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Oh please, it's boring as hell, has a run-down old fashioned culture (or lack therof) and is one of the most expensive places to live ON EARTH. It strangles business growth, personal savings and growth and creativity. Old boiler room regimes that will not allow any type of development besides strip malls and single family homes (with egregious zoning ordinances that make it a capital offense to have a pool, shed or fence without an army of overpayed hacks coming to inspect and approve). I have lived in many cities and toured the country a number of times. There are many places that represent what LI was in it's heyday. Schools, business centers, suburban feel but close to cultural benefits. Long Island is EATING itself alive from within. Unsustainable layers of govt and taxes, intrenched positions on development. No incentives for business growth. Plenty of reasons young people leave, businesses leave, the elderly leave. I'm stuck because I have a 5 year old and my wife will not leave her family (who will leave when they retire in a few years). It's not even a place where kids can play together outside anymore. It's a place where you live paycheck to paychek on $150k per year! It's an isolated place of scheduled activities and expensive leagues. It's a friggin bore. When a new Denny's or Sonic opens, it's the cultural event of the year. That really turns on the college crowds. Why wouldn't they go somewhere with better employment opportunites, newer and cheaper housing stock, lower taxes, new amenities and shopping, new infrastructre. Got news for you...they even have bagels and pizza in other places. Ugh, what a waste. Can they turn this ship around? It's heading straight for the rocks. Everyone knows it, but come election time, Kate and Ed will get on that phone and scare the elderly into pulling that switch for "change." Ha Ha Ha Ha. I've gotta go throw up now.
not even that, your $150k, if you even find the same opportunity in "grass is greener land outside of LI", will pay $50k most likely. Other parts of the country are fighting for min wage jobs. If you move from your fam & friends, you'll have so much time on your hands you might even become a regular on city-data and spend your free time posting about how bad it was in NY.
I agree we need some solutions to bring in more business. rentals are not always the answer, look at lynbrook; don't they have a fairly large tax base with the rentals on merrick rd and peninsula ? And lynbrook village taxes are still the highest in Nassau county I believe (next to the gold coast). We need a major corporation in the heart of Nassau. Taxes are too high, no one wants to set up shop here, that's the problem.
Long Island is well educated, but it is boring and lacks vitality. I would rather live in Brooklyn than Nassau County. Most young people either want a cool urban neighborhood (like NYC) or they want to live in a place where they can have a large new build in a modern suburban environment (like cities in the South). They don't want to live in an overpriced shoebox ranch or cape cod in a place with a 1950's infrastructure like Nassau County, where they have no hope of moving up to something larger no matter how hard they work.
And that about sums it up. Young people have been leaving Long Island for 30 years. Why? Because it's boring to be 22 here. It's suburbia. It's the same way in many other suburban and ex-urban areas of the country. With Long Island, it's nothing new. Young people want to be able to go out for a night on the town and not deal with driving all over creation. They want to be near other young people, hop on mass transit and get somewhere quickly, be near decent live music. For that, you need to be in a more urban area. It's not easy to go away to college in a city like Boston or DC and come back to life in chain-restaurant suburbia.
But if you want to attract young people who are ready to settle down, foster the industries that interest them.
And finally, no, you don't have to be a cop or teacher here. Plenty of accountants and financial people, health care workers who are not doctors or surgeons, and independent contractors and entrepreneurs.
I sincerely believe that the Long Island culture fosters a lot of people's dissatisfaction here. More than anywhere else I've ever been, people seem to feel that they are entitled to own a house wherever they would like to. Well, you know, I'd love to have a $2 million house in San Francisco, but that doesn't mean I can afford it. Some people wig out, like it's so horrible to say, "Hey, if you can't afford it, either downsize, rent, or leave."
Come on. That's nothing the rest of the middle class hasn't been dealing with since the Baby Boom. Just because you were born here, that does not mean you are entitled to home ownership here. Kudos to the people who understand that, instead of throwing spoiled brat tantrums because they want to live here, here, HERE, and they should be able to live HERE because they WANNA! Hats off to the young people who venture out into the world. There's more for them to see out there, anyway.
And that about sums it up. Young people have been leaving Long Island for 30 years. Why? Because it's boring to be 22 here. It's suburbia. It's the same way in many other suburban and ex-urban areas of the country. With Long Island, it's nothing new. Young people want to be able to go out for a night on the town and not deal with driving all over creation. They want to be near other young people, hop on mass transit and get somewhere quickly, be near decent live music. For that, you need to be in a more urban area. It's not easy to go away to college in a city like Boston or DC and come back to life in chain-restaurant suburbia.
But if you want to attract young people who are ready to settle down, foster the industries that interest them.
And finally, no, you don't have to be a cop or teacher here. Plenty of accountants and financial people, health care workers who are not doctors or surgeons, and independent contractors and entrepreneurs.
