Friends who grew up here and moved to California thought the pizza here (NYC metro area) was so much better as well.
Long Island seems to have some of the same problems as the Jersey shore; for example, the roads connecting them to the nearest cities were never designed for year-round commuter traffic. In NJ more and more people are moving to the shore (either building homes or winterizing existing shore houses), and the traffic as they drive to & from work in northeastern NJ is horrendous (the roads aren’t made for that volume).
I’ve been gone so long from Long Island, New York, that I forget stuff.
You are right about the pizzas. I don’t know what it is out here - occasionally there are ex-New Yorkers here who open Pizza restaurants, but not here in Ventura County, to the best of my knowledge.
One thing lots of people don’t know, is that NY has EXCELLent water! Which makes better coffee and tea, too. As well as pizza!