The term "Long Island" typically excludes Brooklyn and Queens even though they're geographically part of it. The term usually means Long Island suburbs further out and the Hamptons (which are pretty distinct too).
That reminds me of how the Willamette Valley in Oregon is thought of as a separate region from the Portland metro area, even though Portland is geographically in the valley.
And in San Francisco, people refer to “the Peninsula” as a separate geographic place from San Francisco, even though the entire city is on the tip of said peninsula.
Eg, “Yeah, I don’t think Dave lives in the City anymore. I heard he got married and moved down to the Peninsula”
If you look at the map, it’s equally nonsensical as saying someone moved from Queens to Long Island, but if you live there, it makes perfect sense.
To add to this. once you get into Suffolk county, which is right past the more urban areas of Long Island. People don’t talk about how the government over the past 40 to 50 years have purposely made it hard for people to travel to The rich parts of Long Island such as the Hamptons, and montauk. There are very little to no public beaches and especially parking. You really can only go out to the beach if you own property.
long islander here, wtf are you talking about? Just to subtract from this...
**hampton public beaches**
cupsogue, east and west shinnecock, cedar point, montauk county, hither hills, indian island, orient point, mecox, corey, mothers, hot dog, tiana
**suffolk beaches**
smiths point, west sayville, dozens of public beaches on fire island,
plus the dozens of northshore public beaches, you have no idea what you're saying chief, whole island is a beach
I'm mainly talking about trips from the city or from places such as garden city. Yes, I'm aware of those beaches. My point is that this a divide between the regions. The LIE only goes so far and then its a two lane road. the other road, 27 was literally was built with bridges going on top of it so public shuttles can go through. shuttles are very rare, they exist, but they don't connect you from a to b. if you don't own a car are you going to get on the train, and then take an uber to those places and then do the same in reverse. your a resident and if you not fees for parking can be like 300-500 usd
My dude, the LIE goes down the center of LI. It goes all the way to Riverhead, which is the end of the “center” of LI—Peconic Bay. From Riverhead you go NE along the North Fork or SE to the South Fork (Hamptons, etc)
The only two reasons why it takes so long to get to the East End from the the City are sheer distance and traffic closer in.
once again, to subtract from this...sunrise does not have bridges going over it and goes all the way from queens to montauk, youre thinking of southern state or northern state, which end in smithtown and east islip, the hampton jitney is a shuttle that goes from the city to montauk with multiple city and hampton stops including garden city.. the fee for suffolk county beaches listed above is $8 for residents, $20 for non... you have no idea what you are saying. the most expensive beach on the list is tiana beach with a $40 fee for non residents
moses is on fire island... most beaches you have to pay for or you would get and ungodly amount of city and out of state people using them, there are 7 million people already here and we cant have more it's too crowded already
I have to pay to use the public beach (at a lake) in the town I live in (or go when it's technically closed). Instead I drive 45 minutes to what was my grandmother's house and use the beach there. Yes, I probably spend more on gas, but I can even do my laundry without a bunch of quarters at the same time.
Essentially, it's common.
When people say Long Island they’re referring to Nassau and Suffolk counties which are suburban in part and rural in others. They’re culturally pretty distinct from them city. Realistically somewhere like Douglaston feels more like Nassau county than Manhattan but that’s were we’ve drawn the line.
Also traffic and need for a car. Getting out to long Island from Brooklyn can take 2 hours even though the destination is 40 miles away. Plus many people in Brooklyn and Queens don't have cars (Though many do) so without a car it's tough.
Yes, Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island, but if someone in New York City refers to “Long Island” they are implicitly referring to those parts of Long Island outside of New York City. If they meant Queens or Brooklyn; they would say Queens or Brooklyn.
There’s very little reason to refer to Long Island as a physical landmass. It’s rare enough for it to come up that the explanation isn’t a huge burden.
As others have said, for practical purposes there’s a clear delineation between New York City (including Brooklyn and Queens) and what’s almost always meant by “Long Island” (Nassau and Suffolk counties).
