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42
Well maybe I don't have all the answers to life the universe and everything, but at least I...
...no I take it back. I do have all the answers.
Moving
Moving off Long Island for the first time in almost 35 years has made me think a lot about what I�m going to be giving up. There are many special qualities about the island that really make it a truly special place to be. However, when I really started to think about it I realized that what I was going to miss or not miss the most really wasn�t what I expected. So presenting...
A list of 10 (or so) things I will miss most about Long Island:
10. A few specific places to eat. Disregarding the club years, we didn�t go out every single week (though I would have liked to), but we did go out often. When we did, we went to the same places all the time. These places were all unique in food and charm, in a way that cannot be replicated. Not even by a sister store. The Black forest Brewhaus comes to mind. Between the food the beer the apps. And the atmosphere, it truly stands out even among other German breweries. I�ll miss the banana hefeweisen the plowman�s platter and the legendary flamecake the most. When we go back to visit, we try to get there whenever possible. I�ll miss Oktoberfest, though we didn�t go every year.
Los Compadres is another, which has just as much appeal for exactly the opposite reasons. I never want this place to ever get so big that they start using real silverware. John Harvard�s (�is a farce��inside joke) and Crowley�s Ale House (get the wings) were our pubs away from home. Poncho Villa�s (we liked the new location on Jericho Tpk. better than the old one.) Get the napolitos if you like exotic salads. Salpino�s Italian market is really not an eatery, but you really must go and get a hero for lunch. I don�t care if you�ve just eaten a 10-course meal; the smell in this place makes your mouth water every time you walk in the door. And sure there are other Macaroni Grills, but not like the one in Roosevelt Field. I don�t know why this one is better than all the others, it just is.
9.(By the way, these are in no particular order, I�m just listing them as they come to me.) Despite the traffic, there was a certain convenience to everything on Long Island. No matter where you started from or where you were going there was a specific time it would take to get there. Nothing takes 25 minutes, or 17 minutes, or 43 minutes. There�s an exactness to the island that I don�t think anyone really thinks about. If you get in your car and drive somewhere, things will take 3,7, 16, 32 minutes, or 48 minutes. That�s it. It�s really a strange paradox I suppose but it�s virtually always true. There are very few exceptions. Of course, if you travel anywhere during prime hours, double all of these figures. My point is however that it didn�t matter if you were rushing every light, or taking your sweet-ass time, you always knew how long it would take to get somewhere because it was always one of these times. Of course I�m talking Nassau and Suffolk here, head near the city and you can instantly add 45 minutes to two hours onto your trip.
Conveinance also includes the stores. Why in the name of all God�s hasn�t 7-Eleven replaced all the Wa-Wa�s in the country by now? There�s really no comparison. (we don�t have either by us, the nearest 7-eleven is 20 minutes away). You may have your favorite Quickie Mart, but 7-Eleven does for convience stores what McDonalds does for fast food. Where I am now, there are plenty of quickie marts of one type or another, but most of them suck, and the others, well�they just don�t seem to be as convienant. Whereas Starbucks philosophy was to put a store on every single street corner (sometimes more than once), 7-Eleven seems to be somewhat sparse, but still manages to be exactly where you need it, when you need it. I will miss that.
By the way, an honorable mention here must be the Mobil station at exit 43 off the LIE. Any trip off the island must be accompanied by a stop here. The last real convient stop before heading in towards Queens and beyond, this place has so many pumps that you almost never wait on line and they serve about 10 blends of fresh Green Mountain coffee to boot.
The next part of this convienance factor is Deer Park Avenue. One five mile stretch of street in a straight line has virtually every type of fast food you could ever want, every type of service, and every type of shop one could ever need. If it wasn�t right on DPA, it was on a road just off it. The only things missing were a bookstore and a record store, but they�re right within 17 minutes travel up on 110. Don�t forget that there�s so much open 24 hours there that you never have trouble finding a good meal.
