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Long Island Proud — Sadly, Many Can't Afford LI Anymore: Opinion
Patch ^ | April 8, 2020 | T.J. Clemente

Posted on 04/08/2020 9:35:25 AM PDT by GuavaCheesePuff

I wrote an article about Long Islanders loving Long Island recently and it received more than 34,000 "likes." Thank you. However, I received too many comments saying, sadly, that some had to leave the island because of economics. "It's become too expensive!" or "It became so costly I had to move south but still visit the kids and grandkids!" some comments said.

The quote that inspired this post was the one that said, "Long Island became great because it was affordable for the blue-collar working class. A place they could raise a family in an affordable house, with decent schools, near beaches. Now my kids work two jobs and live in peoples' basements."

(Excerpt) Read more at patch.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS: awthatssad; li; longisland; newyork; ny
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1 posted on 04/08/2020 9:35:25 AM PDT by GuavaCheesePuff
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

Well...boo hoo...I guess.


2 posted on 04/08/2020 9:38:52 AM PDT by OldSmaj (Living in the boondocks, bitterly clinging to my gun and my Bible. And loving it.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

The “blue collar working class” of Long Island voted for Rats overwhelmingly who then brought in tens of millions of people to compete with them for jobs and space.

The result was easy to predict: Said Working Class got pushed out.

Apparently they were too stupid to make the connection between mass immigration and skyrocketing land prices, reduced wages, and Affirmative Action preferences for anyone with a skin tone biased towards the Southern climates.

So they can kiss Sag Harbor goodbye and say hello to South Jersey. Still got cheap houses in the swamps.


3 posted on 04/08/2020 9:51:37 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
"Long Island became great because it was affordable for the blue-collar working class. A place they could raise a family in an affordable house, with decent schools, near beaches."
Well, obviously *they're* a bunch of racists, like those gentrifying young up and comings in NYC. /sarc

4 posted on 04/08/2020 9:59:54 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff
It's become too expensive

I grew up on Lawn Guyland (W.Hempstead) in the 50s and 60s ... it's always been expensive.
5 posted on 04/08/2020 10:00:06 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Regulator

I suspect the “blue collar working class” of Long Island has been comprised primarily of GOVERNMENT employees.


6 posted on 04/08/2020 10:00:10 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

I grew up on the Island, and I visited there frequently until my father passed away two years ago.

I left for good in 1968, when my friends and I used to shoot .22 rifles in my Dad’s backyard - in Nassau County!

My recent impressions are that the Island is a big fat mess. And it’s somewhat creepy, and sad, that, like California (another wonderful place to be a kid in the 1950s and 1960s) - that maybe places set up to make it “wonderful to be a kid” don’t create lasting results, that if it’s wonderful to be a kid somewhere, you are generating self-centered middle aged people who don’t grow up, who kill their babies, and who allow invaders to come in to mow their grass.


7 posted on 04/08/2020 10:05:58 AM PDT by Jim Noble (There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know)
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To: oh8eleven
I grew up on Lawn Guyland (W.Hempstead) in the 50s and 60s ... it's always been expensive

Yeah, but A&S on Fulton Street has been replaced by a welfare office for 30 years now.

8 posted on 04/08/2020 10:07:04 AM PDT by Jim Noble (There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff
Billy Joel - The Downeaster Alexa
9 posted on 04/08/2020 10:08:32 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

Big hair, gum chewing broads.


10 posted on 04/08/2020 10:17:02 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to says it.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

When was Long Island ever affordable. As far back as 1985, my house in western NY, worth $75k, would have cost $250k on Long Island ...


11 posted on 04/08/2020 10:18:01 AM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity (What lawyers invent, lawyers can circumvent.)
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To: oh8eleven

Ha! Hempstead here. Used to deliver the Long Island Press when I was a kid. Joined the Navy out of school and never went back.


12 posted on 04/08/2020 10:18:14 AM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: Jim Noble

2 of my sisters went to Sacred Heart, which I believe is catty corner from where A&S used to be. There used to be a restaurant or diner called Cookies right across from A&S that was one of the better places to eat there.


13 posted on 04/08/2020 10:21:41 AM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

I left LI in 1995. At the time I paid $4,500 RE taxes per year on a 1200 sf house - built in 1950 - on a 50 x 100 foot plot in a good ‘blue-collar’ neighborhood. Sold it for $145K. My last job on LI took me 45 minutes to drive 9 miles to work. That’s not a typo. 45 minutes for 9 miles!

When I moved, for $172K I bought a 2300 sf house on a 175 x 225 foot plot in a considerably nicer ‘white-collar’ neighborhood. $2,300 taxes at the time...they’ve climbed to $4,800 recently. 20 miles to work, takes me 25 minutes.


14 posted on 04/08/2020 10:23:58 AM PDT by wny
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To: Alberta's Child

Well, the big industries were government supported: Grumman in Bethpage, Republic in Farmingdale. Closer in to the city it was more diverse since you’re into NYC boroughs. The suburban part of Long Island is what I think is being referenced here.

Grumman was basically a ghost of itself by the mid 90’s and Republic had fallen apart after ‘85 and the loss of the NGT contract. Nothing more sad then seeing the decaying red brick plant there in Farmingdale that had built the P-47 and later the A-10.

Others here can probably enumerate other industrial catastrophes but basically, the rural part of LI is now just a daycare center for the hyper rich of Wall Street. Which really, it always was...just worse now


15 posted on 04/08/2020 10:24:11 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

Well, I couldn’t afford the Denver metroplex anymore about 10 years ago. Not due to the expense, due to the crappy living conditions given the crimes and the traffic.

Much better now on the western slope.


16 posted on 04/08/2020 10:25:26 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Epstein pulled a Carradine, the bozo.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

I had a 28K condo in SC back in the mid 80’s, taxes went from 1600 to 4K, that was the warning shot. In the latter 80’s I was gone. No more 4 hr time to the office and back to 1400 in taxes way up state where I had a 5 minute drive to work. One of our family members who retired and stayed on L.I. was “only” paying 18K in TAXES for a 3br split! For years I had this feeling of a band aid around my forehead. That feeling left after we moved to Northern NY, it must have been the weather? I really didn’t think it was worth staying on L.I., for what? Tension? The LIE can only compete with those damn highways in the SF area of CA during rush hour. I hate that place too, but I go visit my kids there on occasion, but no longer, I just don’t want to step in Sh!t anymore. On the farm its fine but not in the city street and sidewalks.


17 posted on 04/08/2020 10:25:38 AM PDT by Bringbackthedraft ( #ReasonableDemocratsforTrump. Where are you?)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

Why don’t they build some housing projects or get some safe injection sites to keep the price of real estate down?


18 posted on 04/08/2020 10:29:43 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Regulator

LI is all concrete, traffic, people and taxes......a powercouple on LI is a cop and a teacher pulling down $300K+ combined.


19 posted on 04/08/2020 10:32:54 AM PDT by wny
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To: Joe 6-pack

Good tune. Did you know that was Itzhak Perlman who recorded the violin parts?


20 posted on 04/08/2020 10:35:31 AM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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