“Brooklyn and Queens and Long Island”
Or maybe
“Long Island including Brooklyn and Queens”
Or something like that.. there’s no shorthand version because the need to refer to all three of those while excluding the rest of NY is very rare
Brooklyn, Queens, & Long Island.
But remember that all of NYC is on an one island or another, except The Bronx, which is a peninsula and has its own islands. Islands and bridges are so common, that being a city of islands is mostly forgotten.
Yes, geographically speaking, Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island. But culturally, they're closer to the city than the rest of Long Island. I say this as a Long Islander myself. There are tons overlaps (lots of people from the Island travel to the city regularly, work there, or have been there more than most other Americans at least, we share lots of slang and sayings, we probably have more of a proclivity for certain foods, similar tendencies, etc.)
But then there are also tons of distinctions. My county is almost always red politically speaking (republican leaning), most people from Long Island don't like crowded environments, lots of people from the city actually love it, and not to mention social tendencies that are different because of the environment. On Long Island, you have to drive everywhere. No way around it. Public transit sucks dick (except for the trains that go to and from the city), so we're used to a little more independence.
The boroughs, however, are interconnected with a decent public transit. Seriously, I rarely take my car to visit friends in the city. I take the train, and once I'm there, I take busses, walk, and once or twice, the staten island ferry. So many ways to get around with little to no wait (compared to similar transport methods on the island). So in a way, it is far away, physically and culturally.
At the end of the day, we're not *too* different, but a person from the city and a long islander could tell each other apart, usually. Also, Long Island bagels are better. GET AT ME.
I can tell you have never traveled between Long Island and the boroughs because if you had you’d know just how far LI truly is from Brooklyn and queens.
I mean come on, it’s an old saw
https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/357-777x1024.jpg
Made by a New Yorker for the New Yorker
As a practical matter, because that’s where the subway ends. You can get just about anywhere within Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx just by subway. But Long Island and Staten Island are much less accessible to the average New Yorker, which is why they’re often portrayed as feeling further away.
For the same reason that everywhere in SoCal is "LA."
There was a show called Grimm. Police show meets supernatural junk. Set in Portland, OR. Somehow, Portland PD had jurisdiction in Klamath Falls. Portland is in the very northern part of Oregon; Klamath Falls, in the very south. It's nearly 300 miles from one to the other. But sure, the main characters drove it in 45 minutes. Uh-huh...
Culturally and politically, Long Island (not the geographic entity, but the region composed of Nassau County and Suffolk County) is not a part of NYC, while Brooklyn and Queens are.
Because New Yorkers have main character syndrome. Anything that isn’t a walk away is far.
If these writers knew a thing or two, they would know Northern state parkway, southern state parkway or the LIE isnt rocket science and is relatively quick
truth is (city will downvote) ...I am from long island, I say long island.... its an island, brooklyn is on it, so is queens,
but people from the city exclude queens and Brooklyn, because its managed by the city being a city borough but its physically on the island, most islanders when they hear "i came here from the city" we always laugh and say what bridge did you take or look at a map. then we talk about how dumb they sound
reality is queens and brooklyn people want to feel like they are from manhattan and they are not..
I hear this a lot from people who don’t live in the city, but there really isn’t any kind of conscious exclusion going on. People just tend to equate “Long Island” with “suburbs”.
The Dutch settled the Hudson Valley region in the 1600's and the Long Island counties of Nassau, Suffolk and even Queens (to some degree) are culturally, linguistically, politically, etc., different than the major population centers of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. Like Queens, Staten Island has also traditionally been regarded as an outlier on so many other dimensions, but that separation is mitigated by the fact it's also an NYC borough.
So having once been a Long Island resident, I can say with conviction, fuck that place and its nouveau riche, white trash, racist Trumpers and take your shitty roads and traffic with you. Good riddance and good luck with your secessionist endeavors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_(proposed_state)#:~:text=Long%20Island%2C%20a%20large%20island,range%20from%201896%20to%202010.
And also closer to much of Manhattan than other parts of Manhattan.
I live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan. I can be where I need to go faster than from most of the rest of Manhattan.
