Is it me or is Long Island starting to lose its luster? (New York: neighborhoods, buy)
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I love LI! Always have and always will. I was born & raised there and our entire families still live there. Unlike many folks though, my wife & I do not need to be joined at the hip to our families to thrive. We love where we are now and are doing very well healthwise & financially. Personally, we just needed a change & took the plunge & did it (moved). Our families thought we were nuts but it has worked out very well for us. I drive back to LI every 3-4 months to see my parents & sisters, etc. First thing I do is as soon as I get over the Throgs Neck Bridge, I pull into BayBridge Pizza on Bell Boulevard and fill my face with as much as I can THEN I call the fam and say I'll be there soon LI is probably the most unique place in the country to live for many reasons. My fav time to visit is around Christmas. Usually no snow but very festive, fast paced and everyone is in a good mood because it's Holiday time.
I love LI and always will =-but in a memory. We were job relocated back in 2004. Lived on LI for 40 plus years. My husband worked in NYC-we lived in Manorville-lived closer in previously-Nassau and western Suffolk. His securities firm was bought by another firm. At his age late 40"s and plus right after 9/11 we really had no choice. We loved LI and our families but had no choice-no jobs.
We moved outside of Richmond, Va. My husband's commute 10 minutes-came home for lunch. No more 2 1/2 hours 1 way. Our daughter & son eventually adjusted . We all loved it. Cost of living lower.
I do go back to visit my parents. I couldn't believe the traffic. Going back to Jone's beach to walk the board walk-there's bums sleeping on the benches?? Never saw that in my days there.
Fast forward-we have since been relocated again out to the Midwest. Our kids will not move again-love the Richmond area. Even though we did have to fly them back to LI to visit friends. Nothing against the Midwest, but if you are an East Coast person don't move here. We still miss our family and our memories of the old Long Island-what it used to be.
As we loved LI-in going forward we will move to Va or coastal North Carolina. We have our family visit us.
In summary-we would have never left LI if it wasn't for a job relocation. But now I will visit but would never consider moving back there due to higher living expenses.
My fav time to visit is around Christmas. Usually no snow but very festive, fast paced and everyone is in a good mood because it's Holiday time.
Totally dig this place during that time.... new yorkers are probably more stressed the entire year compared to any place in USA, its really good to see everyone unwind during november - december. Its really the most wonderful time of the year.
Secondly, thanks to hollywood movies.... New York in Christmas always shines in beautifully decorated lights, when you have this in the back of your mind, there is no way you can feel down. All one has to do is walk down any street in Manhattan or visit Central park to uplift the spirit !!
Totally dig this place during that time.... new yorkers are probably more stressed the entire year compared to any place in USA, its really good to see everyone unwind during november - december. Its really the most wonderful time of the year.
Secondly, thanks to hollywood movies.... New York in Christmas always shines in beautifully decorated lights, when you have this in the back of your mind, there is no way you can feel down. All one has to do is walk down any street in Manhattan or visit Central park to uplift the spirit !!
I feel like it would be weird to be somewhere warm during christmas.
not sure what you mean but "universal route"...but the LIRR is pretty convenient for just about all of Nassau and most of Western Suffolk. Again...traffic sucks but it is often possible to move, find another job, telecommute, work flex hours, etc.
slightly more complicated than that.
Universal may mean it is not convenient to use it to commute from say Bay Shore to Port Washington for work.
Also, finding another job so you can telecommute (if your company or profession allows this) or use flex time (again restrictions apply), as you say is "slightly more complicated than that".
And for some, the most money to be made is in Manhattan, in jobs that don't allow flex hours or telecommuting. Examples - plumbers can't telecommute or work flex hours and working an occupation tied to the stock market necessitates you work during trading hours.
Traffic does move, but there is a lot of aggravation that is quite less in other parts of the country. Some people tire of adding another hour and a half to their trip home from anywhere off the Island as they languish on the Belt Parkway on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
Universal may mean it is not convenient to use it to commute from say Bay Shore to Port Washington for work.
Also, finding another job so you can telecommute (if your company or profession allows this) or use flex time (again restrictions apply), as you say is "slightly more complicated than that".
And for some, the most money to be made is in Manhattan, in jobs that don't allow flex hours or telecommuting. Examples - plumbers can't telecommute or work flex hours and working an occupation tied to the stock market necessitates you work during trading hours.
