How is Valley Stream changing Demographically over the years? (Massapequa: fit in, real estate)

[xbure9x]

Originally Posted by Smash255

While I may live on the other side of Nassau, its not like I have ner stepped foot in Valley Stream or Green Acres. Fact of the matter is the area is any more dangerous or less safe just because the color of the people's skin has changed and this is backed up by the crime states, which have actually dropped. Now i know the general notion is to discount stats which dpn't meet your previous notion, but choosing to ignore them, doesn't make it any less true

You cannot make an assumption on a couple of day trips to the area. Hey, I've been to Hempstead many times and I survived, but I don't think I would want to live there anytime soon.

Other than walking home late at night from the train, I never said VS was totally unsafe. However, the point was that when I was younger I never felt unsafe walking around town at all hours of the night. Today, I would not do that in VS. Unfortunately, what is the only thing that has changed in the town? You tell me.

And before you tell me that you would not feel safe walking around any town late at night nowadays, I would certainly feel safe in Massapequa at night as an example, or Syosset, or Plainview. Yes there is a trend here. You know it as well as I do, whether you will admit it or not. Do I want this to be the case? Absolutely not, however you can't deny reality. And sadly, until all of us truly do learn to live together, this will continue to be the case around LI.

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by xbure9x

You cannot make an assumption on a couple of day trips to the area. Hey, I've been to Hempstead many times and I survived, but I don't think I would want to live there anytime soon.

Other than walking home late at night from the train, I never said VS was totally unsafe. However, the point was that when I was younger I never felt unsafe walking around town at all hours of the night. Today, I would not do that in VS. Unfortunately, what is the only thing that has changed in the town? You tell me.

And before you tell me that you would not feel safe walking around any town late at night nowadays, I would certainly feel safe in Massapequa at night as an example, or Syosset, or Plainview. Yes there is a trend here. You know it as well as I do, whether you will admit it or not. Do I want this to be the case? Absolutely not, however you can't deny reality. And sadly, until all of us truly do learn to live together, this will continue to be the case around LI.

The point is you are basing your idea of not feeling safe walking around at night on nothing other than the color of people's skin and thats wrong period. Now if you didn't feel safe in the area anymore because crime had gone up or something like that, then you might have a more valid point, but thats not the case.

[tiaam]

Originally Posted by xbure9x

You cannot make an assumption on a couple of day trips to the area. Hey, I've been to Hempstead many times and I survived, but I don't think I would want to live there anytime soon.

Other than walking home late at night from the train, I never said VS was totally unsafe. However, the point was that when I was younger I never felt unsafe walking around town at all hours of the night. Today, I would not do that in VS. Unfortunately, what is the only thing that has changed in the town? You tell me.

And before you tell me that you would not feel safe walking around any town late at night nowadays, I would certainly feel safe in Massapequa at night as an example, or Syosset, or Plainview. Yes there is a trend here. You know it as well as I do, whether you will admit it or not. Do I want this to be the case? Absolutely not, however you can't deny reality. And sadly, until all of us truly do learn to live together, this will continue to be the case around LI.

I'm just curious as to what make you feel safe in syosset, plainview and massapequa compare to valley stream? maybe I could understand your point a little better.

[Dennis Brown]

Back in the late 80's and in the 90's Green Acres Mall was a Queens dominated scene unless your talking about early in the day when it first opened up. On a Friday or Saturday night Queens tookover and it was mostly young black people hanging with the occasionally 'flare up' (including a homicide in Sunrise Multiplex during Godfather Part III). In recent years they've fixed up the mall pretty nice and you have a large influx of indians shopping in the mall as well as more local Valley Stream white residents out and about in the evening time.

As far as the Valley Stream itself its just a bleed over from Rosedale as far as more people of color. Unlike Rosedale however you don't have too much of the renting out situation mostly home owners which is a plus

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by tiaam

FYI--her quote was only thing change from then and now is the minority population. I believe that is RACE!!

