This week, I was able to watch WLIW Channel 21's three part series Leaving Long Island, and felt informed, empowered and disturbed all at once. The series (each part is 1/2 hour) set forth questions and answers in a Town Hall format, having taken place at Hofstra University.
Young people ages 24 - 44 are leaving Long Island due to lack of affordable housing, high taxes and high cost of living. Unlike other areas of the United States, Long Island has minimal rental apartments, a fact that greatly contributes to the lack of affordable housing. "If you can't afford to buy a house, you can't live on Long Island," said one of the panelists on the program, and while 62% of houses in Nassau and Suffolk counties were priced less than $200,000 in the year 2000, that number was less than 4% last year. Those figures do not include property taxes.
The decreasing amount of young people will force Long Island companies to relocate because they will not have access to fresh, new talent, thereby increasing the cost of living for those remaining on Long Island because businesses will not be here to absorb a significant amount of the property tax cost. Add to this the fact that the Baby Boomer generation will soon be retiring, and Long Island stands to be in an extreme economic crisis. There are very large companies here that employ significant amounts of people - Cablevision, CA, Arrow Electronics and North Shore LIJ Health Care System, to name a few.
The good news is that this problem is being recognized by Long Island governments and people who matter. The answer can lie in this next statement - right now, the people of Long Island need to come together as a community to find ways to keep the younger generation here to ensure that we can all keep living, working and enjoying living on Long Island.
Do you see the same thing happening where you live? Or are young people moving there in droves? I'm interested to hear.
Cross posted on LIParentSource.com newsletter dated 5/29/2008
