on a Texas state senator's website.

I have friends and colleagues in Texas. Like everywhere else in the country right now, if you are middle class, you are feeling the pinch one way or another. As I understand it, the educational system kind of sucks, too. My friends all put their kids in magnet or Montessori schools.

[UsAll]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Interlude
Austin's not bad for Texas but the state as a whole, like most right-wing dominated places, is a hellhole and ranks last or near the bottom of states in most important metrics.

Originally Posted by woody516

Listen, I hate Texas and Texans in general just as much as the next person, BUT after reading your link, I'd have to be honest in saying someone must have played around with those stats. (ie. I read recently that Texas has a very low rate of unemployment compared to other states.)

Did you notice that in those statistics about Texas provided here by Interlude, there is no identification of WHO is behind this provision of information (i.e., who is the author)? I'd like to know who the author(s) is and what their agenda is. That is, what socio/political/economic perspective they represent, what political party(ies) they represent, and so on. Sometimes, in the pursuit of advancing one's agenda, the numbers will be cooked or fudged somewhat (and then, sometimes not). I'm not saying that I know it to be so in this case, but I get suspicious of documents without the authorship of the documents being provided.

[UsAll]

Originally Posted by UsAll

Quote:
Originally Posted by Interlude
Austin's not bad for Texas but the state as a whole, like most right-wing dominated places, is a hellhole and ranks last or near the bottom of states in most important metrics.




Did you notice that in those statistics about Texas provided here by Interlude, there is no identification of WHO is behind this provision of information (i.e., who is the author)? I'd like to know who the author(s) is and what their agenda is. That is, what socio/political/economic perspective they represent, what political party(ies) they represent, and so on. Sometimes, in the pursuit of advancing one's agenda, the numbers will be cooked or fudged somewhat (and then, sometimes not). I'm not saying that I know it to be so in this case, but I get suspicious of
documents without the authorship of the documents being provided.

Now I see in a posting by Yzette below mine (but above this present posting) that the "the link is on a Texas state senator's website" (i.e., to the referenced Texas statistics).