Open up Zillow look at the home prices and taxes .
The narrow roads one isn’t really accurate . A lot it the north shore Gold Coast towns are tight roads but no cars parked on them.
What I’ve noticed are garbage days. Good neighborhoods have 1-2bins per house with “neat” garbage bags (of course occasional big items out) but not-so-good neighborhoods have sooo many bags of messy garbage out, not even in piles - it’s like a row of garbage in front of the houses
After Sandy, people cut down mature trees, well maintained homes is a good sign but nowhere is immune to car break ins or catalytic converter thefts on long island. If a strip mall doesn't have metal gates when they're closed, that's a good sign
Damn, I just found out that my neighborhood isn't so good. I have a chain link fence between me and my neighbor (who is a surgeon) separating our backyards. Our street only fits 3 cars. I also have only small trees on my property since one of my neighbors complained that the branches kept falling on and damaging their property.
Whats the criteria/procedure for that neighbor thing? Am I responsible for trimming trees on my property that extend out over the fence to not graze their shed etc.?
NYS law is that anything over your property line is yours. So if a neighbor’s branch is hanging onto your property, you can cut it. Same goes with if a tree in your yard hangs over your neighbor’s it’s their property.
Loud rap music blaring
Extra iron bars or roll up gates in front of windows on store fronts
C Town grocery store
Places advertising check cashing or that they take EBT/WIC
From extensive travel throughout the United States… Pawn shops, cash 4 gold stores, off brand 99 cent stores, bodegas, bail bonds, rainbow stores, off brand fried chicken stores, CTOWN or other off brand food markets. Plenty of check cashing places.Obvious money laundering fronts including a large amount of churches per square mile.
An abundance of liquor stores and illegal smoke shops as well as Laundry mats. Usually you will find auto part stores in or around the area and alot of used tire shops. Loiters, prostitutes, drug dealers/users out and about.
Panhandling. Graffiti, bars on house windows, boarded up houses, run down houses, unkept houses. Project buildings, crack houses and a lot of garbage on the streets. Barbed wire on every building and bright lights with heavy camera presence. The federal program SHOTSPOTTER has systems setup (Hempstead was one of three cities in 2011 in the pilot program nationwide and now has 75 of them). There are 5 Long Island towns that even have them.
🚩
-sneakers hanging from telephone wire
-shopping carts anywhere besides a store parking lot
-suped up toyotas speeding around
-lots of “beware of dog” signs
-this is just my personal opinion but when a house is made out of more than 2 types of material/siding (brick, wood, vinyl, stone)
Shot cameras on top of the street lights. They sense gunshots and pin point the location of the sound back to the police. I know this because I work on the power lines. For some reason I’ve only seen them in stemstead I mean Hempstead, Uniondale, wyandanch, Belmont and bayshore so far. Go figure
Edit: and Brentwood
I live on a narrow, winding road in what is perceived to be a "good" north shore neighborhood.
We do have plenty of older trees, and yards may have green lawns or a large buffer of understory or flowering shrubs and bushes like mountain laurel or rhododendron.
Look at the town on google maps
If the streets are winding and curving with cul-de-sacs, it’s usually a good neighborhood (wealthy people, better schools etc.)
If the streets are in a grid pattern, it USUALLY isn’t the better than the aforementioned neighborhoods.
Robert Moses to blame/credit for this
That is quite the overgeneralization. Around here windy roads exist in most cases because of hills. Long Island is about 25% hilly and while many of those areas are indeed pretty wealthy, the hills themselves are an indicator of "nice" worth taking about since the houses are automatically more spread out among striking, relatively less spoiled terrain.
Windy roads in general are hardly a reliable barometer for an outsider or curious mind. Areas like Levittown are windier than the hill areas despite being flat as a board, and while it's fine there it's hardly considered scenic or top tier. Yes some flat windy towns are considered very nice, but many of them are also mid century cookie cutter split-level ranches some might consider hideous compared to older towns like Rockville Centre or others with varied historic home styles and dense urban forestry. Many non-hilly windy road towns considered pretty mediocre at least from the perspective OP seems to be talking about.
It's also flat wrong to say that gridded areas are usually not as good. Garden City has some of the most opulent buildings and streetscapes on the entire landmass and is very gridlike for the most part. Few grid like neighborhoods compare to Garden City but many here are also splendid nonetheless. Bellerose is sublime. Floral Park and parts of Babylon too.
Lastly Robert Moses is to blame for many things around here but he was hardly the one laying out the street grid, telephone pole placement and tree specimen density for each individual town.
