Long Island Proud — Sadly, Many Can't Afford LI Anymore: Opinion

I wrote an article about Long Islanders loving Long Island recently and it received more than 34,000 "likes." Thank you. However, I received too many comments saying, sadly, that some had to leave the island because of economics. "It's become too expensive!" or "It became so costly I had to move south but still visit the kids and grandkids!" some comments said.

The quote that inspired this post was the one that said, "Long Island became great because it was affordable for the blue-collar working class. A place they could raise a family in an affordable house, with decent schools, near beaches. Now my kids work two jobs and live in peoples' basements."

Unfortunately, this situation isn't just on Long Island — it's everywhere. However, all I care about is what's happening here on Long Island. Long Islanders are a special breed. They are unique because of the unusually strong loyalty to all things Long Island. The pride of knowing odd stuff about all the towns. The jokes about the LIE or LIRR. The best places for pizza or the worst diners. Having favorite beaches and parks. Not to mention the boating, fishing, golf, sailing, motorcycling, bicycle riding, running and my favorite new thing, bird watching especially Long Island bald eagles! In the summer I think of Long Island as the affordable "American Riviera."

I sadly see the younger kids with that Long Island grit being denied a future by the economy that they are exploited by. They are working two to three jobs just to pay a rent and car payments. If you live and work on the island you do need a reliable car. The kids are our children, we educated them, nourished them and now we watch in horror as they are crashing into the financial ceiling they hit in their careers. Employers will only pay what they can get away with. At the moment if you work for someone other than yourself you might not have a shot at buying a home.

The young feel they can't have kids, or get married. No doubt this terrible feeling perhaps is fueling the massive opioid epidemic; one has to get high and forget about the bleakness of their desire to flourish on Long Island and the reality of their dreams never becoming reality.

Over the years I have interviewed the supervisors of all the towns of Suffolk County as well as the Suffolk County executive. They are all aware of what I have written here and will agree with almost all of it. They explain the reality of the school taxes in every town being the largest cost to every land-owning Long Islander.Something they can't reverse; not the trend for it to increase. I am not writing this to criticize their efforts, but I will always challenge them to do something to change the idea that Long Island is becoming too expensive for seniors and the under-30 Long Islanders.

As my income has ended other than Social Security it is me now looking at both my life clock and my bank account. It's a sad race. I love sailing the waters of Long Island. I love the parks, the amazing wildlife, and the can-do ability of the last few generations of Islanders. However most bought their homes well under $100,000. Most made wages that have been frozen for decades. Now many are succeeding, there are million dollar homes, and big yachts in every marina on the island. My closing word is this: Pay your workers not as low as what you can get away with, and as much as you can without going broke. Or else, a huge change will come. World history and nature have a way of correcting huge wrongs.

T.J. Clemente is a Patch columnist. The views expressed in this post are the author's own.