Westchester or Long Island (Oyster Bay, Babylon: apartment, rent, crime)

[karltheninja]

I've received quite a bit of help from City-Data members regarding places in Long Island to live but I'm still looking at my primary question. I have a choice of either Westchester County or Long Island to move to. My primary concerns are:


1) I have a medium size dog, so I'm going to need something on street level, preferably with a yard. Suburban would be the best description of what I'm looking for.

2) Crime. I've lived in Phoenix and heard gunshots outside my window plenty of times. I'd like to avoid that if at all possible; or at the least keep it to a minimum.

3) I want to be within 60 miles of NYC.

4) I don't care if I'm living in a housing share, studio, 1BR, or 2 BR. My max rent is probably going to be around $1200 unless I get lucky in my job search which will bump me up to a max of $1500.

5) I'm single and in the process of starting my own business, so professionals around my age (28) would be nice.

(Thanks goes out to Elke Mariotti, Rocafeller05, and Walter Greenspan for your help so far!)

[LINative]

Its hard for me to pin anything down for you because you are describing such a large area. Above all you did not mention where you will be working or whether you will need to get into the city often.

Here is just a few scattered observations:

Westchester County is part of the Hudson valley and borders The Bronx. It is mostly suburban (and some very nice suburban!) but has urban areas (parts of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle & White Plains for instance) as well as some ruralish areas (Pound Ridge, Bedford town, Salem, Lewisboro). There is a excellent road network and the area seems to be very scenic with parts of the county being quite hilly. There is a lot of history, parks and some beaches on the sound - particually Rye.

Nassua County is on Long Island and borders Queens. It is overwhealmingly suburban but there are some urbanish areas. On the North Shore in Oyster Bay town there are some ruralish looking areas (the Gold Coast). There are alot of beaches (notably Jones Beach) on both the North and South shores. The county and all three towns have good park systems. The city of Long Beach has its own boardwalk.

Suffolk County is on Long Island and borders Nassau. It is similar to Nassau but the suburbs are more spread out. The central part of the county is more wild (the Pine Barrens) and the east end is either farmland (the North Fork) or a tourist area (the South Fork aka the Hamptons). There are alot of cute villages on both shores that show their New England historic heritage (Huntington, Northport, Babylon, Amityville, Sayville, Bellport, Westhampton etc). Suffolk County has a huge county park system and it is getting larger.

All three counties have good rail transportation into Manhattan - Metro north in Westchester or the LIRR in Nassau and Suffolk. If this is important to you I suggest you start looking first in towns that have stations.

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by LINative

There are alot of cute villages on both shores that show their New England historic heritage (Huntington, Northport, Babylon, Amityville, Sayville, Bellport, Westhampton etc).

While Northport, Babylon, Amityville and Bellport are villages (municipal corporations); Huntington, Sayville and Westhampton are hamlets (unincorporated areas), not villages.

[havoc315]

In a lot of ways, they are both similar choices. Both LI and Westchester have include some very affluent suburbs, with good access to Manhattan. LI also has the draw of some nice beaches. (Westchester has some limited beach front in Mamaroneck and Rye).

But I will say, I have always felt this isolated vibe on Long Island. It's due to simple geography. Except for a trip into NYC, Long Island is a bit cut off from the rest of the state and rest of the country.

In terms of young single professionals in their late 20's... There are parts of Westchester where that's a big demographic, and parts of Westchester where it's not. I'm sure the same can be said for LI. In Westchester, you'll find a good sized young single professional crowd in White Plains, as well as a bit in Mamaroneck, Pleasantville, and a few other towns.

[Northeastcouple]

As a few people pointed out, its a close call, with both being pretty close to Manhattan,and both having suburban settings like you are looking for...

One question I would ask is: Are you going to be working by your home town or in the city? Reason is:One place may be a better choice than the other if you need to depend on it for your new business....

One thing "Havoc 315" pointed out is the isolation on LI....its true!!!! People on Long Island tend to treat it like its the center of the world and dont leave it unless they are going over to Manhattan...its no disrespect, I love Long Island and most of my friends and family live here, but its one of those places that looks tiny on a map, but when you get here, you realize its not called Long Island for nothing, and has tons of beaches, many parks, shopping businesses, etc, and you get caught up in it, it just cant be helped, and you just dont want to pay a toll to go onto the "mainland" unless you have to..People living over the bridge(Bronx, Westchester, etc) tend to enjoy other parts of the state a lot more (including Connetticut)....

You should also look into eastern Queens..its even closer to Manhattan and despite it being part of NYC it has some decent suburban areas, (unlike the western part of the county)and crime is very low especially in the northeast corner (Auburndale,Whitestone, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck)...you should be able to afford a small apartment on the $1200 to $1500 rent amount.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!