Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You are totally correct in saying it will be a radical change for the village but lets be honest...
We need to make a change some where. Long Island is dying. It is slowly going through a brain drain which is causing our youth to flee to cities and towns such as Astoria, Williamsburg, Portland, Seattle, Cambridge and Somerville.
No matter what we do, we need to make some big changes.. I for one, would rather see these changes happen near an existing dense location with existing mass transit infrastructure. Personally to me, it doesn't make sense to start knocking down suburban homes and adding 4 story condos/apartments. It does however, make sense to build upon the existing fabric of downtowns..
Yes parking, small businesses, and public amenities will need to be coordinated but it certainly can be done. If you are looking for examples check out some of the LEED Neighborhood communities, they are a great example of green design and new urbanism.
I agree with much of what you've said here. & I'm gonna check out the LEED communities model, thanks & respect, I appreciate.
I've commented on the 'brain drain' phenomenon in another thread here on the LI sub-forum & I believe many others here have also commented re: although perhaps not referring to it as 'brain drain.' It's part of being honest & attempting to understand what's happening here (& elsewhere).
I often think accommodating improvisation is at odds with conservatism because it denies the necessity of adapting systems relative to changes in conditions. I love Long Island, Manhattan & the NYC areas. Conditions, circumstances, et cetera are ever changing. When it comes to problem solving, I look to the critical thinking model. One example of this is to use the critical thinking model to 'frame the question' something like this:
Quote:
• Identify the problem. — “What’s the real question we’re facing here?”
• Define the context. — “What are the facts & circumstances that frame this problem?”
• Enumerate choices. — “What are our most plausible three or four options?”
• Analyze options. — “What is our best course of action, all things considered?”
• List reasons explicitly. — “Let’s be clear: Why we are making this particular choice?”
• Self-correct. — “Okay, let’s look at it again. What did we miss?”
I also think that not everyone wants to live urban or replicated city. There is so much beauty in this country and to continually destroy it with modern development which is basically cookie cutter and it all looks the same.
I'm more for historic preservation and small town appeal. The Friday night football games, sidewalk farmers markets, apple orchards, hay rides, and pumpkin patches.
These young folks today are all about the new turn key stuff, maybe instead of urbanism it's more along the lines of modernism. New is posh, glittery.
Not to pick on you, but I hate the term "young folk." I was at an Economic Development and Infrastructure Summit last week and all the politicians (Mangano, Bellone and a few other congressmen) kept referring to the Millennial crowd as "young folk", "kids", "young people." It feels very condescending to me.
Personally, I don't care about turn key. I am much more concerned with the amount of time I drive and spend in my car, versus having a new and modern kitchen.
[quote=okellies;37064915]Not to pick on you, but I hate the term "young folk." I was at an Economic Development and Infrastructure Summit last week and all the politicians (Mangano, Bellone and a few other congressmen) kept referring to the Millennial crowd as "young folk", "kids", "young people." It feels very condescending to me.
Personally, I don't care about turn key. I am much more concerned with the amount of time I drive and spend in my car, versus having a new and modern kitchen.[/QUOTE]
That's because you are "young folk." When you have your own kids, you do care more about that kitchen. For many people who have a home and family, the center of their lives is the kitchen. Even the hippies who just wanted to be "free" ended up caring about a kitchen.
This is a sociological problem It hasn't really been that long, just really a generation ago, that people lived with their parents until they got married in late teens to mid 20s and started having babies in their late teens to mid-20s. Development was designed around this factor. Now, we have all these single people who do not live with their parents and do not settle down wtih family life until their 30s. This is a fairly new phenomenon
in our society as opposed to the former lifestyle mode that went on for hundred(s+ years in western society. It's something that we must address and accommodate in terms of providing a style of housing that sustains this lifestyle for the 10 years or so of post-college single life because it is not going to change any time soon. It's going to take time for housing to catch up.
Not to pick on you, but I hate the term "young folk." I was at an Economic Development and Infrastructure Summit last week and all the politicians (Mangano, Bellone and a few other congressmen) kept referring to the Millennial crowd as "young folk", "kids", "young people." It feels very condescending to me.
Personally, I don't care about turn key. I am much more concerned with the amount of time I drive and spend in my car, versus having a new and modern kitchen.[/QUOTE]
That's because you are "young folk." When you have your own kids, you do care more about that kitchen. For many people who have a home and family, the center of their lives is the kitchen. Even the hippies who just wanted to be "free" ended up caring about a kitchen.
This is a sociological problem It hasn't really been that long, just really a generation ago, that people lived with their parents until they got married in late teens to mid 20s and started having babies in their late teens to mid-20s. Development was designed around this factor. Now, we have all these single people who do not live with their parents and do not settle down wtih family life until their 30s. This is a fairly new phenomenon
in our society as opposed to the former lifestyle mode that went on for hundred(s+ years in western society. It's something that we must address and accommodate in terms of providing a style of housing that sustains this lifestyle for the 10 years or so of post-college single life because it is not going to change any time soon. It's going to take time for housing to catch up.
