Goodbye Long Island...Good Riddance! (Homer, Florida: transfer, schools, living in)

[TeaJay]

Originally Posted by Jrprofess

Oh Beehave made some good (and polite) points I thought.

I agree. I am in the process of trying to sell my house so my husband and our baby can move back to LI and while I've never questioned my reasons or decision, the anti-LI posts get me a little bummed out.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by stratoguzzi

Is life possible without Razzanos?If I ever move I would miss them.

I've never been there (live too far east) but now have a "mental note to self" to check this place out should I ever find myself in Glen Cove. Having grown up in Massapequa around many Italian friends, I developed an appreciation for good Italian food and products!

Folks write that when they go elsewhere (whether it be vacation or a move) they can't find good this or good that. I believe LIers are spoiled in that sense; we do have so many good restaurants (of all varieties), delis, pizzerias and bagel stores all at arms length. Head to different regions and the selection of eateries decreases with the lower population. One may find food that is good, but it is prepared with that region's tastes and preferences in mind.

A long while back I had read that a national pizza franchise had different variations of pizza sauce for different regions. Some areas favored salty, some acidic, yet others sweet. Grabbing a slice at Luigi's in Cleveland is certainly not going to be the same as one from Luigi's in Bay Ridge. The people who label this bad or that good fail to take into consideration the differences in products available to restauranteurs in that particular area, the taste of the local water and regional preferences: i.e., malt vinegar on fries in Niagra Falls but not on LI, mustard on fast food burgers upstate but not on LI.

I often fall back on my FL dwelling family for comparison. While they lived up here, they lived near an incredible bagel shop which was real old school. (My mouth is watering thinking about it!) They moved south and for 7 years or so could not find a bagel which was remotely comparable to the ones sold at the LI shop. #1 they baked without boiling. #2 the water! The water in the area tastes nothing like our water on LI. That water's mineral content affects the taste and the way it reacts with other ingredients.

Cold cuts were a dismal affair there as well, until one of their local grocery chains started carrying Boars Head. An Italian friend has visiting family 'import' real Italian grocery products from NY whenever they visit. The area is still devoid of Italian specialities. Olive Garden is about as Italian as it gets. Sad.

Perhaps Razzanos should open a store down south in addition to the Glen Cove location. They would have a gold mine operation!

[elemental]

The old addage about not being able to see the forest for the trees is absolutely true. Once you leave the forest, your visions sharpens and all that was comes into focus. If there is anything moving 1800 miles has taught me, it's that I had no idea how different life could be even though I thought it. There have been some excellent points made here to counter those that have left, bought a monster house, pay less taxes etc. I especially like the one about out jonesing the joneses. If you were to throw out the beautiful house for less money and less taxes, you'd be missing the point about why people leave.

Why do you leave anything you have had for many years? To get more for the money or a better product. If you think of any city as the product, it makes the rationale easier. We all picked a place on LI due to several factors: affordability, taxes, neighborhood, schools, crime or lack thereof, etc. Combined, these make up the product a city has to offer. If one had moved from Amityville to Syosset, the wouldn't have saved much in terms of taxes, but some other aspect drove them to move. Perhaps it was that the neighborhood changed, gang problems in the high school, etc. Why is this any different than choosing a city in another state? The same principles apply, yet somehow those who stayed in the departed state feel offended. When they too make a decision to relocate wherever, their eyes will be opened like ours have and just as the person who moved from Amityville to Syosset did.

Here were the factors for our family:


Crime
School districts
Growth of the community
Economics(taxes, utilities, housing costs, etc.)
Housing Trends
Weather
A great view.

All of the above contribute to what you would consider "quality of life". When the quality of life for a family declines to such a point that they consider a change, the first thing they lash out at is "The Island". Unfortunately, the same corruption that allows you to get things done because you know somebody, is the same corruption that has forced the hand of many people who have now left long island. No one says this, but it's the root of all our problems.

