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Half? Not even close! Here's the population density numbers...they're in people per square mile.
Forest Hills......28,656.0
Bellmore...........6,640.5
East Meadow....5,955.0
Merrick............5,423.3
Wantagh..........4,936.3
Plainview..........4,478.2
Wantagh and Bellmore are the best out of those, in my opinion. Merrick is just as nice if not nicer, but doesn't really have a downtown area at all. You can actually find relatively affordable homes in these areas if you don't mind going smaller. These are old resort towns and a lot of the bungalows and smaller colonials still remain from the 20s/30s, Bellmore especially. I see a lot of them in the mid 300s with taxes from 5-8k.
Both have small downtown areas that are very active. Tons of bars/restaurants in Wantagh and Bellmore has a really nice strip with two movie theaters. One of them is a single screen that shows a lot of cheap indie flicks. Car show at the Bellmore train station Friday nights is like a big neighborhood block party, always a good time. LIRR into Penn is 40 minutes, rarely have to change at Jamaica. Less than 5 minutes to Jones Beach, waterfront parks in both towns. Two gorgeous nature preserves & lakes in Wantagh, good schools, no real crime..etc etc etc
I'm biased because I live here, but I know everyone else that lives here feels the same way!
Half? Not even close! Here's the population density numbers...they're in people per square mile.
Forest Hills......28,656.0
Bellmore...........6,640.5
East Meadow....5,955.0
Merrick............5,423.3
Wantagh..........4,936.3
Plainview..........4,478.2
Wantagh and Bellmore are the best out of those, in my opinion. Merrick is just as nice if not nicer, but doesn't really have a downtown area at all. You can actually find relatively affordable homes in these areas if you don't mind going smaller. These are old resort towns and a lot of the bungalows and smaller colonials still remain from the 20s/30s, Bellmore especially. I see a lot of them in the mid 300s with taxes from 5-8k.
Both have small downtown areas that are very active. Tons of bars/restaurants in Wantagh and Bellmore has a really nice strip with two movie theaters. One of them is a single screen that shows a lot of cheap indie flicks. Car show at the Bellmore train station Friday nights is like a big neighborhood block party, always a good time. LIRR into Penn is 40 minutes, rarely have to change at Jamaica. Less than 5 minutes to Jones Beach, waterfront parks in both towns. Two gorgeous nature preserves & lakes in Wantagh, good schools, no real crime..etc etc etc
I'm biased because I live here, but I know everyone else that lives here feels the same way!
These numbers are WAY skewed....Queens Zips are enormous.
Flushing for example runs from Bayside to Jackson Heights then south to around Fresh Meadows.
The real measuring stick is drive down Queens Blvd in Forest Hills....then drive down Hempstead tpke and ask yourself...am I out of the City now?
I laugh my ash off when my cousins from Floral Park gaze longingly at my 100x100 plot as if they were looking at Montana.
I think Forest hills is WAY nicer than any of those towns(with the possible exception of S. Merrick) plus it's quick hop to Manhattan and has lower taxes too.
Half? Not even close! Here's the population density numbers...they're in people per square mile.
Forest Hills......28,656.0
Bellmore...........6,640.5
East Meadow....5,955.0
Merrick............5,423.3
Wantagh..........4,936.3
Plainview..........4,478.2
Wantagh and Bellmore are the best out of those, in my opinion. Merrick is just as nice if not nicer, but doesn't really have a downtown area at all. You can actually find relatively affordable homes in these areas if you don't mind going smaller. These are old resort towns and a lot of the bungalows and smaller colonials still remain from the 20s/30s, Bellmore especially. I see a lot of them in the mid 300s with taxes from 5-8k.
Both have small downtown areas that are very active. Tons of bars/restaurants in Wantagh and Bellmore has a really nice strip with two movie theaters. One of them is a single screen that shows a lot of cheap indie flicks. Car show at the Bellmore train station Friday nights is like a big neighborhood block party, always a good time. LIRR into Penn is 40 minutes, rarely have to change at Jamaica. Less than 5 minutes to Jones Beach, waterfront parks in both towns. Two gorgeous nature preserves & lakes in Wantagh, good schools, no real crime..etc etc etc
I'm biased because I live here, but I know everyone else that lives here feels the same way!
