Infinity. Bruce’s. Posture-Line. Classico. Panchos. Bevanda. Camp & Campus. These were a few of my friends’ favorite local haunts. Now they’re gone – and soon, I may be too.
I am a Great Neck millennial. I was born here in 1993. My family has lived here for 50 years. And with the exception of college, I have always lived here. While I am a resident of Great Neck, I spend most of my time outside of Great Neck. Sadly, this is the case with almost all of the Great Neck millennials I’ve grown up alongside.
Whether we spend our time in the five boroughs to the west or out towards Eastern Long Island, none of us have any desire to return to home. While any other community would (and should) find this to be a surprising and concerning trend, I doubt I am breaking news to any resident reading this.
Growing up here, I had never imagined I would come to feel this way. Neither did any of my friends. We grew up in the greatest suburb of the greatest city on the planet, and I have always been proud of our town. Yet these days, the prospect of enjoying a dinner date, a drink with a friend, or a cup of coffee in town has become more and more inconceivable.
For almost a decade, Middle Neck Road has been desecrated by eyesores; vacant and decrepit buildings line the town’s main thoroughfare as empty buildings have outrageously been allowed to sit empty in a state of squalor for years.
I was curious why our town has had such difficulty retaining the suburban charm it used to have as retail outlets continue to shutter. After looking into it, I realized Great Neck’s difficulties have not been a result of greedy landlords, poor business plans, or any natural disasters. It’s because a handful of residents have selfishly protested the perfectly reasonable construction of brand new buildings.
It should be simple math – new construction attracts, newer, younger, families and individuals. In turn, a larger population base allows for the growth of more successful businesses, pizza parlors, coffee shops, clothing stores, gyms, and the like. Once current and new businesses are able to thrive, the positive outcomes multiply– more housing and businesses create a larger tax base, allowing for greater public improvement in infrastructure, schools, and other town amenities.
In turn, a more desirable town, with better schools and roads, operating restaurants and shops, and safer and cleaner public spaces, attract more residents, which starts the process anew.
Market data affirms this tragic tale. In the decade following 2009, neighboring towns have seen home prices skyrocket, while Great Neck is the only Gold Coast town that has seen an overall decrease in home prices:
Critics have voiced complaints in this paper and at community meetings about road congestion, overcrowding, noise pollution, and more. These concerns are almost always without merit.
Recent research indicates a 1 percent increase in city population will result in a less than 0.5 percent increase in traffic congestion, an essentially unnoticeable amount. 2020 construction provides for top-of-the-line noise insulation. And besides, I’d like to ask my fellow constituents – which is a more pressing issue: an additional minute or two added to your commute or the fact that town businesses and the next generation of residents are moving out in droves?
I implore our community leadership to focus on the real issue: Great Neck’s turnaround. Do not get distracted by the loud but small minority looking for anything to arrest any progress. To the mayors, school board members, commissioners and trustees, please allow for cooler minds to prevail. We need champions for growth and advancement.
There have been a few notable efforts. Former Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman bravely faced outrage when he supported turning a closed-down gas station into a 7-Eleven on Middle Neck Road. Of course, the 7-Eleven has been well received by residents, as many people will happily attest to. In fact, most of the people who protested its development can be seen regularly making use of its convenience!
In 2015, Kreitzman’s successor, current Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral, attempted to pass a new zoning package with the stated aim of revitalizing the Village to its former glory. However, he could not get the zoning passed; as usual, a small group of loud and unreasonable voices demanded that we continue to let Great Neck die simply because they fear change. Unfortunately, most of the projects proposed in the Village are still held up for the same reason.
I am calling on my fellow Great Neck millennials. If we want to feel hopeful about Great Neck’s future, we need to wake up. We need to get involved. We need to stand up and demand that our leaders deliver. We need to fight for new housing, commerce, culture, food, and a town we can be proud of, instead of embarrassed about.
Joshua Kadden
Great Neck
RIP Pancho’s 🙁
Well said, Joshua. Although I am not one if your fellow Great Neck millennials (I’m a couple of decades older), I have been a Great Neck resident for the past 16 years ago likewise, would like to take advantage of more to do in Great Neck if it were available. Leaving old businesses closed down without anything new to take their place serves no one in the community. It’s long past time that we allow Great Neck to flourish and reach its full capability of being a fun, engaging town which all residents can enjoy.
I am a great neck resident. Everything you said is 100% correct.
This is perfect.
