Talk:Long Island/Archive 1

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Archive 1
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Contents


De-forestation

A large portion of Long Island's native forests were harvested for lumber in the early 1800's, Perhaps earlier. Would someone with the information post this story? Company names, types of trees etc.

Robber Barons/North Folk

I think that someone should add a few sentences about the historical presence of the "Robber Barons" who made homes for themselves on LI.

Upstate Status

Poughkeepsie isn't even upstate. Anything from around that area south is downstate and the rest is upstate.

Poughkeepsie is Upstate, as is anything north of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Most people from the city consider Long Island to be upstate. I live on the Upper East Side, that's always what people say. "Upstate" is a way of distinguishing New York City from New York State, not just northern areas from southern areas.

-- I'm a long islander, I've actually never heard anyone refer to it as this in the city or on long island.

and gues what, I'm from manhattan, and no one here calls it 'the city' so we can call you whatever we want, besides, you are upstate, technically you're at least a mile or two north, so stop arguing over semantics, the real test is, if someone from an inhabitted part of the state got lost in Long Island or (formal)Upstate wilderness, would they be able to tell the difference? No of course not!
Long Island is no more part of New York City than are the Adirondack Mountains. Hence, upstate.
How can anyone consider Long Island "upstate"? It really doesn't get any more southern in New York than Long Island. Two out of the five boroughs of New York City are on Long Island. It makes no sense for "upstate" to mean simply any part of New York other than New York City. —Gordon P. Hemsley→✉ 16:58, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)
  • Some people object to being called "upstate" and want others to "feel their pain". It is true that many Metro NY people call even very southernly counties "upstate" - but they also call parts of Manhattan "uptown". I must confess that I know very little about most of the places "up there" - but I have not lived in NY since leaving in 1967. Anyway, it's plain silly to bring this gripe to an encyclopedia - but many people think this is just another place to chat--JimWae 17:13, 2005 Jun 23 (UTC)
  • What does LI have more in common with? Manhattan or Connecticut? It is not culturally New York and is therefore upstate


  • I'm from Dyker Heights, in the City. Long Island = Not the City. It is upstate, please stop arguing semantics, people in the city don't know north from south, just "uptown" from "downtown", so how do you expect them to know that LI is *technically* east of the city when they don't even use the concept of directions in their everyday lives? To New Yorkers, it's basically New York City vs. the rest of the world.
  • To consider Long Island as upstate is clearly one of the most idiotic things I've ever seen written. I've never heard anyone refer to Long Island as upstate. However, Western Long Islanders (Nassau County), have a tendency to refer to Eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) as "The Boon Docks" or "Booneys" because the further east you travel, the less populated the island becomes and in some parts (way out by the forks), there is even farm land. Now, to say that people in the city don't know the difference between north, south, east and west is insulting to me as a New Yorker. Just because you failed to retain information you should have learned in 4th grade, doesn't give you the right to start assuming that millions of other people never looked at a map. Secondly, I find the term UP and DOWNstate very inaccurate because the directions up and down actually span perpendicular to North South East and West, where up points to the sky and down points to the center of the earth. But somewhere along the line, up became north and down became south and is very accepted this way. But the term UPSTATE is relevant to where you are. To New Yorkers and Long Islanders, upstate (anything north of you) is Westchester. For someone in Niagara Falls, Albany would be considered downstate but for NYers it's obviously upstate. However, people who call less populated, rural areas of NY upstate simply to distinguish themselves from the rest of the state are just arrogant people who need to realize that there's more to this world than their little circle of existance. - CHRIS CALABRESE
So if you live in Massepequa, then is Great Neck upstate? What about parts of Westchester that are on the same latitude as parts of the Bronx (e.g. Wakefield in the Bronx and Pelham Manor in Westchester) or on the same or lower latitude as parts of Nassau County?

I guess Staten Island is upstate too - it's not citified. Even if a 1,000 people call LI upstate, that does not mean it belongs in an encyclopedia --JimWae 06:55, 2005 July 26 (UTC)

Just because this is not as blatantly non-encyclopedic as some of your other recent additions such as "The term "Long Island" most often refers to a prissy little suburban peninsula east of New York." does not mean it belongs --JimWae 07:23, 2005 July 26 (UTC)


" so how do you expect them to know that LI is *technically* east of the city " I'm assuming you've never looked at a map of the United States in your entire life. I refuse to believe that anyone in New York City, doesn't realize Long Island is east of NYC, regardless of their use of direction. We don't exactly carry compasses on Long Island either, its really just brain dead common sense knowledge.. I mean seriously.

