Staten Island (Willowbrook)
Pros:
- safe community, crime is virtually unheard of (notwithstanding white collar and one terrible homicide by a crazed husband). You can sleep at night without every being awoken by sirens.
- Pretty good express bus service to downtown (35min) and midtown (50min) NYC, though little public transportation to brooklyn. New GPS tracking of buses makes it easy to not wait to long for a city bus. 15-minute drive to EWR airport.
- Housing is very cheap for NYC (less than $500k for a fixer-up detached home about 4000 sq ft plot 4br 3bath with nice backyard and about $380k for a move-in condition and quality semi (3br 2bath 3000sq ft plot).
- Parking is plentiful and no internal street traffic, though the staten island expressway can get really slow at peak times (but Islanders know the side streets which can help to an extent).
- The streets are clean and everyone has their own garage. There's no alternate side business and no parking meters.
- Low real estate taxes (about 2600 for a semi), much less than 5 towns, but need to pay NYC taxes. on bright side, decent snow services, and Con-Ed did a great job during Hurricane Sandy (only one planned 3 hour outage for most houses).
- More of an out-of-town feel than the rest of NYC, people are generally quite friendly and say good shabbos to each other with a smile. Much more accepting of different looks/dress than brooklyn/queens.
- Schools are decent and cheap, with JFS (modern), RJJ (frummer, but a good mix of MOs) and a small chabad + local nursery options. i have personally been impressed with RJJ (considering the relatively low tuition) and JFS is a decent co-ed/modern option, plus there are transportation options to brooklyn for frummer or NJ for more modern. Tuition is cheaper than most places, but the quality/caliber of faculty is probably a notch down (not that i mind).
- lots of trees and great parks and trails, and more parks (and a ferris wheel) coming in the future. great non-jewish store choices all within 5-10 minutes driving, such as trader joes, costco, target and the staten island mall in general. jersey gardens outlets about 15 minutes away.
- Has all basic kosher needs, though many come at a small $premium to brooklyn, very good and quality butcher (Payless), good takeout (kosher island), servicable bakery (Famous), great pizza and more (Dairy Palace), cholov yisroel ice cream/breakfast and more (scoops), Holy Schnitzel (schnitzel/salads) and Chopshtix (chinese/fried chicken) with free delivery, Cafe J at the JCC (broad from deli to burgers etc.). kosher (Chalav stam) carvel and dunkin donuts.
- Eruv and wide variety of shuls/people, with growing kollel (which some consider a con) at R Pollack's Shul (chassidish/sfard frummer feel), large Young israel with all types (including a classic minyan, modern sfard minyan, a teen minyan and bi-monthly young married minyan), small Agudah with R Moshe Meir Weiss, several edus mizrach type shuls and a classic chabad shul, cheder and yeshiva. hashkama minyan, faster minyans etc.
- great youth services at young israel like arranged babysitting on RH/YK so wives can daven, and regular shabbos groups during shachris/mussaf and also in afternoon (combined with regular groups, kids can be out with friends from 2:30-6pm).
Cons:
- The majority of the community came 25-30+ years ago and is older and slowly dying out/moving to Israel/Florida/Lakewood etc. to be with kids. fear that the handful of new young families that take the leap and buy a house each year won't grow at the rate the old families leave/die, and cause the limited local services to dwindle.
- NY weather.
- The local kosher restaurant scene is fairly dismal (and nothing near hi-class), and the lack of one all-in-one kosher grocery store like a Gourmet Glatt is a big negative for those who dont want to go to one place for bakery, takeout and regular kosher groceries. Some say Staten will never be able to support such a local store since so many just buy in brooklyn (or get it delivered). on the plus side, brooklyn and downtown ny can be a 20 minute drive if you want to go out somewhere nice, or Teaneck is about 40mins.
- Houses are still relatively expensive vs out of town, and most options are High-Ranches, which some (like me) dont like too much. Virtually no classic apartment buildings, so young crowd is limited to basement apartments and a few other choices, and SI can never be a KGH or other hi-rental zone full of young married couples.
- Full NYC taxes, and must cross bridges (with some discounts) to get off the island.
- Very Limited high school options. Boys: (small low-priced chofetz chaim on island for boys, plus Yeshiva of Staten Island and other more hardcore frum yeshivos (with little general studies). JEC is more modern local choice in NJ, and some frum send their kids to Philly/Ner yisroel etc. Girls: nothing. Bruriah in NJ for more modern, or some shlep to Manhattan, and Prospect park for frumer in Brooklyn.
- Some feel the local yeshivos are subpar, and run at an operating loss requiring significant fundraising.
- Need to drive/bike to get groceries/food etc. Suburban zoning sets the homes away from virtually all shopping/restaurants.
- will always be made fun of b/c there used to be a huge dump on the island (could be seen from space).
- Traffic on summer sundays from NJ and from brooklyn on friday afternoons in winter can be really slow on local Expressway.
- Was really built by courageous and powerful characters who have moved on, and there is no real leader of the community anymore.
- Very republican-heavy with a strong conservative tilt (for those who care about politics).
happy to take questions
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