Long Island Newsday article- good reading (Eden, Boston: leasing, amusement park, homes)

[amsm196]

Hey guys! We used to live on Long Island, moved away about 10 years ago. We want to move back, but articles like this make us really think.

I hope this link works, and if it does please leave your comments, i would like to know if this article is correct info. Is it really true that there isnt that many good paying jobs on Long Island? If so, that makes no sense , since the cost of living is so high. Here in Vegas the cost of living is pretty affordable and the jobs pay fair so that you can survive. Heck out here the starting pay for a warehouse worker is about 18-22 dollars an hour, and thats not bad because again the cost of living is cheap.

Anyway here is the link to the article.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liinde265067300jan26,0,184010.story?coll=ny-top-headlines (broken link)

[onrway2clt]

I would probably make half as much on Long Island if I switched from NYC.

Originally Posted by amsm196

Hey guys! We used to live on Long Island, moved away about 10 years ago. We want to move back, but articles like this make us really think.

I hope this link works, and if it does please leave your comments, i would like to know if this article is correct info. Is it really true that there isnt that many good paying jobs on Long Island? If so, that makes no sense , since the cost of living is so high. Here in Vegas the cost of living is pretty affordable and the jobs pay fair so that you can survive. Heck out here the starting pay for a warehouse worker is about 18-22 dollars an hour, and thats not bad because again the cost of living is cheap.

Anyway here is the link to the article.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liinde265067300jan26,0,184010.story?coll=ny-top-headlines (broken link)

[JustSayNo]

Yikes, having left LI a year ago that thread brought back old memories.......ah Long Islanders are such a pleasant sub-species.

Sadly, LI used to be a nice place to live. It just isn't anymore for a lot of people whom were born and raised there. See, we remember the way it used to be. To the newcomers, LI is an amusement park, with all the pretty lights and spinning things (that would be the lights in the wall-to-wall homes, the malls, and the brake lights on the 5.5 gazillion cars).

It is a very overcrowded, rushed, rude and selfish, sinking ship. It really is heartbreaking for those of us that remember LI 40 years ago. To many folks live beyond their means, that get angry and bitter and caught up in thier own hells-hells they hide from their neighbors. There is no more neighborhood, no more chatting on the sidewalks of towns, no more bike riding, or horseback riding, or family beach days (of cousres many still do this, I am being dramatic)

I think that article, and the responses are very good indications of the current climate on LI. If my parents still did not live there, I would never cross the Throggs Neck back onto that sandspit. There is so much more to life than LI, but so many can't see over the stack of bills to understand that.

[amsm196]

Justsayno,

You said you moved away a year ago, but where to? Where in your opinion is a better place to live?

I have been gone for 10 years, i would love to go back, yet the cost of living is so incredibly high, and the salaries there do not seem to even out what the cost if to live there.

Just curious where you moved to?

Thanks

Originally Posted by JustSayNo

Yikes, having left LI a year ago that thread brought back old memories.......ah Long Islanders are such a pleasant sub-species.

Sadly, LI used to be a nice place to live. It just isn't anymore for a lot of people whom were born and raised there. See, we remember the way it used to be. To the newcomers, LI is an amusement park, with all the pretty lights and spinning things (that would be the lights in the wall-to-wall homes, the malls, and the brake lights on the 5.5 gazillion cars).

It is a very overcrowded, rushed, rude and selfish, sinking ship. It really is heartbreaking for those of us that remember LI 40 years ago. To many folks live beyond their means, that get angry and bitter and caught up in thier own hells-hells they hide from their neighbors. There is no more neighborhood, no more chatting on the sidewalks of towns, no more bike riding, or horseback riding, or family beach days (of cousres many still do this, I am being dramatic)

I think that article, and the responses are very good indications of the current climate on LI. If my parents still did not live there, I would never cross the Throggs Neck back onto that sandspit. There is so much more to life than LI, but so many can't see over the stack of bills to understand that.

[JustSayNo]

we moved to Delaware County, technically called the Southern Tier. But, we are a bit different-no children (schools are not important though 1/2 my tax bill is for the school), we have our own biz and work from home (have done so for the last six years and that made local employment irrelevant) and most of our clients are in Westchester, NYC, LI so the distance (2.5 hrs. to the city) works just fine. We were both born and raised LI'ers, did a 10-year stint in the city, bought on LI 11 years ago, did the commute, then moved to LI jobs, than started the biz. By the time we did the LI jobs, we knew we were not staying. We saved all we could, knowing we were leaving, hit a few bumps in the road, and finally were able to leave for good a year ago.