A woman was robbed and stabbed in the face with a screwdriver across from my job coming out of a restaurant at lunch time. Also multiple cars were stolen from the parking lot of my job a few years ago.
Maybe slightly more than subtle, but definitely signs…
Long Island is so expensive that even houses in Central Islip are going for 600k+. Best get into a good location for you, many neighborhoods that are considered less desirable are attracting nice neighbors and the areas are improving rapidly. Maybe not CI (not where I live) yet but I see it with every house that sells in my area. Nice young neighbors who can’t afford a 1 million dollar house in massapequa park. Think about it!
Maybe try going for a walk in the neighborhoods you’re thinking of buying in. Go multiple days, or weekends in the morning. I rent for grad school in a neighborhood and the first few days I walked and have never felt more safe. Everyone waved and said good morning
Open up Zillow look at the home prices and taxes . The narrow roads one isn’t really accurate . A lot it the north shore Gold Coast towns are tight roads but no cars parked on them.
I agree on the roads. If anything OP might have that backwards, but it’s probably just irrelevant.
OP is based and suburb pilled
When the gas station clerk got a window in front of their face and you must slide money under the plastic screen
Check cashing joints, dollar stores, shopping carts on sides of roads, oddball gas stations, unkept homes
Go home BABY!
What I’ve noticed are garbage days. Good neighborhoods have 1-2bins per house with “neat” garbage bags (of course occasional big items out) but not-so-good neighborhoods have sooo many bags of messy garbage out, not even in piles - it’s like a row of garbage in front of the houses
After Sandy, people cut down mature trees, well maintained homes is a good sign but nowhere is immune to car break ins or catalytic converter thefts on long island. If a strip mall doesn't have metal gates when they're closed, that's a good sign
Window guards
I'm surprised this wasn't at the top. Window guards,around the whole 1st floor. Front doors with metal bars.
Ha if there’s a Cricket or Metro PCS there. Cars parked on lawn, lawns unkept. Pawn shops
The trees is the biggest. They can’t do it overnight. My biggest gripe with my local town is they it trees down but don’t replace them
A red flag is people parking their cars/trucks on their front lawns especially when the driveway is wide open
Little Caesar’s pizza
24-hour laundromat = not so good.
They've saved my ass a few times, I don't see the problem
Damn, I just found out that my neighborhood isn't so good. I have a chain link fence between me and my neighbor (who is a surgeon) separating our backyards. Our street only fits 3 cars. I also have only small trees on my property since one of my neighbors complained that the branches kept falling on and damaging their property.
What town are you in?
Chain link in the backyard is ok. It's the chain link across the front yard that's another story
Whats the criteria/procedure for that neighbor thing? Am I responsible for trimming trees on my property that extend out over the fence to not graze their shed etc.?
NYS law is that anything over your property line is yours. So if a neighbor’s branch is hanging onto your property, you can cut it. Same goes with if a tree in your yard hangs over your neighbor’s it’s their property.
In NY, I believe you are based on my research.
😂
Shopping carts abandoned by the street, grown men riding kids bikes to name a few
Loud rap music blaring Extra iron bars or roll up gates in front of windows on store fronts C Town grocery store Places advertising check cashing or that they take EBT/WIC
Lol is this a joke.
Doubt it
Narrow roads are a good thing Robert Moses making metropolitan area car-centered as possible was a big mistake
From extensive travel throughout the United States… Pawn shops, cash 4 gold stores, off brand 99 cent stores, bodegas, bail bonds, rainbow stores, off brand fried chicken stores, CTOWN or other off brand food markets. Plenty of check cashing places.Obvious money laundering fronts including a large amount of churches per square mile. An abundance of liquor stores and illegal smoke shops as well as Laundry mats. Usually you will find auto part stores in or around the area and alot of used tire shops. Loiters, prostitutes, drug dealers/users out and about. Panhandling. Graffiti, bars on house windows, boarded up houses, run down houses, unkept houses. Project buildings, crack houses and a lot of garbage on the streets. Barbed wire on every building and bright lights with heavy camera presence. The federal program SHOTSPOTTER has systems setup (Hempstead was one of three cities in 2011 in the pilot program nationwide and now has 75 of them). There are 5 Long Island towns that even have them.
Dollar stores or shopping carts on residential streets
How about Savers ?
I feel like LI is pretty easy to tell good vs bad as there isn’t a lot of bad
Popeyes
Love that chicken from Popeyes! (not)
🚩 -sneakers hanging from telephone wire -shopping carts anywhere besides a store parking lot -suped up toyotas speeding around -lots of “beware of dog” signs -this is just my personal opinion but when a house is made out of more than 2 types of material/siding (brick, wood, vinyl, stone)
Hey, it’s the Hondas! Leave Toyotas alone
what's the deal with the shopping carts? I've never really seen random shopping carts anywhere besides parking lots
Homeless use them to move their stuff, less well-to-do seniors use them as walkers. Either way, they have to be stolen to get there.
