- There is also a Town of Nassau in Rensselaer County.
Nassau County is a suburban county in the
New York Metropolitan Area east of New York
City in the U.S. state of New York. As of the
2000 census, the population was 1,334,544. The name of the county comes from
an old name for Long Island, which was at one time named Nassau, after William of
Nassau, Prince of Orange (who later became King William III of England.) The county colors, orange and blue, are also the
colors of the House of Orange. Nassau County's county seat is Mineola.
Nassau and Suffolk counties together are generally referred to as
"Long Island" by area residents — as distinct from the New York City boroughs of Queens (Queens County) and Brooklyn (Kings County), which physically make up
the island's westernmost end.
In 2005, Forbes magazine named Nassau County, along with Suffolk County, New
York, as the safest region in the United States, with the lowest crime rate.
As of 2004, Nassau County is the second richest county per capita in the State of
New York and the thirtieth richest in the nation, with a
median household income of $78,762.[1] As of 2005, Nassau
had the second highest median property tax in the nation at $7,025.[2]
History
Nassau County was originally the eastern 70% of Queens County, when New York was divided into
12 counties in 1683. The area was originally contained in two towns: Hempstead and Oyster Bay. During the
American Revolutionary War, the town of Hempstead was split into two, when
Patriots in the northern part formed the new Town of North Hempstead, leaving Loyalist majorities in the Town of Hempstead. Following the 1898 formation of the
City of Greater New York, the part of Queens County that was not annexed to New
York City, consisting of the two towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay and most of the town of Hempstead (excluded was the
Rockaway Peninsula, which did join Greater New York), was constituted as the new Nassau
County, but not until 1899, one year later. Several other names had been considered: Matinecock (note that a village in
the county currently has that name), Norfolk, (presumably because of the proximity to Suffolk County), Bryant, and
Sagamore, but Nassau had the historical advantage of having at one time been the name of Long Island itself.
The elegant, ivy-framed arched windows of the
Belmont Park grandstand in this 1999 photo.
The current grandstand, Thoroughbred racing's largest, was completed in 1968 after five years of renovations to the Belmont
complex.
In 1910 (some sources state 1918), The Village of Glen Cove became a city and
seceded from the Town of Oyster Bay.
In 1918, the Village of Long Beach was incorporated in the Town of Hempstead. In
1922, it became a city and seceded from the Town.
The United Nations Security Council was temporarily located in Nassau
County from 1946 to 1951 -- at the Sperry Gyroscope headquarters in the village of
Lake Success near the border with Queens County. It was here on June 27, 1950 that the Security Council voted to back U.S. President
Harry S Truman and send a coalition of forces to the Korean Peninsula, thus kicking off the Korean War.
During the latter part of the 20th Century, Nassau County saw an influx of migrants from the five boroughs of New York City,
especially Brooklyn and Queens, who left their urban dwellings for a more suburban setting. This led to a massive boom in
population in the county, especially on the south shore. In 1947, William Levitt built
his first planned community in Nassau County, in the Island Trees section (later renamed
Levittown). (This should not be confused with the county's first planned community,
in general, which is Garden City). In later decades, communities such as
Wantagh, East Meadow, Massapequa, Massapequa Park, and
Franklin Square began to grow. In 1995 Federal Judge Arthur Spatt declared the
Nassau County Board of Supervisors unconstitutional and directed that a 19 member legislature be formed. Elections were held and
Republicans won 13 seats and elected Bruce Blakeman as its first Presiding Officer(Speaker).
In the 1990s, Nassau County saw huge budget problems, forcing the county to near bankruptcy. The county government increased taxes to prevent a takeover by the state of New York. This has
led to the county having notoriously high property taxes, leaving some migrants from New
York City who are seeking suburban life to move to Suffolk County, the
Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Connecticut or Pennsylvania.
In recent years Nassau County has recovered from its economic malaise of the 1990s. Since 2000, housing prices on Long Island
have been the highest in the country. The economy has been booming and according to the United States Census Bureau, residents of Nassau County have among the highest per capita
wealth in the country. Nassau County has also experienced heavy urbanization in many areas, such as Hempstead, Freeport, Mineola, and Westbury, leading some to say that some parts
of the county resemble the outer boroughs of New York City rather than a suburb of it, though the Five Towns region tends to be more affluent than western Queens. The northern "Gold Coast" region tends to
more closely resemble nearby Westchester County.
Law and Government
The head of the executive is the County Executive, a post created in Nassau County in 1938. The current county executive is
Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat who
was elected in 2001; he is the first Democratic county executive since Eugene Nickerson
left office in 1970. The District Attorney is Democrat Kathleen Rice, who in November,
2005 defeated 30-year incumbent Republican Denis Dillon in an upset victory. The county comptroller is Howard
Weitzman, a Democrat, the county clerk is Republican Maureen O'Connell, and the
county assessor is Harvey Levinson, another Democrat.
