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One of the interesting things about Valley Stream in the 15 years I've been here (and there were blacks here in general before I moved here), is that in many neighborhoods there has not been any white flight.
On my block, for example, a black family moved in over 10 years ago to a home from an elderly couple that were retired and left the area. No white flight, the family is very nice and everyone likes them and welcomed them. A few years ago on the next block, a black couple bought another home that had been empty for awhile because its elderly owners moved before selling it. They paid $505K for it and recently installed a new fence, etc. Nobody on that block fled to this date either.
So perhaps you should rethink your "doom and gloom" predictions for Valley Stream. Old fashioned ideas about white flight should be rethought IMO.
We'll see in Ten Years if it's a mixed thriving community. I've followed Valley Stream for the last Twenty Years and have seen a trend- however when it comes to statements with future reference, really the only way you can prove or disprove my 'doom and gloom' is to do some observations of Valley Stream 2019.
i think valley stream looks/ feels nicer than it did 10 years ago.
when i worked in VS 10 years back, i used the LIRR and walked around town a lot. i wouldn't say i ever felt unsafe. but back then, i would *never* go to Green Acres Mall.
but now? it seems safer, cleaner, more family friendly.
we're starting to look into VS for our 1st home, and so far there are less "kept" streets with dirty siding and bushy lawns, but then the next block looks immaculate, updated and cleaner. sure there's cultural diversity, but this is 2009. sometimes, the way it looks, reminds me of the segregated 50's. i don't understand how LI can seem so backwards when it comes to cultural diversity.
That was a stepmother killed by her stepson. So are you saying that if they didn't live in Valley Stream, he wouldn't have killed her? Is Valley Stream to blame for turning the stepson into a murderer?
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Originally Posted by maisy123
and then there's the smaller robberies around the train station and other areas.
Sure. I walk home from the LIRR station every night, later than usual. No problems.
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Originally Posted by maisy123
As for it changing what community on LI isn't. The LI demographic is changing and it's not all that bad just different.
For some people, let's face it, "different" is no good. The main "difference" that people on LI object to about VS is more blacks moving in. Pretty sad, but if that's the way they feel, then they should just not move here.
We'll see in Ten Years if it's a mixed thriving community. I've followed Valley Stream for the last Twenty Years and have seen a trend- however when it comes to statements with future reference, really the only way you can prove or disprove my 'doom and gloom' is to do some observations of Valley Stream 2019.
And your "trend" is ....? I would say that Valley Stream has been "changing" now for over 20 years easily. Why didn't the "disaster" you are predicting that will seal the area's "doom" in 10 years happen by now if "disaster" is assured?
Last edited by I_Love_LI_but; 07-20-2009 at 11:16 AM..
You should try East Rockaway. I grew up there. It is a small town with charm. I would say it is very safe. Everybody knows everybody. Nice little beach at the edge of town. Great place to raise your family.
East Rockaway's school district is very low rated, well down into the bottom quarter for LI. People can do much better in terms of school district for their tax money.
i think valley stream looks/ feels nicer than it did 10 years ago.
when i worked in VS 10 years back, i used the LIRR and walked around town a lot. i wouldn't say i ever felt unsafe. but back then, i would *never* go to Green Acres Mall.
but now? it seems safer, cleaner, more family friendly.
we're starting to look into VS for our 1st home, and so far there are less "kept" streets with dirty siding and bushy lawns, but then the next block looks immaculate, updated and cleaner. sure there's cultural diversity, but this is 2009. sometimes, the way it looks, reminds me of the segregated 50's. i don't understand how LI can seem so backwards when it comes to cultural diversity.
You're not the only one who doesn't understand this ... but usually LI'ers understand this and the rest of the country are the ones that don't. In other parts of the country, a lot of middle class areas are integrated and nobody considers it horrible. My cousin in Houston, for example, had an interesting discussion with a former LI'er who was complaining because he couldn't find an all-white middle class neighborhood and did not want to risk buying a house and having to live with blacks or mexicans on the same street (no matter what their "class"). In NC, I am sure many LI'ers are shocked to find middle class minority children on their block and in their school districts. There's a NY Times article from a few years ago that says LI is the most segregated suburban area in the country.
You're not the only one who doesn't understand this ... but usually LI'ers understand this and the rest of the country are the ones that don't.
The reason LIers understand this is because of what happened to their grandparents and/or their parents beginning in the late 1940s/early 1950s when under the Democratic Congresses' Urban Renewal programs, banks were allowed (actually encouraged) to red-line areas that had a few black families and this meant that those neighborhoods could not get mortgage financing, leading to white flight and before it was all over, Brooklyn, which had been a very integrated Borough of New York City, ended up with very sharply segregated neighborhoods, and in many of those neighborhoods, the white families saw sharply depreciating prices being bid for their houses as they attempted to emigrate from what had, almost overnight, become, because of Urban Renewal and legal red-lining, depressed minority neighborhoods.
The reason LIers understand this is because of what happened to their grandparents and/or their parents beginning in the late 1940s/early 1950s when under the Democratic Congresses' Urban Renewal programs, banks were allowed (actually encouraged) to red-line areas that had a few black families and this meant that those neighborhoods could not get mortgage financing, leading to white flight and before it was all over, Brooklyn, which had been a very integrated Borough of New York City, ended up with very sharply segregated neighborhoods, and in many of those neighborhoods, the white families saw sharply depreciating prices being bid for their houses as they attempted to emigrate from what had, almost overnight, become, because of Urban Renewal and legal red-lining, depressed minority neighborhoods.
Another thing LI'ers experienced were the discriminatory actions of realtors fueled by greed in the 1960s and 1970s that encouraged white flight ("block busting") and neighborhood segregation ("steering"). Block busting consisted of realtors going door to door or calling up homeowners and trying to scare them into selling their homes by stating that "the blacks are moving in and if you don't sell now, your house will be worth nothing." Steering was where the realtors would only show minorities homes in certain areas, particularly the areas they were block busting in. This went on until the authorities had to make these tactics against the law. There are still certain areas where realtors are legally not allowed to contact homeowners at all because of these laws. That is how Uniondale's and Roosevelt's current demographics were created ... a sudden mass of minorities with inner-city ways who had no suburban living experience moving in and the suburban non-minorities moving out. Valley Stream's demographics were not created by block busting and steering, and as a result, it has not experienced white flight to anywhere near that extent. People on here love to point at some of these block busted and steered communities and claim that Valley Stream will be the same way ... financially depressed and mostly minority. They don't seem to understand that perhaps the minorities moving into VS have more money than they do and have middle class values also and whites who are not bigots are not choosing to run away either.
Another thing LI'ers experienced were the discriminatory actions of realtors fueled by greed in the 1960s and 1970s that encouraged white flight ("block busting") and neighborhood segregation ("steering") ...
"Block busting" and "steering" would not have occurred if Urban Renewal/legal red-lining had not occurred first.
"Block busting" and "steering" would not have occurred if Urban Renewal/legal red-lining had not occurred first.
I don't see the need for Urban Renewal/legal red-lining on LI at that time because Uniondale, Roosevelt, etc., wasn't "urban" and wasn't in need of renewal. How does it correlate to the block busting and steering?
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VS is cleaner and nicer than 10 years ago
