What happened to Hempstead? (Huntington, Freeport: low income, apartment, rentals)

[Johninwestbury]

Originally Posted by S.I.B.

could have/should have been White Plains. Instead it became the hood.

It would take a miracle for it to ever get back to what it was.

Yes, White Plains is everything Hempstead should've been. It became neglected for several reasons, alot having to do with inept planning at the county level. Nassau (like most of LI) refuses to accept a smart growth urban style plan, whereas Westchester believes in walkable cities surrounded by undeveloped, wooded land. In White Plains you can walk to several nice parks a few miles away. In Hempstead...nope.
If we want to see Hempstead cleaned up, we're going to have gentrify the area by tearing down the countless rooming houses, projects, and bodegas.
In their place we could build retail, high rise, and office space. But Nassau County and the Village of Hempstead care more about the rights of illegal immigrants than citizens that would like to have a walkable city.
And so Hempstead looks more like a country in Central America. It seems worse now than in the 80s. At least in the 80s A&S was still there.

[ocngypz]

I don't think it's any one thing per se.... but combinations. I remember as a kid c. 1963 living on Mitchell Field....visiting the pedi and dentist in Hempstead. Nice pretty brick TH style offices.. flowers in the yards.......and then shopping at A&S....now that was a treat!!

Roosevelt Field wasn't covered over yet.....that was yet to come.........but I do think it had an effect.

Upwardly mobile middleclass moved to other towns with a more suburban feel - larger lots, larger houses....a typical migration pattern....

I think of my aunt and uncle... 1951 Brooklyn, NY.. 1 child.........1957 New Hyde Park.. 2 children............1963.. Stony Brook.. 3 children. Then no children by 1981.. and they were Florida-bound! The Great American Dream!

My immediate family... military.. so we went where we were told...but 1956 Glen Head...then back to LI to Mitchell in 1963... Dad retired.. and we went back to the North Shore only to Sea Cliff this time.

Is there hope for Hempstead? I don't know.

[XLIGuy]

Once, back in the mid-70s, we were driving through Hempstead, and my Dad said that Hempstead got dumpy because of "red-lining" by the surrounding villages (& hamlets), especially Garden City.

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by XLIGuy

Once, back in the mid-70s, we were driving through Hempstead, and my Dad said that Hempstead got dumpy because of "red-lining" by the surrounding villages (& hamlets), especially Garden City.

Thats sounds likely.

Blockbusting etc.

Crooks

[I_Love_LI_but]

What is killing Hempstead right now are the illegal aliens and Central American gangs.

Decent working class and lower middle class blacks are out of there in droves because of them.

While retail has lagged because of RF mall, etc., that has been going on for a long time. They made it even worse as everyone is afraid of getting shot, so who would stop to shop in Hempstead.

They have also made the schools a lot worse. Someone recently posted a thread with a link to a NY Times reference about the LI school districts and Hempstead was so horrible it was like only 7% of the kids were passing! Plus the schools are a lot more dangerous. Just last winter (Jan. 2008) there was a murder at the old handball court at Hempstead high that was gang related. (Gang bangers out to kill someone, anyone, on their rivals' territory murdered a 14-year old kid who was not in a gang.)

If the Lighthouse project was put in Hempstead, everyone would be afraid to go to it and it would be an epic fail!

Hempstead needs to cleanse itself of the illegal aliens or it will never recover.

[WJFM]

I lived in White Plains for 5 years and saw it transform. While there were a lot of young people in white plains, white plains also had a significant hispanic population. Even today, there are parts of white plains ( not too far from the city center) that have some day laborers standing around for work. There are plenty of hispanic stores in white plains too. That did not stop white plains from flourishing. They were able to co-exist and develop. I don't think the hispanic population in Hempstead has anything to do with its current state.

Maybe its the attitude ot rest of Long Island that Hempstead is a place to avoid.. it will take active marketing by the village and time to change that.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by WJFM

I lived in White Plains for 5 years and saw it transform. While there were a lot of young people in white plains, white plains also had a significant hispanic population. Even today, there are parts of white plains ( not too far from the city center) that have some day laborers standing around for work. There are plenty of hispanic stores in white plains too. That did not stop white plains from flourishing. They were able to co-exist and develop. I don't think the hispanic population in Hempstead has anything to do with its current state.

Maybe its the attitude ot rest of Long Island that Hempstead is a place to avoid.. it will take active marketing by the village and time to change that.

***SIGH***

I can't believe this has to be explained over and over and over ...

It's not about HISPANIC. It's about illegal aliens who do not see any need to obey any laws (except their gang laws) and do not see any need to assimilate or to teach their children to assimilate, care about school, and not be violent.

Valley Stream has a Hispanic population that is "above average" in numbers according to C-D. The difference is they are families living in single-family homes with middle class sensibilities, not illegal alien criminals destroying everything in sight.

[S.I.B.]

Originally Posted by WJFM

Maybe its the attitude ot rest of Long Island that Hempstead is a place to avoid.. it will take active marketing by the village and time to change that.

So all this time Hempstead simply had an image problem? lol...

the "attitude" will change when the area improves. Not the other way around.

[WJFM]

There are illegals in both white plains and hempstead. Why are there more gangs and violence in Hempstead? Hempstead's graduation rate is 65%.. not 7%. Still really low..

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by WJFM

There are illegals in both white plains and hempstead. Why are there more gangs and violence in Hempstead? Hempstead's graduation rate is 65%.. not 7%. Still really low..

I wasn't talking about graduation rate. Something else on the NY Times survey.

What is the percentage of the illegals among Hispanics in White Plains vs. Hempstead? I would hazard a guess that White Plains has mostly legal Hispanics.

The majority of Hispanics in Hempstead are illegal aliens. Any decent assimilated Hispanic makes it their business to get out of there just like the working and middle class blacks have been doing since the central american and mexican illegal aliens and gangbangers have been flowing in.

Does White Plains allow single-family houses to be bust out by slumlords into illegal boarding houses housing anyone ... anything goes? That is one of the gateways for attracting illegal aliens. The other is near to wealthy areas that they can be off the books servants for. (White Plains has that.)