Thank you josh
Great Neck has many vacancies in its current apartment buildings according to online listings. And new buildings just went up in the Plaza. Rentals. Why wouldn’t you and your young friends move into those apartments? Also publicly available census data shows our neighbors (Port Washington, Roslyn, Garden City) have less people than Great Neck and more vibrant commercial districts. The reality is, adding people doesnt lead to a more vibrant downtown. We ALL want a more lively downtown. But Overdevelopment doesn’t get us there.
And where is the data showing schools on the Northside have plenty of room? Right now the junior and senior high schools on the northside are having students come in every other day versus every day (like some of the elementary schools) bc of population issues. Pandemic aside, parents have had concerns about class sizes going up on the north side. Do you have kids in the schools or some special insight into the district’s ability to accommodate a growing population while maintaining the highest quality public education and enrichment programs? It’s well established, as class room sizes go up, educational benefits go down. (I can send you studies.)
As with many suburbs with top rated school districts and easy commutes to the City (Scarsdale, Roslyn, ShortHills), people build careers and savings before they buy homes in these communities.
We all want more coffee shops and restaurants but the answer isn’t building numerous apt buildings to overcrowd our schools, pools, parks, train station parking lots and strip our peninsula of its suburban character based on a misguided hope it will revive our local shops.
Also, despite your “observations” and insinuations, the truth is that apt buildings are going up on the peninsula. Just take a look around Great Plaza or attend a GN Village Board Meeting.
Also, while I understand it’s wonderful to be near family, before millennials run back to their hometown they may want to consider the upside to exploring and growing personally and professionally while renting a small place in a bustling City – Brooklyn, Manhattan, San Francisco, etc.
In any event, your argument assumes there aren’t available apartments here now. I’ve seen no evidence of that.
“We ALL want a more lively downtown. But Overdevelopment doesn’t get us there.”
Great Neck is so “overdeveloped,” half the properties are unoccupied.
This kind of obstructionism is the problem. And it’s based on an irrational fear of ANY change, and pure xenophobia. Great Neck looks like a slum.
I’m glad to see this piece resonated with so many people, as evidenced by a share count of over 700 (so far.) Hopefully, the majority will have it’s voice heard over the provincial objections of the NIMBYs.
Look at the entitlement expressed in this statement:
“Also, while I understand it’s wonderful to be near family, before millennials run back to their hometown they may want to consider the upside to exploring and growing personally and professionally while renting a small place in a bustling City – Brooklyn, Manhattan, San Francisco, etc.”
Maybe others should do some “considering” of their own.
Remember: this is a NATIONAL problem. It affects the young EVERYWHERE. Great Neck is just a microcosm of a larger conflict being played out in almost every part of the country. And it’s killing the opportunities and well being of our young.
A record number of under 30s now live with their parents. Time to build. Time to grow.
We live in the village of Great Neck Plaza (for 40+ years now) not Great Neck. However, the issues described here are reflective of life on the peninsula regardless of what village or unincorporated area you reside. It appears the area is dying commercially as those who live here become more ethnocentric and less secular. Maybe it’s goniff landlords to blame. Maybe it’s the new online economy. Whatever, the blight is easily seen on the main streets while vulgar mansions continue under construction everywhere you look. Meanwhile, the LIRR commuter parking lot for NYC jewelers and stock brokers remains virtually empty, but the bus stop returning day workers to their homes far away from Great Neck are packed in the late afternoon.
Let’s get in touch and explore your thoughts/ideas further.
Great neck chamber of commerce
I am 40 bought a home in great neck a year ago and am greatly disappointed in the area. Everything the author of this poignant article wrote is 100% correct. While reading the thread of comments
One can see the old ideas and antiquated thinking versus the very realities of what it’s going to take to renew and keep Great Neck as a vibrant, top notch town which sadly its absolutely not now! The empty buildings should be forced into renovation and no new buildings allowed until all old and empty store fronts or private homes etc with existing empty or decrepit commercial or residential land is redeveloped. It’s a DISGRACE and cheap that a dollar store is even in great neck no less permitted across from Kensington and on main thoroughfare. I deeply regret not moving to Manhasset or Port Washington which both have much, much nicer downtown’s. Manhasset being the most quaint and healthy. Port Washington is also starting to have some run down buildings. The author also failed to address the macro problems. He did a wonderful job of addressing the micro problems but also bigger issues that are coinciding at same time like the perfect storm and they have only been accelerated into super high fast gear by covid 19 is that now majority people can work remotely in more tax friendly, warmer climates and be digital nomads. We dont need great neck anymore we have to want it. New York has grown to be a losing state and city for at least a decade too much regulation, too high taxes and not enough high quality and enough rate of return in quality of life etc. I am in process of buying a second home in booming Florida. If Great Neck doesnt get their act together in 2 to 4 years I will be selling Great Neck home and I will never ever return to New York or GN! And I am a life long, New Yorker, raised locally. I have traveled all over the world and to 30 states in USA extensively and this is no longer the greatest place. To all the overhyped rhetoric on local schools greatness….its just that overhyped! I have checked extensively and Great Neck schools do not hold up to national rankings while 2 New York City schools do! NYC schools are awful too but that’s another story. Why GN children do ok in life is due to the majority higher socioeconomics standards they come into the schools to begin with! The “top” rating of schools compared to other subpar, non nationally ranked schools is not much to brag about. People pay way too much in taxes for what’s here.
