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Is quality of life for an UMC wealthy family better in the North Shore of Long Island (NSLI) vs. Fairfield vs. Westchester? Based on our research, we concluded that it is.
Shopping: Winner is NSLI. Americana Manhasset (nothing in Fairfield or Westchester can compare). Add in local shopping in Great Neck, Wheatley Plaza, Walt Whitman Mall, Garden City and its just not even close.
Commute to Manahattan: What beats the Port Washington Line in Great Neck, Manahasset, Port Washingon? Answer: Nothing.
Schools: Are the public schools in Fairfield and Westchester any bettter than Manhasset, Great Neck, Jericho, Cold Spring Harbor, Roslyn? I don't think so. Maybe Bronxville and Scarsdale are or are on the same level and that's it.
Totality and Diversity of wealth: NSLI wealth is just as high or even higher than Westchester and Fairfield but also more diverse. Lots of entrepreneurial money in the North Shore. Lots of real estate owners, owners of businesses, plus Wall Street and other corporate commuters, inherited wealth, etc. Westchester and Fairfield are too heavily reliant on Wall Street only. NLSI is overall wealthier (Kings Point, Sands Point, Brookville, Old Brookville, Old Westbury, Upper Brookville, Lattingtown, Matinecock, Oyster Bay Cove, Cove Neck, Cold Spring Harbor, Lake Success, Roslyn Estates, Roslyn Harbor, Roslyn Heights, Manhasset, North Hills gated communities, Locust Valley, Llodd Harbor, Mill Neck, etc. I am not even including NE Queens border towns like Douglaston Manor, Little Neck Hills that have homes that sell for 2-3mm +. There is an uniterrupted series of UMC/wealthy towns for 25 consecutive miles from Bayside Queens through to Huntington north of the Grand Central and Long Island Expressways.
Recreation: Fairfield and Westchester don't have access to as many and as high quality beaches and pools as residents of NSLI. Also the variety of summer camps in NSLI beats Westchester and Fairfield (Pierce, Shibley, Buckley, Friends Academy, Portledge, etc.) Country clubs on NSLI like Piping Rock Club, Piping Rock Beach Club, all the yacht clubs, etc.
Private Schools: Fairfield and Westchester probably have NSLI beat on this front. We want our kids to stay in public though so it's not an issue. NSLI privates are not bad (Friends Academy, Portledge, Greenvale School, buckley Country, etc.)
Picturesque villages: Fairfield and Westhceshter don't have cute dowtown villages that rival the Village of Roslyn, Village of Cold Spring Harbor, etc. National Historic sites.
Access to the Hamptons and North Fork: NSLI wins
Access to Airports: We travel a lot. NSLI wins
Variety of housing stock: NSLI wins--Ritz Carlton North Hills; gated communities in Manhasset, Woodbury, North Hills; luxury rentals in Roslyn, Great Neck; urban living in dowtown Great Neck; estate living in Locust Valley 2 acre minumum zoning towns, Old Westbury, waterfront living options, small village type living like Munsey Park, etc.
In all of the above I am only focusing on the NSLI and not including other upscale ares of Long Island like Garden City, Hewlett towns, Rockville Centre, etc. If you include these too, I think Long Island beats Fairfield and Westchester hands down.
In its article on the 1%, NYTimes said North Shore of Long Island has the highest concentration of 1% in the country so NSLI must have something going for it.
And what about traffic congestion, flora & fauna diversity, access to any other part of the country by car, and taxes? I believe LI would lose in all those areas.
Location: Prince Georges County, MD (formerly Long Island, NY)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomais
Commute to Manahattan: What beats the Port Washington Line in Great Neck, Manahasset, Port Washingon? Answer: Nothing.
Fair enough, but what about the rest of the North Shore? The Port Washington Branch barely enters Nassau County! Many north shore neighborhoods have to contend with non-electric lines like the Oyster Bay line. On the mainline, you can travel between Penn or Flatbush Avenue without changing trains, whereas on the north shore, you can only go as far as Huntington.
That's an interesting post, OP. all the folks I know who live on the UES and UWS have such disdain for LI (they scrunch up their noses at the "bridge and tunnel" crowd) and most of itis based on the big elephant in the room: property taxes. I know a few couples who just had babies and bought homes in Bronxville and Scarsdale, Darien CT, etc because what they got for taxes on NSLI wasn't as great as what they [perceived] was greater ROI in Westchester and CT. Access to airports may not be as important to them if they only fly internationally once a year. Public schools may be irrelevant if they go the private school route.
By and large, the big negatives are 1-no east side access from LIRR for commuters, 2- high taxes and 3-nightmare commute/traffic by car (the LIE is always snarled bumper to bumper in central Queens even at 3pm on a Sunday). We also have an overall negative reputation ("oh you live on Lawn Guyland...are you from Massapequa?.. Do all your friends sound like Teresa Caputo?"). Unlike Westchester, there aren't many anchor corporations/industries here either. Lake Success, Garden City/Mineola, and Melville are just a few "corporate hubs" that provide the bulk of high income employment opportunities whereas White Plains can stand on its own (I can think of at least 3 law firms I worked for in my life that had branches in White Plains but ZERO in Nassau/Suffolk). Also, some folks look at Long Island negatively because geographically we do all live on a giant "dead end".
I also think those extreme pockets of wealth on the north shore are going to decrease over time..one of my former coworkers who grew up in Sands Point is basically eager to unload his childhood home and move to NJ because he can't stand the traffic anymore (he works in midtown). More mansions seem to be bought by investors who subdivide the land into smaller homes, or those mansions are converted into mini museums (a la Old Westbury Gardens) as true wealth moves further east like East Quogue. Moreover, there was an article in Forbes recently that listed the top 10 wealthiest zip codes and Long Island wasn't anywhere on that list (but CT, NYC and many CA suburbs were).
Last edited by LegalDiva; 06-01-2013 at 11:36 PM..
"Dominating the list beyond D.C. and Dallas is Nassau County on Long Island, New York, which boasts four towns in the nation’s top ten. Already one of the 12 richest counties in the U.S. with a median household annual income close to $100,000, Nassau is home to pockets of even greater wealth.
Plandome Village, on the island’s north shore, has 1,300 residents and median household income of $248,036, according to the Census Bureau. Just a couple of miles away, the incorporated village of Munsey Park, an upscale section of the town of Manhasset, boasts roughly 900 households (nearly 3,000 people) making $227,716 a year. Village law in Munsey Park mandates that all homes be of colonial architecture. And if you’re having a garage sale – go ahead, but signs around the neighborhood promoting it are prohibited. Wall Street suburbia has its standards.
Another Long Island enclave on the list: Oyster Bay Cove, home of original old money estates that have since been sold and sliced into housing lots. The grave of Theodore Roosevelt, whose nearby Sagamore Hill home was dubbed the “summer White House” during his presidency more than a century ago, sits in the middle of a local bird sanctuary. The last Long Island pocket: Hewlett Neck, the wealthy section of a group of abutting villages called “The Hewletts,” where residents enjoy access to the south shore ocean and to New York City, just 20 miles away."
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Who cares? If I wanted to live in an upscale community I would pick one that fits me and most likely on the mainland so I am not trapped. Most people I know would select Westchester when discussing an upscale community to settle in. I have more respect with Anderson Township with a population of @43,00 than Plandome Village, on the island’s north shore, has 1,300 . When your population is that low your town/village is the equivilant of an HOA down here. At least Anderson Township like Scarsdale Village has a respectable population that makes it look like an actual community.
Last edited by VA Yankee; 06-02-2013 at 01:54 PM..
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