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See, THIS is the typical long island attitude that drives me crazy! No, the crime you see on LI is NOT everywhere(well, not in that amount anyway). We moved off of the island 5 years ago to the Chicago suburbs and where we live is unbelievable. People are not the same and crime is not the same! Of course, there is crime but not as much as LI. People actually respect one another. If you leave your car open, you pocket book doesn't get stolen and if your kid leaves his bike outside, it's still there in the morning.
We miss our families terribly and often try to rationalize how we would be okay to go back, etc, but the truth is, LI has changed...for the worse. The crimes that take place there so often are not present in every other community in this country and the attitude by LI-ers of, "oh get over it. Crime is everywhere. THere is nothing different about LI..." is so aggravating. It's not the same everywhere and maybe if people started recognizing the real problems, it could get fixed. THis is my home too and it sucks that we can't come back because we don't believe it would be a good life for our children. Once people get out and live elsewhere, they realize how lacking LI is.
I couldn't agree more about Port Jeff. Growing up in Setauket, we still have lots of family in the area. WHen I take my kids there, they don't get the appeal that we all once knew. It's run down, full of trash and crime, and just depressing in general! No one should have to be scared to go out past 9pm. There are other places to live in this country that appreciate and value community. LI is not one of them.
Neither is Chicago...they're talking about bringing in the National Guard to monitor the city....due to crime and gangs.
Maybe you never leave your little suburb, but I doubt it is perfect.
I'm not interested in semantics. It really doesn't matter. The deterioration and denial is just sad and it's upsetting that we can't live near our families anymore.
After living in a LOW crime area, you can clearly see the problems on LI.
This thread pretty much confirms my feelings on Long Island. Its looking more and more like SoCal every year. The illegals are everywhere too, I see way more this year than last year. Take a look at the suburbs of Los Angeles. There are exclusive, wealthy communities (Beverly Hills/our Roslyn East Hills) and barrios full of illegals (San Bernadino, Santa Ana/our Hempstead, New Cassel, Brentwood).
Port Jefferson has taken a notable decline, I remember it being a nice touristy family town when I was a teenager, now its becoming yet another barrio. It started around the train tracks and worked its way down into the village. There's also a numerous amount of disturbed people hanging out as well.
And our highly paid police cant seem to be bothered with real criminals, its much easier handing out tickets to those who forgot to put their seatbelt on.
I definately plan on leaving LI too, though probably not for Chicago, it'd either be Ocean County in NJ or up in New England.
I'm sick of seeing these roach trucks and illegals everywhere. Its like SoCal here now.
FYI. San Bernadino is not an LA suburb, it is 120 miles outside of LA. Not even in Los Angeles County.
And the OP has a right to be concerned, who would ever have thought you would see that element in PJ Village.
I just looked into lovely Naperville. It seems there were 11 murders between 98-08 (probably none before 98 I am sure), slightly more than the 3 you reported "in its whole history" - though still not a bad place I would guess as these numbers are very low for a city that size.
A few things to note, the population of Naperville was estimated to be 144,000 in 2008. Since LI has about 3 million people between Nassau and Suffolk are you comparing Naperville to all of Nassau and Suffolk or just Port Jefferson? I am not sure how many murders there have been in PJ's "whole history"...maybe someone can fill us in?
I can not find the same stats for Long island, Nassau or Suffolk individually (maybe you can) but I did find some articles from the New York Times which had the murder rate/100K in the 1.2 & 1.8 range in 2003 which are extremely low (and went lower for at least the next 5 years). I am sure someone here will rip me apart on what these stats mean or how they are reported, I look forward to being educated. I am happy for you that you feel even safer in your new home in Naperville.
