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My husband and I are currently looking for our first home, and found a home that we love in the Lakeview area of West Hempstead (a few blocks south of the Southern State Parkway). I know that the area is predominantly black, which we are completely comfortable with as the area seemed peaceful when we drove around it.
Would we be welcomed in a predominantly black neighborhood as a white couple, or should we just stick to mostly white neighborhoods (we would like a little diversity). Is there anything bad about this neighborhood that we should know about?
My husband and I are currently looking for our first home, and found a home that we love in the Lakeview area of West Hempstead (a few blocks south of the Southern State Parkway). I know that the area is predominantly black, which we are completely comfortable with as the area seemed peaceful when we drove around it.
Would we be welcomed in a predominantly black neighborhood as a white couple, or should we just stick to mostly white neighborhoods (we would like a little diversity). Is there anything bad about this neighborhood that we should know about?
Thanks in advance for any info/advice!
No one on here can really answer your question.
Why don't you walk around the neighborhood you are thinking of buying in and talk to the people that live there? At least introduce yourselves to the nearest neighbors of the house you are interested in buying so you can gauge who you are going to be living near and get an idea of their attitudes towards you.
A map of the Hamlet of Lakeview om the Town of Hempstead, Nassau County
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ria1128
... found a home that we love in the Lakeview area of West Hempstead (a few blocks south of the Southern State Parkway).
Lakeview and West Hempstead are hamlets and, according to the NYS Geographic Glossary, one hamlet can not be part of another hamlet.
Lakeview is one of those many villages and hamlets on long Island where none of the places in the community have the community name as part of their mailing address: places in the Hamlet of Lakeview have a "West Hempstead, NY 11552" and "Rockville Centre, NY 11570" mailing address.
A map of the Hamlet of Lakeview in the Town of Hempstead, Nassau County:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5e/Lakeview-ny-map.gif (broken link)
Why don't you walk around the neighborhood you are thinking of buying in and talk to the people that live there? At least introduce yourselves to the nearest neighbors of the house you are interested in buying so you can gauge who you are going to be living near and get an idea of their attitudes towards you.
I agree with this. I used to have a work friend who was black who lived around there, and even back in those days it wasn't an inexpensive place to buy a house so I don't think you'd have an issue, but ILLB gives you good advice. No one can make this decision for you. Everyone's idea of "feeling welcomed" is different anyway.
Lakeview isn't an area sought after by whites, thus very few live there.
Should you choose to live in Lakeview, other Long Islanders, whether white or black, will be surprised when you as a white person, tell them that you are from there. It's not a negative, but it will be very surprising to other people.
I live on the border of Rockville Centre and Lakeview.
There are some bad parts of Lakeview but it is very small.
The side closer to Rockville Centre and Malverne is nice, the side closer to Hempstead is rough.
But you shouldn't worry about the black people welcoming you, there's no race issue here because the two towns next to Lakeview, Lynbrook and Rockville Centre are predominantly white. Hempstead is mixed, but I would say its predominantly Hispanic.
You say you are looking for "a little diversity". That is a far cry from being one of a handful at best of whites living in a predominantly black area.
Only you can figure out your level of comfort being an underrepresented minority of a hamlet's population.
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A map of the Hamlet of Lakeview om the Town of Hempstead, Nassau County
