In Middle Age, the Suburbs of Long Island Show Wear

[fioco]

Long Island presently has many lowrise apartment houses and condos, but increased density will require a cultural shift. It can be a difficult truth to accept that one can not have his cake and eat it too. Most Long Islanders WANT the suburban home, the expansive lawn, the tree-lined street, the cloistered neighborhood, the easy access to shopping but also the distance from parking lots and strangers. They also want top-notch schools and the ability to 'protect' their investment from undesired elements that can threaten their prized (and often hard-won) status quo. For the most part, racism is not conscious. People perceive themselves as exceptionally tolerant and open-minded. One of the values they hold in common is a determination not to become like the city (i.e., Queens).

Yet my own neighborhood is more like Queens than a Long Island village, and my apartment building almost fits Alex's description. Change is coming, regardless. For too long Nassau County did not prepare for long-range urban growth. People on government assistance were clustered into several villages that become enclaves of minority poor. Without need for walls or gates, villages were able to utilize both natural and infrastructure barriers to form a patchwork of segregation and exclusion.

Ironically, careful planning could help Long Island preserve many of its leafy neighborhoods as it develops denser urban districts. There are many villages with vibrant centers and easy access to public transit. In my village I walk to the bank, library, post office, grocery store and the LIRR. I use my car only to get to work on the North Shore (and to Jones Beach). I wish that Long Island could think a bit more like Portland, Oregon: Planned density along transit nodes and protected green zones. Long Island could preserve a huge piece of cake and still feast upon the remainder.

[BrooklynRider]

For the most part, racism is not conscious.

I grew up on Long Island and it is, in my opinion as well as some journalists and sociologists, one of the most race and religiously segregated regions in the nations.

Whites don't line in "black" towns and vice versa. There are "jewish" towns and "christian" town.

I was born in Long Beach.

I grew up in Merrick. In a class of 1,500 students at Calhoun H.S. - I had ONE black classmate. It was a predominantly christian class. Jews in the town lived predominantly south of Sunrise Highway, and south of Merrick Road was almost exclusively Jewish. Kennedy High School in the same school district was a predominant jewish school. By comparision, the next town over, separated by Meadowbrook Parkway, was Roosevelt - a 99% black, poor community. I mean to say racism is not conscious is just not accurate.

For example:
Black Towns: Roosevelt, Uniondale, Hempstead, Wyandanch, Brentwood
Jewish Towns: Lawrence, Atlantic Beach, Great Neck, South Merrick, South Bellmore

I think it is because, to some degree, Long Island was ultimately born of the "white flight" from the city. Not in the early part of the century, but certainly by the 50's & 60's. People weren't always always so blatant about it, but there were "bad neighborhoods" (i.e. black). The whole "J.A.P." thing was an outgrowth of the ctiticism of suburban jews - most certainly centered around Long Island (because the impersonations almost always had the "Lawn Guyland" accent as an integral part). In the past decade, there are attacks on hispanic workers.

It is much. much better than when I grew up (Class of 81), but it will take at least another generation to eradicate it.

[ZippyTheChimp]

A factor in the general social attitudes of a place like Long Island (especially Suffolk Co), in the midst of a dense, urban corridor, might be that it is not a through-point.

[alex ballard]

Long island is bad but not the only one. For a city, Philly tends to be cut along racial lines. The sad thing is, these people will never realize how beautiful a diverse community could be. Also, are immigrants setting up shop on Long Island? that may help ease the racial divide as immigrants tend to assimalite (in my opinion) to white neighbors than Blacks and Hispanics that have been here.

[Kris]

January 30, 2005

As Housing Costs Rise, Nimbyism Is Slipping

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

WITH growing urgency, civic groups and politicians have been warning that the rise in housing costs on Long Island is a dire problem, that younger workers can't afford to live on the Island and that the resulting "brain drain" is casting a shadow on the region's economy. According to a new poll by the Rauch Foundation of Garden City, the warnings are sinking in.

The poll found that 89 percent of Long Island residents were concerned about the issue, with 42 percent describing themselves as extremely concerned. The anxiety crossed all distinctions of race, age, income or education, the poll found, and was more acute than in the other New York City suburbs, which were surveyed for comparison's sake. Only 28 percent of respondents in New Jersey and the northern suburbs described themselves as extremely concerned about the problem.

But though the survey suggests a population united in its diagnosis of Long Island's problems, opinions diverge when it comes to the remedy. And another new study, by the Long Island Regional Planning Board, even questions the existence of a root cause of all the concern: the brain drain.