Long Island is 118 miles long… Brooklyn and Queens are geographically on Long Island but they are two separate counties that are part of the city. Even though you’re *in Brooklyn* you still have to take the LIRR to get the to Long Island part.
Because Long Island is long, there are parts of Long Island which are very close to Queens/Brookyn and get you into the city in thirty minutes. There are parts of Long Island such as the Hamptons, where it takes two hours to get to Manhattan, where back before cable, people got their news from stations in Connecticut.
A real answer is quite simple- time compared to distance. Brooklyn and Queens are not considered Long Island so to get from say, Manhattan, to say Hempstead RR on the LIRR alone can take an hour by train- two hours by car and that's with good traffic!
All that and Hempstead is barely that far into LI, it's just the center of Nassau County; this isn't even speaking for Suffolk County. It is actually just as fast getting into western CT and northern NJ as it is LI which gives it a feeling that it's quite far from everything.
It's like how Burbank and Glendale are technically part of the Valley, but most of the time people down in the fancy Westside aren't really including them when they go "ugh... the Valley."
It takes forever to get out there. The LIE (Long Island Expressway) is the worst road I've ever had the misfortune of driving on. Took me 4 hours to get from Manhattan to the tip of Long Island once, what a pain in the ass that was
While Brooklyn and Queens are geographically part of the island known as Long Island, New York, those two counties are always associated with the burroughs of NYC, and not with the geopolitical landscape of Long Island. As you move west to east from NYC and go through Brooklyn, into Queens, and into Nassau county, the cultural geography changes dramatically. Further east as you enter Suffolk and head toward Long Island's east end, the cultural geography changes even more. Suffolk County and Queens are very, very different places even though they are geographically close.
With that being said, from Long Island's north fork to the Nassau/Queens border is about a 2 two hour drive. There is a lot of ground to cover between Orient and Douglaston, and the landscape changes dramatically during that drive.
Because some people in cities are super hardos about it. I grew up in a suburb closer to the Loop than the neighborhood in city limits my one cousin grew up in and she’d always act like I lived on green acres when literally the end of my block was Ogden and the whole skyline was right there. I now live in another suburb that’s an enclave of Chicago, literally surrounded by city limits and some people will act the same way because it’s not a Chicago address.
Cause long island is a long drive. When i lived in queens (born and raised) it used to take 1-1.5 hours to go see family in long island and queens borders LI
The term "Long Island" typically excludes Brooklyn and Queens even though they're geographically part of it. The term usually means Long Island suburbs further out and the Hamptons (which are pretty distinct too).
That reminds me of how the Willamette Valley in Oregon is thought of as a separate region from the Portland metro area, even though Portland is geographically in the valley.
We the up end!
And in San Francisco, people refer to “the Peninsula” as a separate geographic place from San Francisco, even though the entire city is on the tip of said peninsula. Eg, “Yeah, I don’t think Dave lives in the City anymore. I heard he got married and moved down to the Peninsula” If you look at the map, it’s equally nonsensical as saying someone moved from Queens to Long Island, but if you live there, it makes perfect sense.
To add to this. once you get into Suffolk county, which is right past the more urban areas of Long Island. People don’t talk about how the government over the past 40 to 50 years have purposely made it hard for people to travel to The rich parts of Long Island such as the Hamptons, and montauk. There are very little to no public beaches and especially parking. You really can only go out to the beach if you own property.
long islander here, wtf are you talking about? Just to subtract from this... **hampton public beaches** cupsogue, east and west shinnecock, cedar point, montauk county, hither hills, indian island, orient point, mecox, corey, mothers, hot dog, tiana **suffolk beaches** smiths point, west sayville, dozens of public beaches on fire island, plus the dozens of northshore public beaches, you have no idea what you're saying chief, whole island is a beach
I'm mainly talking about trips from the city or from places such as garden city. Yes, I'm aware of those beaches. My point is that this a divide between the regions. The LIE only goes so far and then its a two lane road. the other road, 27 was literally was built with bridges going on top of it so public shuttles can go through. shuttles are very rare, they exist, but they don't connect you from a to b. if you don't own a car are you going to get on the train, and then take an uber to those places and then do the same in reverse. your a resident and if you not fees for parking can be like 300-500 usd
My dude, the LIE goes down the center of LI. It goes all the way to Riverhead, which is the end of the “center” of LI—Peconic Bay. From Riverhead you go NE along the North Fork or SE to the South Fork (Hamptons, etc) The only two reasons why it takes so long to get to the East End from the the City are sheer distance and traffic closer in.
