Leaving the Hudson Valley NY (schools, property taxes, to move)
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That’s a load of BS. City morons are a nuisance and bring down quality of life.
Unfortunately they vote for politicians that rule the entire State of New York with an iron fist. I don't see that ever changing? California is the same way. I know a lot of people from California that moved to Arizona. They all talk of how great life used to be growing up there. The "city morons" ruined what was once a great and beautiful state.
The problem with cities is that they have the greatest number of people living there that demand cradle to grave entitlements and vote for politicians that promise them the most. It's a form of modern day slavery. Of course no one will ever get ahead living a life of dependency and that's just where those very same politicians want to keep them. They are the key to their power structure. People who live in more rural area's want for the most part for the government to be out of their lives. They tend to be more self sufficient, don't trust the government and vote accordingly.
It's a shame that state's don't have an electoral college when voting for governor. Big cities should never have that much power over the rural area's.
Last edited by Ex New Yorker; 04-12-2022 at 01:40 PM..
You also have to factor in that NYS will lockdown again, and that means no stability for people and especially business. Philadelphia just re-instituted face masks, and NYC will be sure to follow, if not the whole state.
While on the surface it seems like no big deal, the psychological blow to people, and the detrimental effects on children, will be felt. You can't have a society that has no stability. NYC is an unstable mess. This is sure to trickle into areas like the Hudson Valley.
My employment is in the Hudson Valley (Orange County) which the company closed up shop in NYC and expanded the branch there. Now, there are grumblings about moving out of NY all together. I can understand it. The costs are astronomical: from police tickets on our drivers, to salt destroying our vehicles and equipment, to property taxes on a small 1 acre polluted lot (to park our equipment) in excess of $28k per year, the cost of heating oil to heat our building is over $5 a gallon now (whereas a natural gas heating building would be 1/4 of the cost), it all adds up. Companies are doing the same business I'm doing in a modern, upscale area like Nashville or Raleigh for less cost and less regulations.
Requiring vaccine mandates, if they bring that back around, will please NY's elite class and the underclass that they scare daily on CNN, but will surely drive freedom loving people to other states.
Nashville used to be cheap, so did Raleigh. You'd be hard pressed to find a townhome under $500k in either area now. Normal people want to live in these modern, upscale areas, not to be harassed to death by a gargantuan tax, heating bill, etc. Living in a economic wasteland like Orange County vs a new, upscale fresh area with excellent restaurants, better weather, better roads, friendlier people and a far less corrupt government.
You also have to factor in that NYS will lockdown again, and that means no stability for people and especially business. Philadelphia just re-instituted face masks, and NYC will be sure to follow, if not the whole state.
While on the surface it seems like no big deal, the psychological blow to people, and the detrimental effects on children, will be felt. You can't have a society that has no stability. NYC is an unstable mess. This is sure to trickle into areas like the Hudson Valley.
My employment is in the Hudson Valley (Orange County) which the company closed up shop in NYC and expanded the branch there. Now, there are grumblings about moving out of NY all together. I can understand it. The costs are astronomical: from police tickets on our drivers, to salt destroying our vehicles and equipment, to property taxes on a small 1 acre polluted lot (to park our equipment) in excess of $28k per year, the cost of heating oil to heat our building is over $5 a gallon now (whereas a natural gas heating building would be 1/4 of the cost), it all adds up. Companies are doing the same business I'm doing in a modern, upscale area like Nashville or Raleigh for less cost and less regulations.
Requiring vaccine mandates, if they bring that back around, will please NY's elite class and the underclass that they scare daily on CNN, but will surely drive freedom loving people to other states.
Nashville used to be cheap, so did Raleigh. You'd be hard pressed to find a townhome under $500k in either area now. Normal people want to live in these modern, upscale areas, not to be harassed to death by a gargantuan tax, heating bill, etc. Living in a economic wasteland like Orange County vs a new, upscale fresh area with excellent restaurants, better weather, better roads, friendlier people and a far less corrupt government.
We left Westchester County and moved to Arizona 12 years ago.
Between property taxes and utilities alone I figured out that our cost of living is about $20,000 a year less than it was in New York. That's $20,000 a year to spend as we see fit and at least we have something to show for it.
Your property taxes would have increased whole lot over the last twelve years. My Yorktown house's property taxes were over $16,000. As high as that seems, it was nothing compared to property taxes south of 287.
Between home heating oil and property taxes, I'm saving over $20,000. Then, add in the stupid stuff like the Henry Hudson Bridge toll of $7.00 each way to enter NYC. The gas tax and higher car insurance. The higher food prices. Etc.