The Census Bureau reported that Long Island experienced a 20 percent decline in its 18-to-34-year-old age group from 1990 to 2000, a drop five times the national average. But the Regional Planning Board study, which was released this month, suggested that the decline was not due to an exodus, but to a dip in the number of births 20 years ago. The study also questioned the logic that housing costs have driven away the young, pointing to a swell in the population of Suffolk County over the past few years.

"The increase of 20-34-year-olds in Suffolk County of 4,000 between 2000 and 2003 has occurred as median home prices have risen from $201, 470 to $333, 521," the study said. "Why, if home prices were such an important determination of location, would we not see a continuation of decline in this age group?"

But the brain drain, whether real or perceived, has apparently struck a chord with Long Island residents, said Nancy Rauch Douzinas, the president of the Rauch Foundation.

"The brain drain is really a symptom of what is happening," she said. "The brain drain is related to lack of affordable housing, to the kinds of jobs we have here, to the fact that there's no transportation to get to the jobs."

The poll is part of the second annual Long Island Index, a report the Rauch Foundation sponsored in a joint project with academic, civic, business and labor groups. The index, which was formally released on Thursday, draws statistics from the census, economic reports and other data sources, as well as from the poll, which was conducted by the Stony Brook University Center for Survey Research from July 13 to Aug. 21 last year. Results were based on responses from 1,106 adults on Long Island, 302 in New Jersey suburban counties and 305 in the northern suburbs, including Rockland, Orange, Westchester and Fairfield counties. The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points on Long Island and 5.6 percentage points in the other suburban areas.

Though the Long Island Index covers topics from mass transit ridership to pesticide use, there is a chosen topic each year that receives particular attention. Last March, when members of the report's advisory committee met to discuss possible topics for this year, they noticed that the reaction to the last year's report had especially fixed on the brain drain idea, Ms. Douzinas said. After looking at several other topics, the committee concluded that the brain drain and the other issues were shaped by a more fundamental one: land use.

The report says only 67,000 acres of vacant, developable land remain on the Island, a tenth of its total land area or roughly the size of the Town of Islip. The report predicted that in 2050 only 6,000 acres of vacant, developable land would remain.

Housing is far and away the main acreage eater, accounting for nearly half of Long Island's land. The report showed that from 1980 to 2000, residential development expanded by about 47,000 acres, nearly twice the area of expansion by commercial, industrial and institutional development combined. During those years, the amount of vacant and agricultural land declined by 40 percent.

Accelerating the trend is the fact that Long Island residents, who have been fleeing New York City for more space since World War II, have always craved single-family homes. Eighty-six percent of the poll respondents on the Island said they lived in single-family homes, while the number was just under 70 percent in the other suburban areas.

With millions of dollars in public money being spent to preserve open space from development, and with some municipalities setting higher minimum acreage requirements for new property, the land that is left is being claimed at an ever faster rate. How that affects housing prices is just basic economics.

"The land use patterns that in one sense made all that growth possible in the early 50's have now become unsustainable," said Carrie Meek Gallagher, the report's director.

Though they have long been an issue on Long Island, housing costs seem to have become a more urgent issue after they were coupled with the brain drain idea. In the index released last year, 61 percent of respondents thought the departure of young people because of housing costs was a serious problem. In this year's report, that figure was 89 percent.

"The willingness of more and more Long Islanders to understand the importance of the workforce housing issue to both the quality of life on Long Island and the economy on Long Island is very, very helpful and hopeful," said Mitchell Pally, vice president for government affairs for the Long Island Association, the largest business association on the Island and a leading campaigner for affordable housing initiatives. "More and more people are either being affected directly by it or know people who are being affected directly by it."

Seven in 10 of those surveyed on the Island were concerned that the high cost of housing would force members of their family to leave their county. In New Jersey, only 64 percent were concerned and in the northern suburbs, 59 percent.

The poll showed that many Long Island residents are open to new housing policies. Building rental apartments in downtown areas, for example, won broad support, as did requiring developers to set aside a portion of new projects for affordable housing. While this may indicate a decline of the Nimby mentality, a closer look at the poll makes this conclusion harder to draw.

In one question, respondents were asked whether they would support a proposal to build housing on former industrial, commercial or government sites no longer in use. Around three-fourths supported the idea. But when asked whether they would support a change in zoning laws to allow a limited increase in the number of apartments or town houses in areas zoned for single-family homes, less than half said yes, with only 18 percent describing themselves as strong supporters.

