Too Long in Long Island

[Downstate Buffaloian]

I'm a former Erie County resident who has been living in Nassau County, Long Island for the past five years. Living here has shown me the good things about Buffalo.

1. The lack of traffic is probably the #1 positive point about Western New York. The traffic here on Long Island is so aggrevating and extensive that it effects every aspect of of your life. You have to plan in advance everywhere you want to go and sitting in traffic takes up a significant portion of what would be lesure time here. The drivers are incredibly aggressive and nasty. Just driving to work turns your stomach and puts you in a bad mood. People in Buffalo have absolutely no clue how good they have it in that regard. The freedom of movement in Buffalo is truly amazing! This easy accessability allows people to take advantage of everything within the entire metropolitan area. Most people wouldn't think twice of driving 20 miles to take advantage of a service in Buffalo because it only takes them 20 minutes, here driving twenty miles could take you 90 minutes or more!

2. The low cost of quality housing is another advantage. People complain about the property taxes in Western New York but per square foot of home it is still less than Long Island. I pay $7200 in taxes on a 1123 Sq foot home! Now granted I've made a fortune on the property over the last five years. It was worth $180,000 in 1999 now it is worth an amazing $505,000. The point is though that if you are young and just starting out you can easily afford a house in Western New York. Many of my co-workers with household incomes of $120,000 or more still can't afford to buy even a starter home.

3. Buffaloian's have their values in the right place. Here in Long Island everyone seems to be obsessed with their careers, making obscene amounts of money and visting their shrink twice a week. Buffaloians are real people that put their families and lesure first over being a slave to their jobs. Everyone here thinks that upstaters and particularly Buffaloians are all a bunch of dumb hicks. However they fail to understand that Buffaloians just live a more balanced life than they do. Buffalo has nightlife and museums and culture and nightlife too, but to them the world outside of the New York City metro area is a barren cultural wasteland! I'm tired of trying to explain this to them. I'm sick of this "we are the #1 city in the world so we don't have to care about any place else" attitude. It makes me appreciate humble Buffaloians.

4. Buffalo has been shielded from the mass immigration that is overwhelming many other cities. Everytime I go into a fast food restaurant here I'm frustrated by the clerks who can barely speak English. It's creating a slave-like culture here on Long Island where the service workers and tradesman are all hispanic and the people they serve are almost always rich and white. The white working and middle classes are rapidly moving from the NYC Metro area because they don't feel at home here anymore. In Buffalo despite its economic problems seems much more egalitarian with none of that master and servant dichotomy that is found here.

Well that's enough for now. I can't wait for this housing bubble to get a little bigger. I can then sell my property here for $700,000 or $800,000 buy a house twice the size in Western New York for $200,000 and put the rest in bonds to supplement my income in Buffalo. With a baby on the way I wan't him to grow up in a real place like Western New York not this Latin-American style social nightmare that Long Island is becoming.

[NoCtUrNaL]

Originally posted by Downstate Buffaloian
Buffalo has been shielded from the mass immigration that is overwhelming many other cities.

I agree with everything you typed but the above.

Buffalo doesn't have much of a harbor, but somehow they're still landing here...


Elmwood near Tupper...not an isolated scene in that area either.

[ERIEMAN]

what on earth is that? where is sally struthers?

[stevenco]

Yeah, well they took your ancestors in.

Dutch and English didn't care for the old immigrants (Irish e.g.)

Then they didn't want the new ones (Eastern Euros, e.g. Poles ) like me
...etc..

So the people already here feel the doors should be closed only AFTER they get here.


NO ONE OWNS LAND AND YOUR LUCKY TO RENT IT.

All my brothers and sisters are welcome.

[NoCtUrNaL]

Originally posted by stevenco
Yeah, well they took your ancestors in.

Yeah, but when my whiskey swilling Irish ancestors landed here there wasn't any welfare, food stamps, and medicaid...and they already spoke the language.

[Downstate Buffaloian]

I'm certainly not anti-immigrant but the numbers here in the NYC area are so overwhelming that you have to ask who does this benefit? It mainly benefits the rich by providing low cost domestic labor and lower prices for high end service intensive activities. It does not benfit middle class people like me because I cut my own lawn and do my own home repairs. All these immigrants do for middle class people here is drive up housing prices by increasing housing demand. This has made it immpossible for many middle class people to be able to get in the market. Also the number of English as a second language students are increasing in all but the wealthiest school districts causing test scores to slowly decline. Thus you can't buy a house in a middle priced area because you don't know how the schools will be in a few years.

I agree that controled and regulated immigration is a good thing. Most of us wouldn't be living in the country without it (except for my wife who is part Native American). However what we have now is clearly out of control. It is quite easy to judge me if you live in a place like Hamburg that is 97% white (that ironicly is where I used to live). By living here you would see that it is not a matter of being xenophobic, it is matter of our government setting policy that clearly benefits one group at the expense of another.

[WNYresident]

Originally posted by NoCtUrNaL
Yeah, but when my whiskey swilling Irish ancestors landed here there wasn't any welfare, food stamps, and medicaid...and they already spoke the language.

Thats exactly the point we have to remember. I was thinking the same thing. People tell us the UNITED STATES is made up of immigrants. THey did not have these programs they have now 200 years ago.

[stevenco]

So what. They didn't have the same programs two centuries ago.
That's another story. We're all on assistance, whether you want to admit it or not.

Give us your hungry and huddled masses.

[granpabob]

did take long to forget to be positive did it maybe it is hopeless to try but I wont guit just yet