Finally, within 32 minutes time, you could get to any store you needed, from an ice sculptur, to Lord & Taylor, it was all there. You really never had to look far to get anything you needed.
8. Ocean Parkway. Sometimes I would just get in my convertible, and make a special trip to this road. I�d drop the top, put my head back and crank up Vangelis, or Enya, or Kiss or Dream Theater, or Vast, all of them seemed to fit perfectly. One could enter a sleep-like trance (though I never really felt sleepy or wanted to drift off) and just drive a straight road with a cool breeze, the bay on one side, and ocean on the other. I�d cruise a constant 65-70. Any faster and you�re missing the point, but any slower and you don�t get the full cruising effect. At this speed my car felt most at home and it seemed that all the effort it took to get there died away, settling into a nice smooth hum that died away in harmony with the universe. At night, in the summer you could see three times as many stars there as you could inland, and the moon followed you like your own private companion, occasionally reaching town through the dunes and across the water in a reflection stretching from the horizon to the shoreline.
This road also encompasses part of the most scenic and serene driving paths on the island. Let�s say you started out in Manhattan. The Belt parkway past the Verrazano onto southern state is the first leg. You�ll pass all the inlets and riverways by Coney Island, and the planes will rumble really low overhead as you pass Kennedy. Hop onto the Meadowbrook and over to ocean parkway. You�ll pass the �pencil� tower in probably the only fun to use and functionally useful traffic circles I�ve ever known. Then it�s on to a long relaxing cruise out to the beautiful Robert Moses Bridge. From here you can hop onto Southern State and head north onto Sunken Meadow or stay south and ride Montauk Highway all the way to the end. If you head north, you could stay on this road to the end, or hop off early onto the LIE. It�s not glamerous here, but this is where the LIE starts to get nice. And after exit 64 you hit the pine barrens in another relaxing long stretch of open road that lends itself to cruising at it�s most relaxed. Turn south again here throuh riverhead and onto Montauk Highway again out to the Montauk lighthouse, ending at the top of a hill in a state park overlooking the Atlantic.
Now not all of this trip is beautiful, and I certainly wouldn�t want to make it all in one drive, but it has some truly great moments, and ocean parkway is the nicest of them all.
While we�re on the subject of beauty, let me just be a guy for a moment and say that with the obvious exception of my wife (bonus points here), upstate NY really can�t hold a candle to LI in the beautiful females category. The sights where I am now are just as good, and in many ways better than on LI, but there�s certainly less to look at when you�re not looking at the scenery.
7. The Beaches. I never actually went that often, but the shoreline of Long Island, from the ocean to the bay to the Sound, the variety of beaches is vast and phenomenal. You could choose a crowded Jones beach, great for it�s size, vigor and people watching, the quiet and stillness of Crab Meadow, or the great waterskiing and boating of the bay. Jones Beach often is mentioned among the best of the best in all the travel shows, and as much as Robert Moses underestimated the long-term needs of the city and island, he was truly a visionary and deserves all the respect and admiration for his works, Jones Beach and the parkways especially. I really say he underestimated Long Island with great respect, as he still thought 10 times further than anyone else.
6. The fast driving. Talk to any Long Islander and they will complain in the same breath about both the traffic and the drivers that go way too fast. Now both are completely true, and I hate that as well. It�s amusing however that once off the island those same people are complaining how no one�s going fast enough, and that it�s so far from one point to another. I was never a speed demon, I never saw the need, but I love getting to around 65 or 70 and cruising without slowing down. For some reason upstate everyone is more prone to obey the speed limits. That�s all well and good�but why are they always there in front of me when I�m rushing to catch the train to work?
