Urban Decay / Ghettofication on Long Island (Nassau, Islandia: 2013, brokers, home)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So house flippers are gonna save the day?! I dunno about that one, Neil....might be better off waiting for the Thai restaurants and Whole Foods to show up
Trust me, the biggest problem facing areas like Roosevelt and Wyandanch is not a lack of attractive, modern housing. A lot of neighborhoods in these places, once you get off the main thoroughfares, look no different from the surrounding "nice", middle class towns. When I drive through Central Islip (an area I'm not really familiar with) it looks exactly like anywhere else in the middle of Suffolk to me.....yet people out there say it's Harlem - and it does indeed have a higher crime rate, less effective schools and lower property values than neighboring communities.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing to fix up an area that has become run down. It definitely helps....but until you can hang a shiny new sign on a storefront that isn't a check cashing place or fried chicken joint, it isn't a real game changer.
Now you're talking...
I totally agree - and it boggles my mind that people go on ad infinitum about how Nassau County has become "too urbanized" or "overcrowded". When did that happen? Certainly not in my lifetime. Plus, it's not only that our population growth has completely stagnated - we've also been losing every stream of commercial tax revenue (and the jobs they provide) at an alarming rate for the better part of three decades now. No large corporation is willing to set up shop here when they can pay a fraction of the taxes and get the same talent at one of those trendy relocation boomtowns in North Carolina or Iowa. We get killed on both ends with that....like a snake eating it's tail. Our inefficient local and state government drives away any opportunity to defer taxes off the residential homeowner with a downright hostile climate for doing business, we're left to pay a bigger chunk in their absence (as if things weren't bad enough already) and it becomes harder than ever because there are less opportunities to make money on the island itself.
The only large corporations investing in LI are retail and fast food.....which brings me to your next point about infrastructure and low income housing. Under our current model, eventually we'll have nothing but Officer Gatsby's living in Gold Coast mansions and 37 McDonalds employees living in some old woman's basement. Maybe if you teach Earth Science or punch train tickets you'd be OK with that, but I think most people would prefer we not fully regress into a feudal society.
For the lower income working class employed by your local Wal-Mart and Taco Bell, there is not an extremely wide array of housing on Long Island. You can either live in an illegally converted basement apartment or you can live in a borderline ghetto like one of the aforementioned places. LI's 25-34 population faces the same problem, which is why they're leaving in droves. I know people are terrified by any kind of residential construction that is not a single family detached home, but unless they wake up and look at things big picture style, those borderline ghettos are gonna become legit ghettos and spill over into plenty of other currently decent towns. People with college degrees coming from middle and upper-middle class backgrounds are not going to live in the back end of a hacked up living room....but twenty illegal immigrants will, no problem. If we can't even hold onto our homegrown future middle class, I can't imagine why anyone would ever relocate here from off the island.
The only way that trend gets turned around is if local zoning regulations undergo a dramatic change and enable high density construction. We already have way more single family homes than we'll ever need, and contrary to popular belief there is still plenty of room to do this. Nassau County's suburban fabric will never be drastically altered, but there are still plenty of useless parking lots and empty strip malls that can give their lives for the success of future generations. The cult of NIMBYism needs to die a painful death. Take Kate Murray to the sacrificial altar. I'm still in disbelief over the whole Lighthouse fiasco - but basically I think we could really use something like that. A centerpiece that shapes the mold for the next 20-30 years of development on LI....something that incorporates diverse housing, mixed commercial/office space, entertainment and intra-island mass transit to make it all work together.
----------!!!The next part of this post is designed to be read while listening to the song at the bottom!!!--------
The whole state of New York is broken. I wish we could somehow eliminate the entire governing body and start from scratch....cuz a lot of LI's problems are directly tied to ass-backwards state legislation that we have no hope of influencing directly through the ballot box. That's not to say our local government is off the hook (it's another huge failure), but as long as certain things are set in stone up in Albany, spending is going to be out of control....and it's the root cause of sooooo many of these difficulties. The worst part is I think most people are totally in the dark. Everybody knows how badly their wallets are hurting, but I don't think a lot of people know why. Can't blame them.....it's all very confusing. A billion different governing bodies all pointing the finger of blame somewhere else.
