Long Island

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This article is about Long Island in New York State. For other uses, see Long Island (disambiguation)
File:Long Island Mercator projection.png
Mercator projection of Long Island

Long Island is an island in New York, USA. At 1,377 square miles (3567 km²) and is home to 7.536 million residents as of 2005. It is the largest island in the continental United States, the most populous island in any U.S. state or territory, and the 17th most populous island in the world, having a larger population than the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the countries of Ireland and Jamaica. True to its name, the island is much longer, jutting out some 118 miles (190 km) from New York Harbor, than it is wide, with only from 12 to 20 miles (32 km) between the southern Atlantic coast and Long Island Sound. The Native American name for Long Island is Paumonauk, meaning "fish-shaped island."

On the western part of Long Island are the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens (Queens County); east of these are Nassau and Suffolk counties. However, colloquial usage of the term "Long Island" or "the Island" usually refers only to Nassau and Suffolk counties only; Brooklyn and Queens are omitted, as they are part of New York City.

Long Island is known for its affluence and high quality of life. Based on data from the 2000 Census, Nassau County is listed as the second richest county per capita in New York State, as well as the sixth richest in the United States. Suffolk County is known for many communities located on its beaches, including the world renowned Hamptons.

According to the FBI's Crime Index, Long Island (Nassau-Suffolk) has the second lowest crime rate in the United States.

Geography

Image of Long Island taken by NASA.

To the north of the island is Long Island Sound, which separates it from the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island. To the south are the Great South Bay, South Oyster Bay, and Jamaica Bay, which are actually lagoons, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by a string of narrow barrier islands, most notably Fire Island. The island splits into two forks at the eastern end, known as the North Fork and South Fork, which are separated by the Great Peconic Bay. To the west, Brooklyn and Queens are separated from Manhattan and the Bronx by the East River, and from Staten Island and New Jersey by the waters of Upper New York Bay, a portion of New York Harbor. Long Island is connected to the mainland and the other island boroughs by a ribbon of vehicular bridges that cross the East River, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (which connects to Staten Island), and several tunnels carrying motor vehicles and trains.

Long Island, as part of New York, is geographically part of the Mid-Atlantic States. However, many hamlets and villages along the island's North Shore and in eastern Suffolk County, such as Oyster Bay, Babylon and Sag Harbor resemble New England.

Long Island is home of the Long Island American Viticultural Area.

Climate

Long Island has a climate that is very similar to other coastal areas of the Northeastern United States; it has warm, humid summers and cold winters, but the Atlantic Ocean helps bring afternoon sea breezes that temper the heat in the warmer months and limit the frequency and severity of thunderstorms. In the wintertime, temperatures are warmer than areas further inland (especially in the night and early morning hours), sometimes causing a snowstorm further inland to fall as rain on the island. However, measurable snow falls every winter, and in many winters one or more intense storms called Nor'easters produce blizzard conditions with snowfalls of 1-2 feet (30-60 cm) and near-hurricane force winds. Long Island temperatures also vary from west to east, with the western part of the island warmer on most occasions than the east. This is due to two factors; one because the western part is closer to the mainland and the other is the western part is more developed causing what is known as the "urban heat island" effect. The eastern part is cooler on most occasions due to the ocean and sound and it being less developed. On dry nights with no clouds or wind, the Pine Barrens in eastern Suffolk County can be almost 20-Fahrenheit degrees cooler due to radiational cooling.

Long Island is somewhat vulnerable to hurricanes. [1] Its northern location and relatively cool waters tend to weaken storms to below hurricane strength by the time they reach Long Island. Despite this, some storms had made landfall at Category 1 or greater strength, including two unnamed Category 3 storms in 1938 (New England Hurricane of 1938) and 1944, Hurricane Donna in 1960, Hurricane Belle in 1976, Hurricane Gloria in 1985, Hurricane Bob in 1991 (brushed the eastern tip), and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Geology

Long Island is formed largely of two spines of glacial moraine, with a large, sandy outwash plane beyond. These moraines consist of gravel and loose rock left behind during the two most recent pulses of Wisconsin glaciation. The northern moraine, which directly abuts the North Shore of Long Island at points, is known as the Harbor Hill moraine. The more southerly moraine, known as the Ronkonkoma moraine, forms the "backbone" of Long Island; it runs primarily through the very center of Long Island, roughly coinciding with the length of the Long Island Expressway. Most of the more level land south of this moraine to the South Shore is the outwash plain.

