Economy of Long Island

Long Island's commuter towns are well known for supplying skilled labor to more urban places, but its four counties have their own factories, offices, schools and other workplaces, employing more workers than commute to distant jobs.

Affluence

The counties of Nassau and Suffolk have long been renowned for their affluence and high standard of living. This affluence is especially pervasive among the hamlets and villages on the North Shore of Long Island, the extreme eastern South Shore (home to the Hamptons) and several wealthy pockets along the South Shore further west. However, nearly all of Long Island (especially Nassau County and western Suffolk County) is quite expensive to live on by national standards.

Long Island is home to some of the most expensive mansions in the country. In 2005, the most expensive residence in the country was Three Ponds in Bridgehampton.Several of the nation's largest private residences are also on Long Island, including financier Ira Rennert's, Fair Field, in the Hampton's hamlet of Sagaponack and the country's second largest home, Oheka Castle. Long Island is home to the luxury communities of the Hamptons, Cold Spring Harbor and Lloyd Harbor in Suffolk County, and Hewlett Bay Park, Cove Neck, Oyster Bay Cove, Laurel Hollow, Sands Point, Roslyn, Glen Head, Brookville, Old Brookville, Upper Brookville, Muttontown, Syosset, Woodbury, Jericho, Massapequa, Garden City, Hewlett Harbor, and Manhasset in Nassau County.

Aviation industry

Long Island industry has long benefited from its proximity to New York City. During the 1930s, the island developed an aviation industry, and until about 1990 was considered one of the aviation centers of the United States, with companies such as Grumman Aircraft having their headquarters and factories in the Bethpage area. Grumman was long a major supplier of warplanes for the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps, as seen in many movies. Prominent WW-II Grumman aircraft included the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat fighters, and the TBF Avenger bomber. Grumman was also prominent in the US space program, being the producer of the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module.

In their early decades, aerospace-related companies were concentrated on Long Island, especially in eastern Nassau County in the Bethpage area. Over the years, the industry also diversified to other locations. The Sperry Gyroscope company did very well during WW-II as military demand skyrocketed; it specialized in high technology devices such as gyrocompasses, analog computer-controlled bombsights, airborne radar systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. These became jumping-off points into the multibillion-dollar annually avionics business. During the Cold War decade of the 1950s, part of Sperry Gyroscope was moved to Phoenix, Arizona. This was to try to preserve parts of this vital defense company in the event of nuclear warfare. Both on Long Island and in Arizona, Sperry continued to excel in avionics, and it also provided avionics systems for such NASA programs as the Space Shuttle.

The Cradle of Aviation Museum illustrates and celebrates Long Island aviation.

Science and engineering

Long Island has played a prominent role in scientific research and in engineering. It was the home of the Grumman Aircraft factories where all the Apollo program Lunar Module spacecraft were built; and it still is the home of the Brookhaven National Laboratories in nuclear physics and Department of Energy research. All of this makes Long Island one of the leading high-technology areas in the world.

Late in the 20th century companies such as Sperry Rand and Computer Associates, headquartered in Islandia, made Long Island a center for the computer industry. Gentiva Health Services, a national provider of home health and pharmacy services, also is headquartered in Long Island.

Long Island was home to the first Trans-Atlantic radio broadcast, from Rocky Point, New York to Paris, France.

Agriculture

Long Island, NY is rich in farming history and features many produce farms located on both the North Shore and South Shores. Because the western and central regions of the island are now largely devoted to residential use, the East End of the island is now the primary agricultural area of Long Island.

East End farms and farmers' markets are the major providers of Long Island's remaining supplies of locally grown fruits, berries, vegetables, poultry, and dairy products. Some farms offer pick-your-own peaches, apples, and pumpkins. This has become a traditional spring, summer, and fall outing for many Long Island residents.  The island also still has a considerable area and resources even in Nassau County devoted to landscaping horticulture.

Long Island wine

In little over quarter of a century the Long Island wine industry has grown from one vineyard to 3,000 acres (12 km2) of vines in thirty wineries. The island's maritime climate, geography and soil characteristics provide good winegrowing conditions.

The Long Island wine region formally encompasses all of Nassau County and Suffolk County, but most island vineyards are located on the North and South Forks. Some of the vineyards can grow Euopean varietal grapes, while others concentrate on hybrid grapes that are better-adapted to North American conditions of climate and pest resistance.

News and media

Long Island is the home of several newspapers and radio stations. Newsday has one of the largest circulations of all U.S. daily newspapers. The Long Island Press is a weekly paper begun in 2003. There are a few specialty newspapers such as the Long Island Business News and there are several weeklies that cover smaller community news and current events in the Long Island Communities. News 12, owned and operated by Cablevision System Corp, is one of the primary Long Island TV cable news channels.

Long Island Radio Stations

WALK-FM, 97.5 WBAB-FM 102.3 WBLI-FM, 106.1 WBZO-FM, 103.1 WLIR-FM, 107.1 WHLI-AM, 1100 WKJY-FM, 98.3 WKWZ-FM, 88.5

Tourism

Tourism thrives primarily in the summer and on the East End because of the natural beauty, parks and beaches in Long Island. The North fork on the east end of Suffolk County is known for fishing villages, quaint towns, ferries to Connecticut and other neighbors, and for wineries. The South fork has similar tourist attractions including golf, equestrian, boating, surfing, and fine dining in the Hamptons and Montauk. Patchogue is also host to the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts, which is also the official home theater of the Atlantic Wind Symphony.

Sunrise in Quogue.

Villages are significant additional tourist attraction for the Island. Some tourism is local Long Islanders simply visiting nearby friendly villages. Examples of well developed villages that attract surrounding communities are Huntington Village, Northport Village, Islip Hamlet, Port Jefferson Village, Sayville, & Cold Spring Harbor in Suffolk County. Roslyn Village, Great Neck, The City of Long Beach, The City of Glen Cove, Massapequa Park and Rockville Centre, Garden City are popular Nassau County Villages. The Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau provides information about tourism on Long Island.

Other industries

Fishing continues to be an important industry, especially at Northport and Montauk.

Since World War II, Long Island has become increasingly suburban and, in some areas, fully urbanized. Levittown was only the first of many new suburbs, and businesses followed residential development eastward.

Long Island is home to the East Coast's largest industrial park, the Hauppauge Industrial Park. The park has over 1,300 companies, and employs over 55,000 Long Islanders. Companies in the park and abroad are represented by the Hauppauge Industrial Association.

A growing entertainment industry presence can also be found on the Island. Most recently producer Mitchell Kriegman established Wainscott Studios in Water Mill where the PBS children's show, “It's a Big Big World”, is shot.

See also

Economy of the United States

(source:wikipedia)