Attaboy

That I grew up on Long Island is no secret to regular readers here. I always enjoy the trips I take there to see family, and I often regret that I don’t stay longer to spend more time looking up old friends and doing some of the things I used to enjoy when I lived there. Visiting New York clubs (especially the jazz clubs), hanging out at Yankee Stadium, and spending an afternoon with the ponies and cigars at Belmont or Aqueduct are three specific activities for which I rarely seem to have enough time (though I was able to do two of the three last week).

I’ve noticed in recent years that after spending about a week on the old homestead, I begin getting very anxious to get home to Florida. Part of this is just getting older; I’m becoming more of a homebody as I age, and I’d rather spend my time here. But part of it is the lifestyle back on Long Island. I’m sorry, but after 20 years of life down here, I can’t help but look at the Long Island lifestyle and its associated costs and wonder why anyone would want to live there.

Some of the lifestyle issues are pure convenience things. Traffic on the Island has long been unbearable, especially during “rush hour,” which appears to run from 5:00 AM to noon, with a brief pause before beginning in the opposite direction at 2:30 PM. In the little central Suffolk County town where I grew up, some roads are absolutely gridlocked between 4:30 and 6:30 each evening. I complain that it often takes me 20 minutes to make the eleven mile drive from my home to my office during the rush. That same drive would take most Long Islanders an hour. Things are so bad, the local cable service runs a special channel that broadcasts traffic conditions and construction work on the roads twenty-four hours a day. Sometimes, I wonder if it’s just best to stay home and watch that channel and chuckle at everyone else’s misery.

While I was visiting, a number of school districts held budget votes. Unlike Florida, where the schools are run by the individual counties, school districts on Long Island often overlap various townships and villages. If one wished to make the argument that far too much is spent on per-pupil costs for education, one couldn’t do worse than to use Long Island as an example. My parents, who have lived in the same home for over 50 years, pay somewhere in the area of $8000 annually in property taxes. This is their bill even though they receive a discount because of their age and retired status. This is for a school district in which they haven’t had a child participant since my kid sister graduated high school in 1986.

The trend among the citizens of these districts seems to be leaning toward ending the continuous demands for more money. The story linked above documents the larger number of budgets being voted down by citizens in their districts. Apparently, the greater tax burdens placed on the backs of the citizens of Long Island is getting to be too much, as the ax falls on the proposed budgets. Even after slashing their proposed budgets and getting a re-vote on the new numbers, the people are voting them down.

The alternative isn’t much relief. If the budgets of New York school districts get defeated at the polls, the districts are permitted to use “contingency” budgets, which limit the amount of property tax increases. But take a glance at the last budget noted in the story, for the Sachem School District (the district where my parents happen to live). They lost two budget votes, the second one by a pretty wide 10-3 margin. Yet the district will be allowed, by state regulation, to impose the contingency budget, which will still raise local property taxes significantly:

The tax increase on the average home would have increased $594.50 in Brookhaven; $496.47 in Islip; and $714.91 in Smithtown. Accepting the contingency budget of $252,367,326 will increase spending 3.94 percent. The tax increase on the average home will be $571.56 in Brookhaven; $477.32 in Islip; and $687.33 in Smithtown.

I’m trying to imagine a scenario here in little Clay County, Florida where the local school board announced tax increases similar to those in the preceding comment. I believe you’d see large amounts of tar and feathers creating a trail toward the St. Johns River.

The other big problem with living on Long Island is simply trying to afford it. I’m sure Michele could entertain us with story after story of a family looking for a reasonably-priced house in Nassau or Suffolk Counties and being forced to rent because the cost of buying a house was too high (not that rents are very affordable). My kid sister and her husband were fortunate to be able to buy the house next door to my parents about five years ago for a very low price (in the $140-150K range). Like my parents, the owners had lived there since the house was first built, but it was in serious need of some work. I would guess that my sister and her husband have invested at least $100K in modifications in that period, with more on the way. These are not wealthy people by any stretch; in fact, I can’t figure out how they managed to do it without being in major hock. Yet they could get $350,000 or more if they sold it as-is, right now, without breaking a sweat.