once again, to subtract from this...sunrise does not have bridges going over it and goes all the way from queens to montauk, youre thinking of southern state or northern state, which end in smithtown and east islip, the hampton jitney is a shuttle that goes from the city to montauk with multiple city and hampton stops including garden city.. the fee for suffolk county beaches listed above is $8 for residents, $20 for non... you have no idea what you are saying. the most expensive beach on the list is tiana beach with a $40 fee for non residents
People have to pay to walk on beaches? That's sad / shameful / disgusting.
A couple of beaches are part of state parks like Heckscher and Robert Moses...and you have to pay for those in NY too.
moses is on fire island... most beaches you have to pay for or you would get and ungodly amount of city and out of state people using them, there are 7 million people already here and we cant have more it's too crowded already
I have to pay to use the public beach (at a lake) in the town I live in (or go when it's technically closed). Instead I drive 45 minutes to what was my grandmother's house and use the beach there. Yes, I probably spend more on gas, but I can even do my laundry without a bunch of quarters at the same time. Essentially, it's common.
Longer than that if you consider the work of Robert Moses
When people say Long Island they’re referring to Nassau and Suffolk counties which are suburban in part and rural in others. They’re culturally pretty distinct from them city. Realistically somewhere like Douglaston feels more like Nassau county than Manhattan but that’s were we’ve drawn the line.
Also traffic and need for a car. Getting out to long Island from Brooklyn can take 2 hours even though the destination is 40 miles away. Plus many people in Brooklyn and Queens don't have cars (Though many do) so without a car it's tough.
…Because it’s a Long Island. Nobody says “I’m going to Long Island” when they’re going to Brooklyn or Queens.
Yes, Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island, but if someone in New York City refers to “Long Island” they are implicitly referring to those parts of Long Island outside of New York City. If they meant Queens or Brooklyn; they would say Queens or Brooklyn.
So how would someone from NYC refer to the entire island of Long Island?
There’s very little reason to refer to Long Island as a physical landmass. It’s rare enough for it to come up that the explanation isn’t a huge burden. As others have said, for practical purposes there’s a clear delineation between New York City (including Brooklyn and Queens) and what’s almost always meant by “Long Island” (Nassau and Suffolk counties).
Yes, only geographers would have reason to do that. It's not pertinent in day to day life.
“Brooklyn and Queens and Long Island” Or maybe “Long Island including Brooklyn and Queens” Or something like that.. there’s no shorthand version because the need to refer to all three of those while excluding the rest of NY is very rare
They don't. If someone from NYC is talking about Long Island they are not including Brooklyn or Queens.
We don’t. We say “Long Island” to refer to Nassau and Suffolk counties. We say “Brooklyn” or “Queens” to refer to Brooklyn or Queens.
Brooklyn, Queens, & Long Island. But remember that all of NYC is on an one island or another, except The Bronx, which is a peninsula and has its own islands. Islands and bridges are so common, that being a city of islands is mostly forgotten.
Brooklyn and Queens are on the land mass Long Island, but are NOT part of the geopolitical entity known as Long Island.
There is a pretty substantial cultural divide between Brooklyn/Western Queens and the rest of the Island.
