Business & Tech

Leaving Long Island for a New Life in Cumming

Cost of living splits up a family from Massapequa Park, NY.

Tom and Trish Patafio left Massapequa Park, NY for good on Christmas night last December.

“We actually left town to beat the snowstorm,” Tom Patafio said.

The Patafios headed south to the warmer climate of Cumming, Ga., but weather wasn’t the only reason they left Long Island.

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They put their home up for sale because they could no longer afford to live in the area.

“Taxes were a really big part of it, general expenses, everything,” Tom said.

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“As you get older, it was supposed to get easier, but it was getting harder.”

It didn’t help that Tom lost his job as a construction project manager for Davis Vision in 2009. 

While they had little trouble finding a buyer, the move caused them to make a heart-wrenching decision.

The Patafios made the trip south with their two youngest children, but their two oldest stayed behind to continue their education.

Their oldest daughter Leslie, 21, is pursuing a nursing degree at Molloy College (Rockville Centre, NY) while their son Steve, 19, was attending Farmingdale State (Farmingdale, NY) this past semester.

“That was the most awful thing we ever had to do,” Trish Patafio  said.

“But they’re adults and they have their own lives.

The Patafios did bring their two youngest children, Carolyn, 11, and Paul, 8, to Cumming while the two oldest lived with Trish’s sister.

Although they were willing to split their family up to leave Massapequa Park, the Patafios say they’re happy with their new life.

“The school year went really well, Trish said. “We’ve transitioned wonderfully.”

She’s working as a nurse at an assisted living facility nearby, while Tom is a self-employed handyman.

He says that he’s on a firmer financial footing than he was on Long Island.

“The housing market even in this recession is double what it is here,” he said. “Houses cost two times what they are here.”

The family is renting a house and Trish says their new community has many of the same benefits that they had in Massapequa Park.

“There are several businesses here,” she said. “There are two malls within 20 minutes of us.”

But more importantly, she says she feels there’s a better quality of life in Cumming.

“I go to work and people seem happier,” she said. “[On Long Island] everyone seemed miserable. Everyone was working to pay their mortgages.”

The mother of four cites Georgia’s Hope scholarship program as a factor in their decision to head south.

The program is open to residents and gives money to students who maintain a 3.0 grade point average.

While the family suggested that a program like the Hope scholarship would be one idea that Long Island could implement to keep residents, they are decidedly pessimistic about the area’s future.

“The problem is affordability,” Tom says. “I don’t know how to fix that. It’s easy to say cut taxes, but then the people who work for the state, the town and the county need jobs.”

Trish states flat-out “we have no intention of coming back.”

In fact she’s holding out hope that the family will be reunited. Their son Steven has already decided to join them. He’s decided to finish his education at a nearby college, while playing hockey for an Atlanta area junior team.

Their daughter Leslie is still in New York with a year to go before she gets her degree. 

“She’s visited us three times since we’ve been here,” Trish says. “She told my sister, ‘Don’t tell Mom, but I like it here.’”

For Tom, the move, though painful, was necessary and he does not miss paying Massapequa Park housing prices.

“The people who bought the house, I wish them well,” he said. “But I can’t imagine starting out with that nut hanging over my head.”

This story first appeared on


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