Therein lies the problem: if they decided they wanted a newer home, or one in a town closer to her job, they would barely be able to afford something new, and may wind up settling for something smaller than what they have now (not likely with my nephew’s growing pile of toys and another child on the way) at a ridiculous price. In all likelyhood, they’d spend as much for a smaller, newer place than they get for selling the old house. My parents’ home is over 50 years old and is in constant need of improvement or repair of one kind or another. But, they couldn’t sell and move on Long Island for the same reason.

I’ve been trying to convince them for years to leave the northeast and come down to Florida. The taxes are lower, the weather is far more moderate, they could get decent medical care if they needed it, and they’d be close to a part of their family they haven’t seen much in the past twenty years. I tried to explain it to them based solely on economics: they could sell their current home for at least $350,000, perhaps even $400,000. They could then take about half of that and buy a new home just a few miles from here in a nice development for cash. The home would have all new appliances, carpeting and landscaping. The air conditioning/heating system would be low maintenance and efficient, keeping their electric bills very reasonable. They wouldn’t have to worry about stairs, since the house would likely have one story and no basement. The laundry room would be on the same level as the rest of the house. Their property taxes would be about one-third of what they are on Long Island. The economic reasons for moving are endless just on their own…

But my Mom’s sentiments about her home and leaving are similar to the things Michele expressed in the link above: leaving home is difficult. With my sister next door expecting her second child, her volunteer work, her aging but long-term friends, her involvement in church and what remains of her family just a few minutes away, you’d be hard-pressed to get her to pull the roots from the asphalt and concrete of Lake Ronkonkoma. I understand this. My Dad, on the other hand, would come down here in a minute, but he certainly isn’t going to abandon Mom 52 years into their marriage. He keeps busy with his own volunteer work as well, and pulling up roots at age 80 (him) and 73 (her) isn’t easy, no matter how you feel about where you live.

And Florida isn’t a panacea: it’s hot here in the summer, and the frequently-high humidity can wreak havoc on someone with arthritis (like my Mom) or chronic bronchial problems (like my Dad). She’s the outdoor type who can make roses grow from rocks, but she’d have to limit her exposure to the heat and sun down here. In fact, the only air conditioners in their house are two window units which they run only when my Dad is having bronchial issues.

One other unfortunate problem is that the growth of the area where I live (and in many similar areas of Florida) is mimicking what occurred on Long Island in the post-WWII boom and which continues today, even after some economic lulls in past decades. Growth is continuing, though it’s being carefully controlled by some counties. Commerce and businesses are springing up all around us, and with them, the requisite traffic issues. A simple trip to the local grocery store during the day or to Home Depot on a Saturday isn’t as quick as it once was. Property values have boomed, to the delight of many who bought just a few years ago (the appraised value of our home has nearly doubled in the seven years we’ve lived here). But with that increased value comes increases in the cost of services and schools, and there’s no doubt our taxes will slowly climb over the years as the need for new schools and municipal services increases. Currently, the local school board places impact fees on on new residential and commercial development to help pay for new schools. However, if those impact fees rise too much, developers will be discouraged from building in Clay County, and the burden will have to fall back on the taxpayer.

In retrospect, life just seems to be hard up there these days. There’s no denying the excitement of New York, with all the cultural activities it offers. Family and close friends can help you get over the more drab, mundane and annoying aspects of life in a place so crowded and costly. But I fail to see a lot of happy people who express any genuine joy over the lives they lead. I don’t personally know too many really wealthy people up there anymore, but I’d guess their money allows them to live a relatively happy life. But for the regular ol’ middle-class folks in my circle of friends and family on Long Island, I get a sense of life as a continuous marathon, in which they run harder and faster every day to keep ahead of the cost of living, crime, taxes, traffic, a serious illegal immigration problem which has exacerbated the crime problem, road construction, more taxes, higher home prices and crowding. For every step forward, something is catching up with them, reaching for their wallet or just to give them a swift kick in the ass. Life seems too hard for a lot of people. I don’t see them as viewing what they have with any sense of elation. I don’t see them being thankful for what they have because they’ve had to fight so hard to get what they have and to hang on to it.

And, of course, there’s the politics of the place, which I won’t get into here, as that would require that I extend this blog entry in perpetuity. Spend a few hours browsing the opinion pages here to see what I mean.

I’m saddened by much of this, because that place was once my home. Not anymore.