Why Did You Buy a Home on the South Shore?

Why Did You Buy a Home on the South Shore?
A Guest Editorial by Christine Marzigliano

I grew up in Baldwin in a lovely English Tudor home and cherished my childhood playing in Brookside Preserve and sledding on the hills of the Baldwin Golf Club. Trees lined Grand Avenue then and shaded our parades each Memorial Day and 4th of July. I remember returning to Baldwin for the Bicentennial parade in 1976 whereby every former resident stood on their “old corner” and reacquainted with “old” neighbors that had moved away. My fondest memory was of going to Nunley’s carousel each Saturday to win brass rings so that I could return the next Saturday. It’s been over ten years since Nunley’s was “saved,” and it’s time for the County to complete the restoration and allow the children to enjoy the wonderment of riding on the carousel.

My grandfather settled in Baldwin after moving from Crown Point, NY in the late 1800’s. He was a world traveler for the Victor Recording Company. He lived briefly in Boston and Philadelphia, but always returned to the South Shore of Long Island to live (Freeport, Hempstead and finally Baldwin). He built his first home on Harvard Avenue and spent the rest of his life there. He took my mother and her sisters to Lindberg’s return from crossing the Atlantic and impressed upon them the importance of experiencing history in the making. All five sisters lived on the South Shore.

And so, when it came time to purchase my own home in the 1970’s, I looked to the South Shore. I knew each town well from Rockville Centre to Massapequa. My first concern was in purchasing a home that had a good resale value – a good school system and three bedrooms. I drove my real estate agent crazy finding a home not on a busy street, not on a “T” cross street, one with lots of trees and affordable. I actually found my own home by riding around the streets of the South Shore looking for “For Sale” signs, and when I stepped out into my large back yard, I knew I just had to purchase that home. I’m right on the border of Wantagh and Seaford and have a Seaford address, but am in the Wantagh Fire Department district.

I was fortunate enough to know so many of the community volunteers who advocated against pelletization, for the proper placement of cell towers, for keeping our preserves pristine and for keeping up the maintenance at the Cedar Creek sewage treatment plant. I have supported the efforts of such activists and mentors as Betty Blake, Betty Murphy and Vicky Rosenberg in trying to preserve the aesthetic quality of our neighborhoods by Perpetually Preserving our preserves, passing legislation against the removal of trees, protecting our school children from the emissions of the sewage treatment plant and supporting our School Boards in meeting the educational needs of our children. I do not intend for all their efforts to be destroyed.

Progress is defined as 1) a royal journey marked by pomp and pageant, 2) a tour or circuit made by an official, 3) an expedition or journey through a region, 4) a forward movement, 5) a gradual betterment. No where in this definition do I see the word destruction. Developers have invaded my beloved South Shore – building house behind house, destroying trees in subdividing properties, destroying streams to create buildable lots, building condos where historic homes once stood, building mega-mansions where modest homes once stood. The entire character of our neighborhoods is being changed and destroyed. And with the increased demands made on our infrastructure, trees are taken down to widen streets, power companies expand to meet the increased electrical demand of our denser population and our sewage treatment plants approach capacity. If we are to “move forward” in a positive way within our communities, we must unite to preserve every existing aesthetic characteristic that attracted us to our communities. We must object to “special exceptions” sought by developers, we must fight against the splitting of lots and we must lobby our elected officials for a moratorium on subdividing existing lots. Our municipalities must “take a hard look” at their existing zoning laws and revise them to strengthen the aesthetics of our local communities (Rockville Centre went through such a revision recently). We must get involved with our Homeowners Associations, civic associations and volunteer associations so that we know what is going on in our community. We must read the Legal Notices every day, seeking out those developers who would seek to destroy our beloved communities. For if we do not take a stand now, we will continue to urbanize – no more streams or parks or preserves, no more trees or woods or wildlife – only dense populations of people “living on top of each other.”

My home town of Baldwin lost those large old maple trees in order to widen Grand Avenue by one foot on each side; Nunley’s carousel closed over ten years ago yet is still in storage; the Baldwin Golf Club is long gone; Newbridge Creek was replaced by an underground culvert (yet it still floods); homeowners move to Wantagh Woods and then cut down the trees, mega-mansions replace modest homes (3 out of 7 homes on the east side of Maple Avenue in Seaford have been torn down and replaced this year), condos have replaced old historic homes in our downtowns and, most recently, all the trees have been removed from the two lots to the south of the Wantagh Historical Society Museum in anticipation of the subdivision of these two lots. When the pelletization plant was proposed for Cedar Creek, one member of each family volunteered to seek an alternative to pelletization by working on research, contacting our elected officials, doing legal brief preparation and attending meetings to find out what the health affects were to living near a sewage treatment plant. This was a tremendous undertaking by many concerned citizens. I truly believe we are at the point where we must attend and speak up at our County Legislative, Town Board and Village Board meetings. We must advocate for zoning changes that will preserve our way of life, not allow its destruction. We must each get involved NOW or suffer the consequences.

Just look back at your childhood and then look at our towns today – many trees are gone, the old wooden hotels in each town are gone, the main streets are wider and cars are going faster, the railroad is now elevated, many older homes are gone and replaced with stores or condos, large lots are being subdivided, our population is increasing, our schools are more crowded, our infrastructure is burdened, our taxes are higher and we look more like Queens. We must support and attend meetings on zoning issues or stand idle while our small town quality is destroyed. Yes, this takes time and effort. But I believe the results will be rewarding. Many of our local organizations have done admirable jobs in adding plants to our local pocket parks and store fronts, but we need to join together to maintain the residential nature of our communities. I believe that progress should be “a gradual betterment” for our communities, not for the developers that would seek to change the aesthetics of our towns. Please get involved.