What do you love about Long Island?

I don't live there yet (Queens now) but I am there alot, friends & FIL's houses, FMIL's home in the Hamptons etc. We also plan to move to LI soon.

I love that houses have decent sized back yards, I love the beaches (not like the carribean but will do), I love the shopping, the wide open feeling it has, not congested like Queens.

I grew up on Long Island and I loved it so much. I want to move back there, but I do not think FH has any interest at all.

I love all the shopping, the houses, developments, properties. I also like the fact that it is not as hilly as Westchester.

I am working on all the positives of Long Island with FH, maybe I will copy this thread and let him see how great LI really is!

I liked that when I was in college it was 5 minutes from Rosevelt Field. It was great to run to the mall between long breaks between classes.

I like that it has witches brew. (its this awesome coffee house in garden city)

The only hting I love is that my family and friends are here. Oh and the beaches.

jennbaby, you worded it perfectly, wide open feeling. I always say that when I go back to Queens to visit my parents, or my sister, and we go shopping, its back to the CROWDED parking lots, and bumper to bumper traffic.

I like the great school districts and what they have to offer our children, the libraries are run very nicely, offering so many activities for everyone from mommy n me to writers groups !
Everything just seems much more organized than in Queens. (I grew up in Queens too)...
Out here, people are more respectful of their neighborhoods, as far as not littering, and respecting others around them... Its just overall a better quality of life...

Things I miss about Queens...
Sure sometimes I miss the hustle and bustle, the silence in my house can be defeaning sometimes!
I come from a big, LOUD family, so this is really hard for me sometimes. I loved walking every where, walking gives me a natural high. My sis and I would walk ALL AROUND Astoria in the evenings sometimes. I think the distance we'd walk would make some 'long islanders' faint, LOL (ok, lets not take that sentence and get offended! lets face it, out here its all DRIVING )
and the quiet streets would make us nuts as kids. We'd come visit family on LI when we were kids, and my parents wanted to buy a house out here,and the 4 of us would say 'NO WAY, IM NOT GOING !!!' we would sit at my cousins house, who wanted to watch movies or play boardgames, and we couldnt wait to get home and play 'manhunt' or 'mother may I' in the street and then have Mister Softee on the stoop. As kids we didnt know how any other kids survived this boring place called Long Island, we dreaded even visiting relatives..but now that I look back its THE COUSINS I HAVE that are just not EXCITING PEOPLE !!!

But I really do like it out here. Having a decent size house, big backyard, NO PARALLEL PARKING !
just slide right into my driveway !
No one is blocking my parking space or double parked in front of my house, or blaring their music with no regard to the human life around them...etc etc..

Unfortunately Queens has changed so much over the years,and it is just not the same. My parents even moved to a different part of Queens last month, just to improve their quality of life !

OK, I babbled enough...
Im happy to be a LongIslander now and to bring up my children here !

The water, the villages, the options-everything is at your fingertips, culture, history, closeness to NYC & airports, but yet far enough away, excellent schools.

I can't say enough good things about where I live! My FH and I are totally loving the town & village of Huntington! They offer so much!

I'll be honest with you, I am beginning to not love LI anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love the being 10 minutes from the beach, all the shopping (which I haven't done lately due to saving wedding money ) but the home prices have been outrageous lately. I feel like me and FH will never get out of our 2 bedroom apt w.out living paycheck to paycheck. And it's sad because we both make really good money and it still doesn't cut it. Plus it's starting to get congested here as well. It takes me like 45 minutes to get somewhere that should only take me 5 or 10. I don't want to move though because all my friends and family are here and when we start having kids I want them all nearby.
Sorry to vent, don't know if this was the answer you were looking for Jenn!

I love the shopping and the convience of everything-how you can be wherever you want to in a matter of a few minutes! I LOVE my family being all around me & I LOVE the beaches and all the beautiful parks. One thing I especially love is the weather-the change in seasons and the beauty that each one holds! A lot of people who move away from here, say how they miss it!

I am not nuts however about how much freaking money it costs to live here!! Sometimes the people get on my nerves-with the attitude and the fact that everyone is always in a rush! o well

DARIN-I couldn't agree with you more! You totally read my mind!

the closeness to NYC...and beaches!

I guess once a LI gal...always an LI gal!
I could not imagine living anywhere else

I can tell you what I Hate About Long Island...The Traffic

I really havent lived anywhere but Long Island ( cept the carolina's for a couple years)
I think Long Island is a great place to have a family if you had to stay in New York.
I say that cause of the price of housing here.
I love being near the greatest city in the world and not living in it.
I love that we have such awesome school districts, great shopping, resteraunts,beaches, beautiful country clubs, things to do and if you can afford it.. big backyards!
The traffic has gotten terrible but I think any major city or towns have that.

Anna, you summed up what I love about LI and the city (I spent a large part of my childhood in the Bronx with relatives, even though I've always lived on the island) perfectly!
I love living on Long Island, the beaches, big back yards, the MALLS , but I also love being so close to the city ~ theatre, museums, GREAT restaurants, lots of people and noise... I'd never survive in Wyoming or Idaho... I LOVE NEW YORK!

I think it all depends on what part of Queens you grew up in! I grew up in Queens Village where it's not SO busy! We had a house w/ a back yard our neighbors were the best!! But if you grew up in towns like Kew Gardens, Flushing, Middle Village, Forest Hills, Woodside & places like that than LI is a HUGE difference!
That being said I do like the fact that there is a neighborhood pool! For convience there's Dairy Barn (no need to get my fat tuckas out of the car ) It is quiet!! Alot of different places to go!

I've lived on LI my whole life, so I have nothing to campare it to. I did work in the city for 7 years though and I can honestly say the hustle and bustle of the city is not for me.

I love where I am now - close to beaches and shopping, but not too too close. We have a huge backyard I can garden in, have a family party in and lay out in when the sun in shining.

My whole family is on LI, or close enough in CT. But traffic and the high cost of living are big drawbacks. However, I believe eveythign we could want or need is close enough, so we're staying put for as far as we can see.