The island's tallest natural point is Jayne's Hill near Melville, with an elevation of 400.9 feet (122.2 m) above sea level. The island is separated from the mainland by the East River — actually not a river but a tidal strait.

Long Island contains a series of sand and gravel aquifers, geologic formations which can hold, transmit and yield water in usable quantities. All of Long Island's water supply comes from underground water held in aquifers. Stacked one on top of the other like layers in a cake, three major and one minor aquifer make up the Long Island aquifer system. In sequence from shallowest to deepest, the Long Island aquifers are: the Upper Glacial, the Magothy and the Lloyd Aquifers. All Long Island aquifers receive their fresh water from precipitation which takes from 25 to 1,000 years to migrate through the layers to the aquifers, which hold roughly 70 trillion gallons (264 trillion liters) — enough to flood the entire surface of Long Island with more than 300 feet (91 m) of water — and can withstand long droughts that dry up surface-water reservoirs like the ones that supply New York City. Almost four million gallons each day are taken from beneath Nassau and Suffolk Counties, providing the primary source of water for the resident population. While most homes are on a municipal water system, there are still many areas where homes have their own wells to provide them with water. Due to contamination associated with development, the concern over preserving the quality of Long Island's groundwater has become the single most important factor limiting the region's growth.

Demography

Population trend
Year Inhabitants
1790 37,108
1800 42,097
1810 48,752
1820 56,978
1830 69,775
1840 110,406
1850 212,637
1860 379,788
1870 540,648
1880 743,957
1890 1,029,097
Year Inhabitants
1900 1,452,611
1910 2,098,460
1920 2,723,764
1930 4,103,638
1940 4,600,022
1950 5,237,918
1960 6,403,852
1970 7,141,515
1980 6,728,074
1990 6,861,474
2000 7,448,618

Long Island is one of the most densely populated regions in the United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the total population of all four counties of Long Island was 7,448,618. New York City's portion of the census was 4,694,705, with Brooklyn's population at 2,465,326 and Queens having 2,229,379 residents. The combined population of Nassau and Suffolk counties was 2,753,913 people. It was the first census in which the population of the larger, less densely populated Suffolk County (1,419,369) surpassed that of Nassau County (1,334,544).

Long Island has a substantial Italian American presence, accounting for 28.8% of Suffolk's population and 23.9% of Nassau's as of the 2000 census.

Brooklyn's 939,316 African Americans account for 38.1% of the residents of Kings County.[2] In Queens County, the African American population is 486,197, or 21.8% of the population. [3] While accounting for less than 10% of the residents of Nassau and Suffolk, there are pockets of African Americans throughout the area, mainly confined to Hempstead (village), (52.5%) Freeport (32.6%), Roosevelt (79.0%), Uniondale (55.5%), and Wyandanch (77.7%).

History

Long Island was shaped by Ice Age glaciers. Early colonial figures include Wyandanch, Smith, Captain William Kidd, Lionel Gardner, and John Underhill. The West of Long Island was settled by the Dutch, and the East settled by Puritans from Massachusetts. Long Island was the scene of several witch hunts, including one involving Lionel Gardner in Easthampton.

During the American Revolutionary War, it was captured by the British early on in the Battle of Long Island, and always had a notable loyalist influence. It was a British stronghold until the end of the war. Close ties with England (since colonization and even after independence) may account for the similarities between English accents and the New York Accent, most notably the non-rhotic pronunciation.

Prior to May 4, 1897, the whole of Long Island remained outside the boundaries of New York City as the counties of Queens, Kings and Suffolk. Long Island itself formerly possessed two incorporated cities; the City of Brooklyn and the City of Long Island (in Queens County, now a neighborhood in the Borough of Queens. The name Long Island City harks back to its former status). Both, along with Kings and Queens counties, were consolidated into "The City of Greater New York" on the May 4th date, with an officially celebrated date of January 1, 1898 (Kings and Queens Counties survive as county names). The easternmost 280 square miles (725 km²) of Queens County, which rejected consolidation into New York City, formed a separate county. "Nassau", one of several names by which the island was once known, was revived to represent the newly established county. The figurative "separation" of Brooklyn and Queens from Long Island in popular usage must have begun around this time, since the Battle of Long Island and Long Island City (all nowadays in "The City") all allude to their geographical location on the island.

