No top Universities, No major employers... Does NYC get the best of Long Island's stock? (apartments, insurance)

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

To elaborate, I'll explain why I left.

I was 19 and I wanted my own place. I also had exhausted the catalog of classes that interested me at Suffolk CC Brentwood. I did not want to transfer to Stony Brook or Farmingdale and was not in a position to pay tuition to one of the private unversities. So I looked to leave.

One thing I didn't want to give up was being too far from the ocean though. So I saved my money, got a job and an apartment on the ocean in Ocean City MD and eventually went back to school at a top-rated state university. I never paid more than $300/month for rent when I was in college. This allowed me to have a pretty good QOL while in school by working 30-40 hours per week.

My two best friends from LI came to visit and were amazed by the wide open spaces, beaches and cheap COL. Within a two years, both had moved down. They too were tired of the LI rat race. They are still there almost 10 years later.

QOL was more important to me than road rage on the southern state. Yes, I missed family and friends, missed the food (still do), missed Islanders games. And I was occasionally bored, as where I lived was a somewhat rural area without a giant city and all of its fun right next door. But Baltimore, DC and Philly were all 2-3 hours away - great dfor weekend trips. Despite that, there was nothing that made me feel like I made the wrong decision.

I've since moved around a bunch, but I can safely say that I'm not interested in returning to LI to raise a family. Having to drive everywhere is a big factor in that but the cost is of course the biggest. There's no reason that I "have to" live there. A lot of people feel like they must though, and I do understand why. Perhaps if I were from a big family and everyone was from LI, I would feel differently. But half of my family is here, the other half is there, and I'd much, much rather be here.

All I'm saying is if you have the notion, move away for a while. If you don't like it, you can always move back. But if you're like me, you won't miss it enough to go back.

[Yzette]

Originally Posted by grant516

New York's big industry is finance, and lord knows if the top financial firms were all subjected to a 5% increase in state taxes; it could likely pay the resident income taxes of the rest of the state. Alas, the regulations on Finance are shockingly 'hands off'.

Heaven forfend they faced such a cruel, unfair, and communist redistribution of the wealth. How dare you even suggest such a thing? Are you unamerican?

[GreenGuy]

ohhh please. LI is this way because we made it this way. Think about it for a second. Businesses bring property taxes down (which is why hicksville has lower taxes than the surrounding towns) however Wang's lighthouse project got voted down. An affordable housing project (apartments) around the block from my parents house got voted down a few years ago. Just about any time you hear of someone trying to develop some part of long island it gets voted down if its anywhere near a nice neighborhood. People are too scared of 'riff-raff' or whatever and so any apartment complexes are usually impossible to pass, unless they are 'luxury condos' or whatever, but nothing affordable ever passes and gets built.

What do young people have to go through to live here on an entry level salary? What happens is that young people end up moving into illegal basement apartments which basically means we have no rights unless you don't mind moving every year and it also over populates the area and drives up taxes for everyone including school taxes because a lot of people end up raising kids in 2nd floor or basement apartments of houses. I know because.. i was doing it... and all my friends were doing it. and its really tough when your landlord decides to kick you out or raise your rent on you.

Young people wouldn't be fleeing LI if there was apartments here and there that are in decent areas and not places like hempstead or wyandanch. The problem is all the old fogies like you complainers who come out and say NO to every development idea because they are so afraid of nassau becoming like queens and then go home and wonder why your out-of-college kids still live at home. Why are there no major employers? because they need a major amount of space that no town is willing to give and high taxes. maybe if we gave some big business some tax breaks and didn't make it impossible to build here with all the 'not in my backyeard' attitude from everyone and built some places where people can live legally on $30k-$40 a year we wouldn't have these problems. but no.. everyone here is against that because of fear. its like xenophobia. they want it for their kids but are afraid of everyone else and you can't have it both ways so the end result is everyone suffers, especially young families.

BTW if you live check to check on $150k and can't save you obviously are spending too much. Me and my wife made $60k/yr combined this year and our rent is $1850 for an entire house for which we pay all the utilities and oil. We struggle, our savings have been stagnant for the past couple years, but we make do with what we have and we are happy and our kids are happy.

[mr. magillicuddy]

Originally Posted by 4DogsImDone

I know nothing about Texas. If there is no state income tax, how does the state collect revenue from the residents?

Sales tax and what they consider to be high property taxes (still way lower than LI). No state income tax in 7 states.

State income tax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by mr. magillicuddy

2 6cyl cars (2010 suv, 2002 sedan), both hold about 15 gals. I fill up twice a week (30gals), my wife 3 times (she drives further to work...45gals). 75 gals per week, approx 300gals per month, approx 3600gals per year. At $3.00 per that's $10,800. Currently gas is in the $3.30 range. Thanks for making me double check the math. I was fairly accurate.

mr. magglobalwarming

Originally Posted by FrmlyBklyn

Really? Is that why Texas has a $9 billion dollar deficit? Efficient or just ignoring the obvious hoping it's all a bad dream? Sounds like Texas is taking one from the playbook of NY and NJ - if you ignore the problem, it will just fade away.

About 5 states are not under-water.

It's a serious cause for alarm.

States with high income taxes though, like New Jersey, are still in deeper water than Texas and Nevada.

[rocafeller05]

Mr. Magillcuddy...either..1) tough it out 2) move or 3) find another job since your 150k isnt enough. No one is singling you out. You make well more than most people I know and they make it here fine. Thats all Im saying. Have a nice day!


PS. If you decide to leave let us know where we can send our resume for your current job.

[FrmlyBklyn]

Originally Posted by rocafeller05

Mr. Magillcuddy...either..1) tough it out 2) move or 3) find another job since your 150k isnt enough. No one is singling you out. You make well more than most people I know and they make it here fine. Thats all Im saying. Have a nice day!


PS. If you decide to leave let us know where we can send our resume for your current job.

If a 150K job becomes empty, chances are any good employer will just consolidate and eliminate the opening - instance savings!

[nassau2suffolk]

Originally Posted by FrmlyBklyn

If a 150K job becomes empty, chances are any good employer will just consolidate and eliminate the opening - instance savings!

Ah yes, the private sector at its best. Pay everyone peanuts and line the pockets of the upper end. And people wonder where all the good paying jobs went.

[rocafeller05]

That was combined, not his salary alone.

But anyways Im off topic and done.