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Long Island. The following review is written with great restraint for there is little to nothing appealing about Long Island, NY. I am native New Yorker, born in Brooklyn, raised in Manhattan. After earning my Ph.D., I accepted a faculty position at a university on Long Island. I spent 3 years living on Long Island searching for a job outside of Long Island. I have since relocated off Long Island and am very happy. The following are my cautions for living on Long Island.
Cost of Living. Long Island, NY is grossly over-priced in all categories (i.e., taxes, food, home goods, property, housing, education, etc.). There are two socio-economic brackets on Long Island – the poor/lower income and the wealthy/upper income. The middle class ($60,000 – $120, 000 annual household income) cannot afford to live with dignity, plan a family, or dream of building a reasonable savings account when living on Long Island. In fact, over the last few years, the New York Times has been reporting about the fleeing middle-class of Long Island – check its archives.
Housing for Purchase. The average cost of homes on Long Island is 30% - 50% above their actual value. Many of the people who own homes on Long Island are natives who inherited their homes from deceased relatives at well-below market price. Others bought their homes in the 70’s and 80’s at a relatively fair price with the intentions of raising a family in the suburbs while remaining in close proximity and easy access to New York City’s culture, business, and entertainment. However, the reality boom of the 90’s and 00’s has allowed LI homeowners to exponentially inflate the price of their homes way beyond their actual value – and with little to no upkeep, renovations, or modernizing. If you really pressed me for the truth, I would tell you that most of the homes are major crap-fests where homeowners, using substandard and/or illegal workmanship, add-on rooms, bathrooms, etc. in a disgusting attempt to inflate the price of their homes. A person with middle-middle to upper-middle income cannot afford decent living in Nassau County. As for Suffolk County, you can afford decent housing if you are willing to live 50+ miles east of the county line, thus making any commute to work a drastic hardship (1.5 – 3 hours commute one-way by car or rail).
Housing for Rent. Too bad to be believed. Lots of illegal apartment and homes for rent. Do not try to rent with a pet. Renters will try to make you feel that they are doing you a favor by renting their ****-hole to you – and they will make you pay. Legal apartments and newer apartment developments are grossly over prices because property managers know how difficult it is to find decent housing on Long Island. Expect to pay $1,100 - $2,000 per month to rent an illegal or substandard apartment in Nassau or Suffolk County. Expect to pay $1,800 – $3,000+ per month to rent an apartment with modern amenities (dish washer, laundry, 1+1/2 – 2 baths, 2 bedrooms, parking). At these rental prices, I would recommend you purchase a home rather than rent, but as you read earlier in my review, purchasing is nearly impossible.
Moderator cut: racist remarks
Traffic & Getting Around. Congested and impossible to get anywhere. The Long Island Railroad (LIRR) is only good for getting you to New York City and back to your LI town. Forget about using LIRR to traverse the island itself.
My Suggestions. Avoid living and working on Long Island at all costs – unless you enjoy subjecting yourself to narrow-minded racists who are looking to make a buck off of anything with a heartbeat. Please note that I was very, very restrained in my critique.
Prior to WWII, it was a playground for the ruling class. Now, by fair means and foul, they're taking it back.
And, I wouldn't single out Italian Americans, particularly working class ones. They feel like they got shafted, big time. I'd have more faith in their common decency than I would in some high toned WASP's "celebration of diversity."
I once heard such a person use the phrase...well, never mind. Let's just say, real gutter anti-semitism. Scary thing was, he's not really anti-semitic. He just said it because he thought it sounded rough, tough, and pleasing to his audience.
spartan185, although you and I are in different camps ("I Hate LI" vs "I Love LI") you do bring up some valid points in your post.
Cost of Living: Yes LI has always been an expensive place to live compared to most of the USA, just like most suburbs of most MAJOR cities. It's not unique to here. NYC is one of the most expensive cities in the world -- would you expect a suburb of NYC to have the same cost of living as a suburb of Oklahoma City (no offense to OKCity)?
Housing for Purchase: Cost of housing on LI is expensive for more reasons than you list. First of all, proximity to NYC. Second of all, it's an island for Pete's sake -- there's nowhere to expand to. It's not like there's giga-acres of farmland available for future development to expand outward from the city, unlike the landlocked or even half-landlocked parts of the USA.