Beautifully written. Completely agree. So unfortunate that the noisy minority keeps holding Great Neck back.
There are some excellent points here on both sides. I live and own a business in Port Washington. Businesses on Main Street, Port Blvd, and Manorhaven have been dying off faster and faster. I am in the unique position of being a small business owner, I own and run Atlantic Outfitters fishing shop and Wharf Sports golf and sports simulators, and I work as a property manager. The problem is rents which are driven by outrageous taxes. Businesses (with fewer and fewer exceptions) cannot afford to pay the rent and fees they are saddled with. This is all driven by government. Our property taxes are too high and property taxes translate into rent. As taxes continue to rise, landlords have to increase rent. Nassau County is currently bumping up everyone’s property taxes. Landlords can only charge so much rent to pay their property taxes, utilities, insurance, and try to maintain their properties. Business owners (tenants) can only afford to pay so much rent and make a living. If they can’t do both they have to close down. If rents are too high properties can’t get new tenants and spaces sit empty and unmaintained because the owners can’t afford it. They (or a new owner) have to develop the property to have more tenants, spread the tax burden for reasonable rents, and be able to make a living. The core issue is until our taxes are gotten under control and the government gets mismanagement, spending and government waste under control things will not improve no matter what you do. If you want to stop development then you need to reduce taxes. Again I say this as a local business and local property manager. As a property manager taxes are my #1 expense and commercial property taxes are 3X what residential taxes are. After that my highest expenses are insurance and utilities. Things I have little control over. Owners have no choice but to develop and hope they can fill the spaces if they can get the rents low enough for the local real estate market to bear. I hear the local traffic issue. Here in Port we had two large companies with thousands of employees close down. Traffic at certain times of the day was much worse when there were hundreds of cars trying to get in and out of the peninsula. What we have now are more large trucks delivering to the box stores that have been added but the amount of outside car traffic has gone down. Our biggest issue no matter what you think the problem is are taxes.
You are 100% correct. Rent and taxes are too high for small businesses. I have a business in the Plaza and the rent is outrageous. And while my business is not affected by Amazon or other online options, it definitely affects retail stores.
Morgan Stanley’s U.S. base-case outlook includes single-housing as the new US housing trend. Increasing the Great Neck population density by adding apartment buildings is the way to bankruptcy for real estate developers and the way to the devastating local real estate market devaluation.
Quote: “We see single-family housing, via both rentership and ownership, as the real beneficiary of more people working from home, and risk aversion potentially fueling an exodus from densely populated areas.” Source: https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/coronavirus-us-economic-outlook
As I bought my house 7 years ago, I was looking to raise my kids in a quiet suburban area, with good schools, tree-lined streets, and beautiful quiet parks. Great Neck was one of them. Parks, pools, and schools got crowded, streets disguised by high apartment houses and jammed by constant traffic, parking unavailable. No family-friendly bike lanes to avoid traffic. Air and noise pollution increases. If this trend continues, I stay only as long as my kids enjoy the quality of local public schools.
Population growth results in wear and tear of local infrastructure planned for suburban lifestyle and existing zoning laws. Local village boards constantly disregard existing zoning laws and allow developers to build bigger, higher, and denser. But they forget to invest in infrastructure to accommodate this growth. Imagine adding a hospital, a fire department, couple schools, expanding sewage systems, electric grid and gas pipelines, and widening main streets during the next 10 years. These are the future expenses and taxpayer burdens that will make life in Great Neck even less affordable. The quality of suburban life will already be gone.
With increased density and increased taxes or lacking infrastructure, the house prices will go down rapidly. The Kings Point residents are already suffering this trend. Who’s going to buy a 10 million house in dense traffic with a bay view from your cesspool?
My message is simple. We moved to Great Neck for it’s beautiful suburban flavor and it’s excellent public schools. The overcrowding will result in congestion on the roads and overpopulation. Traffic will be a nightmare, streets will be overloaded with people, our utilities will be strained, and the schools will suffer due to far too many pupils in a classroom. Our property values will sink. We will ruin our town.