Have you ever lived on Long Island?

[Renew Deal]

I live on LI. The 250K thread is what prompted this. I don't think people that don't live here really understand what life is like on the isle.

Long Island is Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties. I am more interested in Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk.

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. Obviously, no one can afford to live there. So don't. n/t

[Renew Deal]

5. There's some truth to that.

Island's Cost of Living Is Highest, Report Says

A couple with two children on Long Island need an income of at least $52,114 a year to maintain a decent standard of living -- the highest of any area in the nation, according to a study by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute.

The primary reason is the high cost of housing, according to Chauna Brocht, a co-author of the study, which was released last week. She said the study used figures from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, which in 1999 put the cost of a two-bedroom apartment on Long Island at $1,100 a month.

The study also said a family of four would need $510 a month for food (not including eating out); $975 a month for licensed child care for children 4 and 8 years old; $240 a month for transportation (assuming the couple share one car); $741 a month for taxes; $273 for health care insurance; and $500 for other necessities. The only entertainment included was cable television. Vacation costs were not included.
<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/05/nyregion/in-brief-island-s-cost-of-living-is-highest-report-says.html

[eleny]

2. I was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Woodhaven, Queens

[rasputin1952]

3. Yes...we had a house on the North Fork, Southold to be precise...

and I lived for a few years on Shelter Island. As for Queens, I was born in Jamaica and lived on Homelawn Street, and Midland Parkway in Jamaica Estates.

Please, do not ask me how I wound up in Nebraska...:D

[Renew Deal]

6. That's way out east.

You might as well have been in Nebraska. :evilgrin:

[rasputin1952]

12. God how I miss the water...and the absolute joy of going to the City

for any kind of food I wanted...:D

[Nite Owl]

4. Lived there all my life

moved 8 yrs ago and have never looked back. Love it upstate.

[MadHound]

7. Visited,

It was fun for what it is, but I couldn't stand to live there. Too crowded, too many people, give me the open countryside.

[Renew Deal]

9. LI is a mix of urban, suburban, and rural

Brooklyn and Queens are urban and suburban. Nassau is truly the burbs with some rural. Suffolk is suburban and rural.

[MadHound]

21. If you can hear that highway hum,

And see pink clouds overhead at night due to light pollution, it isn't rural. It is formerly rural that is in the process of being swallowed up by urban.

[Angry Dragon]

8. Then the only fair way to do things then

is to pass a law that everyone 30 years old or more is paid $250,000/year in wages.
As long as that is the new poverty level.........

[Renew Deal]

10. I like it.

:D

[Motown_Johnny]

11. commute

When I went to school in Hyde Park I had a classmate who commuted from Queens every freaking day.

The guy was kinda nuts and a 94 mile one way commute is extreme but it can be done.


You choose to live there, you are not trapped.

[Renew Deal]

14. I never said I was trapped.

But it is tough when you grow up in an area and you need to leave. And you don't have to go far to make it a long trip here. Nassau to Jersey City is just 35+- miles. That's 1 to 2 hours away.

[Cirque du So-What]

13. Never a resident, but definitely a fan

I've never lived on LI, although I spent a good deal of time there in the early '70s. My friend lived in East Quogue - within spitting distance of the Hamptons. Good times, good times...

[Nye Bevan]

17. It's a thread about a hypothetical family living on Long Island

who earn $250,000 per year and spend this fictitious money on a bunch of hypothetical things like eating out, vacations, pets (a hypothetical $130 per month for their hypothetical dog).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x59788

The hypothetical numbers have been designed so that the hypothetical family does not have much money left over when all is said and done.

I am not sure what this thread about a fictional overspending family proves, but for some reason it has sparked off some debate here.

[Cirque du So-What]

18. Thanks

I figured it out in the meantime.

[Brickbat]

15. Would living there make us see that a family of four not being able to live on $250K is a sad thing?

My hackles usually go up when I see "don't really understand what life is like here" type things, is all.

[Renew Deal]

16. Sort of.

There are ways that they could live well and cheaper on LI. But there are factors that drive up the cost of living here. Housing is literally strangelling people. Paying approx. $1K a month in property taxes for a decent house is very difficult.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. Most of my college classmates were from LI, and some insisted that Brooklyn and Queens weren't on LI

The boroughs of NYC just COULDN'T be Long Island to them. I debated one friend with a map in hand and still the most she would concede was that they were on the same island but she still insisted that Long Island started at the Nassau county line. It was a glaringly elitist/bigoted notion.

[Renew Deal]

20. I've had that discussion many times.

"Brooklyn and Queens aren't really on LI." Ummm, OK.

[lapislzi]

22. Grew up on LI. Still vist frequently.

Parts of it are unbearably overcrowded. Housing costs are ridiculously high, because there's nowhere left to build. Houses such as the original Levitt series have been sliced, diced, added-on to, and sided to death, all in the effort to cram more people into them. Strip malls and big box stores as far as they eye can see.

Still, the place has the power to surprise me, and it retains many of its charms--especially its beaches.

I don't hate it nearly as much as I used to. But don't kid yourself. Even if you live in the farthest reaches of eastern Suffolk: it's an expensive place to live.