We need some kind of more focused, less politicized "Tea Party" thing.....or a big "CTRL-Z" button for the entire state. I love living in Nassau County, I think it's a great place and I want it to stay that way. When I think about what it'll be like when I'm an old fart and telling my grandkids boring stories about the days of yore it's like a nightmare vision inside my head how bad things will probably have gotten by that point. It's gonna be really sad if we're all reminiscing about the "good ol' days" when it ONLY cost $15 to park at Jones Beach.....or if people are fondly recollecting their time at Best Buy Northeast Regional Outlet #174 like they do about Grumman now.
Blech....maybe we'd be better off just putting our energy into trying to build a time machine. Isn't there a place in Sayville that works on DeLoreans?
---------------------------------- I would've picked this song instead to close....
Status:
"I must be “really retarded”"
(set 32 minutes ago)
19,738 posts, read 20,545,943 times
Reputation: 16443
It's very simple. LI is never going to back to what it was 30-40-50 years. NEVER. Get used to it. The "ghettofication" is inevitable. It's part of life.
If we're lucky, pockets of Suffolk will retain a certain suburban charm of yesteryear, hell even a slight hint of rural on the east end. If you cannot deal with and adapt to these changes, then you must move, or you will be miserable for the rest of your life.
It's like death, there is no avoiding it. Nassau will become Queens, and western Suffolk will become Nassau. The only save will be the east end, which will change somewhat, but not as drastically as the western portion of the Island.
So, you got 2, no, 3 choices:
1)move away
2)move to Suffolk
3)adapt and roll with the changes
Am I happy with urbanization and uh, "ghettofication"...nope. But aint nuttin' I can do about it, other than one of the 3 choices above. I'm a redneck trapped in the suburbs. I didn't change so much as the world around me, but that's the way the mop flops.
Trust me, the biggest problem facing areas like Roosevelt and Wyandanch is not a lack of attractive, modern housing. A lot of neighborhoods in these places, once you get off the main thoroughfares, look no different from the surrounding "nice", middle class towns. When I drive through Central Islip (an area I'm not really familiar with) it looks exactly like anywhere else in the middle of Suffolk to me.....yet people out there say it's Harlem - and it does indeed have a higher crime rate, less effective schools and lower property values than neighboring communities.
Central Islip looks like a normal area. In fact, it's damn near inviting when I drive through Sunday mornings taking my dog to Blydenburgh park.
They have a higher crime rate, but a lot of factors effect the crime rate. I have a friend that has called the police three times in the last month, because of a bunch of underage youths partying and doing drugs in the woods by his house. No cop ever showed up, no increase in crime rate. School effectiveness, as has been hashed out on these forums many times, is made up of many different factors including the parents value of education. In an area like CI, where education rates are low, you are bound to have lower education interest from the students. I wouldn't say it's a lack of "effectiveness" of the schools. Central Islip is a hispanic/black enclave on Long Island, which means that it will suffer all the stereotypes from people that have never visited there. The same stereotypes that Italians, Jews, and Irish suffered for over one hundred years in New York. I used to get on/off the train there every day, and I will tell you that a lot of those stereotypes are deserved. Some are not, a great many good people live in that area. I wouldn't trade them for most people in the "nicer" areas.
It's very simple. LI is never going to back to what it was 30-40-50 years. NEVER. Get used to it. The "ghettofication" is inevitable. It's part of life.
If we're lucky, pockets of Suffolk will retain a certain suburban charm of yesteryear, hell even a slight hint of rural on the east end. If you cannot deal with and adapt to these changes, then you must move, or you will be miserable for the rest of your life.
It's like death, there is no avoiding it. Nassau will become Queens, and western Suffolk will become Nassau. The only save will be the east end, which will change somewhat, but not as drastically as the western portion of the Island.
