What are the biggest differences between Nassau & Suffolk county? (Valley Stream: home, neighborhood)

[AnthonyNYC]

Sidewalks!

[ClarkStreetKid]

We gotta come up with the official LI name for these watercraft which spend more time next to the house rather than by or in water. Let's see, how about "house boats" or "yard yachts".

In regards to a picture thread it could be something like this http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html Enjoy folks.

[Joe L]

Can have pet goats, sheep and chickens in Eastern Suffolk. Much less "agitators" forcing change here.

The city people get directed to East Hampton, they are much happier. (East Hampton has them $$4.80 coffee joints with all them fancy chairs, sofa's and laptops)

If you from the city or Great Neck skip the North Fork

[nbres]

Originally Posted by AnthonyNYC

Sidewalks!

I agree about the sidewalks. Most Nassau communities have then, but most suffolk communities don't.

What I will never understand is how in Suffolk a development will have sidewalks on one side of the street and not the other or a sidewalk will abruptly come to an end for no apparent reason mid-block.

Did they run out of money?

Poor planning or no planning?

[sean sean sean sean]

Originally Posted by Jrprofess

I feel, in defense of Suffolk, that this is an issue throughout both counties; and in Nassau sometimes a scarier eyesore given the proportion of home size to large watercraft is typically inverted relative to somewhat larger plots and homes in Suffolk (we should start a picture thread for this) ...I saw much of this when house shopping along the Nassau County south shore...Bellmore, Wantagh, Seaford, Massapequa...

Just sayin' it is an "equal opportunity county" eyesore .

Definitely true! Boats in driveways are a very common sight, I used to have an eighteen footer in mine hope to have another one some day I think OhBeeHave is right that south shore Nassau takes the cake with this practice, but I don't think there's any ego thing involved with bigger boats. It's tough to find dock space/dry dock and even when you do it's too expensive for most.

[ClarkStreetKid]

May I suggest next time you want to add curb appeal to your front yard use a tasteful lawn jockey.

[AnthonyNYC]

[quote=sean sean sean sean;2266958]Definitely true! Boats in driveways are a very common sight, quote]

Another MAJOR difference is the zoning restrictions. You would expect that since most areas in Suffolk have larger property sizes but even if the property is the same size the zoning laws are very very different. Here's an example.

I have a 28ft RV and live in the township of Islip. Islip has no rules (yet) on the lengths. Now the town of Hempstead or Garden City only allows 20ft maximum and also limit the height to something like 13ft, you can only have one, it has to be registered to the homeowner etc...

It's a good idea to always glance at the town code before doing anything or buying a home in that area. Even if you putting up an above ground pool and don't want to get the necessary permits (as most do) read the code to get an idea of the distance from the boundary line etc... It may save you a lot of time in the long run.

Anthony

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by sean sean sean sean

Definitely true! Boats in driveways are a very common sight, I used to have an eighteen footer in mine hope to have another one some day I think OhBeeHave is right that south shore Nassau takes the cake with this practice, but I don't think there's any ego thing involved with bigger boats. It's tough to find dock space/dry dock and even when you do it's too expensive for most.

I so do NOT miss seeing that sort of thing. Growing up in Nassau on the south shore, the streets were congested with parking, the houses so close together and add a boat on the lawn -- UGH!!!! CLAUSTROPHOBIA!

I'll slightly modify my initial comment due to the docking/mooring problems on the south shore (I'd forgotten about that!) -- in Massapequa: Boat Size and Ego were directly related.

[lifetimeliguy]

Originally Posted by nbres

I agree about the sidewalks. Most Nassau communities have then, but most suffolk communities don't.

What I will never understand is how in Suffolk a development will have sidewalks on one side of the street and not the other or a sidewalk will abruptly come to an end for no apparent reason mid-block.

Did they run out of money?

Poor planning or no planning?

Could it be that some of the homes were built by different builders ?
Two different developers built homes on our block, and only half the block has curbs !! (no sidewalks).
Homes with curbs were built three years later by a different builder.

[Some other guy]

Originally Posted by AnthonyNYC

Sidewalks!

There is a lot more to be said about this- I moved from East Nassau to West Suffolk... all of about 5 miles or so, and I can say that Nassau has a much more "planned" feel, where much of Suffolk looks like it was just kind of cobbled together and grew without any guidance. For instance... sidewalks and curbs, a staple in every Nassau neighborhood I have ever seen and part of what really gives nassau that 1950's sitcom feel to it are missing in most Suffolk neighborhoods which tend to give the neighborhoods (IMO) a less "neat" feel.

Its not true for all of Suffolk, but a lot of the local arteries can be really snarled as the one lane local road that snaked around the whole town is now servicing 10x or 100x the population it did 20-30 years ago. This tends to be especially true in north Suffolk, and less true in east non-city commute suffolk.

Its all kind of a trade off, I lived ~10 years in each setting. I preferred the planned sitcom setting to the more private semi rural feel of northern west Suffolk, but your mileage may vary.