Young Perspectives on Long Island's Economic Future

College students today are graduating into a turbulent economy. On Long Island and in Farmingdale, this is conpounded by high taxes, high real estate prices and .

Some may have to leave, others are waiting it out and some have already left. Hear how recent graduates are contributing to - or combating - a future in Farmingdale.

Nick Gardino

Gardino, 22, is a lifelong Farmingdale resident, who graduated from Five Towns College in May with degrees in business management and audio recording technology.

One semester before graduating he started his own company, New Royalty Records, a recording studio in Farmingdale.

“I'm rather certain that finding a job in my field would be very difficult, but I never intended to search for one,” he said. “Some people fear the uncertainty of self employment, or entrepreneurship, I fear what it would be like to not be passionate about my career.”

Gardino currently rents an apartment in the area.

“The cost of living can be really hard,” he said. “The cost of living is a little ridiculous, especially in this terrible economy.”

He says that he hopes to stay on Long Island, citing amenities like its close location to New York City and the beaches, but that there are too many variables involved to predict if he’ll be able to buy a home and stay here.

“I hope that I can stay on Long Island and really develop my company out here,” he said. “This is where I started, this is where I grew up, and it will always be my home.”

Laura Conte

Conte, 23, says she loved growing up in Farmingdale. Her father is part owner of in the Village of Farmingdale.

“Every part of the town has shaped my life, whether it was Moby, Northside, the high school or as I got older the night life on Main Street,” she said.

In 2010, she graduated from CW Post with a degree in public relations. Three months after graduation she found a job in Melville just five minutes from her home Farmingdale.

“I still live at home with my parents,” she said. “I can’t afford a house right now, but hoping in a few years I will be able to.”

Conte called the price to live here “a little crazy.” “I always ask my parents how they do it,” she said.

 She plans on living at home to save money so she can eventually purchase a home here.

“I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” she said. “If I am lucky enough I will be on Long Island forever.”

Deanna Andriotti

Andriotti, 23, moved to Farmindale when she was 5 and left to attend Mount St. Mary College at 17. After college, she chose not to return to Farmingdale.   

“I am now living in Newburgh as an official resident,” she said, adding that she works at the college as a grad assistant and as a substitute teacher in the Newburgh School District. “I chose not to return to Farmingdale for a few reasons. I wanted to continue living independently, working towards my masters at a reasonable rate, continuing the good reputation in Newburgh [I’ve built] as a teacher, and for my future husband who is stationed in Newburgh as a Marine.”

She doesn’t plan on returning and raising a family here.

“I love Farmingdale because that is what I grew up knowing, but as I experience new places I am expanding my ideas of the ‘better’ or ‘best’ place to raise a family,” she said. “I will not be raising a family in Farmingdale, or on Long Island.”

Andriotti said she would not have been able to buy a house on Long Island and that she probably would have had to live with roommates in an apartment. She said moving back to her parents house wasn’t something she wanted to do.

“It's hard to establish yourself when you're unable to ‘grow’ up and move out,” she said. “My fiance and I compared how many of our friends moved out after college, and way more of my Long Island friends live home than his friends in Colorado. Unaffordable housing must be a culprit.”

She said she loves how close everything is on Long Island and how the parts of Long Island are so different.

“But it’s getting overcrowded and the traffic can be horrendous,” she said. “I think young residents feel the financial pressure and decide that they may be better off someplace else.”

Christopher Patterson

Patterson, 24, was born and raised in Farmingdale. He attended Stony Brook University and graduated with a degree in political science and a minor in business management in 2009.

But he had been in the workforce long before graduating, working in the IT field.

“I wanted to go to college to learn something that I would never pick up on my own,” he said.

He decided to remain in the IT industry after graduation and is currently a director of Information Systems and Technology for the Airport Medical Offices at John F. Kennedy Airport, and he is also the founder and managing director of Island Tech Consulting.

Patterson currently lives at home and says he doesn’t foresee having to leave Long Island anytime soon.

“I believe there will be affordable housing options for 20-somethings on Long Island in the near future, especially in next-gen housing models like the ones that is working on,” he said.

He said a concern of his are high school taxes and dissapointing state report cards some school districts on Long Island like Farmingdale have been receiving.

Besides this, and the traffic, he has no major complaints about Long Island. He plans on staying home while the economy settles down.

“I don't pay rent, so I am able to bank what would have been spent on rent or a mortgage,” he said. “There just really isn't any benefit to me moving out right now.”

Maureen Danielo

Danielo, 22, moved to Farmingdale when she was in first grade. She doesn’t want to leave but said she may have to.

“I would love to live on Long Island and raise my family here, because I feel like there are great schools, and an overall great environment,” she said. “But I have had severe difficulty finding a permanent physical education tenure track position.”

Danielo graduated from Hofstra University in January and since then has worked as a substitute teacher and coach while going to graduate school and living at home. She hopes to find a full-time position, but say there are very few jobs listed for the upcoming school year."

“The job market is challenging everywhere, but due to the state aid cuts for school districts on Long Island it’s even worse here,” she said. “I am starting to look into relocating to find a full time position.

Danielo started her undergraduate education at Towson University in Maryland and transferred back to Long Island so she would be certified to teach here.

“I realized I did not really want to teach in Maryland and live there long term,” she said. “I decided to transfer because I felt getting my New York State Teaching Certification, and networking myself on Long Island would be more beneficial to my career future.”

She says without a full-time job she is not able to consider moving out of her family's house yet.

“Unfortunately, I think leaving Long Island is going to be inevitable,” she said.