5. The Spirit and Pride of Long Island. We have something special there, and virtually everyone who lives there knows it. The Montauk nickname is known far beyond Manhattan. Everyone hears of the Ducks, and loves to hear them win, even if they don�t like baseball. The honoring of our country and our veterans is widespread in many monuments and events. Much of this believe it or not is inspired by the radio station DJ�s, the companies and businesses that were born and prospered there. WBAB, [Northrop] Grumman, and the like are a few examples that really pushed a pride in the islands history and people. Many towns on the island also boast a long historical background. Finally you have major happenings such as the oyster fest in Port Jeff, and the summers out in the Hamptons that are all but legendary.
4. How much there is to do on Long Island. This statement is in total contradiction to the feeling most of the people I went to grade school with, they all couldn�t wait to leave. I�m not intimidated by that because the best many of them could come up with for fun was crusing DPA. The truth is though if you�re bored on Long Island then you have no imagination, no sense of adventure, and no idea what is going on in the world around you. Get a life you losers! There�s a carnival somewhere every weekend. Every movie blockbuster or independent film is shown somewhere nearby. There�s pool halls, clubs and bars, beaches, wine tasting, amusement parks, top notch restaurants, caf�s, re-enactments, festivals of all sorts, museums and planetariums, the list goes on and on and on. And this is not to mention the oysterfest and other special events like I mentioned above. So if you�re bored on Long Island, I don�t care how old you are, it�s your own lazy-ass tight-wad fault. I�ve lived there all my life and still haven�t done all the cool things there are to do on the island. What I really want to know is how many of those people who moved away as fast as possible honestly think that they would have been any more satisfied if they grew up where they are now. And I know right now some jackass is sitting here reading this going �yeah man, I live in Manhattan, there�s tons more to do�. Well to that person, all I have to say is�you sure moved real far away didn�t you? Coward!
3. It�s strangeness. Long Island has a great way of making fun of itself and being lighthearted. Take for example the incredible campaign a few years ago to save a massive concrete duck from extinction. For years it stood as a food stop. When that closed it was sehedueled for demolition. �That�s crazy� we all said. �smash up a perfectly good giant concrete Duck?!!�. Not on my island�. And so there�s now an officialy preserved monument on the way to the Hamptions for all to see. Things like this happen all the time.
2. Montauk. OK, well I didn�t get to go there that often but when I did it was phenomenal, it�s certainly unique and very much deserving of its moniker. But let�s just expand this to all the unique places on the island. There are specific locations that mean a lot to me. The trails at Sunken Meadow are ingrained in my mind, though I haven�t been there in over 15 years. It was the beach of choice for my summer camp and thus I spent many a summer there. Crab Meadow was always a quiet getaway in high school. The Greenport bed and breakfast we stayed at a while ago. Indian Island Park, and the hidden cove behind the dry lake bed, where we fed the fish muscles and clams. That is the same campground I later learned to check that the release valves are closed before opening the draining pipe for the toilet on an RV (now THAT is an experience I unfortunately will never forget). Northport Harbor, was always a great seclusion at night. Jones beach boardwalk always seemed exotic for some reason, The trails and cliffs at Sands Point, where we almost shot a film short. I�m sure I would have included Sunken Forest here, but I�ve never been there. I guess I�ll miss it just for that. There were also those places that I would pass by and say to myself, yeah that was a special place for me and [so and so].
Still for all that these places have to offer, none of them compare to being around my parents house. My memories and my childhood are all in those back woods, the trails and the sleigh riding. We had names for all the special places back there. The fern garden, the dog run, my sister�s �secret garden�, the magical evergreens, the lookout tower, the treehouse, the zipwire, the pit, the wall, many many more. Though today all the trails have grown over and changed, I can still walk through where they were with my eyes closed (well not really because I�d bump into new growth). The cliffs and the sump across the street were also special, the woods between Mike�s and the other guy�s house (though he never managed to be friendly to us) where we used to pick all the berries. I guess what I�m talking about is all the memories inspired by particular locations. When you live in a place long enough, it becomes a part of you. When you leave that place, a part of you is left behind, lost. And those places will be enriched because of it. It�s okay though because a part of those places will always be with me as well, and I am enriched when I think of them.
