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and while the reviews spoke fondly of the education level, the reviews of the people in the district and the sense of community were fairly dismal. Anybody have any insight on this? It was one of the towns Id consider if move to LI in the future, but I rather live around community oriented folks since Ive spend some good time in the Midwest! Thanks for your input.
It's every man for himself as the Island is one of the most expensive places to live in the US. The list is long, we have the highest cell phone county taxes, some of the highest gas prices in the 50 states, some of the highest property taxes anywhere and utility rates that are, again, some of highest in the country.
What does this all have to do with a sense of community? Each town or community is responsible for levying property taxes, an annual event that pits home owners against school administrators and state, county and local politicians. You cannot harbor much of a sense of community when the community leaders are busy trying to raise revenue by raising your taxes. My taxes have been increased around $1k per annum.
I believe the island is a place where people are so busy hustling, just to keep up, sense of community has been lost as has the Island's identity as it's been over-developed and homogenized from the Queens line to Montauk. It's definitely not the same place I grew up in a few decades ago.
I'd wish you luck on finding the 'community' but it's simply not here.
Syosset may be ground zero in the war between taxpayers and outrageous school administrator salaries. Google "Carole Hankin" and you'll find tons of info on the saga. In short, the Superintendent of the Syosset schools makes in salary and compensation over $500k/yr. Some defend it, some are fighting it. Thus, the "sense of community" sounds bad. It probably isn't as bad as it sounds and it's a going concern all across LI. Syosset gets the most press because she is the highest paid administrator in the State (and Syosset is hardly the most difficult or largest school district).
It's every man for himself as the Island is one of the most expensive places to live in the US. The list is long, we have the highest cell phone county taxes, some of the highest gas prices in the 50 states, some of the highest property taxes anywhere and utility rates that are, again, some of highest in the country.
What does this all have to do with a sense of community? Each town or community is responsible for levying property taxes, an annual event that pits home owners against school administrators and state, county and local politicians. You cannot harbor much of a sense of community when the community leaders are busy trying to raise revenue by raising your taxes. My taxes have been increased around $1k per annum.
I believe the island is a place where people are so busy hustling, just to keep up, sense of community has been lost as has the Island's identity as it's been over-developed and homogenized from the Queens line to Montauk. It's definitely not the same place I grew up in a few decades ago.
I'd wish you luck on finding the 'community' but it's simply not here.
I strongly disagree. I live in the Harborfields SD and I'm blown away at how tight this community is. I would venture to say Northport is similar. Heck, I have friends in the Huntington SD and they seem to have a tight and involved community as well.
You get what you're willing to put in. If you're involved and active, you'll find that "community" feeling.
To answer the OP's question, I never got the impression that Syosset was pretentious, but I found a lot of Woodbury residents were like that (but that was when I lived in Woodbury almost 15 years ago.)
I have to agree with Theimporterswife. My town(Islip) has a great community feel. One of the reason I chose to live here. But we also only graduate 180+/- so once the kids are in school activities you pretty much see the same faces over and over.
I would believe there are many Pretentious People on Long Island and not just in Syosset.
I have read the opinions of many people and the ones that complain or hate Long Island/Syosset seem to always complain about the housing cost and it is a valid complaint. The simple truth is all Long Island Housing is expensive. Some parts more than others, but all of Long Island is really expensive. As you travel to the North Shore of Long Island, its gets even more expensive.
Pretentious basically means "exaggerated worth or stature".
Are there more Expensive Homes and Fancy Cars in Syosset than some others towns? Yes.
Does that make Syosset more Pretentious? No.
Does Wealth create Pretentious people? Yes.
Syosset is a great town. I moved here for the Schools. I hate my Property Taxes but I understand that is why we have one of the highest decorated School Districts. Plus, Mrs. $550k is now gone and that kind of waste is no longer being tolerated.
Syosset, it all depends, just like the rest of Long Island. Gonna miss the tight knit group of 5 neighbors that we're leaving. I feel this is in large part to the zoning, .25-.5 acre plots, houses are close so people get to know each other.
Going to lose some of that on the new acre property, in an area more known to be pretentious....but my goal is to be myself, enjoy live and not let others crap on my parade.
Not necessarily pretentious but definitely very Chinese. I think people feel there's no sense of community in Syosset because there's no human interaction and eveyrone keeps to themselves but the reason many folk don't comingle with others is that they have limited english ability and are more comfortable speaking in cantonese and mathematics.
You mean the ~20% asian? Not even all Chinese. How exactly do you know their English ability and what are the 75% white doing wrong?
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If you're involved and active, you'll find that "community" feeling.