"As long as you propose something other than single-family detached in a residential area, you're dead in the water," said Lee E. Koppelman, the executive director of the Long Island Regional Planning Board.

A slight majority of Long Islanders supported allowing two-family housing in an area currently reserved for single-family housing within a mile of their homes. But a majority opposed a low-rise apartment building within a mile. Higher buildings were also unpopular. In every category, homeowners were less open to such changes than those who did not own homes.

In the poll, questions about support for lower-cost housing referred to it as "affordable middle-class and starter housing."

"We did try to make it very clear that we were not trying to get people's opinion about low income or public housing," Ms. Gallagher said.

But in the 2004 Rauch Foundation poll, the question was posed more directly. Respondents were asked what they thought about "having more housing available in your community to those who earn less than $60,000," and specifically mentioned "lower-income families." Even so, 65 percent had a favorable reaction, with only 22 percent opposed.

But Ms. Gallagher said it was difficult to truly gauge attitudes when the questions are hypothetical.

"It's hard to determine until you have an actual development project that's going to happen," she said. "It's hard to get people's real reactions." Despite the wording of this year's poll, the negative connotations of affordable housing seemed to be on many minds. A majority agreed that likely consequences of affordable housing could include higher local taxes and increased traffic, but also declining school quality, lower property values and an influx of the "wrong kind of people."

The most pervasive obstacle to supporting affordable housing policies, the report said, was an anticipated decline in school quality. Respondents who linked affordable housing with declining schools were likely to oppose most of the specific policy proposals, which could indicate that some still associate affordable housing with images of urban decay.

Dr. Koppelman said that the shortage of moderately priced homes was being widely portrayed as merely a brain drain problem. But the need went much deeper, he said, though into less politically safe territory.

"In terms of our need for affordability, let me point out that we need this housing not only for the middle-class worker, we need it for the senior citizens, we need it for the working poor and we need it for the disabled poor," he said.

Future battles may also be seen in the answers to questions about open space. Though a 77 percent majority supported a county policy of purchasing land and preserving it as open space, support dwindled somewhat when more detailed questions were asked.

One does not have to look far to find a possible cause: more than two-thirds of respondents thought that open space purchases would be likely to raise house prices. As a logical consequence, opinions fell along certain lines.

"Those in the lowest income bracket," the survey reported, "were less supportive of government purchase of land for preservation purposes, as were younger people." Blacks and Hispanics were also less inclined to support the policy.

One question asked whether residents would support a $60 property tax increase to support an open space program. People with graduate level degrees supported the idea by 71 percent to 25 percent. Those with no high school opposed the idea by 50 percent to 41 percent.

This tension between widely shared open space ambitions and affordable housing needs could grow as the land squeeze gets tighter.

"It's going to be a war zone," Dr. Koppelman said. Any doubt about how resistant Long Island residents are to an influx of more people, he said, should be dispelled by the recent bond referendums. Long Island residents are shown by the report to be paying among the highest taxes in the country, and 93 percent of those polled said that high property taxes were a serious problem. Yet, this past year, they voted for $255 million in new debt to preserve undeveloped land.

"You can't get a clearer indication than that we're willing to spend our own money to keep more development away from us," he said.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[fioco]

When I said that racism is not conscious, I meant what I wrote: Not that racism did not exist but that it was not conscious in the minds of people, even in those who are racist in their behaviors. This is very different from places where hatred and racism are blatant. That said, Long Island is rapidly changing. I do not live in a ghetto; it is not exlusively rich nor poor nor black nor white. My village speaks many languages and embraces an amazing range of religions. The stereotype of Long Island is fast becoming a caricature, yet suburban tracts and neighborhoods of exclusion will still exist. The comfortable stasis of Long Island is coming to an end. When one's children can no longer afford to live on the Island and when African Americans, Indians, Pakistanis, Asians, etc. are among the most wealthy, it is easier to set new priorities.

When the environment around us changes rapidly, even those most resistant to change must adapt in order to survive. And well-educated, affluent, and influential Long Islanders could never just survive, they feel destined to thrive. This sense of empowerment will enable them to make the changes necessary in zoning, community services, and public transit. Perhaps because I didn't grow up here, my wanderlust and its attendant experiences provide a lens for comparision. Notwithstanding my frustrations, I nonetheless have confidence in this area's ability to effect great change.

