Where are some nice places to live on Long Island? (New York: best neighborhood, real estate)

[STrapani1105]

Originally Posted by Dodgers12

There are plenty of places on Long Island where you can find a home for $700,000. With the bad economy, there are some real bargains. There are many neighborhoods that fit the criteria. If you buy in Valley Stream, try to stay in South Valley Stream. South Valley Stream is the most diverse out of these neighborhoods. Lynbrook and Oceanside are nice and have good schools. There is some diversity, the main minority are Hispanics. Massapequa is not very diverse at all and farther from the city than the other three options. However, there properties are larger and the schools are good. North Massapequa is more middle class and diverse.

Out of the those, I would say Valley Stream (preferably South: good school district) is the best. It is diverse, has a large Italian community and is closest to New York City of the options mentioned. Lynbrook also meets the criteria, but not as well as Valley Stream. You should also look into Rockville Centre. Rockville Centre has very good school district and is very close to the city. It is also diverse.

yeah you mention this place called "South Valley Stream" is that an area within valley stream or a totally different town. cuz out here in jersey we have like South Orange, which is an entirely seperate town from like Orange or East Orange or West Orange. New York, from what I understand, is set up a little differently. you only have a few towns in Nassau county, like North Hempstead, Hempstead, Oyster Bay, and Long Beach. And the big ones are divided into smaller villages and hamlets. I guess the village would be Valley Stream, and the hamlet would be South Valley Stream, but is it all considered Valley Stream?

I'm kind of confused as to how that works out. Do the different hamlets and vilalges have their own school districts, municipal buildings, police and fire department, etc. ?

[Dodgers12]

Originally Posted by STrapani1105

yeah you mention this place called "South Valley Stream" is that an area within valley stream or a totally different town. cuz out here in jersey we have like South Orange, which is an entirely seperate town from like Orange or East Orange or West Orange. New York, from what I understand, is set up a little differently. you only have a few towns in Nassau county, like North Hempstead, Hempstead, Oyster Bay, and Long Beach. And the big ones are divided into smaller villages and hamlets. I guess the village would be Valley Stream, and the hamlet would be South Valley Stream, but is it all considered Valley Stream?

I'm kind of confused as to how that works out. Do the different hamlets and vilalges have their own school districts, municipal buildings, police and fire department, etc. ?

South Valley Stream is seperate from Valley Stream. We have three towns: Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay which are divided into villages and hamlets. Hamlets have school districts, fire and police departments only. Villages have school districts, municipal buildings, police and fire departments. Only some hamlets do have their own police departments but they are run on county government level, Nassau County Police stations. However, Freeport, Baldwin and other villages departments are ran on village level.

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by Dodgers12

South Valley Stream is seperate from Valley Stream. We have three towns: Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay which are divided into villages and hamlets. Hamlets have school districts, fire and police departments only. Villages have school districts, municipal buildings, police and fire departments. Only some hamlets do have their own police departments but they are run on county government level, Nassau County Police stations. However, Freeport, Baldwin and other villages departments are ran on village level.

Unless you love South Queens, I'd pass on Valley Stream
http://www.city-data.com/forum/long-...-stream-3.html

Check out Babylon Village.

crooks

[STrapani1105]

Originally Posted by Dodgers12

South Valley Stream is seperate from Valley Stream. We have three towns: Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay which are divided into villages and hamlets. Hamlets have school districts, fire and police departments only. Villages have school districts, municipal buildings, police and fire departments. Only some hamlets do have their own police departments but they are run on county government level, Nassau County Police stations. However, Freeport, Baldwin and other villages departments are ran on village level.

ah, i see. so if you had to deal with something for the town and you lived in one of the hamlets (let's say you lived in South Valley Stream), you'd have to go and deal with that at the municipal building in Valley Stream? am I correct or did I mess that up?

[AlexisT]

Crooks, I know you think Nassau sucks, but your commute estimates are invariably unrealistic.

You want close? Stick to western and central Nassau. 1hr on the LIRR is easily 90 mins or more door to door, especially if you don't live right by the station or have a subway trip from Penn. Done it, it sucks, and I won't tell anyone different. My sister commuted from East Northport. She spent 3.5 hours a day traveling.

STrapani - if you live outside the village, you don't deal with the village hall in VS - everything is done through ToH or the county. However, if you ever had to deal with the town specifically it would always be the same place, Town Hall in Hempstead. Villages add a 3rd tier to local government.

