Long Island neighborhood named New Yorks best place to live gives locals new swagger: Why not us?

Massapequa Park has got that swagger.The Long Island enclave is basking in the glow of earning the title of New York’s best place to live in a US News & World Report ranking — with locals saying “why not us?”It’s some welcome attention after some unwanted association with the Gilgo Beach serial murder suspect and an ongoing fight to keep the local school’s “Chiefs” name and logo in the face of a state ban on Native American imagery.“This is the place you want to start a family,” said lifelong resident Michael Cassano, owner of American Beauty restaurant in Massapequa Park Village.The Park — as it’s nicknamed — is simply different because of the moxie and mettle of the upbeat, take-no-crap population of around 17,000, Cassano added.“With that comes a pride — you see it in the fight to keep the Chiefs logo,” he said.“Everybody is getting behind it, just how everybody gets behind this town for all sorts of things.”The neighborhood not only made New York’s best but was among the top150 in America in the ranking, scoring high in quality of life categories.Both old and new residents said they weren’t surprised, viewing the town as the perfect slice of Americana and great values, sitting pretty on the water east of New York City — which bombed toward the bottom 50 of over 850 rankings.Cassano’s wife, Maria, 44, added that the South Shore area, where a median home goes for $746,500, per Realtor.com, is one where “we know each other’s names.”She used the example of how the town rallied to support the family of slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller as a vast majority of residents lined the busy Merrick Road out of respect for his funeral procession in the Spring of 2024.“To see our community come together, that’s a norm for us,” she said.

“I think this town brings families together.”The Cassano testimony paints the town in a much brighter light than what was seen after the 2023 arrest of lifelong resident and Berne...