After being away for over a year, a new family moved into the neighborhood and the wife is decked from head to toe in name brands: abercrombie t-shirts, Chanel bag, Chanel glasses, drives a lexus, etc. This is so far from the norm here that she now stands out to us. When we were on the island it was the norm. Once you remove the stigma and social class element, life is so much easier on you and the pressure recedes another notch. The lower financial pressures make your vision a little clearer and you wonder how you could have paid $14 grand a year in taxes when you now pay $4. You wonder why electic and gas are three times as expensive on LI as they are here. You wonder why every punk booming through your neighborhood doing 60 on a side street gets away with it when it doesn't even occur here. You begin to see that the life we lived on Long Island was based shallowly on social status. Even if we felt we didn't participate, we indeed had.

Again, not until you leave the forest will you see.

[elemental]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Cold cuts were a dismal affair there as well, until one of their local grocery chains started carrying Boars Head. An Italian friend has visiting family 'import' real Italian grocery products from NY whenever they visit. The area is still devoid of Italian specialities. Olive Garden is about as Italian as it gets. Sad.

Perhaps Razzanos should open a store down south in addition to the Glen Cove location. They would have a gold mine operation!

We too have found this. There is a bagel store here which wouldn't last a day on the Island and they have 8 stores! What I have found is that if you never had it, how can you miss it? In my best Brooklyn accent "They don't know from nothin'..." Many parts of the country devoid of a large ethnic concentration where food is a large part of tradition feel it's just a meal. I recently asked a question at the local Italian restaurant and they couldn't answer it. The question was "Where can we find the largest concentration of Italians in Colorado?". The fact is, there isn't a large concentration. The top nationalities are English, German and Irish. Two of the three are not particlarly noted for their culinary mastery. What we do have is killer Mexican, Asian and good old Steak houses. The void left by a life of eating Italian a few times a week is tremendous however, so a solution we must find!

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by elemental

We too have found this. There is a bagel store here which wouldn't last a day on the Island and they have 8 stores! What I have found is that if you never had it, how can you miss it? In my best Brooklyn accent "They don't know from nothin'..." Many parts of the country devoid of a large ethnic concentration where food is a large part of tradition feel it's just a meal. I recently asked a question at the local Italian restaurant and they couldn't answer it. The question was "Where can we find the largest concentration of Italians in Colorado?". The fact is, there isn't a large concentration. The top nationalities are English, German and Irish. Two of the three are not particlarly noted for their culinary mastery. What we do have is killer Mexican, Asian and good old Steak houses. The void left by a life of eating Italian a few times a week is tremendous however, so a solution we must find!

That highlighted line you had written sums it up best and also explains why when NYers relocate, the clods amongst us (not all of us, just the ones who are loud LOL) make us appear egocentric when we start in with "We had the best XXX back in NY."

You are spot on with your observations -- if an area doesn't have enough of a population to warrant a particular ethnic market, you aren't going to find the best representation of that cuisine for the general public's consumption.

I LOL @ your noting of two nationalities not known for their culinary mastery!
I'm 1/2 Irish and can aver that Irish cuisine does not have the appeal of the various regional delights from Italy. I do, however, make a mean Irish soda bread!

[TheJickler]

"The top nationalities are English, German and Irish. Two of the three are not particlarly noted for their culinary mastery."

Which one IS noted for their culinary mastery?

[okaydorothy]

Being irish (150%) accent and all, I woudl say German.

dorothy

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

Being irish (150%) accent and all, I woudl say German.

dorothy

Nothiing like well prepared Sauerbraten!

[HomerBrink]

Petunia and Nancy Threader --sorry but your posts aren't for real. Sounds like RE promo.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by HomerBrink

Petunia and Nancy Threader --sorry but your posts aren't for real. Sounds like RE promo.

It might be helpful if you quote the posts you consider unreal so that we know which ones you're referring to. (There's 159, 160 posts on this thread.)