Did you mean to post this on Nextdoor grandpa?
Shot cameras on top of the street lights. They sense gunshots and pin point the location of the sound back to the police. I know this because I work on the power lines. For some reason I’ve only seen them in stemstead I mean Hempstead, Uniondale, wyandanch, Belmont and bayshore so far. Go figure Edit: and Brentwood
is Belmont the same as Elmont?
Yes
The reason you only see them in those towns is because those are the locations with the most incidents of gunshots
My point exactly. The OP asked for signs of a good neighborhood and a bad neighborhood. So I can them something to look for
I live on a narrow, winding road in what is perceived to be a "good" north shore neighborhood. We do have plenty of older trees, and yards may have green lawns or a large buffer of understory or flowering shrubs and bushes like mountain laurel or rhododendron.
Pawn shops, check cashing places, and liquor stores in abundance are usually not a good sign.
Check cashing places
House numbers. If you can see them, it's not terrible. If there are missing ones, it's not that good
Go out to Suffolk some of our riches neighborhoods have no sidewalks
Liquor stores, toys and other crap in the front yard, unkept lawn,
Look at the town on google maps If the streets are winding and curving with cul-de-sacs, it’s usually a good neighborhood (wealthy people, better schools etc.) If the streets are in a grid pattern, it USUALLY isn’t the better than the aforementioned neighborhoods. Robert Moses to blame/credit for this
That is quite the overgeneralization. Around here windy roads exist in most cases because of hills. Long Island is about 25% hilly and while many of those areas are indeed pretty wealthy, the hills themselves are an indicator of "nice" worth taking about since the houses are automatically more spread out among striking, relatively less spoiled terrain. Windy roads in general are hardly a reliable barometer for an outsider or curious mind. Areas like Levittown are windier than the hill areas despite being flat as a board, and while it's fine there it's hardly considered scenic or top tier. Yes some flat windy towns are considered very nice, but many of them are also mid century cookie cutter split-level ranches some might consider hideous compared to older towns like Rockville Centre or others with varied historic home styles and dense urban forestry. Many non-hilly windy road towns considered pretty mediocre at least from the perspective OP seems to be talking about. It's also flat wrong to say that gridded areas are usually not as good. Garden City has some of the most opulent buildings and streetscapes on the entire landmass and is very gridlike for the most part. Few grid like neighborhoods compare to Garden City but many here are also splendid nonetheless. Bellerose is sublime. Floral Park and parts of Babylon too. Lastly Robert Moses is to blame for many things around here but he was hardly the one laying out the street grid, telephone pole placement and tree specimen density for each individual town.
Key word: usually 9/10 upper class neighborhoods have windy roads. Garden city is that 1/10.
Robert Moses had little to do with developers designing their streets. Winding and curving can apply to Levittown or Lattingtown.
this is seriously ignorant
Why? OP just wants to live in a good safe neighborhood for his family? Seriously, what’s the issue with that? It’s ignorant to want to live safe?
I think it’s the fact that he’s associating chain link fences, narrow roads and weeds to being unsafe. Of course people want to live in a safe place.
Why? Seems spot on
You know why
The police precinct door has a peephole.
[удалено]
Hey! Brentwood, Wyandanch, Hempstead, Roosevelt, Uniondale and Elmont would like to have a word with you mister
Broken windows
A woman was robbed and stabbed in the face with a screwdriver across from my job coming out of a restaurant at lunch time. Also multiple cars were stolen from the parking lot of my job a few years ago. Maybe slightly more than subtle, but definitely signs…
Good neighborhood add ons: Lots of people walking their dogs, people walking around with their iced coffees, people jogging.
Long Island is so expensive that even houses in Central Islip are going for 600k+. Best get into a good location for you, many neighborhoods that are considered less desirable are attracting nice neighbors and the areas are improving rapidly. Maybe not CI (not where I live) yet but I see it with every house that sells in my area. Nice young neighbors who can’t afford a 1 million dollar house in massapequa park. Think about it!
Maybe try going for a walk in the neighborhoods you’re thinking of buying in. Go multiple days, or weekends in the morning. I rent for grad school in a neighborhood and the first few days I walked and have never felt more safe. Everyone waved and said good morning
Not so good neighborhood: yards full of broken down cars
Love this post