I sincerely believe that the Long Island culture fosters a lot of people's dissatisfaction here. More than anywhere else I've ever been, people seem to feel that they are entitled to own a house wherever they would like to. Well, you know, I'd love to have a $2 million house in San Francisco, but that doesn't mean I can afford it. Some people wig out, like it's so horrible to say, "Hey, if you can't afford it, either downsize, rent, or leave."
Come on. That's nothing the rest of the middle class hasn't been dealing with since the Baby Boom. Just because you were born here, that does not mean you are entitled to home ownership here. Kudos to the people who understand that, instead of throwing spoiled brat tantrums because they want to live here, here, HERE, and they should be able to live HERE because they WANNA! Hats off to the young people who venture out into the world. There's more for them to see out there, anyway.
Or hats off the young people like myself who work hard and saved $$ responsibly a bought a home instead of giving up on it b/c it's "too hard". No, it's not too hard, really it's not.
01-25-2011, 03:16 PM
grant516
n/a posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jdawg8181
Or hats off the young people like myself who work hard and saved $$ responsibly a bought a home instead of giving up on it b/c it's "too hard". No, it's not too hard, really it's not.
... the type of housing stock you own is an incredible minority portion of what's out there on Long Island, and not accessible to everyone.
Saving responsibly, having minimal debt after college, and a career paying decent is not something happening to the majority of graduates these days.
It's not impossible, but yet such a small amount of Islanders afford to purchase, especially when todays loaning standards become more stringent.
Doesn't it seem counterproductive to spend so much money educating our youth on Long Island when the best of our students will leave the Island for better educational opportunities not available on LI; and when the most employable will end up leaving for work opportunities not available on LI?
What incentives can we provide for tomorrows youth to entice them to come to, or at the very least, stay on Long Island?
IMHO, taxes have to be lower for businesses to stay and grow, otherwise chances are they will only be the types of businesses that grow to the point where once they need to expand past servicing local people and businesses on the island, they may re-evaluate if they should stay and expand or move their HQ to somewhere more cost effective.
As for keeping the youth, the island needs to develop more rental complexes. I noticed many years back groups of apartment complexes in various places around DC and they were near busniess parks, providing short commutes from moderately priced housing.
not even that, your $150k, if you even find the same opportunity in "grass is greener land outside of LI", will pay $50k most likely. Other parts of the country are fighting for min wage jobs. If you move from your fam & friends, you'll have so much time on your hands you might even become a regular on city-data and spend your free time posting about how bad it was in NY.
You really need to get out more. There are plenty of places where salaries are excellent and the cost of living reasonable. Long Island is a great place, especially if you're established and professional, but it's not a great place to get a start.
As for keeping the youth, the island needs to develop more rental complexes. I noticed many years back groups of apartment complexes in various places around DC and they were near busniess parks, providing short commutes from moderately priced housing.
Rentals are important for people moving into an area. My wife does a lot of relocation's for her company and having a good selection of middle and upscale rentals close to business, good schools ( ) and in the area you may move to makes it easier for people to move to an area. These days more people who relocate are having to rent while they wait for the house to sell. Moving to the Island in comparison is a logistical nightmare.
This issue has been around for the Island since at least the mid-80's when I heard executives for UTC complaining about how hard it was to lure engineers to the Island.
But when you start saving all that cash from day care you will be just fine. No?
How someone makes 150k a year and is not getting ahead, is mind boggling. As I said..its how you live, not how much money you make.
Wrong, judgedmental and presumptious of you. I could give you my detailed budget (and I maintain a strictly detailed budget). In a good month, we have $1000 left over. Add a birthday party or a wedding present and we're tight. At $150k, we're lucky to take home $100k after taxes, modest 401k contributions and health insurance. $36k mtg, $14k day care $15k (heat, elec, cable, cell, auto insur.), $10-12k gas, $4k auto payment, $3k student loan payment. If we eat and buy food for the dog that's another $7k (extremely modest at under $20 per day for 3 people + dog, including lunches). That's $91k with no particular luxuries. If we beat uncle sam and take home $103k, that's a whopping $1000/mo left over. God forbid we need a car repair or want to throw the kid a bowling party for his birthday. Those royal luxuries will break the bank.
The house dropped $100k in 2 years. So tell me how mind boggling it is that we are not getting ahead?! You don't know what you're talking about. Should I cut out the heat or my kid's lunch?
I bet there are many others here who's monthly expenses look EXACTLY like this.
Oh, and day care will continue. For $8k in school taxes, my district STILL does not have full day kindergarden and at 1st grade he'll go 9-3 so we'll still need before care and pay the district for after school. BTW, his kindergarden teacher makes $120k per year with full bennies and pension. What a racket.
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