Xburex' quote:
"I did NOT feel scared to live there, did not have any problems, and felt generally safe, it's just that it isn't what it was like when I grew up, and I am one of those people (whether you agree with me or not) that want my kids to grow up in an area that resembles the childhood that I had. I would not really want my kids roaming around the streets of VS at night time like we did when I was a kid. I don't know if I would feel safe walking home alone from the train station late at night now like I used to do all the time."

How is not knowing whether someone would feel safe walking through a neighborhood late at night racist?

I live in a very quiet community. Right now I could walk outside and hear a bat burp. But I wouldn't go walking around by myself. Have you read the newspapers? Watched the TV news? Women getting followed home and raped at night. Or how about the man coming home late at night being shot and killed by a gang of thugs? His wife found him dead on the doorstep.

None of that is racist. It is a sad sign of the times.

We rode the buses all over Nassau growing up. I wouldn't let my kids ride the buses the way I did as a kid. That's not racist. That's concern for their safety. Things change, which is one of the central themes in this thread. Unfortunately crime, and the increased use of deadly force is one of the things which is increasing all over -- not just in VS.

[iluvmycuties]

It just seems that the most PC people are the ones who sit tight in their very white, suburban, financially secure neighborhoods.

If people think the towns they defend so strongly are so great, why aren't they living there?

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by tiaam

I'm just curious as to what make you feel safe in syosset, plainview and massapequa compare to valley stream? maybe I could understand your point a little better.

Having grown up in Massapequa I can give you some insight as to Massapequa. My Italian friends had family members who did not like the (derogatory Italian term for black people) and would do anything to prevent them from moving in. There was a black family that moved into a home on N. Poplar St on the west side of Broadway. A cross was burned on their lawn. Insults hurled, trash dumped onto it. Not the 60's in Mississippi but the 70's in Massapequa.

"They" had their place is what the men said and it wasn't in Massapequa.

People didn't want to see their son walk down their street. They made things bad for the family. I was all of 10-11 when this occurred and I remember it vividly.

Move forward and I am working for a Jewish man from Syosset (and later Woodbury) in his Plainview office. He and his friends spoke the sympathetic, understanding talk, but didn't want to see a dark face unless they were serving them. They would throw money at causes to look good, but didn't want to see a black person move into the neighborhood.

While they weren't as to the point as my Massapequa neighbors, they used their wealth to keep black people out.

About 8 months ago there was a news report about a home invasion in my old neighborhood, not far from where the black family had lived. My old neighborhood felt very safe (the strong, um, family presence) but that news report made me think twice about it.

[I_Love_LI_but]

VS is rapidly deteriorating. Just look at Green Acres Mall. That is crime central now...how was it two decades ago?

The Green Acres Mall is often seen as the bugaboo of Valley Stream:

"Look out for Mr. Stranger Danger in the GA Mall!!! Valley Stream is going down! Just look at that mall! If Roosevelt Field Mall started having a lot of crime by God I'd still shop there ... at least the criminals will most likely be white! I don't want to go to GA Mall just because there are too many minorities there! Doesn't matter if no one harms a hair on my head at GA and I get carjacked at Roosevelt Field every other week!"

The truth about the GA Mall? Some years ago it got a reputation for car theft and other crimes. When the police began looking into it closely to try and deter further crime, they found that in cases of car theft many people LIED and said their car was stolen from the GA parking lot because they simply wanted to get the insurance money. This is true. Many WHITE people were arrested for insurance fraud for claiming their car was stolen in the GA parking lot. Now miraculously it is NOT such a hot spot for "car thieves!" Gee I wonder why? Because in reality it was a hot spot for LIARS and did not attract anymore car thieves than anywhere else.

Then people of color from Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx started shopping in GA Mall more frequently:

"Uh oh! Valley Stream is now ghetto! That proves it right there; look who is in the mall that has a Valley Stream address."

However, in order to get to the GA Mall from any of the boroughs, YOU DO NOT EVEN TRAVEL INTO VALLEY STREAM. The GA Mall is off by itself right next to Rosedale, Queens on Sunrise Highway. Most of the "scary" shoppers from the boroughs never even go into Valley Stream proper at all.