1. My family and friends. Sure I�m actually closer to some now, but I�m so far away from most, including many who are closest to me. And most of the people who are not on the Island still come home to the island to visit family, so I see them there too. Moving away even means giving up virtually all hope of seeing those long lost friends that you hoped you�d someday bump into as well. There�s no easy way to leave those who mean the most to you, especially when you don�t know how long some of them have left.
Well there, that�s about it for that list. So now it�s on to the list where I complain and rant.
Here are the ten things I will not miss at all about Long Island:
10. The traffic: It takes three times as long as it should to get absolutely anywhere, and that�s on a good day. There�s no relief in sight. It�s getting worse, and leading to more and more bad decisions by drivers.
09. The over-crowding and over-construction that is now rampant everywhere. Houses are continuously being built on lesser and lesser tracts of land, despite what zoning laws allow or prohibit. Town houses are now being built in communities that strictly forbid it in their laws. All the open space, farmland, and wooded areas I grew up with are all but gone. Even places I thought were landlocked and could not be built on now have huge buildings on the smallest of plots. There�s even building going on in the almighty Pine Barrens, which is supposed to be illegal even on the state level isn�t it?!!! It�s absolutely horrific. And don�t get me started on the actual quality of the places being built. The construction on most new homes is piss-poor, especially in the senior communities, which by the way seem to be more immune to zoning regulations than churches and temples. My life-long friend is an architect and mainly sees all this over development as growth and improvement, a way to bring business and income to the community. To his credit he has worked more often on renovation and revitalization projects on the island, but I still don�t see how destroying a lifestyle in order to put up more and more buildings, just so more and more people can live in that lifestyle is logical. It�s like draining a lake to put a fishbowl museum in it�s place. The bottom line is it�s a real disaster that the overcrowding is destroying Long Island and causing a good amount of the other problems I�m listing here. The sad truth of it all is that it�s not going to go away, and the reason is something no one will ever talk about in public, but I�m going to tell you now. The construction and renovation business is a major part of Long Island�s economy, and supports many, many individuals. It�s the same reason the landscaping business took off so big in the last 20 years. That�s all well and good, but these are the same individuals who after making their comfortable money decide to move off the island and take all that money with them. It�s the construction business that played a major part in revitalizing Long Island in the past 20 years, but it is the same business that has not slowed and is now destroying the elegance of all that the island used to represent. Each year the island becomes more and more like Queens. And I don�t want to hear the argument that it will never end up like Queens because zoning and land-locking and all that crap. I�ve seen too many zoning regulations ignored or bypassed, and too many land-locked areas opened up and developed. I�m sure that given time someone will find a way to build a new set of homes in the landlocked back woods of my parents house. That is a sight I never want to see.
08. Going to Wyandanch train station every morning. Sure it was great that it was less than 5 minutes down one road from my house. That part was great. However the town is starting to go down hill again. For the last 15 years, community development, police presence and construction have all helped to bring a sense of stability. All three of those things seem to be disappearing again, and the open crime is returning to the heart of town. I regularly saw drug transactions taking place, along with fights and some women who I�m sure would sell you anything you want so they could pay for their next fix, not to mention almost getting mugged (which would have sucked, as I�m constantly broke and never carry any amount of cash) despite all the camera survailance. While you�re more likely to get your car stolen at Deer Park, you�re more likely to get broken into at Wyandanch. A tip to anyone parking there: Don�t be stupid enough to leave change or anything else easily sellable out in plain sight. Much of the town is really trying and still wants the area to improve, and until recently I�ve never felt totally unsafe there. But given what I wake up to now, and how nice it is to actually go to the train station now, it�s a headache I�d rather not have to deal with.