- Makes absolutely no sense to call Long Island upstate, spare Staten Island, it is the southernmost part of the state. The population density is much higher than upstate, as well as commercial development...It makes no logical sense to refer to any area of New York other than the city as Upstate, considering the completely obvious geographic and cultural reasons to the contrary. You'd also have to ignore that the largest portion of NYC is on Long Island, and if you think east of that is some sort of wildnerness..you really haven't been out there.

  • Fuckin' A! Finally someone got it right, Maspeth Queens in tha house, i'm right in the backyard of Manhattan, you can see the ESB from my house. From my point of view there might as well not be anything besides Manhattan and Queens, people down here are so provincial that they actually *do* believe that the landscape turns to wilderness when you cross from QUeens to Nassau Co.
I've never met anyone upstate or on Long Island who considers Long Island part of upstate. And, you certainly could tell the difference between being los6t on Long Island and lost upstate--the land is very different. (As a side note, my experience has been that much of the rest of the country considers the entire NYC metro area to be NYC, because from a distance they seem to have more in common with each other than the rest of the country, but that's neither here nor there for this article.) Janni 16:06, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Well hey, not to mention, Nassau and Suffolk counties have a combined population of 2.6 million people, making it larger than almost every major city in the country. We also have more money than almost every major city in the country. If Nassau and Suffolk county were to become a state, it would have a higher population than 20 existing states. Suffolk County also has the highest paid police force in the country. To consider this area 'wilderness' is rediculous. If you consider it 'upstate', you failed geography in elementary school. The only reason we look 'small' is because we're right next to New York City. In regards to culture, come on - we are not more closer to Connecticut, we are inevitably tied to NYC as it is to us - I can't even tell how many people commute to and from NYC to LI but it is a huge amount of people, daily. Long Islanders make up a significant percentage of the workforce in NYC. Culture from NYC is more prevalent than Connecticut culture by far. To see complaints from city denizens saying we're complaining about 'semantics' (yet acknowledging that they can't tell north from south) is a little absurd, this encyclopedia is for the world and not for the city resident's selfish point of view. Yes, it is selfish to consider LI upstate, because it's retarded on so many levels, in terms of physical reality and cultural similarity. It's virtually impossible to 'get lost' out here because you can go about 8 miles north or south (for the most part) and reach a 6 lane highway going to and from NYC. It's not my fault that millions of retarded Queens residents have some fantasy about Long Island being as it was 400 years ago, the uneducated should not take control of encyclopedias. Not to mention, whether you like to believe it or not, if you live in Queens or Brooklyn, you live on Long Island. And Long Island is not upstate. Unless you turned the world upside down, thats a fact you'll have to deal with. And in my personal opinion, with the continuous reduction of farmlands and influx of population, Long Island, in perhaps a century or two, will simply be a continuation of new york city.