You also have to factor in that NYS will lockdown again, and that means no stability for people and especially business. Philadelphia just re-instituted face masks, and NYC will be sure to follow, if not the whole state.
While on the surface it seems like no big deal, the psychological blow to people, and the detrimental effects on children, will be felt. You can't have a society that has no stability. NYC is an unstable mess. This is sure to trickle into areas like the Hudson Valley.
My employment is in the Hudson Valley (Orange County) which the company closed up shop in NYC and expanded the branch there. Now, there are grumblings about moving out of NY all together. I can understand it. The costs are astronomical: from police tickets on our drivers, to salt destroying our vehicles and equipment, to property taxes on a small 1 acre polluted lot (to park our equipment) in excess of $28k per year, the cost of heating oil to heat our building is over $5 a gallon now (whereas a natural gas heating building would be 1/4 of the cost), it all adds up. Companies are doing the same business I'm doing in a modern, upscale area like Nashville or Raleigh for less cost and less regulations.
Requiring vaccine mandates, if they bring that back around, will please NY's elite class and the underclass that they scare daily on CNN, but will surely drive freedom loving people to other states.
Nashville used to be cheap, so did Raleigh. You'd be hard pressed to find a townhome under $500k in either area now. Normal people want to live in these modern, upscale areas, not to be harassed to death by a gargantuan tax, heating bill, etc. Living in a economic wasteland like Orange County vs a new, upscale fresh area with excellent restaurants, better weather, better roads, friendlier people and a far less corrupt government.
No, it won't, neither will any local area including NYC.
Both dodged an economic bullet when Biden beat Trump and democrats took over senate. This allowed Congress (in particular for NYS, Chuck Schumer senate majority leader) to pour hundreds of billions in federal aid to both NYS, NYC, MTA, etc... Result is every liberal democrat socialist government run state and local government, including California, have record budget surpluses. That ship has sailed and likely never will happen again. Even with democrats in control Biden did not get another covid aid bill passed as he wished. What will end up passing Congress will be vastly lower than POTUS wanted.
If NYS or even NYC go into lockdown again, they will be on their own, Congress is not going to step in again. Less so if GOP takes over one or both houses of Congress come November.
Even with vast amounts of federal and or state aid many sectors of NYS and or local areas are still suffering economic pain from Cuomo's first set of lockdowns. Hospitality, restaurants/bars, services, entertainment/performing arts and many others are no where near where they were in say 2018 before covid hit.
On another note as everyone from Albany down to various local governments (including city hall in NYC) are desperately trying to convince employers to end or at least drastically scale back WFH, last thing they want or need is another lock down. If it happens again, even in limited basis, employers are simply going to throw in towel and say "eff it", and give employees what they want, WFH on a grand scale made permanent.
Your property taxes would have increased whole lot over the last twelve years. My Yorktown house's property taxes were over $16,000. As high as that seems, it was nothing compared to property taxes south of 287.
Between home heating oil and property taxes, I'm saving over $20,000. Then, add in the stupid stuff like the Henry Hudson Bridge toll of $7.00 each way to enter NYC. The gas tax and higher car insurance. The higher food prices. Etc.
It's much cheaper to live outside of NY.
We had an 1100 sq. ft. 3 bedroom 1 bath home in the rundown City of Peekskill. Our property taxes were $11,800 a year and that was 12 years ago! God only knows what they are now? I've met and spoke to George Pataki on several occasions while he was Mayor of Peekskill at his family's vegetable stand. We always talked politics and the issues facing New York. I thought that he was okay as a state assemblyman and senator. But that all went out the window when he became governor. He was just another political opportunist and a spineless RINO of the worst order. I had high hopes for him but what a disappointment he turned out to be.
Now we have a 2000 sq. ft. 4 bedroom 2 bath home with an oversized 3 car garage in Arizona. In a nice quiet neighborhood similar to one you'd find in Pleasantville, NY. Our property taxes for last year was $2024.
Our Con Ed bill to heat our old home averaged around $600 a month that too was 12 years ago. Now in Arizona it's around $300 a month during the winter. Granted we don't have as cold a winter as we had back east. During the summer our utilities for gas and electric are around $80 a month and that includes occasionally running central air. We're in the higher elevation so it's about 15 to 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix to begin with. Out here when you're in the shade if it's 95 degrees out because of the low humidity it feels like in the low 80's in New York. If you're out in the sun it feels like you're in an oven, but you don't sweat, you bake. Not too many mosquitoes though. At night it goes down into the 60's.
I haven't even figured in food, gas and insurance costs. The $20,000 we saved was for just the property taxes and utilities alone. Our property taxes in Arizona have only gone up by around $300 in the 12 years that we've lived here. I really can't complain. That averages about $25 a year.