Long Island was the home of several prominent Roosevelts such as author Robert Roosevelt, and the summer home of his nephew President Theodore Roosevelt, who made his home at Sagamore Hill in Nassau County, and Theodore's son Quentin, for whom Roosevelt Field was named. Long Island was also the home of the Vanderbilt family.

Immigrants spilling over from New York City have made comfortable lives on Long Island. The immigration waves of Southern and Eastern Europe have been pivotal in creating the diversity on Long Island that most other American regions lack. These immigrations are reflected in the large Italian American and Jewish-American populations.

After World War II, Long Island's population skyrocketed, mostly in Nassau and western Suffolk, as people who worked and lived in New York City moved out to Long Island and commuted to the city. By the middle of the 20th Century, Western Long Island mostly became suburbs of New York City. Places such as Merrick, Levittown, Massapequa and Lindenhurst became home to upper-middle class professionals who commuted to New York City. By the end of the 20th Century, the "suburbs" had expanded out as far as central Suffolk County. However, even as of 2006, most of Eastern Suffolk County, east of Patchogue remains rural and undeveloped.

Long Island was hit especially hard by the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Many people who live on Long Island commute to Manhattan for work on a daily basis. Also, many of the fire-fighters called in to assist in evacuation efforts or quelling the underground fires that occurred after the Twin Towers fell were from Long Island.

Aviation history

Long Island is also important in the history of aviation. It was the home of the Roosevelt Airfield which was an airfield in Garden City, Nassau County. From this airport, Charles Lindbergh took off for his historic 1927 nonstop flight from the New York City area to Paris, France. But Roosevelt Airfield was closed in 1951, and its land is now the location of commercial development, including a shopping mall.

Another important historic Long Island airport was Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. Established in the early 1930s, it was New York City's first commercial airport, and it was also a terminus of historic flights by Amelia Earhart, Roscoe Turner, Wiley Post, and Howard Hughes. Its runways were closed in the 1970s, and it is currently part of a wildlife refuge.

In 1996, tragedy struck Long Island, as TWA Flight 800 exploded over water off the coast of the small hamlet of East Moriches. 230 people were killed in the disaster. A monument to those lost now stands at Smith Point County Park on Fire Island in Suffolk County.

Economy

The counties of Nassau and Suffolk have long been renowned for their affluence. With median home prices rising in excess of $400,000 USD [4], Long Island has a very high cost of living with residents paying some of the highest property taxes in the country. Such affluence is especially pervasive among the hamlets and villages on the North Shore of Long Island also known as the 'Gold Coast' and among opulent pockets of the South Shore.

Long Island is home to some of the most expensive houses in the country. In fact, the most expensive residence in the country is Three Ponds in Bridgehampton. [5] Long Island is home to the luxury communities of the Hamptons, as well as Cold Spring Harbor and Lloyd Harbor in Suffolk County and Garden City, Laurel Hollow, Syosset, and Manhasset in Nassau County.

The economy of Long Island has long benefited from its proximity to New York City, although before and during World War II, Long Island began developing industry of its own. From about 1930 to about 1990, Long Island was considered one of the aviation centers of the United States, with companies such as Grumman Aircraft and Sperry Gyroscope having their headquarters and factories in the Bethpage area. Grumman has long been the source of top warplanes for the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps, as seen in the movie Top Gun and numerous WW-II naval and Marine Corps aviation movies. Prominent WW-II Grumman aircraft included the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat fighters, and the TBF Avenger bomber, flown by hundreds of U.S. and Allied pilots, including former President George H.W. Bush.

Long Island has played a prominent role in scientific research and in engineering. It was the home of the Grumman Aircraft factories where all the Apollo Program Lunar Module spacecraft were built; and it still is the home of the Brookhaven National Laboratories in nuclear physics and Department of Energy research. All of this makes Long Island one of the leading high-technology areas in the world.

In their early decades, Sperry Gyroscope and related companies were concentrated on Long Island, especially in Nassau County in the Bethpage area. Over the years, it also diversified to other locations. The company did very well during WW-II as military demand skyrocketed; it specialized in high technology devices such as gyrocompasses, analog computer-controlled bombsights, airborne radar systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. As the reader can see, these were jumping-off points into the multibillion-dollar annually aviation electronics business. During the Cold War decade of the 1950s, part of Sperry Gyroscope was moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and soon thereafter became part of the Sperry Flight Systems Company. This was to try to preserve parts of this vital defense company in the event of a thermonuclear conflagration. Both on Long Island and in Arizona, Sperry continued to excel at aviation electronics — avionics, and it also provided avionics systems for such NASA programs as the Space Shuttle.

