Mike DeLuise

'I'm reluctantly saying goodbye to L.I.'

Posted

Long Island, I love you, but I’m about to leave you.

For almost 40 years, you helped me raise my family. You taught my children. You pampered me on your beaches and in your parks. You gave me enormous career opportunities. You provided me with a wonderful life and protected me from environmental and social dangers.

Of course, I treated you very well, too. Financially, I showered you with lots of cash. My real estate and sales tax dollars helped you stay in shape. As a caring citizen, I voted each year for the people and projects you needed to keep yourself vibrant. I shopped in your stores, hired your residents, donated to your charities and even stood up in public several times in your defense when you faced challenges.

Why am I leaving you? The simple answer is that at 65, I’m too old for you.

As a very limited number of 55-and-over projects start to pop up in Nassau and Suffolk counties, I’ll be heading to a town where terms such as “walkable,” “rapid transit” and “accessibility” have for years been built into the culture and structure. My new home not only respects seniors, but also values them as community resources, not as “old people” embarrassingly filed away in senior citizen ghettos.

I realize, my beloved Long Island, that you are seriously exploring plans for a future that will make you more attractive to those who aren’t attracted to you anymore. Most likely, in 15 years, maybe 20, you’ll be as inviting as Atlanta, Miami, Portland or even Brooklyn. Sorry, I can’t wait that long. Neither can many others of my generation.

Even worse than us old folks leaving you is the serious large-scale exodus of our young college graduates and workforce. You teach them well in our outstanding schools, utilizing our generous tax dollars. Once they graduate, however, you rarely offer them any enticement to stay and start their careers here. They hear you loud and clear. “Try life somewhere else. Then come back and give us your tax dollars in your mid-30s, when you can afford Long Island’s high cost of living. Or set yourself up in your parents’ basement for a decade or two and hope for the best.”

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