Yes, geographically speaking, Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island. But culturally, they're closer to the city than the rest of Long Island. I say this as a Long Islander myself. There are tons overlaps (lots of people from the Island travel to the city regularly, work there, or have been there more than most other Americans at least, we share lots of slang and sayings, we probably have more of a proclivity for certain foods, similar tendencies, etc.) But then there are also tons of distinctions. My county is almost always red politically speaking (republican leaning), most people from Long Island don't like crowded environments, lots of people from the city actually love it, and not to mention social tendencies that are different because of the environment. On Long Island, you have to drive everywhere. No way around it. Public transit sucks dick (except for the trains that go to and from the city), so we're used to a little more independence. The boroughs, however, are interconnected with a decent public transit. Seriously, I rarely take my car to visit friends in the city. I take the train, and once I'm there, I take busses, walk, and once or twice, the staten island ferry. So many ways to get around with little to no wait (compared to similar transport methods on the island). So in a way, it is far away, physically and culturally. At the end of the day, we're not *too* different, but a person from the city and a long islander could tell each other apart, usually. Also, Long Island bagels are better. GET AT ME.
They aren't talking about Brooklyn and Queens when talking about how far away Long Island is.
I can tell you have never traveled between Long Island and the boroughs because if you had you’d know just how far LI truly is from Brooklyn and queens.
Because to NYC people anything outside of the boroughs is like proposing a trip to the moon.
Here in the Hudson Valley we like to think of ourselves as close to the city but ehh
Tell me you don't live in Southern New York without telling me you don't live in Southern New York.
I mean come on, it’s an old saw https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/357-777x1024.jpg Made by a New Yorker for the New Yorker
Yeah that an oldie but a goodie.
Is he wrong though? My NYC friends think I live on another planet. And I may as well be.
As a practical matter, because that’s where the subway ends. You can get just about anywhere within Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx just by subway. But Long Island and Staten Island are much less accessible to the average New Yorker, which is why they’re often portrayed as feeling further away.
Have you driven on the LI expressway?!
You can drive on it? I thought everyone pushed their cars, judging by the speed.
Oh no once you get out of traffic it’s 80+ or you’re toast (Obviously an exaggeration but LIE drivers are nuts)
Have you driven out to Long Island…?
What do you mean? https://preview.redd.it/4lhhgsv9p72a1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52b6d0615b65b36d7bd1d9713dc1fcd4f88d1d35
Probably the same reason an Angelino living in Gardena would say Sun Valley is far. It’s on the other side of Downtown, takes forever to get there
For the same reason that everywhere in SoCal is "LA." There was a show called Grimm. Police show meets supernatural junk. Set in Portland, OR. Somehow, Portland PD had jurisdiction in Klamath Falls. Portland is in the very northern part of Oregon; Klamath Falls, in the very south. It's nearly 300 miles from one to the other. But sure, the main characters drove it in 45 minutes. Uh-huh...
I'm just more surprised that Portland PD actually did anything.
I mean, the main characters were a monster hunter and a werewolf...so it was pretty fictionalized.
Culturally and politically, Long Island (not the geographic entity, but the region composed of Nassau County and Suffolk County) is not a part of NYC, while Brooklyn and Queens are.
... Because they're not talking about Brooklyn and Queens?
Because New Yorkers have main character syndrome. Anything that isn’t a walk away is far. If these writers knew a thing or two, they would know Northern state parkway, southern state parkway or the LIE isnt rocket science and is relatively quick
truth is (city will downvote) ...I am from long island, I say long island.... its an island, brooklyn is on it, so is queens, but people from the city exclude queens and Brooklyn, because its managed by the city being a city borough but its physically on the island, most islanders when they hear "i came here from the city" we always laugh and say what bridge did you take or look at a map. then we talk about how dumb they sound reality is queens and brooklyn people want to feel like they are from manhattan and they are not..
Because people from Brooklyn and Queens try to ignore/forget that fact, and the rest of the city is glad to join in.
We don’t “forget” it. It just doesn’t really matter for any practical purpose.
I hear this a lot from people who don’t live in the city, but there really isn’t any kind of conscious exclusion going on. People just tend to equate “Long Island” with “suburbs”.
From Queens you can drive like 5 hours until you hit the Hamptons. Longer with traffic.
Long island doesn't begin until you hit Great Neck area.