My wife and I were both born and raised in Irvington, NY. At that time it was a predominantly middle class town. We used to call it Mayberry on the Hudson as everybody knew everybody. Not anymore those days are long gone. You'd have to earn at least a $200,000++ annual income in order to buy the cheapest single family home you could find there. The schools have doubled in size.
In Irvington 1 bedroom 1 bath co-op's are going for $180,000 right on North Broadway. 3 bedroom 1 bath co-op's in Half Moon are going for $400,000. As of today the cheapest home I could find there is going for 1.1 million on the same street that my family had a home on. My father was a salesman for Nabisco. My wife's family's home sold for 1 million about 5 years ago. Her father drove a garbage truck for the village. My guess is that the only people who can afford those homes now have high paying jobs down the city?
When Irvington started to change my parents would go to board meetings and complain that the town that both they and my grandparents were born and raised in was now becoming prohibitively expensive to live in. They were basically told to go pound sand, sell their home and live in the town's senior center in the old Lord & Burnhams building. Needless to say they were pissed off to no end. Such is life living in the Hudson Valley.
Last edited by Ex New Yorker; 04-12-2022 at 10:08 PM..
....Utility lines cross Upstate NY to feed...downstate power needs,
.....Nat gas lines cross upstate NY (like my farm) to feed..downstate heating needs,
...Certain(NOT most) downstate waste disposal needs go to...a couple upstate landfills,
....the majority of felons held in upstate prisons...come from downstate(fact),
...and of course, the clean/well known/water supply system/resevoirs, from upstate..feed...downstate,
...lower level crime in smaller upstate cities has been increased by the presence of
transplants from NYC who thought pickings would be easier upstate,
(this I can affirm from the post military career I recently retired from),
...won't even add in unneeded regs/rules/laws...which had their formation by downstate legislators.
I'll stop there..but could add more...
Much of this is true…I noticed that the article posted, I think the other examples they gave besides the tax/money aspect were the number of students at SUNY schools that come from Downstate.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 04-13-2022 at 05:29 AM..
I left Neburgh, N. Y. in Oct 1982 with five kids, a dog and a cat. I moved to the midwest. My children were ages 10 to 18. I left on a wing and a prayer. My youngest son was held up in the first str. laundromat and had a gun pointed at his head for two dimes! He was just there to dry a couple pf towels for his grandma. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I packed up our clothes and personal stuff, sold the furniture and housewares. Got a Uhaul trailer on the backof my old car and left.
I did not know anything about the midwest. I picked a city and went. I just thought it could not be any worse than what I was leaving, Octoberfests, crime, slumlords just to name a few. The city had been slowly changing for the worse over the past two decades. I wanted better for my children.
I eventually landed in Kc, Mo. I worked as a waitress and sold real estate. I put my kids through college and myself through graduate school and I made it! I worked hard, there were NO handouts, but if you were willing to work then you would have many people who would work with you. I was thrilled, I came from Newburgh, I knew what hard work was.
Today my children all owm their own homes , my oldest son owns a fanrastic telecommunications company and a country band, my youngest son is forman for his whole company, my daughter works for the state, I am retired and remarried and have a beautiful home and gorgious grandkids. We live in s state that protects our rights. We all own guns and know how to use them. We don't have problems like New york or Californis or any other democratic states. Did I get homesick? You bet I did. I missed Pizza, and Italian restaurants and just taliking with other New Yorkers, But a trip back home and within two days I was ready tlo leave and go back to my REAL home.
My Mom was widowed and I went back and forth to Newburgh 14 different times until I went and got her for good and just told her this was it in 1992. She had renal failure, but the dialysis center and the Doctors were great they gave her four more good years before we finally lost her. I took her back and buried her with her mom and sister and I said goodbye to the Hudson valley for good in 1996. I was never sorry and neither are my children. Missouri is my home now and I love it! I have friends from all over that live here and I would not change that for anything.
Sometimes we have to just get our priorities reset and reach for that brass ring if it is in another place, Is it too late? are you too old? No , Never! If you can just spend one last decade being happy and making real friends all over again. Living in a neighborhood where you can walk your dog at dusk without fear and drive anywhere in town without fear means a lot when we get older. Even when your younger you want to enjoy being alive!
Anyone wanting to leave, I advise you to look towards the midwest, you won't be sorry.
PSA:
For anyone that leaves NY, if you believe you found the promised land do not tell anyone about it. Do not brag about where you are. Because they will come. They will find it, and they will come, and then, even more will come.
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Never Looked back!