Nice...never been to the downtowns. Where are they? Off Sunrise? I think I may have driven by Bellmore's.
These numbers are WAY skewed....Queens Zips are enormous.
Flushing for example runs from Bayside to Jackson Heights then south to around Fresh Meadows.
The real measuring stick is drive down Queens Blvd in Forest Hills....then drive down Hempstead tpke and ask yourself...am I out of the City now?
I laugh my ash off when my cousins from Floral Park gaze longingly at my 100x100 plot as if they were looking at Montana.
I think Forest hills is WAY nicer than any of those towns(with the possible exception of S. Merrick) plus it's quick hop to Manhattan and has lower taxes too.
Just one mans opinion.
C
I spent way too much time in FH to agree. It's very crowded, but not fun/exciting like Manhattan crowded...more annoyingly crowded. Not sure what you mean by the zips being skewed...the main post offices are LIC, Flushing, and Jamaica, but each zip is it's own little area. Going down Queens Blvd is NOTHING like Hemp Tpke...tons of apt buildings, stores, and MUCH MORE traffic...blvd of death I believe (where's Dedalus been?). The two are quite different, and now with the burgeoning immigrant populations from all over the world (mostly Russia, it seems), it will change even more and become even more dense. Sure the little area near the GCP and FH Gardens are not too crowded, but just about everywhere else is.
I spent way too much time in FH to agree. It's very crowded, but not fun/exciting like Manhattan crowded...more annoyingly crowded. Not sure what you mean by the zips being skewed...the main post offices are LIC, Flushing, and Jamaica, but each zip is it's own little area. Going down Queens Blvd is NOTHING like Hemp Tpke...tons of apt buildings, stores, and MUCH MORE traffic...blvd of death I believe (where's Dedalus been?). The two are quite different, and now with the burgeoning immigrant populations from all over the world (mostly Russia, it seems), it will change even more and become even more dense. Sure the little area near the GCP and FH Gardens are not too crowded, but just about everywhere else is.
GC
Cmon...Queens Blvd is EXACTLY like Hemp Tpke he only difference is that I can make better time in Queens b/c its wider and has a local lane.
Queens Zips to names are very confusing.
Queens behaves more like a few towns with many areas ...thats all.
11351 FLUSHING, NY
11352 FLUSHING, NY
11354 FLUSHING, NY
11355 FLUSHING, NY
11358 FLUSHING, NY
11367 FLUSHING, NY
11371 FLUSHING, NY
11381 FLUSHING, NY
11390 FLUSHING, NY
Good question...where is Dedalus.
He mustve been "silenced".
Queens neighborhoods have zip codes that are laid out very similar to Nassau County villages/hamlets, since they were both the same thing before Queens became a part of NYC. The borders for the Forest Hills (11375) zip I used would be 495 to the north, Grand Central to the East, Union Turnpike to the south...then continuing north from there, the abandoned LIRR Rockaway Beach branch, east on 67th Ave, then north on 102nd St. to complete the western border.
Hempstead Turnpike in eastern Nassau isn't even close to being as dense as Queens Boulevard in FH. Not only that, but Hempstead Turnpike doesn't run through any of the areas listed except East Meadow. The closest comparison you could make to Queens Boulevard for Merrick/Bellmore/Wantagh would be Sunrise or Merrick Road, which are even less congested.
GCGuy - You'll miss them if you blink in both towns, but they both get really busy on the weekends. In Bellmore it starts at the corner of Petit Ave. and Bedford Ave. and spreads from there. The whole thing was completely redone about 10 years back and still looks great. It's just north of the LIRR tracks off Sunrise. Wantagh is slightly more spread out, but the heart of it is basically Railroad Avenue just south of the LIRR and continues north on Wantagh Avenue for about a quarter mile. It's not as nice as Bellmore but if you like to drink I think there's something like 10 bars in a half mile radius.