[alex ballard]

Stupid Question: what's wrong with more people coming to your neighborhood? Look at what happens when NO ONE moves to your neighborhood. I mean, those cities out west just seem to keep growing and growing. Even the 5 boroughs just keep building and building. Why do people in Long Island seem so adverse to it. NJ certainly keeps going.

[dtolman]

Stupid Question: what's wrong with more people coming to your neighborhood? Look at what happens when NO ONE moves to your neighborhood. I mean, those cities out west just seem to keep growing and growing. Even the 5 boroughs just keep building and building. Why do people in Long Island seem so adverse to it. NJ certainly keeps going.

Whats wrong with more people NOT coming to my neighborhood? Nassau/Western Suffolk are getting pretty crowded as it is - I can't imagine stuffing even more people into those areas without it turning into Queens East (without the mass transit). Long Island has a lot of problems - I don't think lack of growth is one of them...

[Kris]

February 13, 2005

LONG ISLAND

Smart Growth's Blind Spot

t was a majestic lineup of preachers and a mighty choir that convened last week at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City to sing praise to a smart-growth vision for Long Island. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that she and United States Representative Peter King were teaming up on a proposal to get $250 million in federal aid to revitalize old suburbs. The Nassau county executive, Thomas Suozzi, outlined his dream of "new suburbia" in a PowerPoint presentation. His Suffolk counterpart, Steve Levy, spoke eloquently of the need to secure Long Island's future by creating new housing, reclaiming old buildings and brownfields and preserving open space.

The government officials, builders, academics and corporate executives at the event, a symposium on "Suburban Evolution" sponsored by the Long Island Housing Partnership, were fully receptive to the message. It was a day for harmony and applause. There were few discordant notes.

There might have been more, though, if a woman in an elegant brown suit had succeeded in getting anyone's attention in the final question-and-answer session. She tried, but Mr. King, the moderator, apparently could not see her past the spotlight's glare; the Southold town supervisor was hogging the microphone; and then everybody broke for lunch.

She was Dorothy Goosby, a councilwoman in the town of Hempstead. As she explained later, she was trying to bring up a point that she thought the event had conspicuously ignored. Ms. Goosby, Hempstead's only African-American council member, said she feared that new affordable-housing units were being too heavily concentrated in her predominantly black district. She worried, too, that converting former commercial properties into apartments could upset the economic balance there. Communities need a healthy mix of housing and commerce, she said, and affordable housing is a much better proposition when the apartments are spread around.

Ms. Goosby has a point, and we are sorry she was not able to share it. A discussion of race and class is crucial to any rethinking of the future of Long Island, one of the nation's most segregated suburban areas, but the polite participants in "Suburban Evolution" hit on it barely at all.

Mr. Levy came closest in his lunchtime remarks, when he stressed the need to transcend the "pull-up-the-ladder Nimbyism" that hinders smart-growth ideas on Long Island. Mr. Suozzi touched on it, too, with his call to integrate largely black Hempstead by building plenty of affordable apartments there for the (presumably white) students from colleges in the area.

But other speakers argued that smart growth would gain wider support if people understood that "affordable housing" applied mainly to those who were already in their communities: the young adults in parents' basements and retirees rattling around in empty nests, not the strivers from poorer communities next door. In so many words, these speakers seemed to reflect the views uncovered in a recent Rauch Foundation study, which found that while Long Islanders were increasingly receptive to the idea of affordable housing, a majority also worried that such housing would bring in "the wrong kind of people."

We're not sure what that phrase means, exactly. But given Long Island's stark color boundaries, we have a pretty good idea. Unless the preachers of Long Island's smart-growth gospel tackle this issue head on, the new Long Island could end up looking a lot like the old.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

February 20, 2005

LONG ISLAND

Shifting Sands

his page does not have particularly strong feelings about the fate of the actor Roy Scheider's house in the Hamptons.

It is unfortunate, of course, that storm winds and waves have chewed away the dune protecting his Sagaponack property from the ocean, and that the stairs over the sand now dangle in air like a mangled fire escape. It is especially bad that the United States government had a hand in the problem, by having its Corps of Engineers build sea walls east of Sagaponack that starved westward beaches of replenishing sand, setting the stage years ago for the problems now giving Mr. Scheider and his neighbors such fits.

