Why is our proximity to NYC seemingly exaggerated to seem further away than it really is? (New York: community college, shopping centers)

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by Pequaman

Verizon thinks youre too far. And no one measures by how far they are from the Queens border .

I can't believe this thread is still going.

Do you guys even have FiOS yet?

In all fairness Peqs, this is nothing more than crooked politics in Brookhaven. Apparently Jimmy Dolans bought the whole Township again.Villages within TOB managed to get Fios installed just fine. Its typical, wanna bet its in the Hamptons before Brookhaven? FWIW we had OOL/Optmum very,very early in the rollout by way of the old Hauppauge system.

I agree, being near Queens is nothing more than a negative for Nassau. It serves no value to LI whatsoever.
Manhattan is the City...period.

Yes, this thread should die.

Crooks

[checkmatechamp13]

Originally Posted by LINY89

That is nothing considering you're commuting to the biggest city in the US.

I always saw LI as NYC's little brother not the 5th cousin twice removed like people make it seem on here. Some people even call it the 6th borough as we are right next door geographically. In fact, Nassau used to be NYC. Nassau is just as urbanized if not more in many places than Staten Island. Why do people make it seem like it's sooooooooo far away I just don't get it for the life of me.

You have a point there. The point is that once you're in Penn Station, you're in the heart of NYC (realistically, you're not going to count NYC as being the Queens border). An hour isn't that bad considering the train isn't traveling as fast as it could be.

Joliet, Illinois is considered to be a suburb of Chicago (It's a small city) and it's over 50 miles away. It's the same situation with LI.

As for the second point SI overall is more urbanized than Nassau. Yeah, Hempstead is more urbanized than Todt Hill, but you have more dense, walkable areas in SI than in SI.

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13

You have a point there. The point is that once you're in Penn Station, you're in the heart of NYC (realistically, you're not going to count NYC as being the Queens border). An hour isn't that bad considering the train isn't traveling as fast as it could be.

Joliet, Illinois is considered to be a suburb of Chicago (It's a small city) and it's over 50 miles away. It's the same situation with LI.

As for the second point SI overall is more urbanized than Nassau. Yeah, Hempstead is more urbanized than Todt Hill, but you have more dense, walkable areas in SI than in SI.

"Were on a mission from God"

[ydsavaged]

Ronkonk/Bohemia/Sayville is the furthest WEST I would live.

I really can't beleive this thread is still going.

[OrangeHudson]

Originally Posted by LINY89

The fact that some people refuse to acknowledge that it's easy to get to Queens in 45 minutes from Central Suffolk if you aren't commuting and can pick the hour and day you leave just shows me how out of touch with reality they are. If I want to visit a family member in Upper Manhattan I know for a fact i can get there in just over an hour. Even commuting via LIRR, it's 1 hour and 20 minutes and there are even faster expresses. Only an impatient child would consider that a really long time. Are we there yet?

How long does it take to get from the station to whatever you live? Unless you live right by the station it's more then 1 hour and 20 minutes. How many times are trains running late and the LIRR is screwed up beyond belief? If you ask most commuters from Ronk who commute into Manhattan they would tell you at least an hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours door to door one way.

[OrangeHudson]

Originally Posted by LINY89

Exactly, it's a close major city: NYC. They won't mention "outside NYC", or "outside Boston" if the town is legitimately far from that major city. There is no rule that says you must mention a major city in the news. It's only mentioned to show it's a NYC suburb.

