Poll: Would you rather live in an upscale town, middle class, or working class? (Hempstead: houses, neighborhood)

[SuffolkIntellect]

A question which I always think upon:

Say you have $2 million for a house on Long Island, commute is somewhere in the middle like Melville or Happaugue. Given the choices, do you move to:

1. Manhasset, Brookville (Jericho SD), Muttontown, Lloyd Harbor (Wealthy towns/districts)

2. Fort Salonga/Asharoken, Nissequogue, Belle Terre, Old Field (Upscale sections of middle class towns)

3. Sayville, Islip, Babylon, (Not quite as middle class overall)

4. Bay Shore, Bellport, Center Moriches




Assume $2 mill will get you on the water in 2-4, but not 1. I purposely chose towns with $2 mill houses. If you really want to test yourself, up the home price to $5 mill. Are you still in the same town?

This poses the question: are wealthy towns "better" than others if home price and commute is not a factor?

[Forest_Hills_Daddy]

Amagansett and Sag Harbor are definitely better.

[MemoryMaker]

I would probably prefer walkable upper middle class towns. Most of the "truly" upper class towns are not walkable or convenient at all where you need to drive everywhere; and boring as heck.

And Bellport Village itself is more affluent than Bay Shore on average. Bellport Village is associated with old money while Bay Shore is associated with the working class though some areas near the water are wealthy. I would say it goes something like this.

Tier 1 Affluence (Filthy Rich): Brookville, Old Westbury, Muttontown, Sands Point, Lloyd Harbor, Southampton, Hewlett Harbor, Kings Point, Oyster Bay Cove
Tier 2 Affluence (Semi-Rich): Dix Hills, Woodbury, Garden City, Manhasset, East Hills, Stony Brook, Port Washington
Tier 3 Affluence (Above Average): Commack, Smithtown, Plainview, Rockville Centre, Babylon, Merrick, Lake Grove, Wheatley Heights, Manorville
Tier 4 Affluence (Average): Seaford, Islip, New Hyde Park, Oceanside, Carle Place, Bethpage, Hicksville, Medford, Levittown, Baldwin, East Meadow
Tier 5 Affluence (Tolerable): Copiague, Shirley, Rocky Point, Elmont, Island Park, Westbury, Bay Shore, Manorhaven
Tier 6 Affluence (Struggling): Hempstead, Mastic Beach, Wyandanch, Brentwood, Roosevelt, New Cassel, Inwood

[ocngypz]

Well.......I'd rather live in Cold Spring Harbor....but you didn't list it.

Or Sea Cliff......though I'm po'd at the TOB.

[hotkarl]

Well, I can't stand rich people.

Middle class try to pretend they are better off than they actually are and in many cases over exaggerate snootiness to compensate for lack of actual wealth and status so I tend not to like them much either.

Working class are usually the degenerate types.
They're the ones that have backyard drunken parties all the time, only cut their grass once or twice a month, and are very combative and defensive in public. They're the ones that usually make a stink about the stupidest little things because many have a chip on their shoulder because they are not wealthy or middle class.

Uh, no "other" option?

[twingles]

Originally Posted by MemoryMaker

I would probably prefer walkable upper middle class towns. Most of the "truly" upper class towns are not walkable or convenient at all where you need to drive everywhere; and boring as heck.
d

I agree with this. Living out on Lloyd Neck is nice in theory but if you forget something at the grocery store you're screwed.

[Interlude]

As a rule it's better to live in a cheaper house in a better town than a costly house in a lesser town.

[neil1973]

I never want to be the richest, or poorest person in my neighborhood.

I would choose a neighborhood based on similar values to my own. For example, I would choose to live in a neighborhood that valued education.

I would want there to be a certain level of cultural appreciation among residents as well - art, theater, etc.

I wouldn't want to live in a neighborhood that had a specific religious demographic. I'd rather it be mixed.

I would want to live in a neighborhood, in which, let's say I came home one day with a nice new car, all the neighbors wouldn't feel compelled to come over to my driveway and fawn over it They would accept that having a nice car is normal.

However, I wouldn't want to live somewhere in which the neighbors were so wealthy that their residence was just part time, and I never saw them.

Maybe that puts me between 2-3.

I've heard about Munsey Park or Beacon Hill on the North shore as being nice, but not over-the-top areas
(Not sure of the exact equivalent on the South Shore.)

[DisneyMcFamily]

I'd prefer Sayville, Islip, etc. It's family friendly, community centered, isn't about keeping up with the Joneses, and has nice Main Street "villages" to walk through.

[SuffolkIntellect]

All great points.

MemoryMaker: Good list but I'd switch a few around. I don't want to start a whole discussion on each town and it's rating but that was pretty accurate. Tier 3 would be average and Wheatley Heights would definitely not be above average.

Interlude: True, although towns such as 3V, Harborfields, RVC have better SDs than most of the wealthier towns.

OCNGYPZ: CSH would be tier 1, wealthiest SD on Long Island

Hotkarl: I gave four options, the only other I can really think of is towns/SDs squarely between rich and middle class, Garden City and Dix Hills, Woodbury come to mind.

My take: I'm most comfortable with tier 2, but tier 3 is also attractive. I've always been fond of the walkability and laid-back middle class charm of South Shore towns. The block parties, bike riding, catching fireflies, trick-or-treating, sneaking out into girls houses. That's a real childhood, and I think if I lived in a secluded Brookville estate I'd be depriving my children of that.

Tier 1 is too cutthroat with academics and punishes kids who choose more modest colleges and trade schools. It's not the worst thing in the world if some of my neighbors from Northport or Babylon choose steamfitting over med school. They are too isolated from the rest of LI, too wealthy, too exclusive for me. It's difficult to relate to most folk from Long Island once you are in those towns, it's like a different world.

I'd never want to be the richest or poorest in my town. If you held a gun to my head and said I had to buy a $5 million mega-mansion, I would have to go with Tier 1. You are way too out of place anywhere else.