[iluvmycuties]

The OP asked if there was "white flight." I quoted the OP's words, I didn't pull them from my behind. And you should have pulled my entire quote, rather than edit it to put some spin on it. Very nice!

My ENTIRE quote:

"I'm merely responding to your question of "white flight"...if you don't want to move to a town that is experiencing "white flight," you may want to reconsider your move. Once again, let me state that I am responding to the the OP's question, not making judgments about the town."

And, you have no problem with the OP's original question?? HUH?? The OP put "white flight" out there. You really pick and choose them, don't you?

Then you quote Smash and give a thumbs down. Here's Smash's CONVENIENTLY EDITED quote:

"The point is you are basing your idea of not feeling safe walking around at night on nothing other than the color of people's skin and thats wrong period. Now if you didn't feel safe in the area anymore because crime had gone up or something like that, then you might have a more valid point, but thats not the case."

Umm...Smash was saying how WRONG it is, PERIOD, to judge your safety in a neighborhood based on race alone. Are you reading these posts AT ALL??????

You just said yourself that your cousin named a white LIer who only wanted to live among whites...so, which is it? Is the idea of "white flight" an issue or isn't it on LI?

It must be really nice up there on your pedestal looking down on all of us.

Maybe YOU need to take a look at yourself.

[tiaam]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

In answer to the above, I live in Valley Stream. I have no intention of moving anytime soon, so I am not "sanitizing" anything I write here for property value purposes. Actually, I would rather people with racist attitudes not move here.



That's not the way it is on my block, where I've lived for almost 16 years now. We have one black homeowner, who bought here over 10 years ago. Other houses have sold and all sold to white families. As for the black homeowner, there was no gnashing of teeth and wailing to the heavens or shaking our fists at God up above. He, his wife and children were accepted like any other neighbors. When he decided to do some masonry work on his property, other WHITE homeowners on the block helped him do the work. What do you think of that? Crazy, huh? (I am hesitant to say we didn't burn one cross. However, we are waiting for them to show their true colors as dirtbags because, after all, they are black ... It's been over 10 years, but we will see ...)

I celebrated Father's Day at a barbeque and another (white) couple who attended were residents of Valley Stream. They are proud of their block and aim to stay. The husband is a retired police officer. He speaks spanish. A hispanic family recently bought the house whose backyard faces theirs. They went around the block to introduce themselves and when the police officer addressed him in spanish (trying to be neighborly) the man of the house replied in English. He is a businessman from Ecquador and has beautified the yard tremendously of the house he and his family just moved into. (We are waiting for it to turn into a flophouse full of illegal aliens, but no luck on that yet.)



Here's my "life experience" if you will. I am white and I live in the Village of Valley Stream and I like it very much. We have a Village government that CARES about our community. For example, there are two towns nearby that have illegal alien problems: hanging out on the streets looking for work, overcrowding flophouses, etc. That does not happen here thanks to our fine Village government.

We are close to NYC for commuting. We have steeply discounted parking for the LIRR for Village residents ($10 for a 2 year permit). You can take the LIRR or you can go the cheap way and take the N4 bus to the E train in Jamaica, with free transfer, it only costs $2.00 to get to Manhattan. I do not fear walking home from the LIRR at any hour. I do not fear walking my dog at any hour. Granted, she is a big, aggressive Akita who would not hesitate to take a chunk out of someone threatening if I let her, BUT we don't run into any "sketchy characters." (How sad is that??)

We are close to all major parkways. Valley Stream is big and has the distinction of having 3 exits on the Southern State Parkway. We are close to the Cross Island Parkway and close to the Belt Parkway. We are very close to JFK Airport and not far from LaGuardia Airport either.

We have a State Park off the Southern State Parkway. We have many smaller parks with ponds, streams, kiddie playground equipment, etc. We have a roller hockey rink. We have an 18-hole miniature golf course. We have a beautiful park with an outdoor swimming pool, walking trails, biking trails, etc. We have free concerts in the summer on the Village Green, which is also a beautiful little park. We have an excellent library. We have many churches, synagogues, etc. We have an annual Fourth of July bash complete with fireworks.