07. The Long Island Railroad. What a horrible and morosely run company. My current commute is operated by Metro North, but to get to Penn Station my train runs into Jersey and into the new and beautiful Secaucus Junction. There I transfer to a New Jersey transit line for the 10 minute trip into Manhattan. So I was on a New Jersey transit train the other day and a woman was complaining how NJT was so horrible because her particular train is often 10 minutes late. I had to laugh out loud. NJT does some things really ass-backward (See below) but they are still so far ahead of LIRR it makes me sick. I never understood how an industry can have all the advantages the LIRR has and still manage to claim poverty year after year, until that is, I started being in the right places at the right times.
I often sat in the car with some of the more friendly conductors. In talking to each other, or to a regular rider on the train, they would all eventually spout out an appalling fact of mismanagement. I�ll quickly run through some of my favorites. 1. Approximately 1/3 of the cramped and severely aging fleet has been replaced by new trains. These trains have LESS seats than the older ones, and the seats are smaller. (This is because they ordered from Japan where the people are naturally smaller. I�m not making a joke here, and mean no offense, this is just a fact of life). Nobody thought about this before they made the purchase. This is mainly because of the second fun fact. 2. The people who decided what new trains to buy and what would go into them apparently do not regularly ride the LIRR. In fact some have NEVER ridden the LIRR, especially during peak hours. They have no idea about the needs of the people, and don�t care either. This leads to problems like the 3rd fun fact. 3. These new trains have grand (read un-necessary) new features, like pressurized toilets [like on airplaines] that all needed to be retrofitted because they would on occasion flush �upwards� and all over the people using them. Why? Because unlike airplanes, the cabins of trains are not themselves pressurized. Come-on people this is what planning is all about, get with it. Rumors also had it that for a long time the M6 (relatively new double decker) trains were not able to go into Penn Station because for some reason they posed an increased possibility of starting fires.
Well let�s add on top of it that their rates are among (if not still) the highest priced rail lines. They also have one of the worst on-time records and lowest customer satisfaction records on the books. They are extremely overcrowded, and severely lacking in anything resembling a useful and informative PA system. Often times you stand on the platform for 45 minutes only to finally get a barely audible announcemnt that the train is running 50 minutes late. They are so mis-managed, and it wouldn�t surprise me if they were corrupt. Exploitation among management is rampant. I know managers of station crews who run side businesses, and regularly take workers off the job to go and work at their companies, leaving us to pay for workers who aren�t even working. They are constantly short on cars during peak hours for the busiest lines, and after years of the most disgusting and foul smelling cars I have ever seen (including the subeay) they still do not get the concept of putting garbage cans on the trains (�and no the new cars don�t have them either). Metro North has them, and their cars are almost always spotless. At least the floors aren't more sticky than a roach motel and movie theater combined.
The cars often suffer from failing heat or A/C, and the cars are extremely dirty. I could go on but I�m sure you get the point. Though my commute is longer now I am on time for work much more often, and ride in comfort, [relative] quiet and just a little bit of dignity on the Metro North. I will not miss the LIRR at all.
6. The buracracy. Well, let�s face it, there�s a lot of this everywhere, but in Long Island�s case it is truly what is holding the island back. This goes hand in hand with the catering to the rich. The thing the island needs the most for safety, population and economic reasons is another way off the island. However this will never happen. Why? Because the most logical choice for such a route is the Seaford-Oyster Bay expressway. In fact this road was originally built for just that purpose, and yet it dead ends in Syosset. Note the second half of this road�s name. Oyster Bay is the key here. This town will never allow such a road to continue through its boundaries or such a bridge to be built so near to all the rich people�s homes, including many of those very politicians. All other good locations are similarly blocked by the rich towns. The solving of many of Long Island�s issues is within an arms reach, but will unfortunately never come to pass.
