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Location: An Island off the coast of North America
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From the US Census Bureau:
Absolutely no place on LI has a median household income below the national median (though Hempstead, Wyandanch, and Riverhead are below the (higher) state median)
Absolutely no place has a median household value below the national median (though Wyandanch and Mastic Beach are below the much higher state median).
A few places have poverty rates above the national rate----Patchogue, Wyandanch, Inwood, New Cassel, and Mastic Beach (no places in between the (lower)state and national rates).
Several places have per capita incomes below the national average----Brentwood, Central Islip, Elmont, Hempstead, Inwood, Mastic Beach, Mastic, New Cassel, North Amityville, North Bay Shore, North Bellport, Patchogue, Roosevelt, Shirley, Uniondale, and Wyandanch. (In between the national and the (higher)state average we have Bay Shore, Baywood, Copiague, Deer Park, East Farmingdale, East Patchogue, Freeport, Lakeview, Lindenhurst, North Lindenhurst, North Patchogue, Riverhead, Valley Stream, West Babylon, Wheatley Heights, and Yaphank).
So those are the stats. Basically, that's any area of Long Island I've heard referenced as a bad area (excluding Yaphank, Deer Park, East Farmingdale, and Wheatley Heights), along with Huntington Station, North Babylon, and Baldwin. So are any of these areas really "ghettos/hoods/slums" on a national scale? Looks like Wyandanch could easily be, but that's going by these facts. A lot of times, I think what we call a "bad area" on Long Island is a place with a majority/minority population and/or a low-performing school district. But is there a reliable website for crime data? A major part of being "ghetto" is gang violence, prostitution, etc. But again, are these areas really that bad? If they were compared to Detroit or Camden or East St. Louis or Compton, etc. would they still look bad? I know some of the areas listed are a lot worse then others.
Before, I begin, "slum" doesn't belong in the American vocabulary. Not even the worst of the worst areas of the country (Camden, Detroit, East St. Louis, Newark) are slum status.
It's very hard to compare and contrast a lot of long island hamlets since it's hard to find crime rates. Another thing you have to keep in mind is that some towns have a lot of senior housing and that distorts per-capita income.
As for the troubled hamlets of Long Island, I really can't consider them to be ghettoes on a national level. They're just distressed suburbs with above-average crime, poorly performing schools and properties that tend to not be as well-maintained as other areas. Many even have middle class household incomes.
The only areas of Long Island that I would consider close to ghetto status are;
- Village of Hempstead (excluding Cathedral Gardens) - Hamlet of Brentwood - Hamlet of Roosevelt
- Hamlet of Central Islip (excluding the Connetquot area and near the Courthouse)
- Hamlet of Wyandanch
- Hamlet of North Bellport (only the part btwn Sunrise+Montauk Hwy)
- Hamlet of Huntington Station (only the "low number" streets)
- Town of Riverhead (only a portion of it)
(^^ As you can see, even most of these communities have good/better parts)
As for the communities that aren't quite as troubled as the above but more troubled than other LI areas:
- Hamlets of Bay Shore/North Bay Shore are really getting there too, that area has had crazy amounts of crime in recent months. It's sad b/c they were really improving with those new fancy schools and revitalized downtown.
- Hamlet of Uniondale
- Village of Mastic Beach
- Village of Freeport (only the part near the LIRR tracks)
- Hamlet of Gordon Heights
- Hamlet of North Amityville (excluding the areas near the Town Pool)
- Hamlet of New Cassel
All the other areas you mentioned aren't ghettoes by any means.
I consider a ghetto to be an area with:
1. Low avg. per-capita income
2. Poorly performing schools
3. Crime higher than the national average
Absolutely no place on LI has a median household income below the national median (though Hempstead, Wyandanch, and Riverhead are below the (higher) state median)
Absolutely no place has a median household value below the national median (though Wyandanch and Mastic Beach are below the much higher state median).
A few places have poverty rates above the national rate----Patchogue, Wyandanch, Inwood, New Cassel, and Mastic Beach (no places in between the (lower)state and national rates).
Several places have per capita incomes below the national average----Brentwood, Central Islip, Elmont, Hempstead, Inwood, Mastic Beach, Mastic, New Cassel, North Amityville, North Bay Shore, North Bellport, Patchogue, Roosevelt, Shirley, Uniondale, and Wyandanch. (In between the national and the (higher)state average we have Bay Shore, Baywood, Copiague, Deer Park, East Farmingdale, East Patchogue, Freeport, Lakeview, Lindenhurst, North Lindenhurst, North Patchogue, Riverhead, Valley Stream, West Babylon, Wheatley Heights, and Yaphank).
So those are the stats. Basically, that's any area of Long Island I've heard referenced as a bad area (excluding Yaphank, Deer Park, East Farmingdale, and Wheatley Heights), along with Huntington Station, North Babylon, and Baldwin. So are any of these areas really "ghettos/hoods/slums" on a national scale? Looks like Wyandanch could easily be, but that's going by these facts. A lot of times, I think what we call a "bad area" on Long Island is a place with a majority/minority population and/or a low-performing school district. But is there a reliable website for crime data? A major part of being "ghetto" is gang violence, prostitution, etc. But again, are these areas really that bad? If they were compared to Detroit or Camden or East St. Louis or Compton, etc. would they still look bad? I know some of the areas listed are a lot worse then others.
Out of idle curiosity, why is this even important? Why does any neighborhood have to have a label? Everything is relative. By my standards, I live comfortably on "da Riv". However, if someone from Sands Point or Cove Neck were forced to live as I do, I'm sure they would feel as if they were "slumming it".
A lot of times, I think what we call a "bad area" on Long Island is a place with a majority/minority population and/or a low-performing school district.
/thread
__________________
"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
Seems like you are putting most of the emphasis on money, which is only one part of a complicated equation.
As the saying goes "The want of money is the root of all evil".
I mean, generally there is a trend that poorer areas (at least when you're dealing with areas that are reasonably high density) tend to have higher crime rates. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions, but that still doesn't cause the whole trend to be invalid.
I say "areas with reasonably high density" because there are plenty of poor rural areas that are very safe. There was an article about an area in Kansas where everybody qualified for free lunch, and the median income was something like $15,000 per year, and yet the kids were all well-behaved and the school didn't perform too poorly.
Then again, poverty in the rest of the world is a lot worse than poverty in the US, and yet you have some cities in the US that could be considered some of the most dangerous in the world (I remember somebody saying that New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate of any city in the world at one point)
But as far as this thread goes, I don't think any area on LI could compare to any "ghetto" at a national level.
Crime-wise, I'm sure the ghetto in the first section of the video (one of the cities in New Jersey. Possibly Trenton) is probably worse crime-wise than any area of LI, though I'm not sure about the second and third sections (trailer park in New Mexico and Navajo Indian Reservation)
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