NYNASSAU-L Archives

From:
Subject: Where o' where is Bill O'Reilly
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 21:36:46 EDT

Some of you may be aware that there is an ongoing clash between Bill O'Reilly
and Al Franken over whether Bill O'Reilly grew up in "lower middle class
Levittown" (according to O'Reilly) or O'Reilly is lying and that O'Reilly really
grew up in "more upscale Westbury" (according to Al Franken).

Today's (Saturday, October 29) NEWSDAY, has an article "Radio host roots out
the truth about a rival" about Al Franken doing his live radio broadcast from
the Book Revue in Huntington on Friday. The following is at the end of the
article:

"But when Franken interviewed Hofstra professor and Levittown expert Barbara
Kelly on the air, he learned there was no lie to uncover. O'Reilly, Kelly
declared, had grown up in Levittown, in an area that overlapped with the
outskirts of Westbury."


Herein what follows is my eMail to Samuel Bruchey, the staff writer that
wrote the NEWSDAY article (one purpose in sharing this information is to highlight
the problem is trying to figure out in which community a specific place may
be located amidst the confusion of non-conforning postal zones and a change in
the community's border and another purpose is to find out if anyone can get me
the correct street address for the O'Reilly family home so that I can
pinpoint in which community Bill O'Reilly was actually located in during his
growing-up years):


Associate Professor Barbara Kelly's answer is not accurate.

There was not then, and neither is there now, any overlap between Levittown
and Westbury:

While the Levittown, NY 11756" postal zone has a common border, but no
overlap, with the "Westbury, NY 11590" postal zone, the Hamlet of Levittown does not
have a common border, and no overlap, with the Village of Westbury, because,
prior to 1990, these two communities were separated from each other by the
intervening Hamlet of East Meadow (that part of East Meadow that is now part of
the Hamlet of Salisbury). Each of these three communities: the Hamlet of
Levittown, the Village of Westbury and the Hamlet of East Meadow, as in the case of
almost every other community in either Nassau or Suffolk Counties, are in the
service area of non-conforming postal zones.

Adding another layer of confusion to an already confusing geography,
effective with the 1990 Federal census, South Westbury was renamed Salisbury and the
eastern part of what was is now Salisbury was then that part of the Hamlet of
East Meadow that was in the Westbury, NY and in the Levittown, NY postal zone
(but, here too, no overlap).

Unraveling the confusion: a thin slice in the extreme eastern part of the
Hamlet of Salisbury (what had been prior to 1990, part of the Hamlet of East
Meadow) is in the service area of the "Levittown, NY 11756" postal zone, and
hence these places in the Hamlet of Salisbury (what had been prior to 1990, part
of the Hamlet of East Meadow) have a "Levittown" mailing address. At the same
time, the majority of the Hamlet of Salisbury is in the service area of the
"Westbury, NY 11590" postal zone, and hence these places in the Hamlet of
Salisbury have a "Westbury" mailing address.


Without the exact street address, I would guess that Bill O'Reilly's house
might have been in either Levittown or in East Meadow (Levittown P.O.) then or
what is Salisbury (Levittown P.O.) now, immediately adjacent to East Meadow
(Westbury P.O.) then or what is Salisbury (Westbury P.O.) now.



Salisbury is one of those many villages and hamlets on Long Island where none
of the places in the community have the hamlet name in their mailing address.

The pertinent current geography:

Previously known as South Westbury, and then together with the part of the
Hamlet of East Meadow that was in the "Westbury, NY 11590" and "Levitttown, NY
11756" postal zones, was renamed Salisbury in 1990, Salisbury is a hamlet (an
unincorporated area) in the northeast section of the Town of Hempstead, in the
central part of Nassau County, where the Town of Hempstead converges with the
Towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay. There are 22 villages (municipal
corporations) and 36 hamlets all or partly within the Town of Hempstead. There
are 2 cities and 3 towns in Nassau County. (I'm including after my name a NYS
Geographic Glossary with the NYS definitions of county, city, town, village,
hamlet and postal zone.)

Beginning on the north and moving in a clockwise direction, the Hamlet of
Salisbury in the Town of Hempstead is bordered on the north by the Hamlet of New
Cassel in the Town of North Hempstead (the Hempstead/North Hempstead town
line); on the east by the Hamlet of Hicksville in the Town of Oyster Bay (the
Hempstead/Oyster Bay Town line) and the Hamlet of Levittown; and, on the south and
west by the Hamlet of East Meadow.

And, as occurs in all but one of Nassau County's 136 communities (2 cities,
64 villages and 70 hamlets), the Hamlet of Salisbury has a different border
than does the postal zone that services its area. In this case, there is no
"Salisbury, NY" postal zone.

............................................acres
.....Hamlet of Salisbury...........1,038 (estimate)
.....Salisbury, NY ?????..........none

The majority of places within the Hamlet of Salisbury are in the "Westbury,
NY 11590" postal zone, with a thin section in the extreme east part in the
service area of the "Levittown, NY 11756" postal zone.

The "Westbury, NY 11590" postal zone serves an area that extends into all 3
towns: North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and Hempstead. Quickly eyeballing the map
overlay of the "11590" postal zip code versus village and hamlet borders, all
or parts of the following 7 communities seem to be within the borders of the
Westbury postal zone and hence all or some of the places in these communities
have a "Westbury, NY" mailing address:

......Hamlet of Jericho, Town of Oyster Bay
......Hamlet of Hicksville, Town of Oyster Bay
......Hamlet of Carle Place, Town of North Hempstead
......Village of Westbury, Town of North Hempstead
......Hamlet of New Cassel, Town of North Hempstead
......Hamlet of Salisbury, Town of Hempstead
......Hamlet of East Garden City, Town of Hempstead

For those who have their copy of the 2004 or earlier edition of the LI
Population Survey or have already downloaded the report from the Long Island Power
Authority web site (eMail me directly if you need instructions on how to access
and download the report), you'll find the Hamlet of Salisbury in the Town of
North Hempstead, Nassau County on pages 5 & 8 (map) and 9 (population
estimate).


I hope this information is useful or, at least, interesting.

Regards,

Walter Greenspan

. Cities, Towns, Villages, Hamlets and Postal Zones in New York State

New York State is divided into counties.

County
A county is a municipal corporation, a subdivision of the state, created to
perform state functions; a "regional" government. All counties are divided
into cities, towns and Indian reservations.

City
A city is a unique governmental entity with its own special charter. Cities
are not sub-divided, except into neighborhoods, which are informal geographic
areas.

Town
A town is a municipal corporation and encompasses all territory within the
state except that within cities or Indian reservations. Towns can be
sub-divided into villages and hamlets.

Village
A village is a general purpose municipal corporation formed voluntarily by
the residents of an area in one or more towns to provide themselves with
municipal services. The pattern of village organization is similar to those of a
city. A village is divided into neighborhoods, which are informal geographic
areas.

Hamlet
A hamlet is an unincorporated area in one or more towns that is governed
at-large by the town(s) it is in. A hamlet is divided into neighborhoods, which
are informal geographic areas.

Postal Zone "City" and "Town"
A postal zone "City" and "Town" is an administrative district established by
the U.S. Postal Service to deliver the mail. Postal zone "City" and "Town"
may not (but are encouraged to) conform to municipal or community borders.
Thus, postal zone location does not always determine city, village or hamlet
location.


Please be aware: In many areas of New York State, the problem of
non-conforming postal zones leads to a situation where the majority of places have a
different community name in their mailing address than the community where that
place is actually located.

This thread:

• Where o' where is Bill O'Reilly by