5. The morons who think cruising Deer Park Avenue and hanging out in parking lots is a fun thing to do on a Friday or Saturday night. Into this category we�ll also place all the morons who think their music sounds better with the bass turned up so high that it distorts the music and all the plastic trim in their car rattles. Also here are all the sorry squids who sink all their money into suping up their Kia�s and Neons with fins so big they could make a whale fly, and tail pipes that sound like a lawn mower go-cart. Hey sometimes we all have to work with what we�ve got, but I�ve got news for you� IT�S STILL A KIA!!! Get a real car! You could have saved the $800 each it cost you for those shiny useless spinning rims and traded up to something that�uummm�.I don�t know�..doesn�t suck?!!! Bozo.
4. The arrogance. Too many Long Islanders these days know that they have it good. They think everyone should get out of their way (so they blow around you with their cars, or railroad you, using their baby stroller like a cow ram or just shove past you in the stores because their Christmas shopping has to be done 49 days early, and they still have to return that knit scarf because it got a pull in it when they carelessly snagged it on their BMW SUV door. Arrogance is annoying. Arrogance without justification repulses me, and while Long Island is something to be majorly proud of, most of the people are not. Too many Long Islanders have forgotten their manners.
3. Having to get off the island when I go on trips. Other than the ferry, which is expensive, this was always a headache. Only slightly less annoying is getting back on the island. But hell, it�s an island�there should have been better planning.
2. Brooklyn and Queens. Yes toads, they are indeed on Long Island. You all like to pretend that they�re some other un-related part of the world that you see on your way to Atlantic City, but they�re not. There are some nice parts and each are home to some unique features that cannot be replicated anywhere else, but I lived in Brooklyn for three years, and don�t miss being there or driving past it one bit.
1. The taxes. Well for LI it would only be fitting to say �THE TAXES!!!!!� in bold neon print with letters 40 feet tall. Hell I liked Long Island and defended it to the end despite all the faults I�m whining about�until I moved off and discovered what living should be. Guess what made me move off the island, I couldn�t afford a house in anything but the most horrible of towns on the south shore for a disintegrating shack. Even if I had bought it, I wouldn�t have been able to keep it because I couldn�t pay the taxes on it. As an example, my property taxes now are less then � of what they would have been, and I have twice the amount of land!
X1. The Long Island Railroad, the taxes, the traffic and all the over construction. I know I mentioned these, but they are so horrible that I felt the need to mention them again. By the way, that lady on the NJT looked at me funny when I told her that �this was nothing to me, I just came from the Long Island Railroad.�
�Oh really?� she replied. �I thought they were better.�
Well at least now I know Long Islanders are better informed. Then again I just have to look at New Jersey govt. for that.
So there you have it, 30+ years of Long Island wrapped up in [less then]20 bullet points. At this point I�m sure you�re all wondering what I have now. Well now I haven�t been up here for a full year yet, but let me tell you what I know so far.
The top 10 things I like about the Central Hudson Valley.
1) Owning my own house. It�s in superior condition inside and out. The two owners before me were really meticulous and caring of the home. It is incredibly larger in both square footage and acreage than what I would have gotten anywhere on the island through any other means than lottery or direct inheritance (the house would have to be completely paid off too). It has nice layout that amounts to a great amount of land on all four sides of the house, small hills on two sides, flat open ground on the other two, and a little sort of stream that flows past one side of the property. In addition, I�m building up equity in an area that will only go up in value. Soon I will be able to move on to an even bigger and better plot and house. Ultimately I would love to have at least an acre or more, so where I am is not totally ideal, but man what a feeling to wake up every day in one�s own house and look out into one�s own beautiful yard, with beautiful trees both wild and cultured, a great deck, exquisite paving�I could go on and on.
2) The fresh air, the deer (and all the other wild things I see almost daily�sometimes in own my back yard), the mountains, the stars and all the nature around. All that is disappearing or already gone from Long Island.
3) The Hudson river waterfront. Restaurants, jet skiiing, boardwalk, bar-hopping, clubs, gatherings...Lots to do there.
