Why exactly is Roosevelt NY bad? (Hempstead, Islip: apartments, rentals, condos)

[MikefromCT]

I'm from Connecticut (obviously) and I'm not thinking of moving, but all my friends who live either in Nassau (Long Beach) or Suffolk County (Bay Shore) tell me it's not a good town. A few people I know were quick to point out that it's a predominantly black town, but I don't see how that alone can make a town a bad place to live. Of all the LI suburbs, how is it that this town gets a bad rap? On the surface, it seems like a hundred other postwar suburban towns. And I know LI pretty well, from all the times I've driven on either the LIE or GS Pkwy I know the towns/hamlets/villages yet if I've ever needed gas I've always been encouraged to keep going and avoid Roosevelt. I hate saying that, but it's what I've been told.

[I have a voice]

I know it has a lot of apartments, rentals, condos, coops, etc which tend to attract a lower income level person. Roosevelt is predominantly african american but the lower income issue is the more pressing issue. Any town that has the rentals is going to be worse than towns without rentals, that's just the nature of the beast.

[sean sean sean sean]

Originally Posted by I have a voice

I know it has a lot of apartments, rentals, condos, coops, etc which tend to attract a lower income level person. Roosevelt is predominantly african american but the lower income issue is the more pressing issue. Any town that has the rentals is going to be worse than towns without rentals, that's just the nature of the beast.

That's completely untrue. For comparison, Rockville Centre is 71.4% owner-occupied properties, Roosevelt is 73.9% Well-to-do places like Great Neck Plaza are as little as 49% owner occupied. There's also an island you may have heard of to the west...

Where did you get this idea from?

As for why Roosevelt is "bad" town, a lot of it stems from the all too common practice of block-busting during the 1950s. Roosevelt was one of the first integrated suburbs on LI and as such was one of the first suburbs to experience "white flight". Prior to WWII, Nassau County was fairly rural, very conservative and also extremely racist. The KKK had a notable presence on the south shore, and though it had dissipated by the 50s the tensions between races still lingered into the baby boom era. Roosevelt got a bad rep overnight, before it even had a chance to live up to it. From that point on, it was basically a lower income area than it's surroundings and was hit harder by the racial tensions initially, the energy crisis/recession in the 70s and the crack epidemic in the 80s. There is very little commercial investment in the area, likely because it's perceived as a "black town" and as such a niche market. Main Street is lined with storefront churches, check cashing and fried chicken establishments.

Maybe the ultimate reason Roosevelt has never improved is that the school district has long been one of LI's worst. Surely influenced by all of the area's other ills, the school district has never been able to attract a high quality faculty. Corrupt officials, negligent teachers, money disappearing, deteriorating facilities....it hit it's low point in the mid 90s when the state actually took over full control of the administration and school board. There have been improvements since then, but it's still got a long way to go. Most families in Roosevelt are committed to improving their town/school district and vocal about it, but when there isn't a lot of money to go around those voices often times fall on deaf ears.

It's one of LI's worst, but you shouldn't be scared to stop for gas. Nothing on LI is that bad!

[Smash255]

As been stated above the school district is pretty lousy, one of Long Island's worse. The crime is high (by LI standards) though not that bad by national standards. The area is also one of the poorest in Nassau.

Roosevelt isn't the best area in the world, but I would say its rep is worse than reality in part because it gets compared to LI as a whole as opposed to comparing in=t to the U.S as a whole.

[AlexisT]

Commercial investment (and tax base) is also extremely limited by the size and location of the area. Roosevelt is actually a small area, with few major roads and is fairly close to Freeport, Hempstead, and Uniondale, which are big commercial centers. The opportunities for businesses are very limited. Even Hempstead, which shares a lot of Roosevelt's problems, has a better time where this is concerned because it used to be Nassau's downtown and has the potential for redevelopment. Roosevelt never had it and probably never will. A commercial tax base is very important for a school district--districts without it either have budget issues or tax their residents up the wazoo, and Roosevelt houses aren't worth enough to make the second remotely possible.

The areas that "went black" during the '60s block-busting era all have big issues (Hempstead, Roosevelt, Wyandanch) because racism meant they just got abandoned, but Roosevelt's schools are the worst.

[llama8]

High crime, gangs, poverty, and bad schools. The district had to be taken over by the state due to many problems. Roosevelt schools are trying to turn themselves around.

When I was in college 6 years ago, my friends and I volunteered our time at the Roosevelt elementary school. It was so heartbreaking. Half of the school was condemned, meaning half of it was roped off and the walls and ceiling were falling in. The bathrooms were awful and the teachers had no money for resources. One kindergarten class didn't even have crayons. I never saw anything like that on Long Island. One of my good friends is a middle school teacher for Roosevelt and this past year, she had to teach in a trailer. Overall, things are looking a little better for the schools in the future, but they still have a long way to go.

[I have a voice]

Originally Posted by sean sean sean sean

That's completely untrue. For comparison, Rockville Centre is 71.4% owner-occupied properties, Roosevelt is 73.9% Well-to-do places like Great Neck Plaza are as little as 49% owner occupied. There's also an island you may have heard of to the west...

Where did you get this idea from?

Manhattan is an anomoly given the nature of the island. Great Neck Plaza is tiny and surrounded by very affluent towns. Roosevelt is surrounded by other similar neighborhoods. Obviously I shouldn't have painted the broad stroke that ALL towns with rentals are worse than ALL towns with owned homes. However, more often than not this is the case, holding every thing else equal (that famous saying used in ecomonics).

[dman72]

I saw an on location reporter there on one of the NY network affiliates over some story...the kids jumping around behind her cursing and behaving all "gangster" are probably a big part of the problem.

[Walter Greenspan]

Here's an article with some interesting insights on what it means to be a residential property owner in a predominantly African-American area: http://jewishworldreview.com/0808/in...ng_a_home.php3


For those who may not be familiar with Roosevelt:

Roosevelt is a hamlet (an unincorporated area) in the central section of the Town of Hempstead, in the south-central part of Nassau County.

Beginning on the north and moving in a clockwise direction, the Hamlet of Roosevelt in the Town of Hempstead is bordered on the north by the Hamlet of Uniondale; on the east by the Hamlet of North Merrick and the Hamlet of Merrick; on the south by the Village of Freeport; and, on the west by the Hamlet of Baldwin.





The Hamlet of Roosevelt has a different border than does the "Roosevelt, NY 11575" ZIP Code postal zone (i.e., a place can be in the Hamlet of Roosevelt and have other than a "Roosevelt, NY 11575" mailing address): there are places in the Hamlet of Roosevelt that have a "Freeport, NY 11520" mailing address.


For a good set of town-by-town maps showing all the villages and hamlets in each of LI's 13 towns (3 in Nassau County and 10 in Suffolk County): http://www.city-data.com/forum/long-...-resource.html

[ckhthankgod]

I was going to ask as to why Wyandanch is in a similar boat as Roosevelt? I know parts of Hempstead, Uniondale and somewhat Freeport are in a similar situation from what I hear, but are all of these places as bad as people make them out to be? What about Amityville, Baldwin, Brentwood and Central Islip as well? All of these communities have very high populations of people of color and seem to have the worst reputations as far as communities on Long Island, but are the reputations as real as some people make them out to be?