But our much bigger concern is about what the Sagaponack sand emergency - and another one on Tiana Beach in Hampton Bays - says about how far Long Island still needs to go to devise a comprehensive, sensible and environmentally sensitive approach to managing its southern shoreline.

In its never-ending struggle with the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island is hopelessly outmatched. It needs a battle plan, a strategy to balance the fundamental imperative of environmental protection with the competing needs of property owners and the tourism and fishing industries. Instead, it has always taken the localized, ad hoc approach. As predictably as the seasons, storms and erosion cause beaches to crumble, and towns, villages and homeowner groups seek ways to keep nature subdued. The cursed but often-essential jetties stay put, but the dredges keep dredging, the sand trucks keep dumping, the oceanfront homes keep going up - and all the while the sands keep shifting.

As Paul Rabinovitch of the Nature Conservancy explains, Long Island from Fire Island to Montauk Point is caught between two possible futures. The first is an attempt at total control - the Jersey Shore approach, with jetties, groins and regular beach replenishment. This works, but it's expensive and it essentially makes nature the responsibility of the public works department. The alternative is a hands-off philosophy that recognizes that beaches are like living things, growing and shrinking, with inlets that open and close to a rhythm that does not recognize home ownership or shipping channels.

Right now, Long Island is stuck between both points of view - the stupidest place to be.

For a while it looked as if Long Island might get a plan for a sensible future, thanks to a long-awaited Corps of Engineers study of 83 miles of Suffolk's southern shoreline, including not just the Hamptons and Fire Island but also the shores of the Great South Bay, Moriches Bay and Shinnecock Bay. But the Bush administration has just cut the $1.7 million funding for the study from the federal budget. Given that about $30 million has already been spent on the study over more than 20 years, the move is inherently foolish and shockingly wasteful.

The value of the shoreline study was one of the few things on which property owners and environmental groups could agree. It wouldn't solve every problem; engineering studies don't generally provide enlightenment in local land use policy. But they are a good source of facts - a vital foundation for weighing of competing interests.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

March 6, 2005

LONG ISLAND

Growth and Equity

To the Editor:

Your editorial about the role of race and class in Long Island's evolution ("Smart Growth's Blind Spot," Feb. 13) rightly points out the absence of the controversial subject in too many discussions of our suburbs' future. The vision of a new suburbia championed by our elected officials depends on our collective ability to address economic development, environmental health and social equity.

Long Islanders should feel proud of the progress made in environmental protections and commercial revitalization. But in a region where the first municipal boundaries were quite literally drawn around racial groups and where segregation is still the norm, we need more than fleeting allusions to social equity. It must be at the forefront of our evolutionary agenda.

Sarah Lansdale
Executive Director
Sustainable Long Island
Garden City


Managing the Southern Shoreline

To the Editor:

In its "struggle with the Atlantic Ocean," Long Island is not "hopelessly outmatched" ("Shifting Sands," editorial, Feb. 20). The Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $25 million on the study of 83 miles of Long Island's south shore, as you mention. Once again, most expect Long Island's representatives to persuade Congress to restore the $1.7 million needed to finish the study.

Nor must we choose between "total control" and a "hands off" approach. Barrier islands are not "natural" if inlets are stabilized by jetties. Society has decided that inlets should be kept open for a host of reasons. If inlets "open and close," they are likely to open in the wrong place.

Since the 1994 project released sand to the west, it is now possible to restore the downdrift shoreline to what it was before the interruption. Then, through inlet bypassing and supplemental fill, the shoreline can appear and function naturally. Contrary to President Bush's opinion, shoreline management is a legitimate expense of government. Still, beach communities that benefit directly in the form of increased protection should be tapped for a share of the cost.

Gerard Stoddard
President, Fire Island Association
New York

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[alex ballard]

If everyone is leaving Long Island, then who's moving in? Is Long Island actually shrinking like the city did in the 70's? Will it make a comeback? and why are housing prices in the NYC region so high, is it becasue so many want to live here, or becasue developers are just ripping you guys off?

Isaac Brekken for The New York Times
May and Tony Martucci, who lived in Rockville Centre, retired and bought a bigger house for half the cost in suburban Las Vegas.




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LONG ISLAND
They're Moving Out
By MARCELLE S. FISCHLER

Published: April 3, 2005


OUR years ago, Rachel Meek of Poquott and Brian Carrillo of East Setauket were living in their parents' homes. Having dated for a year and a half, they hoped to share an apartment on the Island and started looking at one-bedroom rentals nearby.

