I grew up in Southern Westchester (Yonkers area), lived in Northern Westchester for many years (Peekskill area) and now live in Suffolk.
1. Long Island has lots of craft breweries that are really great. Westchester has some good ones, but not nearly as many. (Blue Point is in Patchouge, Captain Lawrence is in Elmsford)
2. Suffolk is flat, or at least the parts I'm familiar with since the place is so huge that I haven't been everywhere. Westchester is one big hill. It gets more snow than the Island. Yonkers is the second hilliest city in the U.S.A. after San Francisco. When it snows anywhere I am, I am not happy. When it snows in Yonkers and I'm there with a car, I want to cut my wrists and watch the blood drip on the snow. (Yonkers, BTW, is the fourth largest city in the state, not counting New York City in this statistic)
3. Long Island has more golf courses that are accessible to people who don't fall into the "Thurston Howell The Third/The Clintons Of Chappaqua" category. There are six public courses, and the sixth one was added only about a decade ago and was the first new one in about 50 years. You have to have a Westchester County Park Pass to get a decent rate to play on them, or to even be allowed to, unless they've changed the system since I lived there and used it, which would have been around 2007. Bethpage Black is a public course that hosts the U.S. Open and I can actually play there if I'd like, though I wouldn't because I stink like a fish at golf and they want you to keep it moving. Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, where I saw the U.S. Open in 2006, would most likely have me tazed by security if I even suggested I ought to be allowed to play there.
4. Westchester had North Tarrytown, which changed it's name to Sleepy Hollow when the GM plant closed so that tourists would increase our revenue hoping to catch a glimpse of Ichabod Crane. Those of us who grew up in Westchester giggle about this.
5. Right up the road from Sleepy Hollow is Ossining, home to Don Draper on the first few seasons of "Mad Men" and hometown of Peter Falk, of Lieutenant Columbo fame, for whom they named a street. It's also the location of Sing Sing. The town motto used to be "Stay Home On Thursday Nights And Watch Your Lights Dim." The old film noir term "up the river" referred to being sent to Sing Sing, either to be incarcerated for a while or at some point invited by the warden to have a seat. If you're ever there on a Thursday, don't go to the barber and for God Sakes don't sit down!
6. This just happened, which is not good:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/westche...s-p-1543362828
7. Westchester is not upstate. PERIOD. No discussion.
8. Metro North is better than the LIRR. It's not as big so it's easier to run. Grand Central has no other railroad, so they know what track the train will leave from about a half hour before it's scheduled departure time and so they pull in and open the doors for you. You don't have that ridiculous mad rush that reminds me of The Beatles during the opening of 'A Hard Day's Night" when they're running through the train station trying to get away from their adoring fans who are chasing them down the platform in order to jump on the train with them. Also, what's the deal with all the transfers? Dumbest thing ever. Yonkers is on the Hudson Line. White Plains is on the Harlem Line. You don't get on a train to Yonkers, then transfer at 125th Street (Metro North's Jamaica) to go to White Plains, unless you got on the wrong train in which case you'd get out at 125 since all lines stop there. Trains just run on their own line. I'll assume this is due to the massive size of the LIRR. And Metro North seems to have a smoother ride; some of the LIRR trains need new shocks as the one I rode the other day was like the noon stage out of Dodge City. Cars are exactly the same, conductors dress the same, the computer voice is the same (replace "This Station is...Baldwin...This is the train to...Babylon" with "This station is Tuckahoe...this is the train to...White Plains") but there are no double deckers on Metro North and I like those. We also have Amtrak at certain stations since you can't go directly to Penn from Westchester and since Grand Central wisely tossed them out back in the 80s. Hopefully the MTA won't screw things up as they've just bought GCT. And from what I understand the LIRR will have their own set of tracks, far underground.
9. Long Island has lots of great food, and an amazing music scene. Westchester has that too but out here it's really abundant. I used to love the beach when I was younger and would drive out to Jones all the time, but now that I live here I never go. Not the beaches fault, I've just become lazy though I love the beach huts, except for the embezzling and all that jazz. Thankfully that was settled and I got to catch a bunch of great bands on the beach this past summer. Westchester really only has Rye Beach (meh) though Playland is there which is really cool. And you can go to the beaches in CT without having to take a ferry, which is also cool.
I'll close by saying that I've met my fair share of nitwits in both locations. And I've met a my fair share of very nice folks as well.
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They both have advantages
