I live in an area on Long Island called Brentwood and there are a few issues that I will be
addressing that concern me about my community. The first immediate issue that I see
everyday is the overpopulation of the community. At certain times of the day it is
impossible to navigate around the town with the amount of vehicle traffic that occurs.
Brentwood is a suburban community on the island, not an urban neighborhood in New
York City. There isn’t a block in the neighborhood that doesn’t have at least 15 cars parked
on the street. The overpopulation may not be an immediate issue yet (at least in terms of
tangible statistics), but at the rate at which the growth is going, problems will begin to
arise.
The result of the overpopulation in the community arises from another problem that exists
and has created two of its own. Illegal Immigration is a pressing issue in the community.
Every year the amount of undocumented people increases. I have no issue with
immigration itself, the problem arises when people skip the naturalization process
(whatever the reason may be) and decide to make their way into the country. The
continuing practice of hiring unauthorized workers has been referred to as “the magnet for
illegal immigration”. As a significant percentage of employers are willing to hire illegal
immigrants for higher pay than they would typically receive in their former country, illegal
immigrants have prime motivation to cross borders. Illegal immigration can lead to many
problems, which will be stated in the judgement section of the paper.
The increasing number of the population and undocumented people has lead to problems
in two other areas of the community, Housing and crime. The housing issue comes mainly
from the amount of people living relative to the amount of houses available. Many homes
in Brentwood have multiple families living in them, mainly through renting a certain part
of the home, i.e. the basement, garage studio and bedrooms. Many of the homes that are
rented out are done so illegally. Safety is a big concern in regards to illegal housing, are
these homes really safe to live in? In case of an emergency could multiple families safely
escape the house at once?
Another issue that has risen is the amount of crime that has occurred over the last few
years. Every time i tell someone from Long Island that I am a resident of Brentwood, I
