I grew up in Baldwin, left to go to college in Vermont and never really went back.
I have a love/hate relationship with Long Island and NYC in general. My mom and half my family is still there so i go back a few times a year.
A friend of my sisters once said "New Yorkers are simultaneously both the nicest and nastiest people you will ever meet". I tend to agree with that.
If you cross them, God help you. They can be really pissy and whiny about little inconveniences. But when a big crisis hits there is no one I'd rather be next to. Google "Boat evacuation 9/11" to see what Im talking about.
If you need help they will give you the shirt off their backs, after they stop bitching about whatever caused the need for help LOL.
When my Dad was dying of cancer the neighbors were amazingly helpful. Mix of old white people, young black people, a Hindu and a Muslim all were right there with anything we needed. In my neighborhood in Vermont the people are far more reserved and I'd maybe have gotten a bundt cake and a brief wave as they passed by in their car and thats about it .
I was down there for Hurricane Sandy as my dad had had a minor stroke the day of the storm and ended up in a hospital in the evac zone, and my mom was FREAKING out. Their power came back on just as I got there but we loaned the genny I had brought to an Indian family down the block and it kept them alive (they had 2 disabled family members) for nearly 2 weeks. It was me and 6 guys from the surrounding streets figuring out how to hook it to their furnace, and half the neighborhood turned out to watch LOL. It was actually pretty great.
I stood on line with a gas can for gas one morning and the drivers in line were alternately threatening to kill line-jumpers and offering me a seat in their car so I could warm up LOL. I couldn't stop laughing at the contrast.
I never really fit 100% down there and still don't, there is too much materialism there and its too damn crowded. And yeah there are a ton of obnoxious "guidos" and whiny libtards. But dig a little deeper and you will also find some real good people who, once you get past the cranky outer shell, have hearts of gold.
And yeah, no one makes pizza like NYers do. The only pizza I'll eat up here is made by guys who relocated from Huntington and Bay Shore. LOL .
Just my $.02.
CG
P.S. I am glad I grew up there, I think it gave me a level of adaptability and flexibility I may not have developed otherwise, though clearly theres no way to test that hypothesis. I'm not afraid of much, after living down there in the 70s and 80s. Hubby, on the other hand, grew up in rural northern VT and freaks out every time we get near a city.