Oyster Bay Whats the story? - Long Island - New York (NY) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

fitz123 · 03-26-2009, 09:44 PM

i rent in oyster bay and i hate it. can't wait to leave. Not going to until we buy a house as i don't want to move twice. The supermarket sucks, you have to drive everywhere for everything. The trip up and down 106 got old very quickly, the pizza is despicable, half of the restaurants are Italian which is probably my least favorite cuisine unless its prepared at home. Americanized italian restaurants are so uninspiring. Italian Americans don't really eat the most authentic type things. All the drycleaners are a rip off. The bar scene is basically non-existent. If your a runner the hills are a pain, if your a biker and not comfortable riding on narrow 2 lane roads with the dual yellow stripe down the middle, then your not going to get very far. No movie theatre within 15 minutes. Oyster bay cove is beautiful, but don't confuse that for the the dump that is Oyster Bay. The Theordore roosevelt beach area is nice, but the water is sort of dumpy there. Every drycleaner in town is a total rip-off. People who live in the town are morons, why would they try to block the chance of a National Teddy Rooselvelt museum being built based on the the fact that shady people may show up in town. What is wrong with these people, shady people don't go to museums, school trip and families go to them, and maybe they would have shopped in the struggling stores and ate at one of the restaurants in town on there way in or out, but noooo, they are worried about shadiness. Isn't there enough shadiness in downtown oyster bay already. My wife doesn't like going down there by herself after dark, not many other places in Long Island where groups of adults hang out in the streets with nothing better to do. there is probably more, but i can't think of it. I have no comments on the schools as i didn't go to them and i don't have kids.

Mardie · 05-11-2009, 04:33 PM

Oyster Bay village has a great deal of history and charm and is very safe at day and night time. There are over 75 historic homes (1830 and earlier) in and around the village and there is a rich local history. While a few McMansions have been built and some tearing down of older houses, splitting the property, and building of aluminum sided boxes has taken place, the village has galvanized itself against this exploitation and has successfully thwarted overdevelopment. The entrance to the town on rte 106 is pretty unsightly, dominated by car dealers, Stop-N-Shop and a number of small scale industrial businesses. But when you enter the village itself, after the gas station and the new condos, the character changes to that of a small town.

The harbor is easily accessible and is a boater's paradise. The bay itself is a designated wildlife refuge with much local participation in its care. Oyster farming still takes place commercially in the bay.

The waterfront at the village center had for many years been an unsightly industrial wasteland dominated by large fuel storage facilities. Recent years have seen much more involvement on the part of the residents to clean up the waterfront. There is still a row to hoe but the locals are enthusiastic in this work. The Town of Oyster Bay has taken a few steps backward by developing highly sanitized recreational areas (astro turf, plastic signage, chain link fencing, light polution) over passive natural zones. We all need places to play but the Town has been completely insensitive to making these new facilities blend with the environment. But, there are some beautiful local wildlife refuges and sights to see within 10 mintues of the town: Tiffany Preserve, Roosevelt Sanctuary, Planting Fields Arboretum, Shu Swamp Preserve, Humes Japanese Stroll Garden, Bailey Arboretum, to name a few. The waterfront center provides sailing lessons for a fee (scheduled in advance) and The Christeen Osyter Sloop provides a lovely opportunity to sail in a 100 year old 40ft sloop on Friday evenings for $30.

The village of Oyster Bay itself (not Cove Neck, Centre Island, Oyster Bay Cove) is an unincorporated village served by the Oyster Bay / East Norwich school district. The district spends over $22K per pupil but is not what you would call a standout of student performance by any measure as are the neighboring public school disctricts of Syosset and Cold Spring Habror. People don't move here because of the schools. You will find that while the residents of Centre Island, Cove Neck and Oyster Bay Cove are in the school district, hardly any of them send their children to the public schools there - they aren't there much during the school year - they send their children to Private schools either in NYC or to boarding schools. Year round residents send their children to Greenvale, Friends, Portledge and East Woods. St. Dominic's provides a quality local Catholic secondary school as well.

The village like Glen Cove and Huntington Station has a public low income housing apartment complex. Condominium complexes exist as do rental apartments both of these are relatively affordable. The community has been a quiet low-key home to the ultra-rich for over 100 years with many very wealthy families owning the same homes for generations. While there are a handful of celebrities, Oyster Bay is not a place to see and be seen, quite the opposite in fact. The old guard is very Social Register but downplays this. This is still a community where a lady's name is seen in the paper only three times: birth, marriage, and death. If you move to one of the wealthier areas (Centre Island, Cove Neck) make sure you like solitude and a minimum of interaction with the neighbors. That said, there is a thriving middle class community located mainly around the village center and people are genuinely welcoming at all levels of society.

Public transportation doesn't run frequently enough to make commuting a viable possibility - the LIRR stop is the last on a local line that takes about and hour and half to get to NYC with trains running very infrequently (only 2 rush hour trains between 5PM and 8PM) compared to other main lines. The drive from Oyster Bay to the Hicksville station where trains run frequently takes about 20 minutes. There is little bus service and no cab service.

The town center has a number of long established local businesses but has proven to be a difficult location for new enterprises. The demographic makes it problematic as most of the very wealthy residents of Centre Island, Cove Neck and Oyster Bay Cove do not use their homes there as main residences but spend much time elsewhere. During the busy months of the summer most wealthy residents don't eat out locally but go to private clubs: Seawanhaka, Piping Rock and the Creek, or entertain at home.

Like most of Nassau County this is not a cheap place to live and you really need to have a car unless you live in the village center.

Come for a visit and see for yourself.

Walter Greenspan · 05-11-2009, 06:44 PM

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