Can anyone help...?

We are looking for a neighborhood with diversity. We would like for our kids to grow up in a diverse neighborhood because that is the reality of the world. Although we don't have kids yet, both us of moved a lot as kids and its hard. But we lived in Brooklyn and Queens and there, you do not have to go to HS where you live, you apply to just like you apply to college and can go anywhere in the 5 boroughs where you are accepted. It is not like that in Long Island to our knowledge. So where we are when they start school, we would like to give them the chance to finish HS in the same district.

At the same time, we want the neighborhood to be composed of educated people. Can anyone suggest some areas to look in Suffolk?

I would have to disagree on that most towns in LI are diverse. If you do some research, you will actually learn that Long Island is one of the most segregated areas in the country. Majority of the towns/school districts are dominated by one ethinicity. It is amazing to see how one town can be so different from the very next town. For example, as large as Sachem SD is, the racial composite of its school district is 96% white. Then we can look at areas such as Wyandanch which is about 97% black, and Brentwood which is dominated by the hispanic community.

I was reading the comprehensive information report on the suffolk school districts and most of them such as Sachem, Commack, Northport, Three Village, Middle Country, Smithtown, East Islip, etc...the racial make up is about 93-97% white. There is nothing wrong with that at all, in fact these are excellent school districts. Yet, I don't consider this to be diverse.

Then I see school districts such as Longwood, Huntington, South Huntington, Patchogue-Medford, and Deer Park to seem more diverse. However, these are also the school districts many people complain about. This is so hard...

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Posted by wilandnet

I would have to disagree on that most towns in LI are diverse. If you do some research, you will actually learn that Long Island is one of the most segregated areas in the country. Majority of the towns/school districts are dominated by one ethinicity. It is amazing to see how one town can be so different from the very next town. For example, as large as Sachem SD is, the racial composite of its school district is 96% white. Then we can look at areas such as Wyandanch which is about 97% black, and Brentwood which is dominated by the hispanic community.

I was reading the comprehensive information report on the suffolk school districts and most of them such as Sachem, Commack, Northport, Three Village, Middle Country, Smithtown, East Islip, etc...the racial make up is about 93-97% white. There is nothing wrong with that at all, in fact these are excellent school districts. Yet, I don't consider this to be diverse.

Then I see school districts such as Longwood, Huntington, South Huntington, Patchogue-Medford, and Deer Park to seem more diverse. However, these are also the school districts many people complain about. This is so hard...

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You are so right ....sorry, I don't have an answer. I understand that Westbury is a pretty good dostrict and is quite diverse, but that is in Nassau. What about Lindenhurst? Or Babylon, Bay Shore?

It is hard.
Have you looked into North Babylon? I grew up there and went to NBHS. I don't know how it is now, but it seemed pretty diverse years ago.
Latest stats I found say 67.4% white, 9.2 hispanic, 20.8 black and 2.4 asian.
This is more diverse than surrounding towns such as Babylon, West Babylon, Lindenhurst and West Islip.
Feel free to send me FM if you would like to discuss further:)

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Posted by AmyKay

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Posted by wilandnet

At the same time, we want the neighborhood to be composed of educated people. Can anyone suggest some areas to look in Suffolk?

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Its hard to say... I think most of the towns on Long Island are diverse.

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I am not trying to start drama, but I would have to strongly disagree. There are parts of Nassau that are divers, but there are also a tremendous amount of School Districts that are not.

In suffolk, there is Babylon, Lindenhurst, Wesy Babylon.....there are more, but I cannot think of them all right now. If you want a big district, then Sachem is a mix of 5 different towns & from what I saw was pretty diverse.

The best thing to do is to find the neighborhood info and look at the percentages & other stats.

Oh and just an FYI about Long Island as found on longislandindex.org: This website also have great information about affordable housing, LI economy, land use, and our environment.
______________

'Segregation

Our history of building individual, homegeneous sub-divisions, as well as an unfortunate legacy of instutitionalized racism, has made Long Island the third most segregated suburban region in the nation, according to U.S. Census data. Long Islanders are separated by income, age and education, as well as ethnicity and race.'

And one last thing, I am studying to be a history professor, so I enjoy spreading interesting knowledge...Sorry
-article from last months newsday-

April 21, 2005


The incident came out of the blue, as if I were driving down the highway at 60 mph and suddenly hit a speed bump.

I went into a diner on Manhattan's East Side the other day, hoping for a quick bowl of soup. There was only one other customer, who was already eating. But while I sat there for a full five minutes, neither the man on the right end of the counter, who seemed to be a manager type, or either of the two waitresses, even offered me a menu.