In recent decades companies such as Sperry Rand and Computer Associates, headquartered in Islandia, have made Long Island a center for the computer industry. Nevertheless, the eastern end of the island is still partly agricultural, now including many vineyards as well as traditional truck farming. Fishing also continues to be an important industry, especially at Northport and Montauk.

A Long Island fisherman cleans his nets

Since World War II, Long Island has become increasingly suburban and, in some areas, fully urbanized. Levittown was only the first of many new suburbs, and businesses followed residential development eastward.

Long Island is home to the East Coast's largest industrial park, the Hauppauge Industrial Park. The park has over 1,300 companies, and employs over 55,000 Long Islanders. Companies in the park and abroad are represented by the Hauppauge Industrial Association.

A growing entertainment industry presence can also be found on the Island. Most recently producer Mitchell Kriegman established Wainscott Studios in Water Mill where the PBS children's show, “It's a Big, Big World”, is shot.

Politics

Brooklyn and Queens do not have independent county governments, as they are both boroughs of New York City. Both boroughs do have subsidiary offices headed by "borough presidents", but this is largely a ceremonial title that holds little political power.

Nassau County and Suffolk County have their own separate governments, with a County Executive leading both. Each also has a county legislature, as well as other countywide elected officials such as district attorney, county clerk and county comptroller. The towns in both counties have their own governments as well, with town supervisors and a town council.

Politically, Long Island was long controlled by the Republican Party. Republican presidential candidates won both Nassau and Suffolk counties from 1900 until 1988, with the exception of the 1912 victory of Woodrow Wilson and the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964. In 1972, Richard Nixon won Nassau, Suffolk and Queens and came within 14,000 votes of winning heavily Democratic Brooklyn. In 1992, the suburban counties split, with Nassau voting Democratic and Suffolk voting Republican; however, since 1996, both counties, along with Brooklyn and Queens, have been Democratic, although sometimes by fairly close margins. In 2004, John Kerry won Suffolk County by just under 14,000 votes. The close 2004 margins followed a large Gore win in Nassau and Suffolk in 2000, and many observers think the 2004 results were more of a reflection from a 9/11 bump Bush received through portions of the NY Metro area (as his #'s jumped quite a bit from 2000 in Staten Island, Rockland County and parts of New Jersey as well) rather than a reversal of the Democratic trend. In 2000, Senator Hillary Clinton lost both Nassau and Suffolk to Republican Rick Lazio, who had previously served as a congressman from Suffolk County. While the 2004 results did show a much stronger showing for Bush across Nassau and Suffolk County it did not hurt Democrat Charles Schumer and his re-election bid in the area. Schumer won both Nassau and Suffolk in a landslide receiving close to 70% of the vote in both counties. Republican Governor George Pataki won both Nassau and Suffolk in all three of his victories.

In 2001, Nassau County elected Democrat Thomas Suozzi as county executive and Democrats took control of the county legislature, marking the first time Democrats had full control over county governments. Republicans still held on to the District Attorney's office and Hempstead town government, which has not had a Democratic majority on the town council or held the town supervisor position in close to 100 years. In 2003, Suffolk County followed suit, elected Democrat Steve Levy as county executive.

The 2005 election saw Nassau move further into Democratic hands. Denis Dillon, the Republican District Attorney of Nassau County for over thirty years, lost his re-election bid to the Democrat Kathleen Rice. The Republicans also lost the Town of Brookhaven, long known as a bastion of the Republican Party on the Island. This has been attributed, in part, to what was perceived as widespread Republican corruption in the town; some critics had begun to refer to Brookhaven as "Crookhaven" because of this. The Suffolk County sheriff's race also resulted in a Democratic win. For the first time in years, Democrats once again control the Suffolk County Legislature. In 2006, for the first time ever, Democrats will control a majority of government offices in both counties including county executives, legislatures, and district attorneys.

On the western side, both Brooklyn and Queens are reliably Democratic, although Queens became that way fairly recently, having still been politically volatile through the 1980's. This is mainly a consequence of the recent changes in Queens demographics, that used to be a white-middle-class suburban county, and is now one of the most diverse places in the United States.