Queens neighborhoods have zip codes that are laid out very similar to Nassau County villages/hamlets, since they were both the same thing before Queens became a part of NYC. The borders for the Forest Hills (11375) zip I used would be 495 to the north, Grand Central to the East, Union Turnpike to the south...then continuing north from there, the abandoned LIRR Rockaway Beach branch, east on 67th Ave, then north on 102nd St. to complete the western border.
Hempstead Turnpike in eastern Nassau isn't even close to being as dense as Queens Boulevard in FH. Not only that, but Hempstead Turnpike doesn't run through any of the areas listed except East Meadow. The closest comparison you could make to Queens Boulevard for Merrick/Bellmore/Wantagh would be Sunrise or Merrick Road, which are even less congested.
GCGuy - You'll miss them if you blink in both towns, but they both get really busy on the weekends. In Bellmore it starts at the corner of Petit Ave. and Bedford Ave. and spreads from there. The whole thing was completely redone about 10 years back and still looks great. It's just north of the LIRR tracks off Sunrise. Wantagh is slightly more spread out, but the heart of it is basically Railroad Avenue just south of the LIRR and continues north on Wantagh Avenue for about a quarter mile. It's not as nice as Bellmore but if you like to drink I think there's something like 10 bars in a half mile radius.
Jericho Tpke in Suffolk is as slow and congeted as Qblvd.
Jericho Tpke in Suffolk is as slow and congeted as Qblvd.
Hemp Tpke sucks from 109 to NYC.
C
Clam sir, I think you sometimes let your Suffolk bias (which I share) to cloud your view at times. Your point that Nassau is congested is fair, but those towns are not FH, having actually lived there myself. I do think though that the south shore is flat, dull and their residents tend to overstate the value of being closer to the ocean, as if they are all in waterfront homes...I am north shore and can be at Robert Moses in a hop skip and a jump, but you can't go to my private beaches . And before I get abuse I married a South Shore gal and she reminds me every day how great it is, apparently I just too dumb to see it (just trying to avoid the hate mail)
Clam sir, I think you sometimes let your Suffolk bias (which I share) to cloud your view at times. Your point that Nassau is congested is fair, but those towns are not FH, having actually lived there myself. I do think though that the south shore is flat, dull and their residents tend to overstate the value of being closer to the ocean, as if they are all in waterfront homes...I am north shore and can be at Robert Moses in a hop skip and a jump, but you can't go to my private beaches . And before I get abuse I married a South Shore gal and she reminds me every day how great it is, apparently I just too dumb to see it (just trying to avoid the hate mail)
Not really.
We started out in Electchester.
I am just very fond of Forest Hills, Bayside and Douglaston.
I am just very fond of Forest Hills, Bayside and Douglaston.
I find them superior to 90% of Nassau.
JMHO
C
I think those neighborhoods are great too, but even with the tax offset it's doubtful your typical middle class south shore resident could afford similar housing there, if at all. There's really no comparison that can be made, it's apples and oranges. Douglaston is crazy expensive, Bayside is up there too...I guess they're generally suburban and don't have subways, but Forest Hills is a totally different world. In a perfect world of free money I'd like to live in Douglaston....I'd like to live in the Taj Mahal and get served philly cheesesteaks in bed all day by nude Penthouse models too, but it ain't happening!
Jrprofess - It's true, hardly any south shore homes are waterfront...even those that are, the majority are really on bulkhead canals. The north shore definitely has nicer houses but they're only for the ludicrously wealthy in Nassau, and there's too many areas of Suffolk where I feel like I could be abducted by aliens at any given moment. Any place that doesn't have sidewalks is kind of weird to me. I like that there's a lot of people here...but there still aren't so many people that it's overbearing, I've kind of warmed up to Suffolk over the years but I think 231 is as far removed from civilization as I'd ever want to get!
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Suffolk Bias
. And before I get abuse I married a South Shore gal and she reminds me every day how great it is, apparently I just too dumb to see it (just trying to avoid the hate mail)
