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How is the crime in your Long Island town compared to 15 - 20 years ago? Are there more car break ins, shoplifting and houses robbed (while owner is out)? Are they into the metal/copper wire stealing there?
Crime in Nassau and Suffolk is practically the lowest in the nation. There is isolated crime in specific areas, but overall LI is a safe place to live where people still leave their doors open, at least in places where I've lived. New York City's crime is also very low for a large city. I guess it is the affluence or the water or something.
It's a complicated and not totally agreed upon equation, but basically crime rates are affected by demographics and affluence and home ownership and law enforcement strategies, among other things. The Nassau-Suffolk MSA has had the lowest crime rate in the country for an area its size for years. That's one of the benefits of paying higher than average taxes. (That being said, watch out, here come the folks looking to bash the cops for high salaries, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, you can't have it both ways.)
According to the NYT maps, the only zip codes on LI with a crime rate above the national average are Southampton and Southold. In both cases--especially the former--I strongly suspect this is due to summer people. Break-ins, drunk driving, etc--and it's measured against the year round population, not the summer population.
If you index crime with the national average at 100, even Hempstead (worst in Nassau) comes out to 88. There are communities on LI with crime indexes below 10.
I was out in Southampton this past weekend and I realized why the crime rate is higher there: the Indian Reservation. They were having problems there with young men and drugs, guns and what not. The tribal elders had invited the PD in in an effort to clean things up.
Here's from April 2007:
wcbstv.com - Raid At L.I. Indian Reservation Yields Guns, Drugs (http://wcbstv.com/topstories/drugs.raid.shinnecock.2.243724.html - broken link)
What do you get for your high property taxes and do you think you get your money's worth?
I could have asked this question in any non-city forum in any state but since I'm familiar with LI, having lived there most of my life, I'll relate better to your answers. I'd be especially interested in the answers of people who have lived in suburbia in some other state at some other time in their lives because you can compare what you get for your property taxes now compared it to where you used to live.
You don't get your money's worth.. t hat's for sure.. Want to know where it goes..
It goes into the many "districts" and sub districts that overlap.. etc.
Oh.. it goes to attorneys getting pensions when they shouldn't
it goes to administrators at SD that make an insane amount of money!
I've had one thing stolen from me my entire life while on LI, and that was while I was at Suny Stony Brook (city folk go there!!). My dad move to Florida and had 2 break ins in 5 years.
Crime in LI is very, very low compared to most of the country.
SUSB is an island unto itself. There's plenty of petty thefts, the occasional assault, and break ins. Yet walk off campus and there are plenty of people within the vicinity who do not lock their doors, leave the keys in the car (running) when they run into 7-11. It's like two completely different worlds.
I've had one thing stolen in my life. It was the car which was taken from in front of my parent's house in Massapequa 25 years ago. If I told you the make and model, you would all laugh so hard you would cry. It was dreadful to me as I had worked all summer to save the money to buy it and it was my commuter car for school.
(That being said, watch out, here come the folks looking to bash the cops for high salaries, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, you can't have it both ways.)
No one is here to bash cops. Can you honestly say that if police compensation were reduced to reflect the compensation received by the constituency the police patrol, that crime would increase? Can you honestly say that the high police compensation plays a major role in the lack of crime around here (and not demographics, educations, etc)? Can you honestly say either of these 2 statements with a straight face?
No one is here to bash cops. Can you honestly say that if police compensation were reduced to reflect the compensation received by the constituency the police patrol, that crime would increase? Can you honestly say that the high police compensation plays a major role in the lack of crime around here (and not demographics, educations, etc)? Can you honestly say either of these 2 statements with a straight face?
Of course, because your opinion is severly biased. So if police compensation were cut 30% there would be a mass exodus of cops here on LI (to where, the NYPD where you would make even less???). And the current cops in NCPD and SCPD are just so far and beyond the caliber of any police officer anywhere else that if they leave, Long ISland will turn into Newark during the riots of the 1960's.
If you believe that, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
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It was dreadful to me as I had worked all summer to save the money to buy it and it was my commuter car for school.