Wow! What a rant! Perhaps you should move to New York City while you're waiting for Long Peninsula to become a "continuation" of it. Wizard1022 02:42, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
How, exactly, do you figure that LI is a peninsula? --Rory096 05:34, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
If you're using "Long Island" to mean just Nassau and Suffolk, then it is a peninsula. It's only an island if you include Brooklyn and Queens. -Wizard1022 06:16, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
Geographically, everybody knows that Brooklyn and Queens are obviously part of LI. Nassau and Suffolk is only the entire LI in the socio-political sense. --Rory096 06:30, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
So 2.6 million (actually 2.75 million) residents make LI more populous than "almost every major city in the country"...yet a city like Philadelphia with 1.5 million residents has only 135 square miles to work with rather than the spacious 1200 square miles of suburban sprawl in Nassau and Suffolk. Your point is irrelevant, you have to take land area into account. Sure Long Island is pretty densely populated compared to most of the rural US, but your assertion just reeks of arrogance. As for the 'Nassau and Suffolk have a higher population than 20 states', did you actually look that up? Wow, you must really have an inferiority complex to the City! So it's 'selfish' to call Long Island 'upstate', but not to call a part of Westchester within walking distance of the Bronx 'upstate'? As for Connecticut, that's the state right across your little sound. It seems like you're the one who flunked geography. As for commuters, people commute to the City from up in the mountains of Orange and Ulster County, yet it might as well be West Virginia up there. And yes, Queens is provincial, it's New York City, what did you expect. I don't think the Archie Bunker types in Maspeth consider themselves to be "Long Islanders" nor have any reason to care about some affluent suburban region they can't afford to live in. Sure most people from Queens probably don't call Long Island 'upstate' per se but to suggest that NYC identifies with LI like LI identifies with NYC is arrogant and out-of-touch.
  • Long island the only place in the world that thinks it should be considered both its own state and part of nyc--152.163.100.131 02:26, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
    • im from brooklyn (windser terrace) and we NEW YORKERS get a good laugh every time you UPSTATE long island people claim to be part of our city. you dont see us claiming to be part of hicksville or farmingtown do you. people in the city do not hold you on a higher pedestal than say, connecticut or new jersey or rockland country or any other area the same distence from us. you are not more culterally new york than anyone else who lives outside of nyc. youre about asmuch a new yorker as someone from jersey city -MIKE DIFULCO
      • and like all internet discussions about long island, we have a 13 year old from long island pretending to be from Brooklyn, see strawman for reference--64.12.116.131 18:51, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
  • This discussion is absurd. i was born in Queens, grew up in Long Island, and now split time between Brooklyn and LI, and I have never, ever, ever heard anyone refer to Long Island as "upstate." You can call it lame, provincial, suburban, culturally more similar to NJ and Westchester or other things (the same way people can call many manhattanites and brooklynites obnoxious, parochial, and self-centered), but it's NOT upstate. It's called "Long Island." Anyone born east of the Hudson knows this, which makes me wonder how many of the alleged New Yorkers were actually born in New York and how many of them moved here in their 20s looking for a good place to gentrify. Or have at minimum seen a map of New York State once.

Secession

The thing about Long Island seceding is a JOKE. I only wish... no one would miss those jerks

  • OK, can't you harness your Long Island secessionist fantasies toward a more productive end?--Pharos 20:14, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Replaced this guess with correct data from InfoPlease:

approximately 100 miles long, and 40 miles wide at its widest point

Guess what? No matter where you are on Long Island, you're never more than 10 miles from the ocean! It's long and skinny, like Baja California!! User:Ed Poor

We might want to mention, as in Manhattan/Talk, the difference between the geographical and political usages of Long Island. I daresay the political difference is more important to residents. In the metro area of New York, when people say Long Island they mean Nassau and Suffolk counties, as distinct from New York City (NYC).

Some things change when you go across the border from NYC to Long Island. NYC charges income tax (in addition to New York State tax). Right turn on red is permitted in Nassau and Suffolk counties, but is forbidden in NYC. Streets are generally named (Main St.) rather than numbered (34th St.) on Long Island, while in NYC street names with numbers are prevalent (even as high as 214th St.)

User:Ed Poor (my father grew up on Long Island, and I lived there for about 5 years.

As long as it's talk, a nitpick: the street numbers go up into the 250s, I believe. I *know* that I live on 218th, and that the subway goes up to 242nd. And, of course, there are at least two Main Streets in NYC. But I ramble. Vicki Rosenzweig

East River

Long Island is considered by most to be an Island, however it was found in the 1980's that its separation from the mainland was due to canal building by the Dutch who first settled in what is now New York City; thus it is not technically an island.

I find it hard to believe (a) that the Dutch had the engineering ability to create a canel the length and breadth of the East River, AND (b) that this "fact" could have been lost to history until the 1980s! --Uncle Ed 21:51, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Article says:

Technically speaking, the island is actually a peninsula separated from the mainland by the East River, a tidal estuary of the Hudson River

Wouldn't Manhattan then also be a peninsula? Is this not just plain wrong? Are islands that get connected via infill still islands? Would that not make Manhattan several islands? Or do I mean peninsulas?--JimWae 23:03, 2005 Mar 13 (UTC)

Names of towns

Long Island, NY is comprised of counties, two cities (Long Beach and Glen Cove), numerous local towns, townships, villages, hamlets and designated places. Technically Queens and Brooklyn are part of Long Island, but we've yet to find a person from Brooklyn or Queens that refers to themselves as Long Islanders. Many people in the New York metropolitan area (even those on the island in Queens and Brooklyn) use the term "Long Island" or "the island" to refer to Nassau and Suffolk counties only.