There are women I know who don't have kids who care about their kitchen. It's not an exclusive thing to families with 2.5 kids. I do care about the kitchen. I make dinner almost every night, I bake every weekend, I am pretty much the owner of my kitchen. I had family get togethers at my house recently because I have a decent kitchen. It's probably one of the nicer ones we saw when we were house hunting last year. What I meant is that I care about having time to be home, not sitting in traffic for hours on end, to get home and use my kitchen. Or not use my kitchen because of the lack of decent transportation options or infrastructure on Long Island.
There are at least a couple of women I know who are approaching their 30s and plan not to have kids. Some don't plan to be married. There are people having just one kid in their 30s. Predominantly, it is because of financial reasons. They want more, but they just can't.
In other cultures, it is customary for three generations to live under one roof without an issue. This is something that is happening more in the USA.
Bottom line, times are changing. People are having kids at an older age, the college crowd is moving back home because they can't make it on their own yet, and others are giving up on having kids altogether.
Long Island is dying because New York is anti- business, highest tax in the country, and cost of living is through the roof, that's why young people are leaving. Building 3 million dollar condominiums will not solve your problem.
Well, I have to say that the choice to not have kids or delay having kids or marriage has been around for a long time now. That's a personal choice whether it is financial or not and not specific to Long Island. And as you know, many people have children and will continue to have children whether they can afford them or not. But I agree with you about the transportation issues. But that's not new either. When I lived in the city in Queens, I had a one hour and 45 minute commute each way into Manhattan standing in a crushed subway car most of the time and trust me, before you were born, the subway was much more unreliable than it is now. I agree that NYC metro area commutes are much longer here than in other parts of the US, but it can take longer to commute from one of the boroughs to Manhattan than from points on Long Island.
Some of the people who have to move back in with their parents after college, and that's if they left home to go to college in the first place, are doing that because they can't get a job, any job. Some have massive college debts as well. They can't afford to rent or buy at any price. A part time job is not going to cut it.
Not to pick on you, but I hate the term "young folk." I was at an Economic Development and Infrastructure Summit last week and all the politicians (Mangano, Bellone and a few other congressmen) kept referring to the Millennial crowd as "young folk", "kids", "young people." It feels very condescending to me.
Personally, I don't care about turn key. I am much more concerned with the amount of time I drive and spend in my car, versus having a new and modern kitchen.
I feel you okellie & I'm no 'spring chicken'! Sometimes I think about one of the 'slogans' made popular during the 1960s (& before my time). It was this, "Never trust anyone over 35." Seemed sortof nonsensical to me as a kid. But then I observed many of those same folks that turned untrustworthy, like as in baby boomers gone bad, once they hit 35 or thereabouts.
Personally, I believe in the Millenials, I think they have many challenges but are well-suited to face them.
The Millenials are too soft to create positive change. Most are very liberal progressive and will follow and or believe just about anything anyone tells them.
To be fair to them however they do face great challenge and were given a bad hand with their college aspirations. Never has their been a generation that has left college with so much accumulated debt that it has exceeded credit cards and just about every other financial loan in existence.
Yes it's fun to pick on the Millenials but it's hard not to feel bad for them. They were lied too, they were told to do the right thing and invest in a good education so they went ahead and did exactly that. Then they graduated admist a horrid job market and were left with very little in return for all their hard work.
I feel you okellie & I'm no 'spring chicken'! Sometimes I think about one of the 'slogans' made popular during the 1960s (& before my time). It was this, "Never trust anyone over 35." Seemed sortof nonsensical to me as a kid. But then I observed many of those same folks that turned untrustworthy, like as in baby boomers gone bad, once they hit 35 or thereabouts.
Personally, I believe in the Millenials, I think they have many challenges but are well-suited to face them.
The correct term is "Never trust anyone over 30" and it is attributed to Jack Weinberg in 1964 before the hippy movement:
"In a news release recently distributed by a Chicago public relations agency – owned by his wife, it should be noted – Weinberg says he made the statement primarily to get rid of a reporter who was bothering him. He doesn’t even regard the statement as the most important thing he’s ever said. "
That's because you are "young folk." When you have your own kids, you do care more about that kitchen. For many people who have a home and family, the center of their lives is the kitchen. Even the hippies who just wanted to be "free" ended up caring about a kitchen.
People in urban areas of various ages and economic status eat out more so on average, so the kitchen is less of a center of their lives. Having a kitchen of any size is fine but for most of them, an apartment sized kitchen will suffice.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