All or parts of 15 of New York's 29 congressional districts are located on Long Island. Of them, the Republicans only represent two; Peter T. King of Seaford represents the 3rd Congressional District, which includes most of eastern Nassau County and parts of southwestern Suffolk County. The other, Vito Fossella of the 13th Congressional District, represents parts of southwest Brooklyn, though his district is mainly located in Staten Island. The other 13 representatives are all Democrats.

Law enforcement and crime

In 2005, Forbes magazine listed Long Island as having 2,042 crimes per 100,000 residents; the lowest crime rate and less than half the US average [1].

Long Island is patrolled by the New York City Police Department, Nassau County Police Department, Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police and several dozen local police departments.

Both Nassau and Suffolk have a sheriff's office that handles civil process, evictions, warrant service and enforcement, prisoner transport, courthouse security and detention, and operation of the county jail. The Nassau County Sheriff's Department employs about 900 sworn officers and only performs the above duties although deputy sheriff's have full police officer powers and can make arrests for any crime they come across. The Suffolk County Sheriff's Office has 1,300 sworn officers and in addition to the above duties also has a full service patrol unit including K9, Aviation, SWAT, and Marine divisions as well as a Criminal Investigation Division and various other special details and assignments.

See List of Long Island law enforcement agencies

Transportation

Long Island is the location of three large airports with regularly scheduled commercial jet airline service. These are the John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, both in Queens County (in New York City), and the MacArthur Airport, (sometimes referred to as the "Islip Airport"), a smaller airport in Suffolk County. This is the only airport in Nassau or Suffolk counties with regularly scheduled commercial flights, handling about 2 million passengers a year.

Long Island is also important in the history of aviation. It was the home of the Roosevelt Airfield - an airfield in Garden City, Nassau County. From this airport, Charles Lindbergh took off for his historic 1927 non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris, France. Roosevelt Airfield was closed in 1951, and its land is now the location of commercial development, including a shopping mall.

Another important historic Long Island airport was Floyd Bennett Field in Kings County. Established in the early 1930s, it was New York City's first commercial airport, and it was also a terminus of historic flights by Amelia Earhart, Roscoe Turner, Wiley Post, and Howard Hughes. Its runways were closed in the 1970s, and most of it is currently part of a wildlife refuge.

The Long Island Rail Road, Long Island Expressway, and Northern and Southern State Parkways (the latter three all products of the automobile-centered planning of Robert Moses) make east-west travel on the island straightforward, if not always quick. Indeed, locals lovingly refer to Long Island Expressway as "The World's Longest Parking Lot".

For several decades, the tracks and stations of the Long Island Railroad gave the only railroad service to Long Island. Hence, it was a source of great pride to Long Islanders when bridges and/or tunnels connecting Brooklyn and Queens to the mainland belatedly gave nationwide through railroad service to Long Island.

The MTA Long Island Bus provides bus transportation throughout Nassau County and the western portions of Suffolk County. Suffolk Transit provides bus transportation throughout Suffolk County.

For a less stressful ride, one only needs to travel east across Long Island to the "Twin Forks". These two peninsulas offer a long and ambling journey far removed from the hustle and bustle of suburbia further west. Indeed, even after one reaches the end of Long Island Expressway in Riverhead, it is another 45 minute drive along Middle Country Road to reach the eastern end of the North Fork at Orient Point, and over an hour along Sunrise and Montauk Highways to reach Montauk Point at the end of the South Fork.

Colleges and universities

Nassau and Suffolk counties are home to numerous colleges and universities, including:

Public

Private

Leisure

Beaches

Long Island has many beaches.

Resort areas

Fire Island National Seashore, which is a long barrier island off Long Island's South Shore, is a hot spot for tourists, especially during the summer. The Village of Ocean Beach is the most populous community on Fire Island. There are restrictions on automobile use and the island is not accessible by car (except for one small westerly portion), requiring passage by one of numerous ferries or other watercraft.

The Hamptons, in eastern Long Island's Suffolk County, is one of the area's most popular summer destinations. Parts of the Hamptons are well known for being a playground for the rich, and are frequented by residents of New York City during the summer months for weekend getaways. This has given rise to the terms "House in the Hamptons" or "Hamptons summer share."

