I grew up in Sea Cliff, sailed with my family in a small sloop all over Hempstead Harbor, swam off Sea Cliff Beach til my lips turned blue, helped my dad rake and burn leaves every fall, rode my bike to Spooky Park, had a neighborhood gang, walked to school every day, lived in a wonderful old farmhouse that had been the chauffeur's residence on a big 1920's estate, stopped by my grandmother's after school every day for cookies, and for a time, lived in a town where every single grandparent, aunt, uncle and cousin lived there too.
It is a magical place, and I wish the same kind of beautiful memories for every kid who gets to grow up there.
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Sea Cliff is definitely one of the nicest town on Long Island, having grown up in the village I am happy to have grown up in a such a community. It is a good place to live and raise a family. you definitely can get around with a bicycle instead of a car, they keep on building really big new expensive houses.
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Former home of the author Anne McCaffrey, until she moved to Ireland to take advantage of the tax benefits.
I grew up in Glenwood Landing, the town just to the south of Sea Cliff. When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, Sea Cliff was a mix of old hippies and artists and its parks were where the local kids went to smoke pot. The architecture was always cool but a lot of the houses weren't in great shape, as you'd expect in a community where people didn't have a lot of money. And there was barely any sense it was a suburb of NYC -- the whole area was a bit anachronistic. I'm glad the homes have found caring owners but a bit saddened that the prices have turned it into Park Slope on the Sound.
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NYT consistently fails to present flood risk when promoting places to live. Sea Cliff sounds lovely, but is at high risk of residential flooding due to projected sea level rise of >6 inches over the next 15 years.
As the future of federal flood insurance looks gloomier and voters’ appetites for bankrolling rebuilding in flood prone areas diminish, buyers would do well to do well to make informed decisions.
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@Theo Thanks for this comment. There is, in general, a lack of connective tissue to the local impacts of Climate Change from the NY Times. The latest US maps showing coastline impacts will have Long Island shorelines devastated - not just flooding but non-existing and that's not too far down the road.
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@Theo I grew up in Sea Cliff LI NY. I still remember the steep cliffs and riding my wooden wagon down the hills to the shore. The overwhelming majority of the homes must have been more than 50' above high tide (c 1945). I do remember a small ribbon of beach property with major damage from the "1938 Long Island Express" hurricane.
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@R If you look at Google Earth or some of the aerial shots of the town, there has been a great deal of development at the bottom of the cliff, right along the harbor / shoreline.
Not sure what high tide looks like or where the 100 year storm line might be but it will get interesting, this is a certainty.
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Sounds lovely but yet another unaffordable place for your average working class family. And so it goes.
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Thanks for linking to that 1977 article about the White Russian community in Sea Cliff - very interesting!
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It does sound wonderful. Too bad you featured it, now it may be ruined.
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What are the property taxes? Skimmed the article. Maybe I missed it. Times writes about all of these wonderful towns, but not the 20 grand a year property tax. No fire dept in a lot of 20 grand a year places also. Not a real one anyway.
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they are VERY HIGH .... 12,000 for a tiny cottage, 16,000 - 25,000. for many of the homes....
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@Joe, Sea Cliff is charming, but the property taxes are high, and yes, like most of Long Island it has a volunteer fire department. It also has mediocre train service and cesspools instead of sewers.
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@Joe
It would make more sense for you to go on a real estate site, look up a property you find interesting then look up the taxes. No need to estimate such information on a community write up.
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Millbrook, NY......living in the village makes it an easy walk to the Post Office, pharmacy, hardware store, liquor store, grocery store, bank, about 10 fine restaurants, a wonderful library,
the Town Hall, Village Hall, outdoor concerts, antique stores, a gas station and even a Stewart’s and a NYS Dept of Motor Vehicles Office and a nice park, also a farmer’s market(during the warmer months).
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I forgot...a wonderful Bookstore !
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@John Taylor Irina Baronova's mother lived in Sea Cliff.
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@Grittenhouse I remember her mom from when I was a child. She went to st. Seraphim church where my grandfather was the priest for over 40 years.
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