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just head on down the Billy Floyd....it's a breeze! Plenty of people do it! Best darn value on the north shore! We got rides an attractions! We love it here! If ya get stuck in the mud, just call our award winning cheerleading squad! Half my neighbors work on Wall Street! Do you really need to see your kids more than two days a week? Just don't tell too many people...I don't want the best kept secret on Long Island getting out!
Ok honestly you can just head down william floyd - its a wide open road, no traffic north of the LIE. So coming from points north, it really is a breeze to get to the expressway. It is not 3.5 minutes though, and the commute to the city from out here is looong even without traffic. I commute from South Shirley to Sag Parkway every day and it does work on you - and that is STILL 40 miles is from Manhattan- after driving 30 already.
Bottom line I wish I lived in the ronk/sayville/bohemia area rather than here because thats pretty much the center of LI. I'm not going to try to sell Eastern Brookhaven because it really is flyover country and nothing more. I say this all the time:
Long Island = Elmont to patchogue - blank land until Westhampton Beach - Carry on to Montauk. Inbetween patchogue and WHB - nothing of importance and anyone who argues it is simply indenial. Its the boonies for LI - but compared to other rural states or even upstate NY, it is the city.
My family upstate calls me a city boy and i'm from the "boonies" to each is own I guess.
Apples to apples, best case scenario would be 47 min to SE Nass or 69 min to Nicolls rd.
So what youre saying is that its a little under an hour to live in S Nassau and a little over an hour to live in the Boonies.
My bad, dealbreaker.
Crooks
The express train from Ronkonkoma is impressive. 69 minutes of train time from that far east to Penn Station is very good, and a small miracle for the LIRR.
But how long does it take to drive there? How long does it take to park and walk to the station? How much longer does it take in the PM if you miss an express train and have to make every stop? How much longer are you sitting there tortured when 4 drops of rain fall and disable the entire system? That stuff all sucks and adds a considerable amount of time... whereas in "SE Nassau" I walk out my front door every single day 8 minutes before my train comes, pass by two traffic lights that are always green, park right under the tracks at 5:57 and I'm walking down 34th Street 40-something minutes later. If I miss the express in the afternoon, the local takes FIVE MINUTES longer, though it seems like an eternity. If the entire LIRR stops working I take the subway to Jamaica and then a bus home from there. If I miss the train in the morning, no big deal... I just drive - because I don't live in the boonies and I can still make it into Manhattan in about an hour at that time of day.
It's still a long commute from Nassau, but it's fairly typical for the NYC metro area. Ronkonkoma is really on the outskirts of sane commuting distance. Anyone who does it, I give them credit.
The express train from Ronkonkoma is impressive. 69 minutes of train time from that far east to Penn Station is very good, and a small miracle for the LIRR.
But how long does it take to drive there? How long does it take to park and walk to the station? How much longer does it take in the PM if you miss an express train and have to make every stop? How much longer are you sitting there tortured when 4 drops of rain fall and disable the entire system? That stuff all sucks and adds a considerable amount of time... whereas in "SE Nassau" I walk out my front door every single day 8 minutes before my train comes, pass by two traffic lights that are always green, park right under the tracks at 5:57 and I'm walking down 34th Street 40-something minutes later. If I miss the express in the afternoon, the local takes FIVE MINUTES longer, though it seems like an eternity. If the entire LIRR stops working I take the subway to Jamaica and then a bus home from there. If I miss the train in the morning, no big deal... I just drive - because I don't live in the boonies and I can still make it into Manhattan in about an hour at that time of day.
It's still a long commute from Nassau, but it's fairly typical for the NYC metro area. Ronkonkoma is really on the outskirts of sane commuting distance. Anyone who does it, I give them credit.
Ronkonk is 50 miles from manhattan guy. Not 5000. It has never been considered boonies. It was extremely popular among city folk in the 1950s. If you consider Ronk the boonies, then you are living in a seirous Nassau bubble.
You are a perfect example of the what the OP was talking about - people making suffolks proximity to NYC seem like a galaxy away when in any other state 50 miles would be considered close. I honestly feel for bubbled Nassau. It really is a shame.
Ronkonk is 50 miles from manhattan guy. Not 5000. It has never been considered boonies. It was extremely popular among city folk in the 1950s. If you consider Ronk the boonies, then you are living in a seirous Nassau bubble.
Crooks said it, I just repeated it... 99.9% sure he was being sarcastic, considering he lives in the actual boonies.
Ronkonk is 50 miles from manhattan guy. Not 5000. It has never been considered boonies. It was extremely popular among city folk in the 1950s. If you consider Ronk the boonies, then you are living in a seirous Nassau bubble.
You are a perfect example of the what the OP was talking about - people making suffolks proximity to NYC seem like a galaxy away when in any other state 50 miles would be considered close. I honestly feel for bubbled Nassau. It really is a shame.
What makes those 50 miles seem far is the traffic on Long Island and then Queens, which is just horrible every single day and almost any time of the day unless it's during the overnight hours.
Ronkonk is 50 miles from manhattan guy. Not 5000. It has never been considered boonies. It was extremely popular among city folk in the 1950s.
Actually, it's early popularity and lack of expressways and major east west highways helped add to the "boonies" rep. Conversely, as developers headed eastward they touted their locations as being 'close by at LIE exit 58.'
Many areas on LI were popular with city people even earlier than that. My grandmother talks about riding in her uncle's Model A, sitting in the rumble seat, for the couple of hour ride from the Bronx to 'the country': Wyandanch!
My area developed in shifts -- pre-Revolutionary, early 20th century summer homes, and finally mass development which started in earnest during the mid 1960's. You will find many early to mid 20th century summer homes in Suffolk -- it took a long time to drive to them (no quick trip to the beach and back); people were escaping the congested, hot cities; people were escaping disease (Spanish flu, polio); others came to spend time at religious encampments. (The root behind the foundation of the Stony Brook School.)
Could you imagine traveling to a summer home in Shoreham via 25A from Brooklyn in 1930? 25A had more twists and turns, single lane, unpaved in areas.
How would someone have traveled to Lake Ronkonkoma? The LI Motor Pkwy was a paved toll road by that time with some twists and turns that the modern sections of the Motor Pkwy no longer have.
The LIRR wasn't electrified; old postcards I have of the Stony Brook station show chickens walking about it!
Before all the development, this was the countryside to city people -- many of whom moved out here to escape the city. IMHO, this plays largely into why there is the perception that we are far from Manhattan or the outer boroughs.
1 of the Reasons why this place Sucks Developers=GREED
Nothing to do but Sit in the House and Be quite Like they want us
Its Like Being in The Hole in Prison
It sounds like you live a very fullfilling life.
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