Is Long Island really that bad?
I've been around, travelled a lot, lived in a few places, and barring the Deep South, Long Island is the worst place I've ever experienced. The people that are from here are worse than you can imagine. In many places around the country, people are generally friendly. Long Island? Your simple existence is an inconvenience to others. Many people are openly racist, homophobic, etc. it's rampant. Big time hick culture despite being so close to NYC, it's weird. Some of the most asshole drivers I've ever experienced. Speaking of which, the roads are constantly in horrible condition because they're beat to death.
One of the only positive things most people can say about it is the beaches. Ok? If you like the outdoors that's the only thing you can do. And it's only good to do for like 2 months a year - outside of that it's way too hot or way too cold. If you like to ski, hike, bike, or anything else, upstate is great for that - BUT, it's at least a 3-4 hour drive through NYC traffic to get there, or take a $120 round trip ferry through CT. There are some little parks here and there, but overall the island is not good for outdoorsy people.
Aside from that, it's expensive as fuck, and for no reason. It's not a nice or desirable place to live. It's expensive even on CPC + OT money. The apartment situation is fucked up, you either have to go through these mega landlord agencies like Fairfield or Heatherwood and pay close to $2,000 to rent ONE bedroom, or you can save a little money by paying $1500 for an illegal basement apartment with no windows. If you manage to save enough money to buy a small, modest house, 2-3 bedrooms? You're gonna spend at least $300-400k for anything remotely okay, and your property tax is going to be over $10,000 a year. It's not uncommon for people to pay $15-18k.
I could go on. The local governments and police are ridiculously corrupt. There are hundreds of red light and speed cameras hidden everywhere and it's at least $80-150 every time if you stop over the line. If you get pulled over and get a ticket for anything, you know how a lot of times you can get a warning and maybe talk to the officer? Not here, zero warnings they don't even speak to you. They just hand you a ticket, and if you decide to take your day in court, they'll offer you a bribe where you can pay $500 to reduce whatever you got to zero points. It's a massive racket.
The place itself will suck whatever soul you have out of you, and add working for the FAA on top of that? No thank you.