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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Okay, how's it going if you just moved to the suburbs for the first time during the pandemic, and how's it going if you just had someone move in near you in the suburbs during the pandemic who's coming for the first time? 646-435-7280. Rachel in Ossining. You're on WNYC. Hi, Rachel.

Rachel: Hi, Brian. I love your show. I moved in September from Brooklyn and I thought I'd be escaping to the nice quiet suburbs and it's actually noisier here than it was. There are leaf blowers and lawnmowers and there's a lot of highways that cut through so there's the traffic noise. Then there's the motorcycles that in the summer start roaming up and down. It's actually quite noisy. I still love it, but it's surprisingly loud.

Brian: Have you complained to anybody?

Rachel: No, but when people say, "Oh, you must love it out in the suburbs. It's so quiet." I say, "It's actually pretty loud."

Brian: Rachel, thank you very much. I think we had a call from the other side like that. Let's see Alex in Jersey City, you're on WNYC. You're calling about your parents who live in Ocean County and they're receiving the newcomers nearby.

Alex: Good morning. Yes. Interesting thing. It's a linguistic point. It's not that new, but it's definitely been a very noticeable, measurable uptick. I was born in New York City but grew up in Toms River. I live in Jersey City. My parents are still down there. Over the pandemic, a lot of people from in and around New York City especially Staten Island have been moving down. People down at the beach, we locally joke around by saying we've never heard so many double and triple negatives in the English language. We always joke around a little bit about that.

Brian: What is that? Is that a Staten Island thing?

Alex: Yes, I think so. When you hear people, we have a relatively neutral or slightly Northeast accent in Ocean County, but it's funny when you hear a newcomer say, "Don't do nothing for nobody, never."

Brian: Got it. The double negatives and the triple negatives imported from Staten Island. April in Rhode Island, you're on WNYC. Hi, April.

April: Hey, it's April.

Brian: April. I'm sorry.

April: Thanks so much. No, no. It's wonderful to be on. Thanks so much. I was a longtime resident of Harlem and thought out Harlem as a part of my growth. Raised in a white family. I'm Black biracial, raised in a white family in Rhode Island. Came back during the pandemic and that real lack of diversity and a new kind of experience in a small town has shown me that one, somethings don't change as quickly as you'd like them to. Yet some of us that are back in the town and are bringing our full selves. We've had the longest-running peaceful protests in Downtown Westerly surrounding Black Lives Matter and all the things.

It's a real juxtaposition. Thankful to Harlem, I'll be back and forth more, but it's definitely a big change.

Brian: How big a change is it for your neighbors, do you think?

April: Well look, it's where I'm from. I've been back and forth over the years, but I think the change I think is less about the transactional, but more about the transformational. I'm different now. I'm speaking about racial identity and social justice, whereas, for the first 17 years of my life as a transracially adopted person, I didn't talk about these things as much. Coming back as a grownup who has seen more and feels more, I'm holding people accountable in a different kind of way. That's different and that's not always comfortable for people

Brian: April, thank you so much for checking in. Important story. Aerin in Yonkers, you're on WNYC. Hi, Aerin.

Aerin: Hi, Brian. I'm glad to be here. I'm listening from my new car that I purchased during the pandemic after moving from Bay Ridge Brooklyn to Yonkers and I have to say I'm actually surprised at how diverse it is in the area where I moved to Northeast Yonkers. Bay Ridge is a white ethnic enclave. I grew up there, my husband grew up there. We're pleasantly surprised by the diversity of our neighbors here in Yonkers. Just the increase of space.

It was quite an adjustment, I think, going from a one-bedroom co-op where you had a super. Having to be a first-time homeowner and call for every [unintelligible 00:05:19] who could help you with every little homeowner thing for the first time. Overall, it's been a great experience.

Brian: Is it something you were looking to do anyway before the pandemic and the pandemic was the last straw or how did that play out for you?

