Why does Levittown have such a bad reputation?

[twingles]

My parents first house was in Levittown and they moved after only a few years for many of these reasons. They couldn't afford the upgrade, and had to sign affidavits with the bank that my mom was an RN (meaning she could pretty much get a job at any time) to get the mortgage on a house in Huntington. But my dad, who grew up in Washington Heights, could not deal with the attitudes of most of their neighbors, and my mom, who is from New England, wasn't the type to coffee-klatch every day.

Originally Posted by warren zee

There are several stereotypes associated with Levittown. My parents, and other people on the North Shore had and still have these feelings. Many are true.

1. Working class

2. Very large families with 6-10 kids crammed into cape cod style houses.

3. Lot's of cops and firemen who held very conservative views and were very "pro war" during the Vietnam war area. They were known as "hard hats" at the time.

4. Anti-education - in the 70s a coalition of "concerned mothers" wanted certain books removed from the public library. Racy stuff like "To Kill a Mockingbird". So, closed minded would become another perceived negative attribute.

5. Racist. The developer of Levittown specified that all home owners would be Caucasian. Those ideas seem to have become entrenched in Levittowners. There are still few African American residents.

I am *not* saying that all of this is true of every resident of Levittown. However, this is the perception of many Long Islanders from more affluent areas.

[Anchorhead1977]

Originally Posted by warren zee

There are several stereotypes associated with Levittown. My parents, and other people on the North Shore had and still have these feelings. Many are true.

1. Working class

2. Very large families with 6-10 kids crammed into cape cod style houses.

3. Lot's of cops and firemen who held very conservative views and were very "pro war" during the Vietnam war area. They were known as "hard hats" at the time.

4. Anti-education - in the 70s a coalition of "concerned mothers" wanted certain books removed from the public library. Racy stuff like "To Kill a Mockingbird". So, closed minded would become another perceived negative attribute.

5. Racist. The developer of Levittown specified that all home owners would be Caucasian. Those ideas seem to have become entrenched in Levittowners. There are still few African American residents.

I am *not* saying that all of this is true of every resident of Levittown. However, this is the perception of many Long Islanders from more affluent areas.

Levittown has evolved. Now we just need your stereotyping to evolve. I didn't know working class was a negative, but okay. Having grown up there in the 70s and 80s, the largest family I recall had five kids and that was rare. Plus I don't think it was abnormal back then for large families to be living in a modest sized house. The book censorship case you speak of was in the Island Trees district and went to court because the vast amount of parents who fought against the book banning. Even though I was a Levittown student, we talked about this in various classes and most students and teachers were in disbelief it ever happened in our area. I certainly can't defend the racist exclusion practices when the town was created. My street had two African American families and one interracial household and I hadn't even known about the exclusions until I was an adult.