"most people colloquially refer to Manhattan as 'the city'" Yes, but most people especially outside the NY area also don't seem to understand that there are 5 boroughs of NYC and that we are a decent amount closer to one of them (Queens) over Manhattan. Regardless of popular culture, or slang in our area, NYC is NYC. You can't just skip 20 miles like that. It would be like only considering "Long Island" to start in Suffolk. You can't just pass over Nassau. There are plenty of things people go to Queens for...not everyone needs to be in Manhattan. St. John's University, Queens College, Citi Field, Tennis Center, LIC, Jamaica, etc. all major areas of interest and industry. NYC is huge, so you can't just take one borough and say "ok this is the city and nowhere else". That's dumb. I understand people refer to Manhattan as "the city", but borders are borders. Fact always outweighs popular culture. Why can't people like you just admit Ronkonkoma is not far from NYC? I'm not arguing you can walk there, but it's only a little bit of a ride on the LIRR. If you just sit and relax listening to your iPod for the hour ish ride, it goes very fast. If you count every mile, it will go slow. I don't think people realize just how big LI is. To be Central LI on such a big island means you aren't far from NYC. You do realize that there is still 70 miles FURTHER east of Ronkonkoma, right? Let's see, I live 70 miles from the very eastern tip of LI and about 30 miles from the start of NYC and 50 miles from midtown. What does that tell you? LI is 120 miles long. Split that in half and the technical halfway marker is 60 miles east of Brooklyn. Ronkonkoma is 50 miles from the tip of Brooklyn. That means Ronk is 10 miles west of the halfway mark. So if you really wanted to be technical, Ronk could still pass as western LI if you count Brooklyn and Queens as part of it geographically (which they are).

I used to live in Queens and there really anything earth shattering happening there. Who cares about Queens College or St. John's University unless you're a student studying? Citi Field? The Mets are a joke of a team last I checked. The main attraction is MANHATTAN.

[john_starks]

this thread is dumb

LI = close to Queens/BK
CT/Westchester = close to the Bronx/Queens
NJ = close to SI & Manhattan

each area is close & far. an w/ traffic it really doesn't matter anyway

[OrangeHudson]

Originally Posted by LINY89

See, this is exactly my point and what I made this thread for. Who in their right mind measures down to the last minute and second going places? People who live in the northern suburbs and NJ suburbs of NYC never seem to have this same feeling of being "way out there" even if the distance to the NYC border is the same. When someone asks me how long it will take to get into Manhattan I will tell them around an hour. I would never say, well I'm catching the next train which leaves at 7 AM and arrives at 8:12 AM, then I have to walk out of Penn which takes 5 minutes, then I have to open the door which takes another 30 seconds, then I have to take the elevator which takes 10 minutes, then I have to skateboard to my office and once I finally open the door it's like 9 AM! Why are you nitpicking? This is exactly why I made this thread.

People act like Manhattan is this distant land only heard of in mythology even though it's 50 miles away from Ronk or about 30 miles from the Queens border. If you can't travel around 1 hour on a train then you are just impatient and don't understand public transportation and how slow it is. Also, Brentwood is 25 miles from the NYC border. Yeah soooooo far. If you think 25 miles is far then you have issues. I feel like if people come from any other NYC suburb other than LI, you will hear people round the time it takes to travel to the closest hour or give time brackets instead of counting every little step. You can make any area seem far enough if you count every little minute it takes down to how long it takes you to tie your shoes when you step off the train. It just shocks me. I took an express train from Penn to Ronk. Want to know how long it took to get into Ronk? 1 hour 4 minutes. Basically an hour on the dot. That is nothing considering you're commuting to the biggest city in the US. Yes there are huge cultural differences between LI and NYC, but a lot of us are the same people. People in NYC are from LI and people from LI are in NYC many times. All of us can trace our roots back to the city not too long ago.

