Areas that are getting better? (Hempstead, Brookhaven: real estate, apartments, home)
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Ill also add Bay Shore, West Babylon,Lindenhurst,Sound Beach,Kings Park,Ridge,Holbrook,Bohemia,Patchogue Village and yes believe it or not Gordon Heights(no lie...go see).
I think few would argue (except of course LIC aka Mastic Spice) that the big comeback stories in Brookhaven are without question Rocky Point and Sound Beach.
These areas were left for dead in the 80s and have really turned into nice affordable, safe places to live that are rich in natural beauty and have both good schools and decent taxes.
A working guy can be Middle Class with dignity here and a reasonably wealthy man can live like a king on the Sound.
Patchogue Village took millions in federal and state money and fixed up main street. You STILL have 27 people living in old school victorians right on the bay. Hasn't changed a bit.
Ill also add Bay Shore, West Babylon,Lindenhurst,Sound Beach,Kings Park,Ridge,Holbrook,Bohemia,Patchogue Village and yes believe it or not Gordon Heights(no lie...go see).
I'm glad you mentioned Holbrook as being on the upswing.
Patchogue Village--do you mean Main Street? Lots of construction going on there. But there are some nifty restaurants--just had lunch there last week. Friend of a friend of mine owns a [URL="http://www.onceandforallcafe.com/"]fun little cafe[/URL] down there, too. When my friend told me about it, I thought, "In Patchogue? No way. It's too fon-fon artsy. It will never work." And yet, they seem to be doing well. I can vouch for the food. Haven't been to the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts yet, but it looks nice.
Bay Shore sure has been on a rollercoaster over the last 30 years. It had a nice Main Street until they built the South Shore Mall. Then a lot of businesses on Main Street and the surrounding areas suffered (my father's included, taking my college fund with it). Then there was the deinstitutionalization of quite a few Pilgrim State residents. Turning the theater across from the parochial school into a XXX venue didn't help. I remember the nuns being upset about it. It was a tough, tough time, and it just got worse after I left in 1984.
Although Bay Shore still isn't what it used to be when I was a kid (Fifth Avenue heading toward Brentwood is downright dilapidated), I'm really surprised and thrilled to see the return of Main Street. The Y is on the site where the XXX theater was, and there are some nice restaurants on Main Street, along with the Boulton Center (which is on the former site of another XXX theater).
I wish my parents could have lived to see the renewal.
Bay Shore and Patchogue improved significantly in the 2000s, I think those are probably the two biggest recent "success stories" on LI. I remember going to The Swingset in Bay Shore (now The Nutty Irishman) when I was in high school and that whole area was really grimy and desolate looking. It's really transformed completely since then, and the same goes for Patchogue.
I know both areas still do have their problems (hell, just a couple weeks ago a kid got shot in the back 5 times outside Bay Shore HS!!), but cleaning up Main Street and giving people a reason to go there is a fantastic start. That's the heart of both towns and a very visible indicator of the way things are going. People are coming back and spending money, no way that can be considered a bad thing. Patchogue's downtown revitalization has received tons of favorable press, even in the NY Times.
To a lesser degree, Westbury has done a pretty nice job with Post Avenue. This was another area that was just totally useless, worn out and ugly ten years ago. With the new apartments, village square and storefront remodeling it's looking a hell of a lot better. They could still use more entertainment-oriented stuff to get people outside the village coming through, but the restoration of the old movie theater should help a lot. That building has been an eyesore for a long time.
Bellmore has also improved their small downtown very nicely too, although those efforts really started back in the mid-90s. It was the right move bringing the car show in the LIRR parking lot back, that provides a huge amount of foot traffic.....noise be damned! Sad to say I've actually noticed a few stores have gone out of business over the last year or so, but hopefully that's just an anomaly and not a sign of the times.
I never knew Rocky Point when it was a dump, but I've been there in the last few years and it seems really nice....in fact I can't even imagine it ever being "bad" so they must have done something right.
In the future I can see areas that have a usable downtown or places that are along the shores making a comeback (people will always be interested in waterfront real estate), but purely suburban areas that have gotten effed up or were just never any good to begin with will have a much tougher time. For instance, I can see Hempstead or Freeport someday long into the future becoming destinations once again because they've got the right infrastructure for it.....but Roosevelt? Wyandanch? Even if things did improve a little bit, how would anyone ever notice it? There is absolutely no reason to ever go to places like that for 90% of people on LI. The only hope in those cases is fixing the schools, and that's a hell of a lot tougher than putting up some fancy awnings or getting a Starbucks.
Bay Shore and Patchogue improved significantly in the 2000s, I think those are probably the two biggest recent "success stories" on LI. I remember going to The Swingset in Bay Shore (now The Nutty Irishman) when I was in high school and that whole area was really grimy and desolate looking. It's really transformed completely since then, and the same goes for Patchogue.
Main St. has gotten nicer...but what about the areas immediately to the North? I haven't been by there in a while, but it might be more accurate to say Bay Shore's downtown area has improved....and not "Bay Shore".
I know some people who stopped sending their kids to St. Johns the Babtist and put them into the Bay Shore district. They have nothing but good things to say. I think the Bay Shore schools have improved greatly.
Sean X4..I think that shooting happened in Brentwood? But the kid was from Bay Shore. I could be wrong though.
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