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It really depends on what you are specifically looking for.
As far as "good" restaurants... that's a matter of personal taste. Huntington, for example, has many restaurants. I have been continually disappointed by the majority of them. If I lived on main street, I would still travel elsewhere for almost all of my restaurant eating. Most any decent restaurant on LI is rather pricey. In the "lively areas" ALL of the choices (good and bad) tend to be pricey. YMMV.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! I feel the same way about RVC, too. There are only a couple of places in any of these areas where I find myself a repeat customer, and it doesn't have to do with price; mediocre knows all price points.
I also lived in Astoria for years in an apartment and really loved it. If you are young and without kids, I'd recommend doing a stint there before coming out to Long Island.
I'm in Valley Stream, which is certainly not the prettiest downtown on Long Island, but I find myself down there quite often, because of the useful neighborhood shops. The downtown districts give areas an identity and sense of community.
Nassau is loaded with villages and areas with downtown districts at all price points. Great Neck, Manhasset, Port Washington, Oyster Bay, Glen Cove, Sea Cliff, Floral Park, Garden City, Malverne, Valley Stream, Lynbrook, Rockville Centre, Hewlett/Woodmere, Cedarhurst, Merrick, Massapequa Park and, of course, Long Beach.
As a bonus, at least from my perspective, most of these areas pre-date the suburban sprawl era, and contain many older homes with a lot of character, too.
Thanks! Yea, our daughter is a year and a half, so she is most definitely the reason we're buying for the number one reason = school district. H and I have lived in Queens Nassau border together for 8 years, so we are definitely ready bc of her. We stay away from NYC and Manhattan bc it's so crowded. We'd love to have lively all the time but we also crave space.
Thanks! Yea, our daughter is a year and a half, so she is most definitely the reason we're buying for the number one reason = school district. H and I have lived in Queens Nassau border together for 8 years, so we are definitely ready bc of her. We stay away from NYC and Manhattan bc it's so crowded. We'd love to have lively all the time but we also crave space.
We have a baby now, and the schools and more space were our concerns, too, plus a livable commute. We are very happy where we ended up.
Where are the nice new restaurants in Valley Stream with nobody inside? Truffle is the newest (and I thought only) one to open recently and it's kind of off the beaten path (Rockaway Ave, but south of Sunrise). When I went recently it had a healthy crowd and it is a really good restaurant.
The ones on Rockaway Blvd North and South of Sunrise Highway. Also just up the street in Lynbrook on Broadway north and south of Sunrise.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! I feel the same way about RVC, too. There are only a couple of places in any of these areas where I find myself a repeat customer, and it doesn't have to do with price; mediocre knows all price points.
That's very true. Like I said, I usually am attracted to lively. Not so much rating the restaurants specifically. If that's the case, we've frequented many restaurants in RVC that were absolutely terrible and pricey. But we keep going back to RVC bc it's lively and closer to home.
For me no. I specifically moved from Brooklyn to LI for peace and quiet/ no fun. You can't have any fun anyway when you have young kids, so might as well move to the burbs.
No it doesn't have to be next door - I don't mind traveling 2-3 towns over - anything under 30 mins is fine. I don't like absolute silence where there's nothing around, but I do like quiet on my block.
I know exactly what you mean because I grew up in Eastern Europe and had a chance to live in Austria and Italy before coming to the US. The liveliness of the town is largely dependent on urban planning. There are towns in LI that have sort of a downtown like RVC and they are more lively, Long Beach is more lively due to the boardwalk and beach, but other than that, I find most suburbs pretty sleepy even when compared to small European towns that despite being peaceful, still have this culture of people walking on the streets, meeting, chatting, sitting down for a bite to eat. I miss that a lot.
I originally grew up in Babylon Village and even though having a nice pretty downtown is a plus, I've always avoided driving through the downtown area b/c of the traffic and I've rarely if ever shopped at any of those little shops. On special occasions, I would use the restaurants and every now and then I would jog around Argyle Park.
If I were to return to Long Island then having a downtown would not be my main criteria. My main criteria would be how nice/big the houses are, how close the LIRR stop is, getting a good value, not being in a flood zone, some kind of diversity and whether the schools are at least decent or not. I would rather have a nice shopping mall nearby with every convenience that I need than a downtown.
I've always liked Dix Hills a lot even though it lacks an LIRR stop. I like Stony Brook too.
Last edited by MemoryMaker; 03-24-2016 at 10:56 AM..
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