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Nice! Having gone to grad school in Ann Arbor, I know the charm of medium sized Midwest towns. Good for you. And, having grown up in Northport, I know what you mean about the strip mall suburbia not being "your" Long Island. I felt defeated in having to skip the North Shore for price reasons, despite a good income, but found that the older south shore towns still have that "Main Street USA" vibe and pre-war neighborhoods with houses full of character. The compromise is giving up the natural beauty and terrain of the North Shore, and a higher overall level of density. On the other hand, now I have better access to the ocean beaches. I'll survive.
Thank you for reading my post and understanding!
Once, we had Mayberry on LI. Friendly small towns, with charm and character. And, to many of us, they are no longer accessible.
I agree about some of the older South Shore towns. When I was growing up, I had cousins in integrated Freeport. The schools were not terrible. I know they all went on and did well. I like Sayville and Patchogue village. Babylon Village and Amityville are pretty - but I am unsure of the schools.
At any rate, my second son in a proud Ann Arbor grad!
We have come to enjoy the North Coast ( Lake Erie) Put In Bay, and the many lakes to fulfill our nautical needs. There is a Nautical culture in the upper Midwest, and I have a boat and some guys who enjoy fishing.
There are parts of the Midwest that are very similar to "Old Long Island". And there are parts of the South that really do not want NYers.
That's pretty sad coming from a minister. How tolerant and inclusive of you. Not to mention you stereotyping a region of millions of people as all religious (???) right-wing "nuts".
I am very tolerant. Look up the word "Liberal". Study it. It comes from the Latin word for "free".
Anyone is welcome in my home or church. When they begin telling me who is or is not a Christian and demanding that I preach Fox from the pulpit, we have several doors.
Evangelical American Protestantism has changed and had become "cult like". Jimmy Carter left the fundamentalist Southern Baptist Church, of which his family were members for over 200 years over intolerance.
I believe the reason was the denomination's position on woman. They can not become ministers, and they can only serve in ancillary positions.
I agree with President Carter. I could not be a member of a denomination like that.
Republicans of all stripes are welcome at my church, and in my denomination.
If they are opposed to immigrants, women as ministers, parity for women in the church, converts, the acceptance of alternate ways of scriptural interpretation - or if they worship the gospel of Fox over the Gospel of Jesus, they would most likely not be comfortable there.
I am very tolerant. Look up the word "Liberal". Study it. It comes from the Latin word for "free".
Anyone is welcome in my home or church. When they begin telling me who is or is not a Christian and demanding that I preach Fox from the pulpit, we have several doors.
Evangelical American Protestantism has changed and had become "cult like". Jimmy Carter left the fundamentalist Southern Baptist Church, of which his family were members for over 200 years over intolerance.
I believe the reason was the denomination's position on woman. They can not become ministers, and they can only serve in ancillary positions.
I agree with President Carter. I could not be a member of a denomination like that.
Republicans of all stripes are welcome at my church, and in my denomination.
If they are opposed to immigrants, women as ministers, parity for women in the church, converts, the acceptance of alternate ways of scriptural interpretation - or if they worship the gospel of Fox over the Gospel of Jesus, they would most likely not be comfortable there.
I'm Evangelical Lutheran. We are very tolerant. It's the Missouri Synod Lutherans that are even stricter than the RCC.
Um..nothing. I left Long Island 6 years ago. Best thing I ever did.
I wish we did it earlier, in fact. When the only decent places to live on Long Island come with 20K taxes and $3500 - 5000 dollar monthly mortgages, and the alternatives are Centerach, Port Jeff Station, or Manorville, and the like- you leave. We did not want the South for many reasons. So we went west.
Here is where we will be spending New Years Eve. Trumbull Country Club!
Elegant and affordable.
The point is, places that were once affordable to working people on Long Island, are not. Parts of Huntintinton, Smithtown, Oyster Bay and Glen Cove come to mind. Hicksville has become expensive, and while it's convenient, it does not have the historic LI look that my wife and I were seeing.