Not comparing one town to all of LI, I am talking specifically about Suffolk county and not even comparing it directly based on numbers(and Naperville was just quoted at 250,000). Not really even interested in speaking directly about any other town. Just saying that many LIers need to get their heads out of their bottoms and realize that all of the crime they make excuses for(do you really think it is all reported??? Numbers mean nothing, I lived there for 30 years) are not just normal, widespread, acceptable crimes. LI has CHANGED. Crime is all around it. I lost a family member to drug abuse and have seen so many people go down the tubes. It's just depressing to go there but also sad to miss out on family ties. I just wish it would get better there!
SoCal lost a lot of cities and neighborhoods to gang crime in the 70's, 80's and 90's. It's a lot better here now while LI is just starting to feel the impact. Reality is your state, city, local government and PD's have no idea what to do. California got out of it by locking up thousands of young men with the 3-strikes law and now we have critically overcrowded prisons.
That LA based gangs should have any traction in LI's suburban towns is a direct reflection on the apathy of the populace of those towns. There are plenty of areas in LA metro and SoCal where gangs can't get a foothold because the neighborhood won't let them. They stay where they are accepted.
Remember the gangs prey on their own people (working class and illegals) and those are the people who are afraid of them. Middle and Upper middle class people in California don't fear gangs because for the most part, middle class neighborhoods are able to keep them out of our neighborhoods (although not necessarily the local schools)
Not comparing one town to all of LI, I am talking specifically about Suffolk county and not even comparing it directly based on numbers(and Naperville was just quoted at 250,000). Not really even interested in speaking directly about any other town. Just saying that many LIers need to get their heads out of their bottoms and realize that all of the crime they make excuses for(do you really think it is all reported??? Numbers mean nothing, I lived there for 30 years) are not just normal, widespread, acceptable crimes. LI has CHANGED. Crime is all around it. I lost a family member to drug abuse and have seen so many people go down the tubes. It's just depressing to go there but also sad to miss out on family ties. I just wish it would get better there!
Where on Long Island are you from? That has a lot to do with it.
And people in IL don't abuse drugs? Please.
They're talking about bringing in the National Guard due to crime in Chicago.
Where on Long Island are you from? That has a lot to do with it.
And people in IL don't abuse drugs? Please.
They're talking about bringing in the National Guard due to crime in Chicago.
I graduated from Ward Melville. I have no idea what drugs people in IL do but I do know that the highschools in my town(and most other towns) are not HEROIN INFESTED. It is being called an EPIDEMIC on Long Island. No, not where I live. "doing drugs" and having a problem of epidemic proportion...completely different. THis isn't a big issue to any of you?? You are more interested in just defending and trying to find things wrong with other places?? I hope you all don't have school aged children.
Also, there are an enormous amount of sex offenders in Suffolk County. And again, I don't live in Chicago so just as I am not comparing LI to NYC, comparing CHicago to where I live(in a suburb an hour away with NO traffic) is just silly. I am not talking about the crime in Chicago. Kinda stupid to compare a large city with the suburbs, right?
Hubby is retired from Gang Unit for NYPD. When his years of ongoing training and on the job experience have him telling me to keep away, I'm listening to him. When you have Suffolk assigning another officer to patrol at night, and the village patrol saying to stay away at night, and hubby telling me this problem is rampant and kids cannot go to Rocketship in broad daylight, this is not a matter of mistaking a teenager with identity crisis for a gang member. It's so different in the city, you clear them out before anything starts. You don't have the liberal mindset of "kids will be kids" taking priority over safety.They're not just a bunch of kids being kids, trying to act tough. They're wearing the colors with shirts, hats and sneakers. I'm not saying to arrest people for wearing colors, give me a break. But you can move them away from playgrounds where they're in clusters near 2-10 year olds, loitering, cursing, littering, AND going into the public restroom near the tennis courts that I mentioned to sell drugs. It's become so bad there that the village had to lock up the bathrooms earlier. This is not my paranoia, this is really happening. You will NOT see the addressed in the Port Times Record, because this village wants to focus on up and coming restaurants, or who has the nicest garden this season. They will, occasionally address the ongoing issue in upper Port, but that's about it. Don't believe me? Pick up the local paper.
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