Traffic does move, but there is a lot of aggravation that is quite less in other parts of the country. Some people tire of adding another hour and a half to their trip home from anywhere off the Island as they languish on the Belt Parkway on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
The only thing LIRR isn't good for is going north to south. It sucks b/c you would have to go to Jamaica or Penn first and back track.
The only thing LIRR isn't good for is going north to south. It sucks b/c you would have to go to Jamaica or Penn first and back track.
You obviously rarely ride the LIRR. o.O
There's been entire threads on how bad the LIRR is.
09-12-2009, 01:19 PM
grant516
n/a posts
Yikes- a long read for the day. Full of opinion and emotion from people's childhoods, etc. I'll throw out a few points if I may, and hope you know I'm not trying to clash with anyones opinion or prove anyone wrong- but these are the matters I try to attend to in order to make this Island a better place.
Certainly PM me if you want to help out too. : P
As for the mention of the City-Data top 100 biggest cities in the US, the Census information is an interesting one on that, I actually spout that out quite a bit that Town of Hempstead is the 2nd biggest 'city' in New York and almost the size of SF. Sure it's a township and not a city, but so in the same sense is NYC a conglomerate of 5 boroughs. One has a mayor, one has a supervisor. One has smaller villages with mayors, the other has borough presidents- it isn't ALL too different.
There's a reason ToH, ToNH have some flagship stores in them that you won't find anywhere outside of a Top 10 major city in the US- there's plenty of money and population to be found.
One of the things I believe hurts LI is the dual nature it has as both a Suburb of New York, as well as all the distinctions of a major metropolitan area itself. It's much 'bigger' than people give it credit for, yet has a huge cultural drain coming from Manhattan to the west. This will always be a downfall of the local counties in NY, NJ, CT. I think more-so for Long Island as it is, in fact, an Island. We cannot be seperated from NYC as there is no way around it to the rest of the US.
Yes, LI had a financial peak in the 70's, 80's and yes- I have lived other places and have seen that happen. Being in CA in the late 90s and now going back today to see how dated things look after only 10 years is an interesting life experience. LI Gov't generally wants to preserve the image of those times, without necessarily realizing that it isn't old building or sparce public transit that made it the way it was.
A hangup like the Lighthouse project was the latest refelction people have brought up to this old way of thinking- sadly though the problems the legal entities worried about already exist here tenfold. This leads to one of my biggest gripes-
The Transportation here is abysmal. Imagine if they halved the lanes on I5 and US101 in Los Angeles? Moses built the island infastructure with an artificial cap of people that we have exceeded to an ungodly amount. I don't mind : hell, it works. It's just time to append the traffic problem; and that's going to require some drastic moves.
Even worse, if you so have to deal with the overpriced Public Transit you may question why you are paying the highest-price-per-mile, for direct tracks that still barely blow past 50mph.
I was one of two (out of 2.9 million of us) at the last MTA's public hearing here in Garden City to try and address ths issue of the chokehold they have on the transit issues here in LI.
It falls upon deaf ears though... as much money as they can milk out of Bridge and Tunnel tolls from LI, SI is as much as they need to keep their business running.
They've gone as far to tell me that tolls are in a sense a congestion charge which is absolutely unfair for those of us traveling to any destination outside of NYC as the downstate road system was NEVER COMPLETED (see the long-winded oysterbay to rye story)
I have high hopes for things like the Hofstra Medical School and some form of the Lighthouse project going through. In my years though i've seen a lot of areas of this island go severely downhill; and as more and more baby boomers leave I certainly question what will happen to other areas.
As always though- we do hold quality public schools, and a good sense of saftey in our towns. This isn't enough to keep our mid-twenty-somethings who are in short time going to control the future of this country.
They've gone as far to tell me that tolls are in a sense a congestion charge which is absolutely unfair for those of us traveling to any destination outside of NYC as the downstate road system was NEVER COMPLETED
You bring up a great point....
I can see what they mean by a "congestion charge" and I would agree with them if I were living in the state I moved from. This is why....
You can take 2 roads from point A to point B. The first road has no toll, and it takes forever to get to point B because of the traffic.
The 2nd road is a toll road that moves at an average speed of 70 mph.
I have no issues with this situation....
For God sakes we are on a frikkin island.... we have no alternative other than to take a bridge.... so I have a huge problem with the tolls being charged just to get out of the island and come back. The least they can do is to waive the tolls on the weekends.
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THEN I call the fam and say I'll be there soon
LI is probably the most unique place in the country to live for many reasons. My fav time to visit is around Christmas. Usually no snow but very festive, fast paced and everyone is in a good mood because it's Holiday time.
