Would you stay situated on Long Island (without ever going into NYC) if you weren't obligated to go into NYC? (New York: amusement parks, how much)

[UsAll]

A thought (a question) occurred to me today about Long Island at-large and its connection (topographically-speaking) to New York City, so I thought I'd ask all of your Long Island residents (wherever you reside in Nassau or Suffolk Counties). The question is:

If you weren't OBLIGATED to go into the city on a regular basis-- whether daily or intermittently during the week or month (mostly thinking of Manhattan, but you can also answer for any of the other 4 boroughs of NYC) for your job/work or school or some other obligation which compels you to go into New York City (e.g., for special medical treatment) but instead could engage in any work or schooling (college or university, trade school, et al) or pursuing your retirement ALL on Long Island, would you choose to stay situated in Long Island and do all your living, working, shopping, recreation or entertainment, taking advantage of or seeking provision of whatever kind of services, etc. etc. etc. virtually ALL the time and therefore never or virtually never set foot in New York City (whether Manhattan or else any of the other 4 boroughs)?

This does not include having to temporarily pass through the city because you have to (e.g., you are visiting relatives in New Jersey and therefore need to get to the George Washington Bridge or the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge; or are going towards upstate NY and have to get to the Whitestone or Throgs Neck Bridge; or you are going to Connecticut or elsewhere in New England at-large and decide to take your automobile all the way instead of using either the Port Jefferson or Orient Point ferries to Connecticut; or you have to catch an airplane to wherever and Long Island MacArthur Airport or Republic Airport or any other Long Island airport cannot serve your needs and you therefore have to travel to JFK or LaGuardia or Newark Airport) nor to go to a one-time or non-repeating special event that is only in the city (e.g., a sports team game at Yankee Stadium or Citifield or Madison Square Garden, or a special concert at Madison Square Garden or Carnegie Hall). What I do mean, as stated above, if you didn't have to make REGULAR OBLIGATORY TRIPS INTO THE CITY (whether Manhattan or the other 4 boroughs) because you are compelled to because of your present job or schooling or whatever other obligation, would you just pretty much ALWAYS stay situated within Long Island?.

In summary: If you could instead engage in ALL your income-earning work and be based wherever in Long Island (whether working for others or whether working for yourself) or you can pursue any desired or necessary post-secondary education at whatever school or institution situated in Long Island that would otherwise suit your needs (if you are now or plan to pursue some post-secondary schooling for whatever reason) or you are retired or planning to retire and therefore don't now or soon won't have to do work or schooling anymore wherever in New York City and you DO presently (or ideally can) have the economic means to continue living wherever in Long Island in your retirement, do you think that you can fulfill all or virtually all of your day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year needs and wants without feeling a desire to make either REGULAR or INTERMITTENT forays in the city?

For instance, while temporarily having to stay in Long Island at my parents' home for nearly a year in order to settle their affairs and estate, I found that I could fulfill every possible need and want while situated ONLY in Long Island. For instance, I went nearly 9 months without ever going to Manhattan and only made a few trips into nearby Queens for purely personal pursuits (i.e., just taking a pleasure drive). That means I could find any kind of shopping or dining, any kind of provision of services, any recreation or entertainment, et al that I needed or desired ALL within the confines of Nassau and/or Suffolk Counties. For instance, for those times where I desired an urban-like landscape (i.e., with walkable streets and wholly-walkable business and residential districts and other urban-type amenities and trappings) instead of a purely remote or automobile-dependent landscape, I could partake of a multitude of locales in Long Island for such settings without ever feeling a need to go into New York City for fulfill this desire (whether Garden City or the Hempsteads or Mineola or Westbury or Hicksville or Great Neck or Rockville Centre or Long Beach or Huntington Village or Babylon Village or Bay Shore Village or Patchogue or Roosevelt or Uniondale or Freeport or Port Jefferson or Riverhead or the Hamptons or Greenport, etc. etc. etc. (in other words, plenty of places to park the car and just walk, walk, walk in a street grid-like setting and have an urban feel). If I wanted public libraries or academic libraries or late-hours post offices or photocopying services such as FedEx Office or shopping or dining of any type conceivable, I could find it within Long Island without EVER having to go into any of the 5 boroughs of New York City. If I wanted to pursue pure fun or recreation or entertainment (e.g., museums, art galleries, bowling alleys, parks, beaches, state parks or preserves, historical sites, amusement parks or arcades, movie theatres, concert or music venues, bars or pubs, etc. etc. etc.), I could find it within Nassau or Suffolk Counties without EVER having to make any forays into any of the 5 boroughs of New York City. And so on.