Finally, I had to lean over to one waitress, who was standing there doing nothing, to ask if she'd take my order. She seemed flustered, but she took it. And when a young white guy came in and sat at the counter, the employees were all over him.

The restaurant employees were all white, as were the other customers. And the incident enraged me, since, like most other African-Americans, I've had numerous experiences where white business people, faced with a black customer, appeared to be suddenly struck blind, or seemed oblivious to my presence, or became addled and flustered about approaching me, even as they lavished attention on every white customer. In the year 2005, I shouldn't have to put up with that. But I knew if I'd even suggested they were behaving in a racially biased way, they would have denied it.

So a study released this week by Erase Racism, a nonprofit group that promotes racial equity on Long Island, hit close to home. The report, which resulted from a 2004 survey and tests done by a community organization and a fair housing group, found Long Island is the third most segregated suburb in the nation. Why? Because real estate agents steer black and Latino clients away from white neighborhoods, local governments cling to practices that perpetuate racial segregation and government agencies do a bad job of enforcing fair housing laws.

My anger over the way I was treated in the diner had to be minor compared to what Beverly and James White felt. According to Long Island Housing Services, in 1998 Beverly, a light-skinned African-American woman, inquired of J. and R. Wimmer Realty of Bay Shore about renting an apartment at The Pines, a housing complex in Islip. She was treated cordially and encouraged to sign a lease. But the mood changed when she brought her darker-skinned husband, James, to see the apartment. Wimmer doubled the security deposit, and though they gave the Whites a lease, getting the promised key and access to the apartment became difficult. A year later the Whites were denied the opportunity to renew their lease.

They contacted Long Island Housing Services, which conducted tests of Wimmer's practices, finding prospective black tenants were told nothing was available, while whites were offered vacancies at three different complexes. The Whites filed a complaint of racial discrimination with the state Division of Human Rights - a well-meaning but understaffed agency - and won a $22,000 settlement. It took almost four years, and in the meantime they had to move.

It's astonishing that as the white population of Long Island declines, and the black, Hispanic and Asian populations increase dramatically, only 15 percent of Long Islanders live in even modestly integrated communities.

One of the most shocking findings of Erase Racism's report is that many white Long Islanders don't know there are middle- class black people - because they don't come in contact with any. And people of color on Long Island don't live apart from whites because they choose to, or can't afford to integrate, but because they're forced to.

That Long Island's leaders and state agencies allow such blatant racial discrimination and housing segregation is a scandal. A bill before the State Legislature would require the state Division of Human Rights to provide better statistics on race discrimination complaints, train its employees better and create an advisory committee to oversee it. Passing the legislation would be a step forward in dealing with a problem that shouldn't be tolerated in this day and time.

I agree with you that most areas on LI are not diverse. DH grew up in Kings Park, I grew up in Lindenhurst! There were approx 4 black, 5 hispanic, 3 mid-eastern students. Out of a class of almost 500. To me that is NOT diverse. (however this was 8 years ago) and KP was not diverse either.
I live in the Middle country SD now and I will say on my block alone I have a lot more diversity than I had growing up.
Personally, I wouldnt buy a house in most of the SDs that you mentioned as being diverse simply because they arent ranked as high as some of the other SDs and that is important to me.
I think you are going to have to look for a balance. Of a good SD with a decent diversity level. If it is that important to you, you can always introduce your children to diversity in different forums, sports clubs, religious groups, etc.

You bring up an excellent point. Diversity can be acheived in other forums and that is definitely something to take into consideration.

Another thing is that we don't have kids yet, who knows what the demographics will look like for most neighborhoods on Long Island ten years from now.

i grew up in merrick where there is absolutely no diversity. my parents sent me to a ymca sleepaway camp where there was lots of diversity and that is where i had my best summers and met loads of kids from all different walks of life.

i travelled alot and my parents exposed me to all kinds of people b/c of their jobs so to me, even though i didn't get the diversity in school or in our town, i got it thru life experience.

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Posted by skew

what is your price range. from what i understand, dix hills is a diverse area (upper class) i would also categorize south huntington as diverse (middle class).

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Thanks so much! I checked out Dix Hills and the Half Hollow Hills SD, and I think this is my top choice!


If anyone wanna see any of the suffolk school district school report cards, comprehensive information reports (including racial percentages), average class size, etc. check out this link:

http://emsc33.nysed.gov/repcrd2004/links/c58_dist.shtml