"the reality boom of the 90’s and 00’s has allowed LI homeowners to exponentially inflate the price of their homes way beyond their actual value – and with little to no upkeep, renovations, or modernizing." - I don't understand what you mean here by "the reality boom". Also it's not fair to put all the blame on 'greedy sellers'; they wouldn't have been able to get those "inflated prices" if there hadn't been plenty of buyers willing to pay them.
Again I see someone using that "actual value" phrase without defining it. What the heck is it supposed to mean anyway? The value of a house is what buyers are willing to pay for it. In other words "market value".
Housing for Rent: You're right, the rental market on LI is awful compared to most other places. But that's nothing new either. It's a result of zoning laws put in place a long time ago, to discourage transients. It's not a product of the last 10 or 20 or even 30 years. It was intentional. LI has NEVER been a good place to find a rental. As far as renting with a pet, IMHO pets don't belong in apartments; bad for the apartment (damage) and bad for the pet (cooped up in relatively small area all day). But that's just my opinion.
Traffic and Getting Around: You're right about this too. The bus system is like a badly designed maze and the LIRR only runs east/west (but it was originally designed for commuters to NYC and there's no room left to add additional tracks to the system -- see Housing for Purchase first paragraph). But the congestion around any major city is just as bad. Ever been to DC or Boston? I'd take LI traffic over those areas any day!
It's amazing how ironic the issue of "rentals on Long Island" is.
On the one hand, there are the people who complain about how hard it is to find apartments and houses for rent. And this is true.
On the other hand, there are the people who complain about the large number of illegal (but that's because most zoning laws on LI make them so) apartments on LI rented to families with kids who are "taking advantage of being in a good school district without having to pay all of the taxes." And this is also often true.
By the way, those rental prices the OP quoted ("expect to pay $1,100 - $2,000 per month to rent an illegal or substandard apartment.... Expect to pay $1,800 – $3,000+ per month to rent an apartment with modern amenities (dish washer, laundry, 1+1/2 – 2 baths, 2 bedrooms, parking)" are exactly the same as you will find in any suburb of Boston (I have relatives and friends up there who rent, so I know). Apartments in houses up there range from $1000-$2000 depending on location and condition, and those in actual apartment complexes or buildings are $2000 and up. Just the same as on LI.
By the way, those rental prices the OP quoted ("expect to pay $1,100 - $2,000 per month to rent an illegal or substandard apartment.... Expect to pay $1,800 – $3,000+ per month to rent an apartment with modern amenities (dish washer, laundry, 1+1/2 – 2 baths, 2 bedrooms, parking)" are exactly the same as you will find in any suburb of Boston (I have relatives and friends up there who rent, so I know). Apartments in houses up there range from $1000-$2000 depending on location and condition, and those in actual apartment complexes or buildings are $2000 and up. Just the same as on LI.
Yes, suburbs have many commonalities...they all stink.
When, finally, I escape from this...pesthole, I do plan on returning for a visit...say, when the price of gasoline reaches eight dollars a gallon. The spectacle of the local twits pushing their gashogs down the road will be funnier than an Adam Sandler movie.
OK, I'm finished LI bashing for today...but, unless I misread...Italian is a race?
I owe the Italian people a great debt of gratitude for having invented Italian food. Like anyone would be interested in my ancestors Irish cuisine...atherosclerosis city, pass the Pepto.
i have to agree with spartan185. i have moved 48 times in my life... i moved to long island in 2003 and found EVERYTHING he/she talked about to be accurate (actually seemed like he/she was being a bit kind). of all the places i have lived long island is the second place i would/will never return to.. in fact it is number one on my list of ****holes..... the responses posted even seem to me to prove the point he/she was making... any of you folks on long island had a cross burned on your lawn? a college professor there i knew did.... strikes me that too many people are living in the past when it comes to long island - its not what it was in the 50's and 60's. pretending it is does'nt make it so.. as for the italian american comments spartan 185 made.... sounds right on the money to me.... i lived in my neighborhood for 3+ years and unless you were italian american they would barely acknowledge you.... all attitude and no accomplishment...just a bizare belief that somehow because they were italian american (or whatever) and from long island that somehow theirs didn't stink... it baffles me that so many people seem to think such a ****hole/long island has any redeeming qualities...
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and about renting on LI...