"The prices were just outrageous," recalled Mr. Carrillo, 29. "If we rented, 80 percent of our salary would go to rent."

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During a vacation in Florida in the Tampa Bay area, they decided to scout out apartments.

"We looked at Florida as something that was definitely doable," said Mr. Carrillo, who had lost his job in the quality-assurance department when the telecommunications company he worked for in Lake Grove went out of business. "We both felt the change was due, and we could do better."

They picked Lakeland, between Tampa and Orlando, where they thought jobs would be the most numerous. Their two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a complex with a pool, tennis and basketball courts, a fitness center and a clubhouse rented for $625 a month, about half the price they would have paid for a cramped one-bedroom on the Island.

Within a week Mr. Carrillo found a job in marketing. Ms. Meek, now 28, was hired as a probation officer. A year and a half later they bought a house for $140,000.

The couple's decision to move off the Island in search of a better life and more-affordable housing was hardly unique. According to the Long Island Index 2005, a study sponsored by the Garden City-based Rauch Foundation, 64 percent of Long Islanders said that they thought about leaving and moving to an area with lower property taxes and housing costs; 71 percent said that they worried that the high cost of housing would force relatives to move away.

"The high cost of living, the high cost of housing and high taxes" are the top three reasons young people are leaving, said Carrie Gallagher, the report's project director. "It's unaffordable for them."

Options are also few for retirees and workers earning modest incomes. The number of rental units on the Island is the lowest in the nation per capita, the report said.

From 1990 to 2000, 20 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds left Long Island, a rate five times the national average. And 27 percent of the 805 Long Islanders surveyed by telephone said they were very likely to move out of their county in the next five years.

The Carrillos married in June 2003. That November they sold their first home and moved to Land O' Lakes, north of Tampa. Last fall, Ms. Carrillo got a job teaching at an elementary school, and Mr. Carrillo was promoted to sales territory manager for a plumbing components company.

"We bought a spanking brand-new house that would have been about $500,000 in New York for about $175,000 here," Mr. Carrillo said, describing their two-story, three-bedroom Mediterranean with an office and a two-car garage. Their property taxes are $2,100 a year, compared with the $8,000 his mother pays back home in East Setauket.

"We came down here with nothing, and we haven't looked back," he said.

The exodus is not just among the young. Retirees and baby boomers who aged along with post-World War II suburbia are also opting off the Island.

While some say they miss the beaches, the proximity to the city, their friends and family, they note that the Island has developed too many wrinkles: traffic congestion has worsened, commuting takes longer, open space is disappearing.

Slowing the Pace

Regrets seem to be few among expatriate Long Islanders. Living seems finer in parts north, south and west.

"We did love Long Island, we just love Vermont that much more," said Barbara Lettenberger, 49. Last July, she and her husband, Lewis, 48, moved from Northport. They got $575,000 for the house they bought in 1989 for $185,000, and set up their vacation chalet in a resort community in Londonderry, Vt., for full-time living.

"We were comfortable in this area, where it's a little less of a hustle-bustle atmosphere," Ms. Lettenberger said by telephone.


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Continued
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[ASchwarz]

Long Island's population is growing. The middle class is leaving, because home prices and taxes are too high. The rich and the poor are moving in, the middle class is moving out.

[alex ballard]

Long Island's population is growing. The middle class is leaving, because home prices and taxes are too high. The rich and the poor are moving in, the middle class is moving out.

If the Middle class are leaving, then how can the poor afford to move in?

Is there hope that the current "poor" will form the new "middle-class" of Long Island? Or is the city going to become the place of choice for the newly middle class?

[ASchwarz]

If the Middle class are leaving, then how can the poor afford to move in?

Is there hope that the current "poor" will form the new "middle-class" of Long Island? Or is the city going to become the place of choice for the newly middle class?

The poor on Long Island are illegally crammed into homes. Because of a shortage of affordable housing, multiple families of immigrants are forced to share individual homes.

Long Island has expensive homes, and real estate taxes are the highest in the nation. The article fails to mention that these high real estate taxes result in some of the best schools in the nation. Florida has low property taxes, but the schools are awful. Same goes with Nevada, North Carolina and other states mentioned in the article.

If you attend an Ivy League campus, you will be surrounded by Long Islanders, and there will be very few Floridians, despite the huge Florida population. Living on Long Island is a great investment if you can afford it. If you are retired or don't yet have kids (like the people mentioned in the article), Long Island might not be the best lifestyle.