So, how do you think about this issue, my fellow readers and posters? That is, can you find the totality of what is situated within Long Island-- meaning just Nassau and Suffolk Counties --to meet every (or nearly every) possible need of yours and therefore you either presently rarely (if ever) go into Manhattan or whichever of the other 4 boroughs or, in the upcoming or hoped-for future, you will reach a time where you won't anymore be obligated to make trips or forays into the city and will pretty much always prefer to stay situated within Long Island (Nassau and/or Suffolk Counties) at-large?

[ny789987]

Long Island is a hellish, crowded, dead-end concrete jungle with insane taxes & cost of living. Without manhattan, put me in a place with plenty of mountains, green space, and the ability to get away from annoying neighbors.

[rubygreta]

I have heard that there are lots of adults out in Suffolk County (including 90-year olds) who have never been to Manhattan. True, or just a rumor?

[Firsttimehomeownerli]

LI is diverse enough in its offerings all across the island, that I actually find more to do here than in NYC. That's probably because I am an outdoorsy person and because of my chosen lifestyle. Contrary to many people my age (millenials), I'm not much into manhattan's bread and butter offerings, so I'm completely content here. Especially in suffolk. I do, however, benefit from nyc education and opportunities. Besides that, I hardly trek in.

[UsAll]

Originally Posted by ny789987

Long Island is a hellish, crowded, dead-end concrete jungle with insane taxes & cost of living. Without manhattan, put me in a place with plenty of mountains, green space, and the ability to get away from annoying neighbors.

Well, not the entirety of Long Island is crowded or a concrete jungle. And part of my specified ideal conditions that you could live under (while residing anywhere in Long Island) stated ". . . and you DO presently (or ideally can) have the economic means to continue living wherever in Long Island in your retirement". In other words, in this imagined or ideal scenario, if money was no object for you (e.g., you won the $20 million lottery and have it invested well in high-income-earning investments and have good pensions and/or retirement accounts as well) and therefore you could live wherever you want and however you want, do you think you could make your life residing in Long Island and that you can fulfill all or virtually all of your day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year needs and wants without feeling a desire to make either REGULAR or INTERMITTENT forays into the neighboring City of New York?

Remember that Long Island is approximately 90 miles from the Queens-Nassau Border to Orient Point (on the North Fork), approximately 100 to 110 miles from the Queens-Nassau Border to Montauk Point (on the South Fork), and from 12-15 to 24 miles from the North Shore to the South Shore. In other words, there are enough areas within that large land mass that are not crowded and dense nor anything like a so-called "concrete jungle". You're limiting your scope and perspective of what entails the totality of Long Island. There are ways to live here that are rather isolated from your fellow residents (of course, in my "dream scenario" as stated earlier, I conveyed ". . . if money was no object for you & therefore you definitely had the economic means to handle residing in Long Island in whatever way would be suitable to you". So, under THAT scenario, you would still reject that totality of what Nassau and Suffolk Counties together offer?

There is no right or wrong answer here. Just interested in other people's views and perspectives.

[whinnner1]

I worked in Manhattan and most of the outer boroughs for 25 years. I've been back twice in the twelve years I've been retired and had to make those two trips. To each their own, its not for me.

[UsAll]

As a followup:

I guess what my original posting seems to be implying is that Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties considered or taken as a whole) doesn't seem to function as a "mere" suburb or satellite community to New York City . . . like a baby attached to its mother by an umbilical cord and therefore wholly dependent on its mother or like a satellite orbiting around the Earth and held in place by the gravitational pull of the earth.

