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It may prove to be a very, very difficult task to change the name of the Village of Hempstead.
Incorporated almost 160 years ago in 1853, the Village of Hempstead was the fourth village incorporated in Queens County (the first three were the Village of Flushing incorporated in 1813 in the Town of Flushing; the Village of Jamaica incorporated in 1814 in the Town of Jamaica; and, the Village of Astoria incorporated in 1839 in the Town of Newtown); thus, making it the first village incorporated in the Town of Hempstead and the first village in, what was later to become, Nassau County.
What I would love to see is the consolidation of school districts, even if it just done as an experiment. Let's combine the Hempstead School system with the neighboring schools systems like Garden City and Rockville Centre. Doing this will demonstate a few things in my opinion. It will not only show more diversity from a racial and economical stand point, but it may also be a stepping stone for long term mutual respect amoung the districts, at least for upcoming generations. The way I see it, when you maintain a form of zoning, where Hempstead .
Oh, here we go again. It's gotta be GC and RVC that you consolidate with, right? Can't be any OTHER neighboring district, right?
Let me ask you this - when exactly has GC, RVC or any other "nice" town shown disrespect to Hempstead Village. We shop at Stop N Shop, Home Depot, Old Navy, etc. And in return we get dead bodies dumped just over the border on Meadow Street, drunk drivers on Clinton Avenue and shoplifters at Lord and Taylor and Sears.
SHow YOURSELVES some respect, and the rest will follow.
Look, lets get real here. Consolidation of school districts will never happen on LI. Too many people stand to lose their home values if districts are combined. Imagine if RVC, Baldwin and Freeport combined their districts? RVC property owners would have their home values destroyed. Everything they worked for would go down the drain. It's simply not realistic or fair.
That said, you COULD consolidate school administrations, supply purchasing programs for the schools, maintenance and repair services for the schools, etc. That would bring about cost savings for each district without a huge disruption.
Hempstead is actually in better shape than it was 10-15 or so years ago, but still obviously no where near what it once was, and has many problems. Something I read awhile back (don't remember where) stated Roosevelt Field Mall opening nearby is what really hurt Hempstead. The local business's, stores, and shops just couldn't compete with the mall and its impact on the local area was hurt deeply by it, as poverty made its way in. Combine that with the crack epidemic that broke out during the mid 80's and the problems which at that point were pretty bad to begin with just got worse. Things have improved somewhat over the years, but it still has a very long way to go and the school system while a little better is still very problematic.
makes perfect sense because if you look at white plains, the malls are actually in its downtown area, providing the chance for economic growth. trump built condos in downtown white plains:
the funny thing is that there are some tall public housing buildings on south lexington avenue a few blocks away from the center of white plains and this still doesnt affect the growth of the neighborhood.
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Uh, hate to tell ya, but it aint just mexicans and hispanics...there's a few other colors causing trouble too. There are actually some bad whitefolk in Hempstead too.
And any other condemned town as well for that matter. Isn't always just the pigmented people causing trouble.
Uh, hate to tell ya, but it aint just mexicans and hispanics...there's a few other colors causing trouble too. There are actually some bad whitefolk in Hempstead too.
And any other condemned town as well for that matter. Isn't always just the pigmented people causing trouble.
You're right. The wussy chapter of the Hells Angels is there. (I call them wussy because, unlike other areas that they have a headquarters in, they are overwhelmed by the other residents instead of the other way around.) There's also a Polish community center there, but I don't know anything about it really.
Hempstead established "affordable housing" programs along with giant welfare depositories which attracted poor people, illegals, crime, etc. That was the main reason for its downfall. Period. The mall had a little to do with it, but it was the crime that drove most people away from hempstead thus the businesses were forced out as well to make way for bodegas, inns, liquor stores and all the other trash you see there.
I remember when A&S started going downhill and you'd always hear/read about muggings, vehicle theft and damage, stabbings in the parking lot, etc. It's not an image problem, it's a real issue that destroyed the village.
And then people wonder why villages and hamlets say NO to affordable housing.
Hempstead established "affordable housing" programs along with giant welfare depositories which attracted poor people, illegals, crime, etc. That was the main reason for its downfall. Period. The mall had a little to do with it, but it was the crime that drove most people away from hempstead thus the businesses were forced out as well to make way for bodegas, inns, liquor stores and all the other trash you see there.
I remember when A&S started going downhill and you'd always hear/read about muggings, vehicle theft and damage, stabbings in the parking lot, etc. It's not an image problem, it's a real issue that destroyed the village.
And then people wonder why villages and hamlets say NO to affordable housing.
I liked Hempstead "back in the day." I remember shopping at TSS for records, Herbert's meat store for pork products and buying school clothes at A&S. The one in Hempstead was larger and had a better selection than the one in Garden City. I don't remember the muggings, stabbings and theft. The only mugging I remember is the one that happened to me in Wantagh.
Reading all these posts...one thing nobody has mentioned is the fact that Hempstead is at the end of the railroad line. You can't get there by train from east of the village. This may seem inconsequential but it makes it seem almost an extension of the subway system at best, transportation wise. I can't exactly quantify this...but look at Rockville Centre, Lynbrook, Mineola...all located roughly equidistant from the city, all doing pretty damn well as suburban towns go. They all have train stations where you can travel east or west on the island. Maybe it's some psychological thing, the idea that you could easily jump on a train east to "greener pastures". I don't know. But I do think in some ways being at the middle of a transportation line is better than being at the end of the line. Plus there's the bus terminal. I admit, the current setup there is way nicer than the previous one. It's a modern bus staging area. But we all know the weird (IMO) stigma attached to riding surface transit in these two counties. LI BUS has some really decent coverage, with comfortable roomy vehicles. Many routes offer a relaxing controlled journey to important places. I used to drive my car to work on Mondays, from Babylon Village to the job at Reckson Plaza, park the car in the garage and leave it there til' Friday. It was an easy 40 or so minute commute on the N72 from Babylon to Uniondale. I could read and usually took a nap for the last 15 minutes or so, arriving at the office nicely rested. Okay, my lifestyle allowed me to be without the car for most of the week. Single guy, didn't go to many places, etc. But less middle class ride buses now than in the fifties. In the city, everybody rides the subway and it's just the way to get around, period. But these long island car owning folk seem so adverse to the concept. So the bus terminal is kind of a natural sinkhole so to speak of lower income folks. A shame too, because it really does function well as a transit center, it really does offer excellent geographical coverage of the majority of the population of Nassau County. This facility does, in large part, make up for the poor railroad situation. Areas such as Seaford, Bethpage, Roslyn, Merrick...all seriously middle class areas surrounding Hempstead...have good bus service to the village but basically no one from those and similar towns would ever conceive of hopping on a bus to do some shopping or take in a restaurant or a movie there. So the terminal indeed suffers for the lack of such passengers.
And the racial thing, of course that being mentioned already...it's kind of a shame. I do lament the fact that many, not all by any means, but many white people don't like to be around "others", even if they're not gonna really socialize with them per say, just be around them as they shop or stroll up the street. That's one of the many reasons I like Brooklyn so much, most whites don't have that attitude, at least nowhere near to the extent that NassauSuffolkites have. But if more white people hadn't felt that way so much, the village might have morphed into a combination of Mineola and Rockville Center, a hipper Garden City, a more urbane Farmingdale, a more down to earth Great Neck.
Bummer.
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Affordable housing did it