As for the schools, they are doing well. Valley Stream has good programs for the arts (i.e., a dance program with American Ballet Theater) and we have our share of kids who place in the big science contests (Intel, etc.).

As for my personal experience of the teenage students who attend the schools on Hendrickson (much feared according to some posts in this thread), here is what I have observed and I see them up close and personal every single weekday. I take the bus to Manhattan in the afternoon when their schools are letting out. I see several of them walk by every day and several of them take the same bus as me, act polite, and get off in the questionable territory of SD#30 (and they're not acting like animals, what gives?). These kids are of all kinds: black, white, hispanic, and asian. I see mixed groups of them hanging around. They don't just strictly stick to their own kind. I overhear their conversations and they are talking about grades, classes, finals, college applications, after school jobs. Just like normal middle class WHITE kids. Yesterday I overheard a conversation between two black girls about something they learned in school having to do with oxymorons. Imagine, they are not morons because they are black! They actually know what oxymorons are! I never feel "in danger" around these kids, regardless of what race they happen to be.

I will honestly say that I grew up on Long Island in an ALL LILY WHITE neighborhood and school district. I never saw any black kids until high school and there were only around 3 of them and they were the children of upper class blacks (doctor, fashion model, diplomatic embassy person from Africa). I think that growing up this way hurt me in the real world because it was UNREALISTIC to never have to interact with people of other races, colors and creeds. I had to spend some time learning how to rise above my provincial small-minded thinking and sadly, it wasn't easy. Even though when I grew up my parents never used the "n" word, I still learned things from schoolmates whose parents did pass on racist opinions.

So comparing me, a white resident of Valley Stream who intends to stay, to many of the rest of the posters on this thread, maybe I am the weirdo? After all, I know Long Islanders who NEVER venture into THE CITY (big bad Manhattan) and who still refer to any and all hispanics as Puerto Ricans.

I can only thank God for working in Manhattan and being exposed to all different kinds of people. I can also be thankful for travelling to other parts of the world and meeting asians, middle easterners and africans in their native homelands. I am not afraid of people who are "different" like many Long Islander are due to my experiences. As for worrying about living in a multi-cultural town, I think some of you would get over that fast if you had some real world experience to compare it to. Worried that there are people who are different? Don't like them even if they do keep their lawns mowed? How about travelling to a place where only 1 in 6 puppies born to a dog make it to adulthood ... and human babies have odds only a little better. How about travelling to a place, while being a major asian city (considered the "NYC of Asia") where every single day between the hours of 11am and 7pm all the water is turned off by the municipality ... for everyone. How about travelling to a place where when they can tell you are an American, people come up to you ranting and raving with a list of very UNCOMPLIMENTARY things they want you to tell George W. Bush?

As for the OP's question, which I should answer since I am on this thread:

NO, I do not see WHITE FLIGHT happening in Valley Stream. I do not expect it to turn into a ghetto the likes of the South Bronk in the 70s anytime soon. However, if you want a close to all white environment, this is not the place for you. As another poster pointed out, there are fewer places to run to on LI that are all white, which many people (at least on this thread) apparently find quite threatening and distressing.

My 9 year old niece has a best friend from her public school class ... and guess what ... her best friend is black! And they supposedly live in a Grade A White Town in the middle of Nassau County! She had a birthday party and invited all the kids in her class and I saw them all. There were a few blacks, hispanics, even an Indian girl! What is this world coming to? I guess I should not mention this town or the whites there will start packing and property values will plummet! Well, I will give you all a hint. This Grade A White Town in Nassau County on Long Island produced a famous person! Serial killer Joel Rifkin, a nice white Jewish boy! Guess what he blames his serial killing tendencies on? Going to high school with the mean (white) kids who picked on him.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I couldn't have said this better. I get so hurt sometimes as a person of color when certain comments are made making people of color seem inferior. Thank you again.