  • County:
    A county is a municipal corporation, a subdivision of the state, created to perform state functions; a "regional government. All counties are divided into cities, towns and Indian reservations
  • City:
    A city is a unique government entity with its own special charter. Cities are not sub-divided, except into neighborhoods which are informal geographic areas.
  • Town:
    A town is a municipal corporation and encompasses all territory within the state except that within cities or Indian reservations. Towns can be sub-divided into villages and hamlets
  • Village:
    A village is a general purpose municipal corporation formed voluntarily by the residents of an area in one or more towns to provide themselves with municipal services. The pattern of village organization is similar to those of a city. A village is divided into neighborhoods, which are informal geographic areas.
  • Hamlet:
    A hamlet is an unincorporated area in one or more towns that is governed at-large by the town(s) it is in. A hamlet is divided into neighborhoods, which are informal geographic areas.
  • Postal Zone:
    A postal zone "City and "Town" is an administrative district established by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver the mail. Postal zone "City" and "Town" may or may not conform to municipal or community border. Thus, postal zone location does not always determine city, village or hamlet location
  • Designated Place:
    A designated place is a term derived from the term "Census Designated Place" or CDP in censuses beginning with 1980. It replaced the designation (U) or unincorporated. A designated place is similar to that of a hamlet.

    Nassau County

    Town of Hempstead
    Atlantic Beach
    Baldwin
    Bellerose
    Bellmore
    Cedarhurst
    East Meadow
    East Rockaway
    Elmont
    Floral Park
    Franklin Square
    Freeport
    Garden City
    Gibson
    Green Acres
    Hempstead
    Hempstead Gardens
    Hewlett
    Inwood
    Island Park
    Lakeview of Rockville Centre
    Lakeview of West Hempstead
    Lawrence
    Levittown
    Lynbrook
    Malverne
    Merrick
    Munsey
    New Cassel
    New Hyde Park
    North Woodmere
    Oceanside
    Old Westbury
    Plandome
    Point Lookout
    Rockville Centre
    Roosevelt
    Roosevelt Field
    Seaford
    Uniondale
    Valley Stream-North Valley Stream-South Wantagh
    West Hempstead
    Woodmere

    Town of North Hempstead
    Albertson
    Baxter Estates
    Carle Place
    East Williston
    Floral Park
    Flower Hill - Port Washington
    Flower Hill - Roslyn
    Garden City Park
    Glenwood Landing
    Great Neck
    Greenvale
    Herricks
    Kensington
    Kings Point
    Manhasset
    Manhasset Hills
    Manorhaven
    Munsey
    New Cassel
    New Hyde Park
    Port Washington
    Roslyn
    Roslyn Heights
    Russell Gardens
    Saddle Rock
    Sands Point
    Sea Cliff
    Searingtown
    Stewart Manor
    Westbury
    Williston Park

    Town of Oyster Bay
    Bayville
    Bethpage
    Brookville
    East Norwich
    Farmingdale
    Glen Head
    Greenvale
    Hicksville
    Jericho
    Lattingtown
    Locust Valley
    Massapequa
    Massapequa Park
    Mill Neck
    Old Bethpage
    Old Brookville
    Oyster Bay
    Plainedge
    Plainview
    Syosset
    Woodbury

    City of Glen Cove
    City of Long Beach

    Suffolk County

    Town of Babylon
    Amityville
    Babylon Village
    Bay Shore
    Copiague
    Deer Park
    East Farmingdale
    Lindenhurst
    North Babylon
    Oak Beach
    West Babylon
    West Gilgo
    Wheatley Heights
    Wyandanch