Middle and working class Americans should be able to purchase a home for $200,00 or less and not live in a slum. Or a place with a horrible reputation and bad schools. That no longer exists on Long Island.
Total agreement here. Don't also forget the South shore towns, like Merrick, Rockville Centre, Wantagh, Massapequa, as well as Babylon and Sayville. Used to be middle class areas but they are now full of Wall Street Banksters with Mercedes and incomes well north of 100 grand a year. The other towns in the middle are being inundated with illegals which bring crime (unfortunately the part of Centereach that borders Farmingville has problems with 'em). People get priced out of an ever shrinking supply of safe, nice areas, and the RE folks are steering illegals into others.
This is why so many are leaving the island. Housing costs are out of control and need relief. The corruption in town, county, and state governments needs to be weeded out, and taxes need to go DOWN. As far as housing, all they build is unaffordable housing, McMansions, luxury apartments,etc.
Affordable housing needs to be mandated in every Long Island community, especially the walkable ones with good train service.
I would leave Long Island if I could, but I can't (for personal reasons).
Still don't understand the hate on Centereach, its a nice middle class area, yeah the area around Rt.25 is kinda run down looking, but once you go north of there the streets look pretty decent to me. Well I guess since I grew up in the Levittown area the 50s-60s era construction doesn't bother me.
Its really one of the few middle class areas left on LI. Its too far east & away from trains to become popular with the rich city yuppies moving here.
There are places on LI for middle class folks, and if they aren't NYC commuters (who generally make six figures anyway), Levittown, Plainedge in Nassau are pretty decent places, out in Suffolk there's more choice, Holbrook, Lindenhurst (for now), Selden, Centereach, Ronkonkoma, or even out toward Ridge.
But yeah both shores are for the rich now, so anyone who isn't is usually living in the middle (just like the Pitch Pines..lol)
I try & look at it this way, the next time there's a big storm (like Sandy) the south shore folks will be dealing with flooding (with the Babylon train yard flooded along with numerous substations), the north shore will have the lions share of power outages & blocked roads (due to fallen trees), while the middle will be in the best shape. After Sandy the Main/Ronkonkoma lines were the first to be restored. More storm tolerant trees (oaks & pines).
I know the appeal of being by the water by I dont believe so much investment should be going on there, climate change will only bring more big storms, and with the past 2 months warmest on record, its hard to argue with the facts.
If they are opposed to immigrants, women as ministers, parity for women in the church, converts, the acceptance of alternate ways of scriptural interpretation - or if they worship the gospel of Fox over the Gospel of Jesus, they would most likely not be comfortable there.
You keep mentioning churches in the south preaching the gospel of "Fox News" (yet another blanket stereotype from you) yet im sure you are just fine preaching the gospel of msnbc from yours. Pot meet kettle. You are no different from those southern preachers you hate only difference between you and them is the side of the political spectrum.
I like Ronkonkoma much better than Centereach. At least it's pretty, has a lake, some hills, pretty architecture (I'm thinking of an Episcopal church along the road along the lake along with some nice, craftsman houses) and a village.
Picturesque moderately priced place - with some history.
Agreed! (I thought maybe it was just me, since I grew up there )
I did live in Centereach for a year when I was a kid- about three houses over the line from Lake Grove- so I still went to Sachem- and in my opinion, the only thing Centereach had going for it (at the time) was a big woods to walk and play in (Which, of course is gone now). I hated how Centereach had no real downtown- just Middle Country Rd. with all of it's shopping centers and strip malls- Nothing to really center the town; no pretty lake; and all the houses were pretty bland.
Hey, in both school districts, teachers work 6 hours a day, most only worry about the 20 year golden retirement.
Wake-up....unless your kids are real lucky, they will get a mediocore education, the value of a good education was lost in the 1990's on long island......
The rest of the country's teachers are paid 1/3 of the rate long island teachers receive, and they work hard to educate the children in their charge, they still care............
I said we moved "west" instead of "south". The direction called "west". Get it? I didn't say we moved to Montana.
Ee-gads.
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