So, you got 2, no, 3 choices:
1)move away
2)move to Suffolk
3)adapt and roll with the changes
Am I happy with urbanization and uh, "ghettofication"...nope. But aint nuttin' I can do about it, other than one of the 3 choices above. I'm a redneck trapped in the suburbs. I didn't change so much as the world around me, but that's the way the mop flops.
Karl,
Move down here...your redneck self will fit in nicely
Status:
"I must be “really retarded”"
(set 32 minutes ago)
19,738 posts, read 20,545,943 times
Reputation: 16443
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigMike50
Karl,
Move down here...your redneck self will fit in nicely
Thanks for the invite, but it's too populated...I'm lookin for 2000 acres in the middle of nowhere! But it's gotta be warm most of the time...doesn't leave too many options...
Thanks for the invite, but it's too populated...I'm lookin for 2000 acres in the middle of nowhere! But it's gotta be warm most of the time...doesn't leave too many options...
You should checkout Lee County, VA. I kid you not I know a guy who moved there, bought an old farm house on 575 acres. Dirt poor area but he's living out his dream of being recluse. What a waste of a 3 hr drive lol
It's like death, there is no avoiding it. Nassau will become Queens, and western Suffolk will become Nassau. The only save will be the east end, which will change somewhat, but not as drastically as the western portion of the Island.
So, you got 2, no, 3 choices:
1)move away
2)move to Suffolk
3)adapt and roll with the changes
Please don't tell the hordes to move to Suffolk. We don't want 'em.
Then there's the prospect of the shutdown of buses in Nassau in just over a month. What kind of business would want to move here without an adequate public transportation system?
Seriously? Plenty....all other things aside. The only businesses whose employees mainly rely on LI Bus to get to work are probably ones that are staffed by the illegal immigrants you're so mad about.
Regardless, shutting down the buses would be a major step backwards. It's a disgrace that this is even a possibility.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pequaman
---------------------------------- I would've picked this song instead to close....
Ahhh nice, I love Steely Dan. That one would have worked too. I thought the Kinks song was perfect cuz it's about the decline of England and how all they've got left to be proud of is nostalgia.
I definitely think more posts should have a soundtrack from now on, LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotkarl
It's like death, there is no avoiding it. Nassau will become Queens, and western Suffolk will become Nassau. The only save will be the east end, which will change somewhat, but not as drastically as the western portion of the Island.
Nassau is NEVER going to become anything like Queens. We'll never have a large amount of high rise apartments/condos, subways, attached homes/duplex buildings, etc. I hope we end up with a handful of them here and there, but even that isn't too likely. Archaic zoning regulations and too many people worried that anything over 3 stories high will make their neighborhood "look like Queens" will fight it to the death. Personally, I'd be happy if it ended up looking like Queens, cuz it's a lot more likely it'll end up looking like East Hollywood or some other craphole Los Angeles suburb in 50-60 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomonlineli
Central Islip looks like a normal area. In fact, it's damn near inviting when I drive through Sunday mornings taking my dog to Blydenburgh park.
They have a higher crime rate, but a lot of factors effect the crime rate. I have a friend that has called the police three times in the last month, because of a bunch of underage youths partying and doing drugs in the woods by his house. No cop ever showed up, no increase in crime rate. School effectiveness, as has been hashed out on these forums many times, is made up of many different factors including the parents value of education. In an area like CI, where education rates are low, you are bound to have lower education interest from the students. I wouldn't say it's a lack of "effectiveness" of the schools. Central Islip is a hispanic/black enclave on Long Island, which means that it will suffer all the stereotypes from people that have never visited there. The same stereotypes that Italians, Jews, and Irish suffered for over one hundred years in New York. I used to get on/off the train there every day, and I will tell you that a lot of those stereotypes are deserved. Some are not, a great many good people live in that area. I wouldn't trade them for most people in the "nicer" areas.
You're right, that was the wrong word for me to use. I think the teachers in worse-performing districts are working just as hard, if not harder, than everywhere else. IMO, crime and student performance are both mostly dictated by socioeconomic factors.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.