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It looks like I am about to take a 2 year assignment in Astoria. I have never been to NYC, know little or nothing about NYC. Going to be looking for a rent house on Long Island. Would like to keep it to a 20 mile commute or less. The job is right next to the Con-Ed Plant next to the bridge to Rikers. Would like to keep the rent under $3500/mo. My wife and two little girls (4 yrs and 1 Yr.) will be with me.
For the $3500 I am asking a lot I know, at least 3 br, preferably 4, nice area, a yard, a nice long driveway, good schools as 4 yr old will be in kindergarten fall of 08.
I have no clue where the good places are. I only know what houses I see on craigslist and a few other sites and what looks good. Also have looked at schools on greatschools.net. The schools on long Island are all 1000x better than anything in Louisiana so it looks good.
OK. I hope you are getting paid very well to spend two years here. So here is some advice from a veteran Long Islander.
Long Island City is extremely conjested during the week. There is no parking there except at the ConEd facility for ConEd employees. So if you are not working for ConEd forget about driving to LIC. You will need to take public transportation. Go here for information about the public transportation system MTA Home Page If you plan on living 20 miles away then expect your commute to take an hour minimum. Perhaps longer.
As far as renting something for $3500 a month in a good area with your needs might be difficult. 20 miles from work puts you into western Nassau County. These areas are worth checking out: Mineola, New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Floral Park, Franklin Square and Carle Place. All have good school districts.
I hope this helps. I'll be back to give you more information.
I am told I will have a place to park at the job site. Public transportation to that particular area via LIRR looks to take a LONG time. So I will just have to see how it goes. I will leave for work at like 6 AM and head home around 530PM. So I am assuming that the morning commute wont be too bad and that the evening will be atrocious (an hr or more)
I will take a look at those areas. The best site I have found for rentals seems to be Craigslist, other websites seem to be hard to use and narrow down. But eventually I will get a realtors help. I am assuming Great Neck and other northern areas are good too but may be out of my price range for monthly rent?
As far as pay, I am in Richmond, VA right now and my living allowance in NYC will be almost triple what it is here and I think I can get by spending double. For me to go a promotion will also be involved. Thanks for the help
Also I want to keep it under 20 miles, so closer is better if the area is nice.
Last edited by JSFord; 08-21-2007 at 09:56 AM..
Reason: added sentence
You can add to your list of places Williston Park, Lakeville Estates and Albertson. The best school district that is within your commuting distance is Herricks.
Herricks takes in parts of New Hyde Park, Williston Park, Albertson, Manhasset Hills, the North Hills, and a sliver of Roslyn.
Mineola is also very good. It takes in Mineola, parts of Williston Park and parts of Roslyn Heights.
New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school district which is also good takes in those two respective areas.
If you are willing to rent a condo you might even find something in the North Hills. Also, don't be afraid to look in the northeastern section of Queens. The elementary schools are pretty good in Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, and Glen Oaks. Take a look at the North Shore Towers as well.
For a guy relocating from the south, NYC and LI will be a culture shock for you. People will not care where you are from, in fact they are going to either pester you with all kinds of questions non-stop or not ask you anything. If you do get pestered that is because most New Yorkers are a curious lot and many want to escape from this place. That being said, I think it would be irresponsible for me to clue you in on the ethnic/racial and class make-up of various localities that you will not get off the web.
Great Neck: lots of Jews, many Iranian Jews and other Middle Easterners - Middle to Upper Middle Class with some in the Upper Class residing in Kings Point. The area is very conjested and very snobby.
New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Williston Park and Garden City Park are still mostly white with a significant Asian population. Many Asian Indians, some Koreans and Chinese. You will see Indian women wearing saris walking around. The area is Middle Class. Nice neighborhoods.
Mineola is a diverse area also with the older sections having a rather large Mexican/Central American population. The area is more working and middle class. It was always heavily Irish, but that might be changing.
Most whites on Long Island are Italian and Irish and are Catholic. I don't know if you are religious or whatever, but if you want you could send your kids to Notre Dame in New Hyde Park.
If you have any questions about any specific places just post them on this thread.
Any Baptist Church on Long Island is likely to be a black Baptist Church. The 83 Baptist churches that GCGuy found are probably in Hempstead or Uniondale. Those areas are mostly black and hispanic. If you are black then you should checl out Westbury. I don't think there are many white Baptists on LI.
Last edited by JSFord; 08-21-2007 at 02:05 PM..
Reason: typo
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Religeous?