4) The people. As a whole a little less on the bright side and a little more hick, but really really nice, and if you think people in a SoHo bar are friendly, just come up here. People are by far more curteous, laid back and happy as a whole. Like I said before I never realized LI lacked in this department until I came up here, but man what a difference.
5) The growth. I tell everyone that where I am is like LI was 20 years ago. just enough around that everything you need is right around the corner, and yet I can drive just around another corner and not see any stores, office buildings, and sometimes houses for miles.
6) The quiet. When I go to sleep at night it�s often the definition of deafeningly quiet. My ears. We�re close to the airport, but only ever hear the really hear any of the planes on a very infrequent basis, and never at a bad hour.
7) The accessibility. I can now hop on the highways right near my house and head off virtually anywhere on the continent, and I don�t have to go to through Manhattan, Staten Island, or on the Cross Bronx to do it. Which is slightly disappointing because 90% of the time when we take a road trip, it�s to see everyone on Long Island.
8) The community. Well there�s less arts festivals, and things like that, but I never went to them on the island anyway. Now I am right near everything from the renaissance fair to white water rafting to a true under-the-tent-with-5 pitchers-in-each-hand Oktoberfest. There�s wineries, apple orchards that put LI to shame, tons of historical sights and events and all that jazz.
9) It�s all new. Not necessarily new maretials-wise, but the land and the liftstyle is all new to me, making a new world to conquer per-se. It�s easy to leave behind the trials of the old life. �A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, a chance to begin again in a land of golden opportunity� � Bladerunner. When I�m up there I�m so far away from work and all the other crap that I can easily forget about it all for a while.
10) Metro North Railroad (Can you tell that much of my life revolves around trains?). They�re not perfect, but are far above the minimum standard (so miles above all the others). Virtually all workers are very friendly. They are rarely late, very clean and show a lot of effort for improvements that are still to come. I finally feel like a person with them rather than part of a herd of cattle.
Well now after all this you must be saying, �Is there anything that he doesn�t like about the area?� Well of course there is, but not that much, and it doesn�t bother me all that heavily, well except for the first one.
10 things I don't like about the Central Hudson Valley
1) It�s a little lonely. Although it�s easy to make new friends up here, it�s the old ones that matter, and they are all far away now. In fact, I tell everyone to come up or stop by on their way up north, but let�s face it, where I am now is too close for a driving pitstop, and too far away for a casual jaunt just to say hi.
2) There are very few key stores that haven�t shown up yet. The nearest Kohls and [major] computer stores are at least 25 minutes highway drive away. Still, I often drove that far for similar stores on the island. There�s also a lot less that�s open 24-7.
3) The City of Newburgh. Less than 5 years ago it was rated one of the worst cities to find yourself in. Now it�s boderline acceptable, and you can walk there in the daylight hours without gatting mugged every time, but it�s still really bad. There�s supposedly a big drug problem there. Hoptfully the positive trend will continue. The good news here is that I am far enough away that the city really doesn�t effect me, and I rarely have to go near it.
4) The drive to the train. 20 minutes is just too far for me, especially when I�m so well known for my punctuality and getting out the door on time. Let�s face it, the commute as nice as it is, is still very long. I certainly don�t want to do it for the rest of my life. Even if it does give me the chance to get some of my own work done�like this stuff you�re reading.
5) The 10 minute ride I have to take on New Jersey Transit from Seacaucus to Penn Station. Now while I feel comfortable saying that the LIRR is just run piss-poor, I have to admit that is not the case with NJT. In this case it�s run rather effectively, they just run things like morons. There are so many ass backwards methods to the NJT I don�t know how they manage.