Towns here are huge, bigger than townships or boroughs in NJ as far as I can tell. Hempstead has 750K people--that would make it the 2nd largest place in the state if we counted towns the way we do cities. I don't think there's a good NJ analogue - both NYS and NJ have unusual local government structures anyway. On top of that, postal zones don't conform to hamlet/village boundaries, which causes a headache on MLS.

Baldwin is not a village and doesn't have a PD. School districts are independent of villages (e.g. I believe there are houses in the village of RVC that are in Oceanside SD, and South Hempstead is zoned to RVC) and not all villages have a PD. Some do some don't. Some seem to exist primarily for zoning reasons.

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by AlexisT

Crooks, I know you think Nassau sucks, but your commute estimates are invariably unrealistic.

You want close? Stick to western and central Nassau. 1hr on the LIRR is easily 90 mins or more door to door, especially if you don't live right by the station or have a subway trip from Penn. Done it, it sucks, and I won't tell anyone different. My sister commuted from East Northport. She spent 3.5 hours a day traveling.

STrapani - if you live outside the village, you don't deal with the village hall in VS - everything is done through ToH or the county. However, if you ever had to deal with the town specifically it would always be the same place, Town Hall in Hempstead. Villages add a 3rd tier to local government.

Towns here are huge, bigger than townships or boroughs in NJ as far as I can tell. Hempstead has 750K people--that would make it the 2nd largest place in the state if we counted towns the way we do cities. I don't think there's a good NJ analogue - both NYS and NJ have unusual local government structures anyway. On top of that, postal zones don't conform to hamlet/village boundaries, which causes a headache on MLS.

Baldwin is not a village and doesn't have a PD. School districts are independent of villages (e.g. I believe there are houses in the village of RVC that are in Oceanside SD, and South Hempstead is zoned to RVC) and not all villages have a PD. Some do some don't. Some seem to exist primarily for zoning reasons.

I dont think Nassau sucks.
I just think Western Nassau has very little to offer.
If it were me, Id just as soon stay in Queens ans spend an hour on the subway.

An express commute from Babylon is cake and better than half of Nassaus.

I would also check out Bethpage/Farmingdale.

Crooks

[AlexisT]

Nonsense. Western Nassau has a better commute than eastern Queens aside from Bayside, the schools are much, much better (eastern Queens has some good schools, but they're terribly overcrowded--and my half-sister is a current student in that area), and it's much safer aside from Hempstead and Roosevelt. I like Queens but to say western Nassau has little to offer is ludicrous. You just look at it, see small houses and lots and bad traffic and say it's the same as Queens--when it isn't. Lived in both.

Express service to Babylon is still just over an hour. I commuted from Huntington, which is the same "express" commute. It's no such thing. Express service to RVC is 35 minutes. That 50 minutes a day--and it may well be more, since further east you also tend to live further from the station--matters more than you might think.

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by AlexisT

Nonsense. Western Nassau has a better commute than eastern Queens aside from Bayside, the schools are much, much better (eastern Queens has some good schools, but they're terribly overcrowded--and my half-sister is a current student in that area), and it's much safer aside from Hempstead and Roosevelt. I like Queens but to say western Nassau has little to offer is ludicrous. You just look at it, see small houses and lots and bad traffic and say it's the same as Queens--when it isn't. Lived in both.

Express service to Babylon is still just over an hour. I commuted from Huntington, which is the same "express" commute. It's no such thing. Express service to RVC is 35 minutes. That 50 minutes a day--and it may well be more, since further east you also tend to live further from the station--matters more than you might think.

All excellent points but Id still prefer Bayside to Valley Stream.

As for commuting Babylon is much better than Huntington.
I used to take an express to Jamaica and hop the E to Lex and be at my desk in a little over an hour.

South Shore Rail service is better hands down.

crooks

[S.I.B.]

Originally Posted by Crookhaven

I dont think Nassau sucks.
I just think Western Nassau has very little to offer.
If it were me, Id just as soon stay in Queens ans spend an hour on the subway.

An express commute from Babylon is cake and better than half of Nassaus.

I would also check out Bethpage/Farmingdale.

Crooks

the quickest train out of babylon takes 1:02 to Penn. How many nassau commutes are longer than that?

[AlexisT]

Crooks, Huntington express service is excellent--you need to catch the right train though. Huntington, CSH, Syosset, Penn. That's it. 58 minutes IIRC. Huntington service is a notch below Babylon generally, but rush hour express service is good.

I'd take Bayside over Valley Stream, but not over one of the nicer areas in western Nassau.