Look at the term "suburb" . . . it says SUB-urb, implying that it is thought of as being subordinate to an urban entity to which it is said to be almost umbilically attached. Most suburbs around the USA are, in fact, like this; that is, they are umbilically dependent upon the city that they are set up to be subordinate to. Yet Long Island, being such a very large land mass and one that is very well-developed (or enough so), seems to be able to function as an independent entity in its own right apart from the big city to its immediate west.

Hence, there are residents of Long Island who spend all or virtually all their time month-after-month, year-after-year, and sometimes decade-after-decade and never or virtually never travel into the big city to our immediate west . . . as Long Island is so very large, so multi-faceted, so multi-dimensional, so filled with resources of virtually any conceivable type to fulfill one's day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, and often even their year-to-year needs. This is, in my view, attributable to its very large land mass and to how much it has been developed since mass suburbanization began post-World War II and onwards. I mean think, people, you can be from 90 to 100 or 110 miles away from the Queens-Nassau border and still be within Long Island! And Long Island entails nearly every type of topographic, geologic, and geographic feature within its borders: from urban- or city-like conglomerations to townships to villages to hamlets or census-designated places to rural jurisdictions; having ocean and non-ocean beaches, lakes, rivers, dams, forests and woodlands, wilderness areas, state parks and reserves, and wildlife areas; farming and agricultural areas; etc. etc. etc. And it is well-developed enough to have extensive train, bus, boat, and airplane travel resources (and, of course, it is built for the automobile) to serve it well and the economy is developed enough that one could prospectively do nearly any kind of work out here without having to commute into the city for work. And all the other things people look for in their day-to-day lives (e.g., shopping & dining, places of worship, entertainment and recreation, public libraries, institutions of higher education or adult learning, social services, medical and health care facilities, practitioners, and institutions of all types, et al) can be found within the confines of Long Island . . . which enables one to optionally choose to stay situated here nearly all the time (if they so choose).

[UsAll]

Originally Posted by whinnner1

I worked in Manhattan and most of the outer boroughs for 25 years. I've been back twice in the twelve years I've been retired and had to make those two trips. To each their own, its not for me.

Yes, the big city is always there (to the west) if one wants it but one doesn't have to go there if they don't want to. Long Island is, in other words, a rather self-sustaining place.

[UsAll]

Originally Posted by rubygreta

I have heard that there are lots of adults out in Suffolk County (including 90-year olds) who have never been to Manhattan. True, or just a rumor?

I wouldn't wholly doubt it. As an analogy to your point, I was in western Pennsylvania (in the Pittsburgh, PA region) and met people in the Monongahela Valley (or Mon Valley) exurban-to-rural region maybe 40 miles south of Pittsburgh who said that they hadn't been into Pittsburgh or its near suburbs in at least 27 years (this was a woman who seemed to be in her late 30s or her 40s who said this). In other words, the big city was so close (relatively speaking) and yet she was preoccupied in her own little world in this region in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania (she said she worked as a clerk in a small bookstore out there).

My own parents, if they otherwise weren't compelled to, would just stay in Long Island year-after-year-after-year, especially my father. My mother "might" make a brief little trip into Eastern Queens to visit someone or take care of a small chore once in a great while but otherwise never went into Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, New Jersey, et al (other than a few occasions to bury various members of her extended family tree-- an uncle, an aunt, and the daughter of that aunt --in a New Jersey-based family plot). To my parents, the city (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn) was seen like if they were to travel to a foreign land . . . even though they are both from the city originally and were each raised there, worked there, met there, and lived there for a bit after they got married and had their first child.

In summary: Long Island can have that effect on you. It is a very large land mass and can function as a world unto itself. To think of it as simply a "suburb" to New York City is grossly undervaluing or underestimating what it is or can be for people . . . a self-contained, self-sufficient world unto itself (or virtually so).

[ovi8]

LI has plenty for kids. Lots of our friends with kids in NYC like coming here for one-day getaways and we "host" them. As for myself, I think I would be fine in most suburban areas and that's why I'm perfectly satisfied here - I like everything about here other than the cost. Yes, that includes the occasional snow too.