The county legislature has 19 members. There are ten Democrats, nine Republicans.
Nassau County Legislature
| District |
Legislator |
Party |
| 1 |
Kevan Abrahams |
Democrat |
| 2 |
Roger Corbin |
Democrat |
| 3 |
John Ciotti |
Republican |
| 4 |
Denise Ford |
Republican |
| 5 |
Joseph Scannell |
Democrat |
| 6 |
Francis X. Becker, Jr. |
Republican |
| 7 |
Jeffrey Toback |
Democrat |
| 8 |
Vincent Muscarella |
Republican |
| 9 |
Richard Nicolello |
Republican |
| 10 |
Lisanne Altmann |
Democrat |
| 11 |
Wayne Wink |
Democrat |
| 12 |
Peter J. Schmitt, minority leader |
Republican |
| 13 |
Norma L. Gonsalves |
Republican |
| 14 |
Dave Mejias |
Democrat |
| 15 |
Dennis Dunne, Sr. |
Republican |
| 16 |
Judith Jacobs, presiding
officer |
Democrat |
| 17 |
Edward Mangano |
Republican |
| 18 |
Diane Yatauro |
Democrat |
| 19 |
David Denenberg |
Democrat |
Law enforcement
-
County police services are provided by the Nassau County Police Department. The cities of Glen Cove and Long Beach, as well as a number of
villages, such as Freeport, Garden
City, Hempstead, Lake
Success, Lynbrook, Rockville
Centre, and Sands Point, are not members of the county police district and maintain their
own police forces. The same goes for the villages and unincorporated areas of Port
Washington, which belong to the Port Washington Police District, the only such district in New York State. These smaller
forces, however, make use of such specialized county police services as the police academy and the aviation unit. Also, all
homicides in the county are investigated by the county police, regardless of whether or not they occur within the police
district.
In 2006, Village leaders in the county seat of Mineola expressed dissatisfaction
with the level of police coverage provided by the county force and actively explored seceding from the police district and having
the village form its own police force. A referendum on December 5, 2006, however, decisively defeated the proposal.[3]
Since the Long Island State Parkway Police was disbanded in 1980,
all of Nassau County's state parkways have been patrolled by Troop L of the New York
State Police. State parks in Nassau are patrolled by the New York State Park Police. In
1996, the Long Island Rail Road Police Department was consolidated into the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police.
County correctional services and enforcement of court orders are provided by the Nassau County Sheriff's Department. New York
State Court Officers provide security for courthouses.
Politics
Presidential elections results
| Year |
GOP |
Dems |
| 2004 |
46.6% 288,355 |
52.2% 323,070 |
| 2000 |
38.5% 226,954 |
57.9% 341,610 |
| 1996 |
36.1% 196,820 |
55.7% 303,587 |
| 1992 |
40.5% 246,881 |
46.4% 282,593 |
| 1988 |
57.0% 337,430 |
42.2% 250,130 |
| 1984 |
61.8% 392,017 |
38.0% 240,697 |
| 1980 |
56.0% 333,567 |
34.8% 207,602 |
| 1976 |
53.7% 329,176 |
47.6% 302,869 |
| 1972 |
63.3% 438,723 |
36.5% 252,831 |
| 1968 |
51.3% 329,792 |
43.3% 278,599 |
| 1964 |
39.4% 248,886 |
60.5% 382,590 |
| 1960 |
55.1% 324,255 |
44.8% 263,303 |
| 1956 |
69.0% 372,358 |
30.9% 166,646 |
| 1952 |
69.9% 305,900 |
29.8% 130,267 |
| 1948 |
70.1% 184,284 |
26.8% 70,492 |
Like its neighbor Suffolk County, the county was for many years
politically controlled by the Republican Party. In the 1990s, it began to
swing Democratic. Democrat Bill Clinton won the county in presidential elections of
1992 and 1996. Later Nassau voters gave a large margin of victory to Al Gore in 2000 (57.9% to 38.5%) but
John Kerry won in 2004 by
a slimmer margin (52.2% to 46.6%) : in that election, Kerry won the towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead , but lost the
town of Oyster Bay.
Democratic strength is mainly concentrated in the central part of the county, near the Village of Hempstead and
Uniondale, where there is a large African American and Hispanic population. Also,
the wealthy northern half of the county, with the exception of parts of Manhasset,
is heavily Democratic. This includes Great Neck, Glen Cove and Roslyn. There are also pockets of staunch
Democrats in the Five Towns area in the southwest part of the county and in Long Beach.