First of all, Penn station is the busiest, if not top three stations in the country. Thousands upon thousands go through there every day, and let�s face it a good third of them have no clue what they�re doing. So let�s look at some of the conveniences that NJT offers them. Really small announcement TV screens, abbreviations for everything, so everyone is crammed into the most inconveinantly placed spots trying to read this really small text on these really small 20� screens (ok, I admit they�d be a decent size in your living room, not in Penn Station), placed in �block the box� positions that have information on them about trains that are over three hours away. There are no boarding signs at track level, and they insist on designating track gates as �East� and �West� which A) only serves to make every non-regular rider confused; and B) means nothing unless you�re standing in the Amtrack ticket and waiting area.
While I have to mention the overcrowding and lack of crowd organization, I will refrain from actually faulting them on it because they have a limited space and have to work with what they�ve got, but I will tell you that if you are trying to get to track 1 during rush hour you should add at least another 5-10 minutes to your commute. There needs to be designated walking areas and standing areas. We have them at concerts, we should have them in rail stations.
Ass-backward thinking is abundant in their procedures as well. They insist on moronic methodology, like calling �all aboard� two minutes before the train closes its doors; rather than a �final boarding call� at 2 minutes, and an �all aboard� when the doors close�thus leading every train to leave the station late because there�s no actual �were closing the doors right now, get off the platform and into the damn train� announcement).
Also of note is the NJT�s policy of announcing the stops of the train after the doors close rather than before, so if by some reason you�ve gotten on the wrong train (something I haven�t done yet, but I�ve seen others) then you can�t get off� you�re committed for the ride! How�s that for convience?
Let�s finally top it off with the georgous Seacaucus hub station that now filters a good 60% or so of all New Jersey side traffic now. The disadvantage of this of course is that any train out of NY Penn is crammed to the gills with people taking the 10 minute ride. Call me crazy, but the first thing I would think of if I would be dedicated shuttle trains that only go to Secaucus and back. Well obviously I�m crazy, it�s much more logical to dangerously cram people into existing trains so they are standing in the asile and in the vestibules, and then kicking them out of even the vestibules so everyone�s bag is stuffed up into everyone else�s �how�s your father?� (an old British exclamation for you un-cultured folks out there). Needless to say of the four major rail lines that service New York City and the surrounding area, my experiences with Metro North are by far the nicest. Note however that I have never ridden the Metro North lines East of the Hudson, I can only speak of my experiences on this side.
6. The ground. There�s a little more clay than I would like, which only serves to make parts of my yard kind of mushy after a rainstorm. It's also almost impossible to dig a hole as there's tons of rock everywhere. It�s not that bad though because that same condition is also responsible for all the ponds, streams and wetlands in the area.
7. The mosquitoes tend to be a little more in abundance here, but then again, so do the lightning bugs. Come to think of it, there�s just more of nature up here, so I guess this is a good thing. We have at least 5 humming birds that come and feed at our house, there are eagles, hawks, deer, wild turkey and everything else all over the place. I like that.
Well that�s about it. I can�t come up with 10 things I don�t like about my new home, so I guess I�ll stop here.
Well that's my list, all the best and worst of moving from Long Island to the Central Hudson Valley. Given all these factors, if I had to do it all over again I would in a heartbeat. The only thing I would have done differently is not actually go through trying to buy a house on Long Island first. We had one lined up and it ultimately would have been garbage. When the seller started jerking us around for a measly $3000 extra (which would probably have put maybe $1000 extra in his pocket after all was said and done) we got very weary of the deal. However we stayed in it because we had nowhere else to go and had already invested money in the deal with surveys and such. When he then started changing the original advertised terms of the sale (something technically illegal) we knew enough to get out. That�s money I could have saved for where I am now.
Okay there is one other thing I would change if I could. I had to sell my convertible in order to get a decent down payment on the house. If I could I would have found a way to keep it. Now that I am in a position to really appreciate it (I�d feel totally comfortable leaving it at the train station I�m at now) I don�t have it anymore. It hurts, but I would have had to sell it no matter which house I was buying. Anyway, I keep joking with everyone that the money I got from selling my car bought me one of the bathrooms.
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