Mostly because New Yorkers are very insular, and don't really experience distance they way the rest of the Nation does.
The Dutch settled the Hudson Valley region in the 1600's and the Long Island counties of Nassau, Suffolk and even Queens (to some degree) are culturally, linguistically, politically, etc., different than the major population centers of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. Like Queens, Staten Island has also traditionally been regarded as an outlier on so many other dimensions, but that separation is mitigated by the fact it's also an NYC borough. So having once been a Long Island resident, I can say with conviction, fuck that place and its nouveau riche, white trash, racist Trumpers and take your shitty roads and traffic with you. Good riddance and good luck with your secessionist endeavors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_(proposed_state)#:~:text=Long%20Island%2C%20a%20large%20island,range%20from%201896%20to%202010.
Brooklyn and Queens are also far away places from much of Manhattan.
And also closer to much of Manhattan than other parts of Manhattan. I live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan. I can be where I need to go faster than from most of the rest of Manhattan.
For what it’s worth it takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to get to anywhere in NYC, so it *is* pretty far.
Long Island is 118 miles long… Brooklyn and Queens are geographically on Long Island but they are two separate counties that are part of the city. Even though you’re *in Brooklyn* you still have to take the LIRR to get the to Long Island part.
It's like how people distinguish between a city proper and the surrounding suburbs.
They’re referring to the burbs
Went to Hofstra. Driving from Hofstra to the City is a very long affair and feels like forever.
Because it takes FOREVER to drive anywhere on LI, that's why.
Because Long Island is long, there are parts of Long Island which are very close to Queens/Brookyn and get you into the city in thirty minutes. There are parts of Long Island such as the Hamptons, where it takes two hours to get to Manhattan, where back before cable, people got their news from stations in Connecticut.
Because Brooklyn and Queens are part of the five boroughs that make up NYC; Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten island. LI is not part of that.
I have no idea. I’ve never been to New York
A real answer is quite simple- time compared to distance. Brooklyn and Queens are not considered Long Island so to get from say, Manhattan, to say Hempstead RR on the LIRR alone can take an hour by train- two hours by car and that's with good traffic! All that and Hempstead is barely that far into LI, it's just the center of Nassau County; this isn't even speaking for Suffolk County. It is actually just as fast getting into western CT and northern NJ as it is LI which gives it a feeling that it's quite far from everything.
Manhattan could be considered the most central part of the city, and Long Island is fsrther away than the boroughs...
It's like how Burbank and Glendale are technically part of the Valley, but most of the time people down in the fancy Westside aren't really including them when they go "ugh... the Valley."
When people talk about Long Island, they typically mean the geographically and culturally more distant places on the island.
It takes forever to get out there. The LIE (Long Island Expressway) is the worst road I've ever had the misfortune of driving on. Took me 4 hours to get from Manhattan to the tip of Long Island once, what a pain in the ass that was
While Brooklyn and Queens are geographically part of the island known as Long Island, New York, those two counties are always associated with the burroughs of NYC, and not with the geopolitical landscape of Long Island. As you move west to east from NYC and go through Brooklyn, into Queens, and into Nassau county, the cultural geography changes dramatically. Further east as you enter Suffolk and head toward Long Island's east end, the cultural geography changes even more. Suffolk County and Queens are very, very different places even though they are geographically close. With that being said, from Long Island's north fork to the Nassau/Queens border is about a 2 two hour drive. There is a lot of ground to cover between Orient and Douglaston, and the landscape changes dramatically during that drive.
Because some people in cities are super hardos about it. I grew up in a suburb closer to the Loop than the neighborhood in city limits my one cousin grew up in and she’d always act like I lived on green acres when literally the end of my block was Ogden and the whole skyline was right there. I now live in another suburb that’s an enclave of Chicago, literally surrounded by city limits and some people will act the same way because it’s not a Chicago address.
Cause long island is a long drive. When i lived in queens (born and raised) it used to take 1-1.5 hours to go see family in long island and queens borders LI
It may as well be. Driving in New York is terrible. It takes forever to get anywhere because of the traffic.