Young Adults Call L.I. a Fine Place to Grow Up, and Leave

New York Slimes ^ | 2.21.2004 | Patrick Healy

[NYC GOP Chick]

Lawnguyland *ping*

[billorites]

[dinok]

Count me as one...raised in valley Stream and moved on.
There is life after New York.

[writer33]

I didn't know anywhere in New York was a good place to live. :) Ha!

[Cathryn Crawford]

Young Adults Call L.I. a Fine Place to Grow Up, and Leave

Sounds like the town I grew up in, except for it being a fine place to grow up.

[raloxk]

"The cost of living out here is absolutely outrageous."

Enough people leave and the cost of living will go down. Problem solved. In 10 years they'll be writing about how people are returning to L.I.

[537 Votes]

The young families and just-marrieds who once flocked here now balk at the soaring housing prices, high taxes and monochrome of suburban life.

Monochrome of suburban life? Yeah, right. I'm sure worrying about that keeps young American families up at night!

[Sam Cree]

From what I can see, this story is mirrored all over New York State, except for NYC.

Schenectady, for instance, looks like a ghost town, and Syracuse, I believe, will be hard pressed to keep its population and energy, as jobs leave for states with lower costs.

A shame, as New York is a beautiful state, with nice people in it, for the most part.

[Jim Scott]

As a native Long Islander (who left in the mid-1960's and never returned) I can sympathize with young adult's frustration over the cost of living there - but any suburb of a major metropolitan area will be expensive. If you want to enjoy the job opportunities and social benefits of a major city there is always a price to pay. If you don't need or want that, semi-rural areas still exist where prices ar low for almost everything but jobs can be scarce and entertainment outlets limited. We all have to make our choices.

[BrooklynGOP]

Schenectady is ghetto :)

[cyborg]

My sister grew up and went east... Far East that is. Long Island isn't that great. It's boring with middle class people who basically live to work and support the bloated bureaucracy that is Nassau County.

[cyborg]

thanks for the ping... One word to sum up Long Island... boring.

[LizardQueen]

Me too - ex-Baldwin resident here. Went to college in Vermont and never went back. My folks still live there, but there's no way I could. Too expensive, too crowded, not enough open space. I get real claustrophobic when I go back to visit.

Now I live across the street from a 200 acre dairy farm. Quite a change.

LQ

[dinok]

I remember my teen years fondly, but I could not afford it either. With my family having moved out, I never go back.

All I have left is the Long Island accent.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Well, I don't know . . . out here, they're still building . . .

Not in a big way, of course--but they are building.

[AJ504]

I grew up in Hyde Park, 100 mi. north of NYC, bought a house in Orange County in '84... got fed up with commuting to Westchester County, Mario Cuomo's taxes. Sold the house in '88 when IBM was hiring again. My profit on the house was more than I paid for it.

Moved to Georgia 15 1/2 yrs. ago... still paying 1/4 of the taxes compared to NY.

I get disgusted seeing the area when I visit relatives. Traffic, litter, poorly maintained roads...ugh.

[Dan from Michigan]

Sounds familiar. All but two of the core cities in Michigan(most of which industry towns) are dropping population fast. Crime is a big reason is some of them. Jobs, costs, and taxes are another, but one joke often heard is "(insert city) is a great place to be FROM". Usually a reference to "boring".

[Sam Cree]

I like upstate NY, though.

[LizardQueen]

I only miss it sometimes - mostly the food (pizza, potato salad, and corned beef sandwiches are just not the same anywhere else). I didn't get much of the accent - neither of my parents had a strong one. It comes out every once in awhile and then my coworkers tease me about it.

My father grew up in Valley Stream. My grandmother was from there, too. Her parents had a big vegetable farm there that was eventually sold off piece by piece for taxes after my great-grandfather died. The land where it was is now under the Green Acres shopping center.

LQ