    Town of Brookhaven
    Belle Terre
    Bellport
    Blue Point
    Brookhaven
    Calverton
    Center Moriches
    Centereach
    Coram
    Gordon Heights
    East Moriches
    East Patchogue
    Eastport
    Farmingville
    Holbrook
    Holtsville
    Lake Grove
    Lake Ronkonkoma
    Manorville
    Mastic Beach
    Medford
    Miller Place
    Middle Island
    Moriches
    Mount Sinai
    Old Field
    Patchogue
    Poquott
    Port Jefferson
    Port Jefferson Station
    Ridge
    Rocky Point
    Selden
    Setauket
    Shirley
    Shoreham
    Sound Beach
    Stony Brook
    Upton
    Yaphank

    Town of East Hampton
    Amagansett
    East Hampton
    Montauk
    Springs
    Wainscott

    Town of Huntington
    Asharoken
    Centerport
    Cold Spring Harbor
    Commack
    Dix Hills
    East Northport
    Eaton's Neck
    Elwood
    Fort Salonga
    Greenlawn
    Halesite
    Huntington
    Huntington Station
    Lloyd Harbor
    Melville
    Northport

    Town of Islip
    Bayport
    Bohemia
    Brentwood
    Brightwaters
    Central Islip
    Cherry Grove
    Davis Park
    East Islip
    Great River
    Hauppauge
    Holbrook
    Holtsville
    Islandia
    Islip
    Islip Terrace
    North Great River
    Oakdale
    Ocean Beach
    Ronkonkoma
    Sayville
    West Islip
    West Sayville

    Town of Riverhead
    Aquebogue
    Calverton
    Jamesport
    Riverhead
    Wading River

    Town of Smithtown Commack
    Fort Salonga
    Hauppauge
    Kings Park
    Lake Ronkonkoma
    Nesconset
    Nissequogue
    St. James
    Smithtown

    Town of South Hampton
    Bridgehampton
    East Quogue
    Eastport
    Flanders
    Hampton Bays
    Noyac
    Quogue
    Remsenburg
    Sag Harbor
    Shinnecock Hills
    Southampton
    Water Mill
    Westhampton
    Westhampton Beach
    Sagaponack

    Town of Southold
    Cutchogue
    East Marion
    Greenport
    Laurel
    Matinecock
    Mattituck
    New Suffolk
    Orient
    Peconic
    Southold
    Mastic

    Three Village Area

    Information provided by LongIsland.com.

  • RE: Town project: How about breaking down the list into two groups, Nassau and Suffolk. Kings and Queens have no towns. The list ALREADY includes non-towns! Or do you want towns and VILLAGES too? Tmesipt.
I don't necessarily want anything. I just notice there's a list of towns in this article that has only three entries. If such a list exists in this article, and it does, it should be more complete. Whether or not Queens or Brooklyn should be included isn't up to me. One solution I just thought of: we could just link to the "Towns" section of the Nassau and Suffolk articles if no one wants the task of retyping all of the town/city/village names here. Moncrief 01:35, Mar 24, 2004 (UTC)
  • Check out Nassau County and Suffolk County articles, but beware that this information is not entirely correct. Tmesipt.
I get that those two articles include lists of towns (that's too bad they're not entirely accurate). The point is that this article also purports to include a list of communities on Long Island, and it only has three entries. Something should be done at some point about that. Moncrief 01:41, Mar 24, 2004 (UTC)

Being merely an UPSTATE New Yorker -- and there are so few of us -- I really should defer this to the large population of Downstate Wikipedians to perform this task, unless I can find some time to spare form dealing with similar problems in Western New York. I admit that I do know something of LI. Tmesipt.

How about explaining what a "town" is? To most people (outside New York) -- a "town" is a "townSHIP".

I added links to lists of communities in the Nassau and Suffolk County articles. Moncrief 02:00, Mar 24, 2004 (UTC)

  • I noticed the reference to this article on the problem page. I don't understand why anyone needs to copy over all the information from Nassau and Suffolk to the LI page, since the previous change references those pages. The real problem is that the Nassau and Suffolk pages each contain TWO lists. Someone really needs to decide which way looks best; then merge the information and remove the extraneous list.