Republicans are mainly concentrated in the more suburban areas of the county. The middle class southeastern portion of the
county is heavily Republican and communities such as Massapequa, Seaford, Wantagh, Levittown, and Bethpage are the political base of
Congressman Peter T. King. In the western portion of the county, wealthy Garden City is solidly Republican, as is the more middle-class community of Franklin Square.
The politically volatile areas of the county are in Farmingdale,
East Meadow, Mineola, Oceanside and Rockville Centre.
Long Island's only Republican member of Congress, Representative Peter T. King is from
Nassau County. His 3rd District includes heavily populated
suburban neighborhoods like Long Beach, Massapequa, Levittown, Hicksville, Seaford, Wantagh, and Glen Cove. But Nassau County is also home to
the popular gun-control advocate, Democrat Carolyn McCarthy, whose 4th District includes Garden City,
Hempstead, Uniondale,
East Meadow, Valley Stream and
Rockville Centre. McCarthy defeated Republican congressman Dan Frisa in 1996 and has held on to her seat since. Nassau County's other two congressmen are both
Democrats. Representative Gary Ackerman, represents the 5th District, which includes the northwestern part of the county, including
Great Neck, Sands Point, and
Port Washington, and stretches into northeastern Queens. Steve Israel's 2nd District is mainly in Suffolk
County, but also includes parts of Plainview, Old Bethpage, Jericho, Syosset, and Woodbury in Nassau County.
All of Nassau County's state senators were Republicans until February 2007 when
Nassau County Legislator Craig Johnson was elected to the State Senate in a
special election in the 7th district. The GOP, however still has a State Senate advantage of
8-1 on the Democratic trending Long Island, which is largely the reason the state senate is still in GOP hands. The districts are
drawn so as not to overlap Queens, which has a stronger lean toward the Democrats.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,173 km² (453
mi²). 743 km² (287 mi²) of it is land and 431 km² (166 mi²) of it (36.72%) is water.
Nassau County occupies a portion of Long Island immediately east of New York City, in the southeastern portion of New York
State. It is divided into
Adjacent Counties
Demographics
As of the census² of 2000, there were
1,334,544 people, 447,387 households, and 347,172 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,797/km² (4,655/mi²). There were 458,151 housing units at an average density
of 617/km² (1,598/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 79.30% White, 10.01% African American, 0.16% Native American, 4.73% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 3.57% from other races, and 2.12% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.09% of the population.
By 2005 Non-Hispanic Whites were 70.1% of Nassau County's population. African Americans were 11.3% of the population. Only 1%
of the population reported more than one race though. Asians were up to 6.6% of the population, which means that even if all the
people who had reported more than one race who switched to one race had switched to reporting themselves as Asian, there was a
growth in the Asian population. The Latino population had grown slightly faster than the African-American population and now was
11.7% of the population.
Italian Americans make up a large portion of Nassau, and there are numerous Italian
communities throughout the county. There is a small Sikh population in Nassau County which is
evident by two Sikh Gurdwaras or temples; one in Plainview and the other in Glen Cove. Other significant
European descent groups include: 17.43% Irish, 13.20% German and 3.07% English.
According to the Census Bureau, the population of the county has slightly decreased to 1,333,137 people in 2005, althrough it
had increased to 1,339,641 in 2004.
There were 447,387 households out of which 35.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.10% were
married couples living together, 10.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and
22.40% were non-families. 18.80% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.40% had someone living alone who was 65
years of age or older. The average household size was 2.93 and the average family size was 3.34.
In the county the population was spread out with 24.70% under the age of 18, 7.30% from 18 to 24, 28.90% from 25 to 44, 24.00%
from 45 to 64, and 15.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 92.80
males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.00 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $72,030, and the median income for a family was $81,246. Males had a
median income of $52,340 versus $37,446 for females. The per capita income for the
county was $32,151. About 3.50% of families and 5.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.80% of those under age 18 and 5.60% of those age 65 or over.
Colleges and universities
Nassau County is home to numerous colleges and universities, including Adelphi
University, Molloy College, Briarcliffe
College, New York Institute of Technology, SUNY Old Westbury, Nassau
Community College, Hofstra University, C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University, and the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
Adjacent counties
- with land boundaries
- with water boundaries
County Symbols
Bird = Osprey
Nassau county official flower is viola pedata "Birdsfoot Violet"
References
- ^ America's richest and poorest places - 20 richest and poorest: the most affluent counties
are in the East, but western cities score well, CNNMoney.com, August
31, 2005
- ^ Suburbs Near NYC Have Highest Tax Bills, Newsday, October 4, 2006
- ^ Residents Make
Statement Against Village Police Department, Mineola American, Dec. 15, 2006
See also
External links
