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.”
A killer reputation
The Cassano testimony paints the town in a much brighter light than what was seen after the 2023 arrest of lifelong resident and Berner High School graduate, alleged Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann.
Even that wasn’t enough to dampen the good vibes in the village, which has since rocked back to normal since the worldwide press left First Avenue.
The devastating news didn’t deter Vinny and Allie Frazzetto, both 30, from closing on their home walking distance from the notorious Heuermann house last summer, either.
“The long-standing reputation that Massapequa Park has, the good schools, core values, and the wonderful community prevailed over anything else,” Allie Frazzetto said.
Massapequa Park also scored high on public safety stats in the new ranking, as it is in US News and World Report’s safest-ranked community in America for 2024.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman praised Mayor Daniel Pearl for doing “an outstanding job” in other areas of residential needs.
Peak pequa
That’s why both Frazzettos called it quits on Bayside, Queens, as they’re getting ready to raise baby No. 1, whom they’re expecting in September.
“I love that you have the opportunities that a big district would give you, but the feel of a small neighborhood,” Allie Frazzetto, originally of Garden City, added of Jerry Seinfeld’s hometown.
“I feel like you get the best of both worlds.”
Her husband, originally of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said he’s excited for his little one to have friends on the block to play with as he grows up, just like dad did in the early 2000s.
“We wanted the great school districts that Massapequa has, and we wanted the backyard, we wanted that next chapter of life,” he said.
And Massapequa High School’s baseball, softball, and both girls and boys lacrosse teams all won county titles this spring.
“We have winners and successful people. It doesn’t happen by accident,” town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joe Saladino, a Massapequa grad.
“It happens because of tremendous support from the parents and the families. The community, and especially the school district. It reflects so well on everyone.”
The Park is also home to a diverse range of blue- and white-collar walks of life that Rishi Matadeen, 43, a long-time manager at popular watering hole Johnny McGorey’s, sees nightly.
“You could come off the LIRR and you could be in construction clothes…you come and sit down and you could sit next to a guy that works on Wall Street, who makes $400,000 a year,” he said.
“And there’s no awkwardness…everyone feels comfortable here, so that’s the beauty of it.”
Matadeen was first “a little shocked” to hear the news of being named No. 1 — but then it all made sense.
“You start to put things in perspective a little bit and realize you take things for granted,” he said.
“And you go, well, why not us, right?”
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