I am busily working on a business plan for my CUNY law class. I am conducting a plan for starting a non-profit that works on policy issues for community building in poverty areas. This is due Thursday. For more information, wait until Thursday as I am a paying member for the procrastinating scholars association.
So I thought I would take a little time to talk about Bay Shore. If you want the Bay Shore chamber of commerce perspective and history thereto, look it up on Wikipedia. My perspective is as follows. Bay Shore is a confused community that hasn't decided if it is a suburb, a summer get-a-away or a retirement community. First problem: isolation. Bay Shore is the 10th stop on the Long Island Rail Road leaving from downtown Manhattan's Penn Station. This takes a little over an hour, if you are lucky enough to happen upon an express train which only has 4 stops. But that's not enough. It is also one-stop past the last stop, which is Babylon, on this line. So you then get to wait for another train that goes out to the Hamptons. Getting to just about anywhere on this train costs $9.50 each way (off-peak) and $14.50 each way (peak).
The closest real source of employment, or a city, is Jamaica Queens, which is about 45 minutes on the express. So trying to determine what people do out here is almost an impossibility. There are a fair number of hospitals in the greater county (Suffolk) and three within 15 minutes of me. One is across the street. This means that I get to hear the sweet sounding chirping of the sirens. Which brings me to a question: when did they change the sirens sound? This is not within my childhood memory.
After determining that I wouldn't be able afford the transportation costs of working anywhere other than Bay Shore, I took a stroll to see if there were any prospects here. What I found was funny and depressing. One block south of my apartment is Main Street. Yes, they have a Main Street. And heading West on Main Street, you find exactly what you expect to find in a Mulberry type town. There is (A) coffee shop. There is a hardware store. There are a few littered attorneys who, of course, specialize in personal injury cases. There are bars (that are crosses between taverns and pubs.) and there are random convenience stores, "specialty" stores, and craft stores.
What was depressing was the number of vacant store fronts on this street. More than half of them are under construction, out of business, or for lease. Heading east on Main, you get a different economic "model." There are 3 strip malls. These consist of your familiar fronts: Chain grocery stores, Blockbuster, independently owned "restaurants," a nail shop, and a dry cleaner. So where does everyone work?
The community is highly segregated. To the South of Main, lay enormous properties with pre-Industrial Revolution houses, though sadly some have been modernized, and boats. This leads me to believe that these may be summer houses or long island get-a-ways. On the north side of Main, near the rail road tracks are mostly minorities with Brooklyn accents. I live in an apartment near the tracks. Most of the residents are families pushed away from the city due to rising costs and gentrification. Yet there are clearly few jobs here that support family wages. This encompasses my community building concerns. Bay Shore neither provides the economic structure for the community nor does it reflect the culture of the community that resides here.
There are many hospitals but how many residents are getting there basic health needs met or even have health care? There are small businesses but the lawyers focus on torts. There are real estate offices, but the real estate consists mostly of million dollar plus estates. Finally there are comparatively few universities considering the large population. Visiting wikipedia and the chamber of commerce, you learn that this town used to thrive. Then crime and economic deterioration drove wealthy residents away. The community is rebuilding but the signs of unity and community building are hidden. Who is doing the building?
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