People "from" Long Island

If this category is restricted to people born on Long Island, Theodore Roosevelt should not be included, he was born in NYC, though he made his home at Oyster Bay. Too Old 19:38, 2005 Feb 18 (UTC)

Along those lines, how come people I've never even heard of are on this list, but Billy Crystal, who was born in Long Beach, isn't? Obviously this isn't an all-inclusive list, but I think some better choices can be made here. GPHemsley→◊ 03:37, Mar 14, 2005 (UTC)

  • thousands of people belong in this section (especially if Brklyn & Qns are included) - yet nearly 1/2 I've never heard of - many are minor stars of rock. I vote we delete this section as one could NEVER do it justice & will get filled with "fan" selections & vanity links --JimWae 21:55, 2005 Mar 14 (UTC)


Have a look at List of famous New Yorkers. It's divided between 'Native New Yorkers' and 'Other New Yorkers'. The same thing could be done for a List of famous Long Islanders, though I should think that list should be restricted to just Nassau and Suffolk counties. For illustration that its possible to have a very very long list of people, see List of Jews.--Pharos 22:53, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

How New Yorkers use "Long Island"

As one who grew up in the Bronx, I must express puzzlement at JimWae's rewriting of my "as a rule" phrase. In my experience, New Yorkers (whether they are from Brooklyn and Queens) *never* call Brooklyn and Queens "Long Island"; the closest they'd ever say is that "Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island," but as a rule any New Yorker who says he's going out to/from/living in/coming from Long Island or "the Island" is referring to Nassau and Suffolk counties *only*. My preference for wording the sentence remains:

As a rule, residents of the New York metropolitan are, including those in Queens and Brooklyn, use the term "Long Island" or "the island" to refer to Nassau and Suffolk counties only.

What do others think? --Yeechang Lee 21:29, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

As someone who grew up on Long Island in Suffolk County, I agree with the above editor that "from Long Island" refers to only Nassau and Suffolk County. Andrew73 22:49, 5 November 2005 (UTC)
  • I changed it because "as a rule" is either far too vague or else wrong (there is no "rule"). I grew up in western Queens. I also introduced "out on the island" since "out on" (which you also used) is an important part of the way "the Island" is used. --JimWae 04:01, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
As a rule (ahem), "as a rule" doesn't imply that there's actually such a formal rule; it means that's the conventional behavior or expectation (while still implying *some* wiggle room for exceptions; just less than "many people").
What this really boils down to is that to me "many people" implies there exists a substantial number of New Yorkers who *doesn't* adhere to the "Long Island"="Nassau and Suffolk only" convention, which I simply don't believe based on more than two decades living in the New York area. How about this as a compromise?
Residents of the New York metropolitan area, including those in Queens and Brooklyn, almost always use the term "Long Island" or "out on the island" to refer to Nassau and Suffolk counties only.
Honestly, even the above "almost" annoys me a tiny bit since *no one* in my experience would *ever* refer to Brooklyn and Queens as a part of Long Island except in the rare, rare, rare occasions of discussing the physical entity of the island called Long Island that lies east of Manhattan island, but I'm willing to live with it. Another possibility is
Unless referring to the physical entity of the island itself, residents of the New York metropolitan area, including those in Queens and Brooklyn, always use the term "Long Island" or "out on the island" to refer to Nassau and Suffolk counties only.
. . . but that sounds clumsier. In any case, what say ye?
(I know we're picking at nits, but I think it's important that we precisely document a non-obvious, but factual, point highly relevant to the article.)--Yeechang Lee 04:25, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
  • I have always agreed that many, even most, "city people" usually use LI for just the two counties. But it is not for wikipedians to determine either if all do (quite unlikely, given the eccentricities of people) nor if not doing so would be against any (however informal) "rule" --JimWae 05:13, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
I have to diagree; our job is to state a fact, even if that fact is necessarily imprecise. And we both agree that
  • You're right, the 2nd is too cumbersome--JimWae 05:17, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
    Nearly all current residents of the New York metropolitan area, including even those in the boroughs of the city actually on Long Island (Queens and Brooklyn), almost always use the term "Long Island" or "out on the island" to refer to Nassau and Suffolk counties only.
Surely there's no reason to use two qualifiers ("nearly" and "almost")? Here's my newest proposal:
Today, residents of the New York metropolitan area, including those in Queens and Brooklyn, almost always use the term "Long Island" or "out on the island" to refer to Nassau and Suffolk counties only.
I'm open to moving "almost" to ahead of "residents," but otherwise I'm happy with how it stands.--Yeechang Lee 05:36, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
  • This was not always the case. Before WW2, Queens would often be referred to as "Long Island" or "out on the Island". Curiously, everyone seems to know which island "out on the Island" refers to.
Hmm. Queens (but not Brooklyn?), was once known as part of "Long Island"? I didn't know that; I presume it's some artifact of the days before the 1898 city unification.--05:36, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
  • No, you just have to go further back in time for Brooklyn to have been called "over on the Island". My grandfather lived in Queens when it was almost all farmland. Yes, put "almost all" in front of "residents" - Since nobody has done an official survey, it's not up to wikipedian editors to draw their own favorite conclusions. "Residents" without a qualifier suggests "all" - though sometimes "a few". As for the 2nd qualifier? Well, you already agreed there were some exceptions to the usage.--JimWae 05:50, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Our job might include stating clearly supported facts, but not to present semi-wry observations with no independent research (remember No Original Research) as if they were fact, nor to state such "facts" in an imprecise way to avoid not having support for them--JimWae 06:09, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

