Recently, I have been asked a number of ill-addressed questions about Levittown and Levittown history that I thought I might pass on to the readership of the Levittown Tribune.

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by a reporter from NBC who came down to the Levittown Historical Society Museum. He wanted to know if Fox News' Bill O'Reilly really has bona fide working class, Irish Catholic, suburban Levittown credentials given the fact that he grew up in a house in Westbury. The confusion lies in the distinction between Levittown and the Levitt Development. The latter, which gave rise to the former, spilled over into several communities that lie adjacent to present day Levittown. Although Bill O'Reilly lived in Westbury and Billy Joel in Hicksville, both lived in houses, on blocks, and in neighborhoods built by Levitt & Sons and both were part of the socioeconomic physiognomy that is suburbia of which Levittown is the archetypical example. I have no problem calling them Levittowners.

A fellow curious about the environmental impact of suburban development asked me if I thought Levitt & Sons "paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Suburban developments, I told him, are more frequently than not erected on former agricultural land rather than pristine wilderness. It stands to reason that suburban developers build in locations that are accessible (otherwise, nobody would buy their homes) and that farms are built near transportation conduits so that farmers can get their crops to market. In the Levittown area, the arrival of the railroad at Hicksville (1847) and Island Trees via the now-defunct Stewart Line (1871) facilitated agricultural development while the arrival of the Wantagh Parkway (1936) stimulated suburban development after World War II. On the whole, suburban development leads to greater biological diversity as acres of corn and potatoes are replaced by lawns, flower beds, ornamental shrubs, shade trees, and gardens. Readers interested in learning more about this issue should read my article on the effects of suburbanization on bird and butterfly populations, "Wings on the Winds of Change", in the Summer 2000 issue of The Long Island Forum.

Someone, evidently fishing for evidences of racial discrimination in housing in Levittown, inquired as to why, more than half a century after Shelley vs. Kramer (1949), Levittown still has a white population disproportionately higher than surrounding communities. I told him that I think racial discrimination is as old as man and happens everywhere but that the answer to his specific question is historical in nature. More than 90 percent of the housing units in Levittown were built by Levitt & Sons between 1947 and 1953. Renovations, additions and modifications notwithstanding, that still means that Levittown has a less diverse housing stock than surrounding towns whose dwellings vary in size, style, age, and price range. It's communities with the latter characteristics that are more likely to have more to offer families from lower income levels. Too, unlike Hicksville or Wantagh, Levittown has no major public transportation hub and its commercially-zoned area is less extensive.

Finally, another person wanted to know why, if I lived in Hicksville in a non-Levitt home since 1992, I am "Mr. Levittown" as he called me. (What an honor!) Well, I lived in Levittown from 1968 to 1992. That's ample time to inculcate me with an appreciation for the historical import of the community and its people. Levittown is special. Since 1968, I have met Levittowners who fought on battlefields, survived the Holocaust, fled to America as refugees from communism, and seen Third World squalor and violence firsthand. If you don't think places like Levittown are special and represent the best in humanity, just ask these people. They have seen the worst in humanity. Anyway, economics dictates my place of residence. Still, I am active in civic organizations in both Levittown and Hicksville and maintain an ongoing interest in the history of Brooklyn where I lived before 1968. The true strength of a society is not in its people as taxpayers, voters, jurors, or consumers, but in their participation in the cultural, historical, and scientific life of the community.