Aerin: Yes. Very much so. My husband grew up in Bay Ridge all his life. He wanted to live elsewhere and he had scoped out Yonkers. I was dragging my feet and then we did half the pandemic in a one-bedroom apartment and all of a sudden, it started to sound like a great idea.

Brian: Aerin, thank you. Good luck out there. Lauren in Bergen County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lauren.

Lauren: Hi, Brian. We moved out to Bergen County from Long Island City, Queens. To be perfectly honest, it's been absolutely fantastic. We moved from with having two kids in a two-bedroom. Now my kids have a playroom downstairs. I've given them a ball pit and a trampoline and a place that they could hang out if there was another shutdown over the winter. I have a king-size bed for the first time in my life as opposed to sleeping on a full-size bed which is what was happening in Queens. That's incredible.

Also, I love being able to go to Costco and buying the big thing, the toilet paper and paper towels, and not having to look at it all the time because I have a place to actually put it away.

Brian: The space, the space, the space. Lauren, thank you very much. Is there anything you miss about Long Island City?

Lauren: I will say the one time I really missed living in the city was the day that they announced that Joe Biden was president of the United States. Because while Bergen County is very liberal and I'm sure everyone was very happy about it, there wasn't the gathering in the streets and the cheering and the honking of horns and just the general happiness. That was the one time I was like, "Man, I wish I still lived in the city."

Brian: Lauren, thank you very much. Politically, I think there are different kinds of neighborhoods in Bergen county. Although, overall, it's certainly blue. Henry in Chappaqua, you're on WNYC. Hello, Henry.

Henry: Yes, Brian. Brian, I'm so frustrated with these people from the city, Brian. You don't respect the other people in town. They just jump in front of people. They're so rude. In this town, we have a lot of old people and it's disgraceful that all these guys ran from the city because they can afford to buy homes here but they have destroyed our town.

Brian: What are they doing?

Henry: I've taken it up to here.

Brian: What are they doing?

Henry: Brian, they behave like people in the city. We got older people here that drive until they're 90 years old. I work in a service place so I know these people personally, and I live in town. When going home, I'm just watching these people. They just cut you off. You can't do that when you got people of those ages that live in our town. You got to respect how people drive.

Brian: People are coming up and they're driving too aggressively. Also, you told our screener something about littering?

Henry: Littering our park. It's just out of control. It's like no rules. It's just like the same thing in the city. Everybody in the rush. You're going to the whole food, Brian, it's like you're going to Minneapolis. They're speeding. For what? You're going three blocks from your house, why are you going 60 miles an hour in the school zone 25 miles? No matter how many cops you hire, they will not enforce the law for these people.

Brian: Henry in Chappaqua, thank you very much. Referring there to the Indianapolis Speedway, I think and city drivers, I don't know. We could have a whole other segment on that. Who's more aggressive? I know people from the city who they go out and they drive in New Jersey and they say, "Oh, those New Jersey drivers." Well, according to Henry in Westchester, his experience is the other way around. People are moving up to the city and there's this quiet community with a lot of elderly drivers and people are practically running them down.

Corinne in Nassau County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Corinne. Corinne, are you there? Do I have the right person? Do I have your name right? Is it Karen? Corinne, we're going to try to get back to you. Okay, we're going to try to get back to you. Oh, one of my producers just wrote me a note. Somebody who has lived in both places, I will disclose 100% city drivers are more aggressive, says this unscientific sample of one. Caroline in Manhattan, you're WNYC. Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: Hi, Brian, can you hear me?

Brian: I can hear you, yes.

Caroline: Great. Love your show. I live in the city now during the pandemic, moved back home to suburban New Jersey with my parents and I grew up there my whole life. We noticed a huge influx of people from-- a lot of Brooklynites are moving into our neighborhood. It's great having-- we're in a very diverse community. It's really nice. We have this Facebook group for our community and some of the writings that new people were posting in this group were almost not believable.

We had one where somebody asked if they should extinguish the squirrel in their yard because they weren't used to seeing squirrels.

Brian: Oh, no.

Caroline: I can't believe people actually believe that. Overall, it's pretty good.