September 11th

I tried to clean up and clarify the end of the article explaining about the September 11th attacks. I did give September 11th its own subheading, but after some thought I have decided to remove it and just leave it under the history section. If anyone feels that this would be a good idea feel free to make it into its own subheading. Flyerhell 07:26, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

Climate

I removed this sentence: "Long Island has a tendency to heat waves. During the summer of 2005, Long Island experienced what felt like a month of 90 degree plus weather."

This is false. Does any place in the country that has heatwaves sometimes have a "tendancy to heat waves?" The summer of 2005 was NOTHING compared to the summer of 1999 when the temperature in LI was over 100 for a week or more. Sure there are hot periods, but I have never seen anything showing that LI has more heatwaves statistically than any other place in the country. The water around Long Island helps to moderate the temperature also, keeping the temperature slightly warmer in the winter and slightly cooler in the summer as well. If someone can cite a source with the fact that LI has a tendancy for heatwaves cite the source and put it back into the article, but if not I don't think it should be in the article. Flyerhell 23:49, 26 November 2005 (UTC)


EDIT** The summer of 1999 was much warmer than normal, however, there was only one reported day that was over 100°, and that was July 5, 1999 where the temperature rose to 102°F and 13 days that were in the 90's as reported at Islip MacArthur Airport. 2005 had 15 90°F+ days and no 100° days.

Diners

Could anyone here from Long Island tell me why only Long Island has diners, as asserted in the article? Are you people really so provincial that you think everything is unique to your inconsequential little peninsula? What's next, are you going to say Long Islanders eat a substance known as food in order to nourish their bodies and stay alive? Or, Long Islanders engage in an activity known as sleep approximately 8 hours a day? What's the deal? Wizard1022 03:11, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I think there's some difference between the diner concept on Long Island and Metro New York as compared to the rest of the country that is worth noting. I'm around Boston, and the diner one would visit here is a far cry from the diners this article speaks of. --Meadowbrook 17:27, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Our "Inconsequential little ISLAND" has a population of 2.5 million people (In Nassau and Suffolk alone, not counting millions of others in Queens/Brooklyn) which is greater than 20 existing states. This is not inconsequential. I agree with your point about diners but not on your incorrect analysis of what we actually are - a huge population center.

Yeah, but nobody cares. What is incredible, however, is that NYC is one-quarter the size of Long Peninsula (300 sq mi as opposed to 1200) and yet has more than twice its population. Now that's a population center. Wizard1022 02:32, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
While I, being a typical proud New Yorker, am inclined to agree with this statement, let's be realistic and admit that New York City can overshadow almost any population center, major or not. At least in this country, anyway (Can anyone say Tokyo? Now THAT'S a population center). Regardless, a lot of people live on Long Island, dude, and I think it's quite fair to call it a major population center. Err, that said, "huge" might be taking things a biiiit too far. 64.131.211.228 04:06, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
The text in the article under "Food" says "Most every town in Nassau County has at least one diner, most of them operating 24/7, where people can meet and eat. Most were established during the 70's, and specialize in hamburgers and sandwiches." I don't think this implies that diners exist only on Long Island or that there is anything unique about Long Island's diners from those that exist elsewhere. That said, the entire statement is inane and idiotic and doesn't add anything to the article. It makes a set of categorical statements that are probably all incorrect, and should probably just be removed. Alansohn 17:39, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
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