Country Clubs and Sporting Clubs

Long Island is home to numerous country clubs, polo clubs, golf clubs, and many other private recreational organizations, including:

  • Bretton Woods Country Club (Coram)
  • The Bridgehampton Polo Club (Bridgehampton)
  • Brookvile Country Club (Glen Head)
  • Cold Spring Harbor Country Club (Cold Spring Hills)
  • The Crescent Beach Club (Bayville)
  • Crest Hollow Country Club (Woodbury)
  • Garden City Country Club (Garden City)
  • Hamlet Golf and Country Club (Commack)
  • The Hamlet Windwatch Golf Club (Hauppauge)
  • Huntington Country Club (Huntington)
  • Huntington Crescent Club (Huntington)
  • Moments Golf Club (Elmont)
  • Port Jefferson Country Club (Port Jefferson)
  • Roslyn Country Club (Roslyn Heights)
  • Rockville Links Country Club (Rockville Centre)
  • Seawane Country Club (Hewlett Harbor)
  • South Fork Country Club (Amagansett)
  • Towers Country Club (Floral Park)
  • Westhampton Country Club (Westhampton)
  • Westhampton Yacht Squadron (Westhampton)
  • Woodbury Country Club (Woodbury)

Food

Both Nassau and Suffolk County are host to numerous restaurants, many of world-class prestige. As New York is known as a melting pot, every kind of restaurant from Mexican to Hungarian can be found. These specialty restaurants are often family owned and are of the highest quality.

Small family-owned pizzerias are ubiquitous. It is not uncommon for a town on Long Island to have several different pizzerias, each with its own distinct flavor. Corporate pizza companies, such as Dominos and Pizza Hut are often utilized to satisfy late-night cravings, but in general, their cheesy, circular bread products are not truly considered "pizza" by locals.

Bagel stores and delis are also extremely common. Many bagel stores are Jewish owned and approved as kosher. Long Island bagels are considered some of the best in the world. At least one (and often more than one) deli can be found in a town.

Professional Sports Teams

Club Sport Founded League Venue
Long Island Rough Riders Soccer 1994 United Soccer Leagues Mitchel Athletic Complex
New York Islanders Hockey 1972 National Hockey League Nassau Coliseum
Long Island Lizards Lacrosse 2001 Major League Lacrosse Mitchel Athletic Complex
New York Dragons Arena Football 1995 Arena Football League Nassau Coliseum
Long Island Ducks Baseball 2000 Atlantic League Citibank Park
Strong Island Sound Basketball 2005 American Basketball Association Suffolk County Community College
New York Mets Baseball 1962 Major League Baseball Shea Stadium
Brooklyn Cyclones Baseball 1999 New York-Penn League KeySpan Park

Ebbets Field, which stood in Brooklyn from 1913-1957, was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who decamped to California after the 1957 season to become the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers won several National League penants in the 1940s and 1950s, losing several times in the World Series — often called Subway Series — to their Bronx rivals, the New York Yankees. The Dodgers won their lone championship in Brooklyn in the 1955 World Series versus the Yankees. The Brooklyn Nets Arena is a proposed sports arena, business and residential complex to be built partly on a platform over the Atlantic Yards at Atlantic Avenue, and is intended to serve as a new home for the New Jersey Nets.

The New York Mets play at Shea Stadium in Flushing in Queens. Plans have been announced for a New Mets Stadium in Willets Point in the parking lot of the current stadium, to be completed for the 2009 baseball season. The new stadium is designed with an exterior facade and main entry rotunda inspired by Ebbets Field. The Brooklyn Cyclones are a minor league baseball team, affiliated with the New York Mets. The Cyclones play at KeySpan Park just off the boardwalk on Coney Island.

Nassau County is home to the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League, and the New York Dragons of the Arena Football League, who both play at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. The Long Island Lizards of the National Lacrosse League play at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale. Belmont Park, whose main track is the longest dirt Thoroughbred racecourse in the world, is located in the Nassau County community of Elmont.

Long Island is also home to the Long Island Ducks minor league baseball team of the Atlantic League. Their stadium, Citibank Park, is located in Central Islip. The American Basketball Association's Strong Island Sound play home games at Suffolk County Community College. The two main rugby teams are the Long Island RFC in East Meadow and the Suffolk Bull Moose in Stony Brook. It also has a professional soccer club, the Long Island Rough Riders, who play at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale. The Rough Riders have won two national championships, in 1995 and 2002.

Another category of sporting events popular in this region are Firematic Racing events, involving many local Volunteer fire departments.