Obviously not the typical scenerio, but honestly I vowed when I left LI the first time (to the city) that I would NEVER go back. When it came time to buy a house, LI was the best bang for your buck, so we reluctantly moved back to NS, Suffolk Cty. Within the first year, things really started to change and went downhill fast in my opinion. It is just a different place, and not for the better IMHO. Quality of life is key to us, we were never interested in keeping up with the Joneses, never cared what others thought. We worked hard, lived below our means, spent smart-buying cars, never leasing,bought a home we could afford on one salary, etc., and saved every penny we could. In today's LI, that makes you an oddball. 11 years ago we could do what we did on LI-today forget about it-there is not an inch of wiggle room for folks. Everything is inflated beyond reason, it saddens me to my core as LI was, and could still be, a great place for young families and the middle class.

Good luck on your move back, I do hope you find everything you and your family are looking for

[Check123]

Just,

Honestly, you sound like one of those bitter people that you referred to in an earlier post. Your analogy comparing Long Island to a sinking ship was rather intuitive; when a ship begins to sink it's the rats that leave first.

[BovinaCowHateWindTurbines]

Originally Posted by Check123

Just,

Honestly, you sound like one of those bitter people that you referred to in an earlier post. Your analogy comparing Long Island to a sinking ship was rather intuitive; when a ship begins to sink it's the rats that leave first.

Rats are smarter than I ever thought.

[OvertaxedOnLI]

Originally Posted by JustSayNo

Sadly, LI used to be a nice place to live. It just isn't anymore for a lot of people whom were born and raised there. See, we remember the way it used to be. .... It is a very overcrowded, rushed, rude and selfish, sinking ship. It really is heartbreaking for those of us that remember LI 40 years ago. To many folks live beyond their means, that get angry and bitter and caught up in thier own hells-hells they hide from their neighbors. There is no more neighborhood, no more chatting on the sidewalks of towns, no more bike riding, or horseback riding, or family beach days (of cousres many still do this, I am being dramatic)

I will play devil's advocate here and make the point that many of those who remember the LI of 40 years ago, are Baby Boomers -- thus, our memories of LI were from the time we were kids through say, age 20. We weren't seeing LI through "adult" eyes then, as we are seeing it now. Naturally we tend to idealize the LI of the 50s and 60s: we didn't have the whole adult-responsibilities load on our shoulders back then!

Not saying that LI hasn't changed. Of course it has. More people, more cars, less time, more stress (to paraphrase the 80s song by Pursuit of Happiness, "we're an adult now"). But to suggest that LI has gone from being the Garden of Eden to Hell on Earth in 40 years, is really pushing the envelope.

Back in the late 60s, my first fulltime office job paid $65/week before taxes; my car payment was $55/mo, in other words a week's takehome pay. Has that ratio changed so much in 40 years? Be honest!

Yes, home prices are high; but that's true in any suburban area within an hour's commute of any large city (NY Boston, Philly, you name it). If you want that convenience, you'll pay a premium for it. Speaking of convenience, we on LI have always been spoiled by having pretty much anything we could want in terms of goods and services within easy reach by car. Public water? Yes, more than 90% of LI has it (this is important to many people, myself included, who don't want to live IN a city but don't want to do without things like that). Sewers rather than septic? Yes, in many places. Higher education? I can name a half-dozen colleges without brain strain. Yes you can buy a lot more home for your dollar elsewhere, but you will not get the level of convenience and services available on LI either.

The main problem with the LI economy is not jobs, it's the property tax system and the main problem with that is the way the schools are (over)funded. The teachers' unions have the districts over a barrel and in a headlock. District corruption doesn't help matters either (a la Roslyn).

[JustSayNo]

Hey, I am not being critical of people who choose to live on LI, nor am I being critical of people who have left.

Obviously, memories are just that. I have a long history with LI and I was sharing the perspective of someone who has seen LI change inside and out. I thought the point of this forum was to provide an avenue for the sharing of information-information you can not get by talking to RE Agents, reading the newspaper, ect.

No skin off my back, I no longer pay the outragous taxes, have to deal with the crowds and selfishness, pay for Richie Kessel's next vacation, or help build the Dolan dynasty. I applaud everyone who stays on LI, but obviously our views and priorities are different. That's OK, if we all wanted the same things in life there would not be enough to go around.

Property taxes, town coruption, LIPA, and lack of community is a problem on LI. But there are problems everywhere, there is no utopia. There is, however, a lot of opportunity beyond LI. In my old town, not many residents understood that. They thought LI and NYC were everything-aside from AC and some ski mountians there was no reason to cross the bridges.

I am just sharing a perspective folks, just one person's perspective which I find a lot of other long-term LI'ers share with me.

[OvertaxedOnLI]

JustSayNo, I'm sorry if I came across as being critical of your post; that wasn't my intention at all. Actually when I wrote that "Eden to..." sentence I was thinkig of another poster I've seen on this forum who seems to think that LI should be wiped off the face of the earth with no regrets....

But I agree with you that everyone's priorities, outlook and predictions regarding LI are different. Vive le, and all that!