Brian: We have squirrels in the-- Squirrels are the one thing-- living creature, not the one thing, living creature we have in the city.

Caroline: That was our same thought but, there were some pretty wild ones, especially when we got some nasty storms and cleaning up branches, people didn't really know what to do, but overall it's nice to have new, younger people in the neighborhood.

Brian: Do you have someone on the other side of the fence who doesn't know how to work their grill?

Caroline: No, I haven't had that yet. Actually, we did get a new next-door neighbor who moved from, I think I want to say Queens area. Nice family so far no problems yet, although, I'll hold my breath.

Brian: Caroline, thank you very much. What do we do about these wild animals in our front yard? That's a squirrel. Corinne, let's try Corinne again. Corinne you there in Nassau County?

Corinne: Yes, good morning sir. Talking about squirrels, oh my God, I have not just squirrels, but bats in the basement and they destroyed the air conditioner is at least right now, but my goal is because I am so unhappy in Nassau County, I moved from Forestville to Woodmere. I haven't had one person when I say good morning, they say good morning back to me.

I get dirty looks on Saturday because I drive a German car. I'm very unhappy. I don't understand why these people are so fine and they're so nasty. I'm sorry, that's the truth.

Brian: You're finding the people in the suburbs are not welcoming, and are more standoffish. Isn't it, typically, I guess the stereotype would be it's in the city where we're all just looking down and not saying hello to our neighbors, and in a smaller town kind of setting people do? Not your experience.

Corinne: No sir, I thought New York was like that. You're right but no. Where I am, I found it very unfriendly. I have had numerous times where I'm sitting outside and I say, "Good morning," they don't even look at me.

Brian: Corinne, I hope it gets better for you. Thank you for checking in, or that you can move back to Queens now that things are settling down if that's what you want. Carrie in Croton-on-Hudson, you're on WNYC. Hi, Carrie.

Carrie: Oh, hi. Oh, I'm so excited to talk to you. I've been listening to you for years but what I want to share is I live in Northern Westchester and it's a bunch of beautiful parks and one of them is Croton Gorge. The turn-off for it is it's on a major highway and there were so many people coming to the park, they were parking all along this major highway obstructing traffic, walking with baby strollers and groups of people, they had to use the state policing to help regulate it because there was such an influx of people coming to the park.

Other parks in the area, were so, again they're parking on major roads, people walking all over the place. One time I was at one of the reservoirs that has a bridge and people were hanging off of it. I was really frightened for people's safety and a lot of times people weren't wearing masks. It was just pretty crazy dealing with that and people stopping for directions on my street and my street is way off a major road. It gets a lot, but it was just amazing how people were, just the parks up in cold springs taking the train up, and then the town was just overrun.

It's a small little town, and in some ways, it was [unintelligible 00:14:36] because I needed the support but it was just really nice with the parks up here that people were coming into.

Brian: Carrie, thank you very much. Let's see one more response from somebody who was there. Oh no, Andrea in Saugerties, all the way up in Saugerties. Are you someone who moved there or someone who's seeing people move in?

Andrea: I moved from New York City to Saugerties prior to the pandemic, right before it.

Brian: Exit 20 on the Thruway, is that right?

Andrea: I have no idea.

Brian: [laughs]

Andrea: Honestly, I don't want to know.

Brian: How is the going?

Andrea: I think-- thinking is an understatement, and really an aimless revelation to say that I don't belong here. I find that with few exceptions I cannot connect and that people don't understand what I would like to have a conversation about. It's not a service-driven, community, and I don't want to say that at 100% but I do want to say that if you'd like to take a cab on the weekend, it doesn't exist. There's a term for people like me here, they call them city idiots. That's not just Saugerties, it's Woodstock and it's pretty much the county of Ulster. If this is generational.

Brian: Andrea, thank you very much. Well, it's trouble in paradise, and some of the suburbs whether you are new there, or whether you are receiving people who are new there, we hear from some of our callers. For others, the space is great, but I think we learned it's not as quiet as you thought it was going to be.

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