I always saw LI as NYC's little brother not the 5th cousin twice removed like people make it seem on here. Some people even call it the 6th borough as we are right next door geographically. In fact, Nassau used to be NYC. Nassau is just as urbanized if not more in many places than Staten Island. Why do people make it seem like it's sooooooooo far away I just don't get it for the life of me. Ronkonkoma is certainly not rock throwing distance from NYC, but it's still close enough that I see many business vans and trucks with 718, 212, and 646 area codes routinely. Hell, I have even seen NYC cabs more often than you would think between exits 52-57 on the LIE. I have also seen plenty on Southern State right when I got on. Our popular radio stations we commonly use are mostly NYC stations. Same with TV. I see my neighbors have business vans from Long Island City where they work. Plenty of NYPD and FDNY members out here as well. There are NYPD and FDNY memorial signs for the locals who died in 9/11. You get the sense that you aren't that far from NYC if you live here long enough. I still see some license plate holders that show the car was bought in a Queens dealership every once in a while. There is a lot of crossover between NYC and LI even in the Central Suffolk area. Many vans that offer services in NYC also have Nassau and Suffolk numbers because they also do their business out here. If we are so far away, why is that? If I never lived in NY state and was from Oregon and was suddenly dropped in the Ronkonkoma area, I can guarantee you I would know I was in the outskirts of NYC. All the road signs saying "NEW YORK 495", or Sunrise. Seeing the addresses of the trucks would reveal plenty of city area codes. Seeing the big WTC poster on exit 57 of the LIE. A NYC cab is even quite possible to spot within 20 minutes of driving or closer on occasion. Also, people say the Hudson Valley is the sticks...because it IS. I know the Poughkeepsie area well and while Poughkeepsie is a pretty urban city overall, the drive up there is like driving through rural PA. Many surrounding areas around Poughkeepsie and even south of it are very rural. Ronkonkoma is strictly suburban. You probably won't even see a legitimate farm until you drive about 45 minutes east of Ronkonkoma. I don't care about everyone saying even Levittown back in the day was like farms. It's 2011 and Ronkonkoma is not right next door to NYC, but it's close enough to easily get there and come back later to a yard and a spacious home.

You just wait, in another 50-100 years there will be some kind of monorail or much faster train for the LIRR that will get into Penn. in a half hour from Ronkonkoma. It's actually possible for the LIRR to make it to Penn in 45 minutes if they really wanted to, but the tracks are old and it would have to approach 100 MPH which it's definitely capable of but they have safety rules so the trains never average more than about 45 MPH. I will never understand why people on LI measure the commute down to the second and count taking subways, elevators, walking, etc. If you aren't working in the city and someone from Texas simply comes up to me and asks how far from Manhattan I live, I tell him about an hour. Yes it's a different world, but like it or not, we are the suburbs of NYC and they are our neighbors.

I take offense to the comment "Hudson Valley is the sticks". Poughkeepise or towns further south in Dutchess, Orange, and Putnam counties can get to the city faster than places in Central Suffolk, due to the fact there is less traffic on the roads here and Metro-North is better than the LIRR (in terms of on time performance and breakdowns. Just because there is hilly terrian and mountains here doesn't not make the place "the sticks."

Areas surrounding Poughkeepise is all suburban, so what are you talking about rural? The Town of Poughkeepsie (Arlington, Fairview, Spackenhill, Red Oaks Mill) is suburban. Fishkill (Town + Village) and the City of Beacon is not rural. The village of Wappingers Falls and the Town of Wappingers is not rural.


Rural territory in Dutchess County is EAST of the Taconic State Parkway.

[Autoracer9]

Originally Posted by OrangeHudson

I take offense to the comment "Hudson Valley is the sticks". Poughkeepise or towns further south in Dutchess, Orange, and Putnam counties can get to the city faster than places in Central Suffolk, due to the fact there is less traffic on the roads here and Metro-North is better than the LIRR (in terms of on time performance and breakdowns. Just because there is hilly terrian and mountains here doesn't not make the place "the sticks."

Areas surrounding Poughkeepise is all suburban, so what are you talking about rural? The Town of Poughkeepsie (Arlington, Fairview, Spackenhill, Red Oaks Mill) is suburban. Fishkill (Town + Village) and the City of Beacon is not rural. The village of Wappingers Falls and the Town of Wappingers is not rural.


Rural territory in Dutchess County is EAST of the Taconic State Parkway.

People Living on Li to Much don"t know what Rural Means
you have to speak Slow!

[LIGuy1202]

"My point is...why do some people act like central Suffolk is WAY out there when we have a major airport in MacArthur which is considered a legitimate NYC airport. It's literally listed as a New York City airport if you look it up. Yet We get treated like we live in Greenport."

In some metro areas a commute greater than 20 mins. seems like a long one. To such people a commute of an hour would seem 'way out there'. But these same people wouldn't think much of traveling an hour or so to attend a wedding because it's a special event.

I think it's the context that makes a difference; what one is used to, what for, and how often the trip is made.