Music

Modern music has a long history on Long Island, as it has long been part of US history and is near the most populous city in North America, yet is located in the suburbs and as such is strongly influenced by youth culture. Psychedelic music was widely popular in the 1960s as flocks of disaffected youth travelled to NYC to participate in protest and the culture of the time. R & B also has a history in Long Island, especially in Nassau County, where population is denser and more closely influenced by New York City (Queens and Brooklyn).

Long Island, known in the hip-hop community, and by college students, as Strong Island, was home to the members of the groundbreaking rap groups Public Enemy and De La Soul. Method Man and Busta Rhymes also share roots in Long Island. One of the genre's leading radio DJ's — Andre (Doctor Dre) Brown, a native of Westbury — plied his trade at Adelphi University's WBAU prior to achieving success on WQHT-FM and MTV. Numerous other artists have called Long Island home as well, at one time or another, such as EPMD, Keith Murray, and Craig Mack.

Other famous artists also have roots in Long Island. For example, superstar diva Mariah Carey was born and raised in Huntington in Suffolk County and Billy Joel is from Hicksville in Nassau County. Joel's debut solo album, Cold Spring Harbor, was a reference to the Long Island town of the same name. Many compositions by Billy Joel pertain to life on Long Island, particularly his youth. Examples include songs "Keepin' the Faith", "Captain Jack", "It's Still Rock n Roll to Me" (where he actually references the "Miracle Mile" located on Northern Boulevard in Manhasset) and most notably "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant", which names local eateries and hangouts. Also, the song "Movin' Out" is a highly identifiable song for Long Islanders. Its commiseration of the increasing cost for living on Long Island has its protagonists working too hard just to "move up", all too familiar to this island's inhabitants. The songs "No Man's Land" and "Downeaster Alexa" lament the increasing development of the island; the latter song specifically referring to the eastern island and its effect on the fishing industry. The pioneering heavy metal / psychedelic rock group Blue Öyster Cult came together around State University of New York at Stony Brook, releasing hits such as (Don't Fear) The Reaper, Astronomy, and Godzilla. Both of these artists had genre-defining roles in the popular music scene of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Also, New Orleans heavy metal band, Zebra, while not experiencing much success elsewhere, become popular on Long Island during the 1980s.

Modern music in Long Island includes indie music, which has rapidly grown in popularity particularly in Suffolk County where the local emo and hardcore punk scene continues to grow. It has been felt nationally by the moderate success of local bands such as Quinn, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Straylight Run, The Movielife, and From Autumn to Ashes selling Gold albums nationwide. Many churches and synagogues, as well as VFW Halls and community centers constantly house underground shows, affording cheap entertainment and an underlying sense of "scene community". Ska and pop punk bands also have an impressive following, with bands like Patent Pending, High School Football Heroes, the long-since disbanded Edna's Goldfish, and Arrogant Sons of Bitches topping the list of crowd pleasers. It is a self-serving "business", so to speak, and most bands are known on the island spill over into the northeast regions such as New Jersey and Connecticut.

A Long Island-based rock station, WBAB, 102.3 FM, plays classic rock music from the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Garden City-based radio station WLIR at 92.7 FM was nationally known in the 1980s and 90s for playing "new wave" bands from Europe that were at the time unheard of in the U.S. Many of the bands and songs eventually crossed over to more mainstream radio, for example, the groups Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Pet Shop Boys. Since 2004, the station has operated under a Spanish-language format since being bought-out by Univision. (WLIR has been reborn at 107.1 FM, but its more easterly location in Riverhead means many parts of the New York metro area that used to be able to hear it can now only do so via the Internet)

Jones Beach is an extremely popular place to view summer concerts, with new as well as classic artists performing there during the summer months at its outdoor venue.

Trivia

  • Long Island is more populated than 97 countries in the world. As an independent nation, it would rank 95th among the world's largest countries.
  • The 179 fire agencies in Nassau and Suffolk combined have more fire trucks than New York City and Los Angeles County put together. [6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "weather.com — Vulnerable Cities: Long Island". Retrieved December 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Race Alone or in Combination: Census 2000 for Kings County, New York
  3. ^ Race Alone or in Combination: Census 2000 for Queens County, New York
  4. ^ "Housing prices up - supply, too — Newsday". Retrieved March 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "The Most Expensive Homes in America — Special Edition — Yahoo! Finance". Retrieved December 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Fire alarm: The trucks, Newsday November 15, 2005

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