Why Do We Live Here?

Memes, Lists of 100 Things About Yourself, Thursday Thirteen are ways we bloggers find out about each other. While I don’t normally participate in these activities I do enjoy reading them. With that in mind I thought I would provide a small morsel of information about your’s truly. What makes Long Island Dad different? What’s one cool thing about him?

Today’s Long Island Dad Fact:

While I have traveled extensively around the country and the Caribbean, I have never, in 42 years, lived more than 19 miles away from where I was born! Even when I went to college and lived on campus at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, I was 19 miles away from my birthplace of Bay Shore, N.Y. Bay Shore is a medium size town located on Long Island’s south shore halfway between New York City and Montauk Point (Long Island’s easternmost point.) For the past 11 years I have lived in the same house located 13.47 miles from my birthplace. Weird/Cool, huh?

Some Facts About Long Island:

Why we stay… Why we want to leave… Why we continue to stay…

Long Island is 118 miles long and 18-20 miles wide at its widest point.

Population (All Four Counties; Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau, and Suffolk): 7,448,618

That’s 5,470 people per square mile!

Long Island is more populated than 97 countries of the world.

The population for just Nassau and Suffolk counties (the two counties that are actually considered Long Island, because Brooklyn and Queens are actually part of New York City): 2.7 million.

Nassau County is ranked fifth highest in income per capita in the entire country.

Median Long Island Home Price: In excess of $400,000

In 2001, the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute reported that Long Island had the highest cost of living/income index in the country.

The average property tax bill for an average size home is between $8,000 and $16,000 a year… that’s just the property tax, folks… no mortgage is included with those numbers.

The average electric bill for a standard 4 bedroom, 2 bath home is over $300 a month, without air conditioning or holiday lights.

If you combined all the fire and rescue vehicles; Long Island has more than New York City and Los Angeles COMBINED!

Listen up you westerners… The first cowboys were/still are Long Islander’s. The oldest working cattle ranch in the United States is right here on Long Island.

According to Forbes Magazine, the most expensive home in North America, is Three Ponds Estate in Bridgehampton, valued at $75 million... and only 28 miles from your host’s meager domain.

The first Trans-Atlantic flight, by Charles Lindbergh, originated on Long Island.

The first ever video game was invented here, at Brookhaven National Laboratory… only 3 miles from LID’s abode.

So why do we stay?

Highest cost of living, second highest property taxes, and traffic… oh, did I forget to mention the traffic. Remember those 5,470 people per square mile, well they all have to get to work to pay for all this. It’s not uncommon for my beautiful wife to spend 2 ½ - 3 hours commuting 45 miles.

Again, why do we stay?

While there has been a large exodus of younger families over the past few years, most of us continue to suck it up! We hand over our entire paychecks and then some just to survive… because we live in paradise! We do take it for granted some times. But when driving back from an out of state trip; or flying in from a far away destination… the first glimpse of Manhattan’s skyline reminds us why we stay.

The first summer day we get to spend on the beach… the smell of salt air and sand… our children attending some of the best schools in the world (remember those property taxes, they go somewhere), combined with the ability to have anything we want, 24 hours a day, within 30 minutes… as long as we’re willing to pay for it… is why!

All this on one income... we're either crazy or brainwashed... must be something in the air...

And, besides, I obviously can’t live more than 19 miles away from the place I was born…