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Being a newcomer to metro NY, I picked LI to settle because it seems to fit my families needs for a place to live with a suburban quality of life with easy access to work in the city. My decision on where to settle was largeley shaped by research online coupled with weekend trips to look at houses and neighborhoods.
As someone who has spent very little time on LI, I never even considered visiting the frequently bashed towns in Nassau or Suffolk. I have read hundreds of posts on this forum to brush up and rightly or wrongly as a newcomer my first impressions have already been made without even visiting these towns.
For me this forum had a tremendous influence on my decision. Many of the posts written by passionate residents of a town protesting negative changes within their community may have good intentions, but may be swaying potential buyers and tax payers to look elsewhere. Is a town declining from being sensational to simply outstanding, or declining from being safe to unsafe? It's difficult to weigh without being a local.
I am wondering if it eventually becomes a self fullfiilling prophecy. People post on how an area has taken a turn for the worse, readers take this as gospel so do not buy in these areas or attempt to sell before it gets worse, and so it begins.
We settled in Babylon Village, moving in tomorrow and can't wait. My kids will be in W Babylon schools. Reading the thread titled "West Babylon" almost swayed us not to buy this house. Only after visiting the schools and talking to neighbors did we decide it's the right place to live.
You cannot always go by what's said online, and have to visit for yourself. I am one of those people upset about negative changes in my community, Westbury. But even in my town there are good sections. West of Ellison ave is more like Carle Place but still in the village of Westbury and it's very nice there. Its the section of the village of Westbury that goes to Westbury schools that is going downhill.
I do not think Babylon is a bad area at all. I've been there several times and it seems pretty nice to me. It may not be "fancy" but its a nice blue collar community and its close to alot of stuff. You have some beautiful parks there, including a nice trail that seems to start by a school NW of the train station and go to Belmont Lake State Park. Babylon Village is way nicer than Westbury too, quaint shops and nice tree lined streets (we dont have any trees on Post ave).
I am wondering if it eventually becomes a self fullfiilling prophecy. People post on how an area has taken a turn for the worse, readers take this as gospel so do not buy in these areas or attempt to sell before it gets worse, and so it begins.
That's exactly what I think. It's not only on here, it's everyday conversations with your friends, neighbors, strangers....whoever. This is what I think is going on in more than a few parts of LI. Valley Stream is the most visible currently, should be interesting to see what happens there.
Reading the thread titled "West Babylon" almost swayed us not to buy this house. Only after visiting the schools and talking to neighbors did we decide it's the right place to live.
Ultimately you did what most prudent folks would do, you went, saw, spoke to locals and learned for yourself what was best for you.
Did this forum help you eliminate some towns? Sure,you said it did. But, if you didn't find some way to narrow down the list of areas and tried to visit every town, city and hamlet on the Island it would be 2035 before you finally settled. You would have narrowed it down with or without the forum somehow.
Does it become a self fulfilling prophecy? I seriously doubt that there is enough mass, in terms of member numbers, on this forum to have a serious impact on that. Besides, once prudent folks go out and do their research they find many of the comments made on this forum to be inaccurate.
Why inaccurate? Simply because very often the comments such as "Forget so&so town, the schools are horrible, there's gang activity everywhere, and there's so many illegals that INS has set up a branch office" are made by people who do not live there, do not have children there, and are forming their opinion on rumors, innuendo and/or race bias. These folks are generally recognizable by statements such as "I have a friend of a friend, who knew someone who lived there". They might even note that "I've been there on a number of occasions", which might translate as "I drove through so&so and stopped for a Starbucks". Of course, even if they do not identify themselves by statements like these their comments are almost always stated in a manner that carries an air of superiority to all other opinions by masquerading as fact. If I can figure that out about some of those types of posts, I imagine there are others who can as well. This, of course, is not representative about all posts on this forum.
IMO you very correctly pointed out that people have a great deal of passion for the area in general. To me that's a good thing, people who have passion will eventually work to make things better. Although it does aggravate me at times to see folks who come off with the "If we got rid of this problem, everything would be OK from now on" comments. These people likely are more part of the problems than the cure.
I do naturally have my own opinions. Problems on LI? Hell yes! Over-sensitivity to issues (the PC approach)? Much too often IMO! Easy solutions? Not in this economy folks! Lot's of folks wanting to moan and groan, but not really doing anything about it? Yup. Is this forum a tool for blockbusting? Nah, it's an internet forum. Again, I don't think there's enough people on here to make that type of impact.
Overall the Island is a great place with a tremendous number of things to do and enjoy, also loads of great people. Is it for everyone, not likely, but I'm sure you'll very much enjoy your time in Babylon.
Good luck in the home Babylon is a nice village and a nice area. I would take all the comments good and bad and make a descision for yourself. Where I own a home, people bash it a lot, but there there are other people who say its lovely and an up and coming area.
Being a newcomer to metro NY, I picked LI to settle because it seems to fit my families needs for a place to live with a suburban quality of life with easy access to work in the city. My decision on where to settle was largeley shaped by research online coupled with weekend trips to look at houses and neighborhoods.
As someone who has spent very little time on LI, I never even considered visiting the frequently bashed towns in Nassau or Suffolk. I have read hundreds of posts on this forum to brush up and rightly or wrongly as a newcomer my first impressions have already been made without even visiting these towns.
For me this forum had a tremendous influence on my decision. Many of the posts written by passionate residents of a town protesting negative changes within their community may have good intentions, but may be swaying potential buyers and tax payers to look elsewhere. Is a town declining from being sensational to simply outstanding, or declining from being safe to unsafe? It's difficult to weigh without being a local.
I am wondering if it eventually becomes a self fullfiilling prophecy. People post on how an area has taken a turn for the worse, readers take this as gospel so do not buy in these areas or attempt to sell before it gets worse, and so it begins.
We settled in Babylon Village, moving in tomorrow and can't wait. My kids will be in W Babylon schools. Reading the thread titled "West Babylon" almost swayed us not to buy this house. Only after visiting the schools and talking to neighbors did we decide it's the right place to live.
I've been saying that all along...and it's wrong. People will say "I'm just being honest" or "peopel want to know the truth" but honesty and truth --are really only opinion. And you know what they compare opinions to....
One man's ghetto is another man's paradise?
Lets just say that the other day someone asked "the worst towns on Long Island"......and just like clockwork.....the list came up of all the "non-white" towns on long island.....
it's sad
and it happens in here a lot. Town bashing. Steering. Blockbusting...whatever you want to call it.....it's wrong.
I've seen enough people get upset and hurt to know that it's wrong. Ripping apart towns where people OWN homes and grew up and have family.....just because YOU think it's a bad town...doesn't mean you have the right to tell someone else what you think.....because what you think it not the be-all to end-all.......
and that analogy about opinons....and everyone having one.....
well sometimes I just have to agree....
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