Thursday, July 15, 2010
Limiting the Lighthouse
From Fox 5:
An ongoing battle to develop 77 acres of prime real estate surrounding the New York Islanders' hockey arena had town officials and county brass feuding Monday over the size and scope of what should be built there.
The county, which owns the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the land around it, has expressed general support for Islanders' owner Charles Wang's vision to develop the property into a $3.8 billion housing, retail and office complex with a refurbished coliseum as its centerpiece.
The property is one of the last remaining large parcels of undeveloped land in Nassau County, which considers itself America's "first suburb," because it is home to the post-World War II Levittown development.
Hempstead Town leaders, who have zoning jurisdiction over the property, proposed their own development plan Monday, essentially cutting Wang's proposal in half.
Wang's Lighthouse Project, first proposed in 2003 and amended several times since, calls for 35-story residential and office towers. Hempstead's proposal would limit building to no higher than a nine-story hotel currently occupying part of the land.
Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray said the scaling back of the project would address concerns of residents who are worried about the impact of traffic and other lifestyle issues if Wang's larger project were approved.
13 comments:
Lifestyle issues in Long Island? There is no lifestyle there, unless you consider strip mall shopping a lifestyle.
Nassau is the equivalent of a funeral parlor, the place is dead as a doornail and go to to become brain-dead.
haha, the TOH plan is little more than yet more stripmalls.
Such "vision"!
I also like the old guy in the man-on-the-street interview, complaining about the proposal. He will be *long* dead before it gets finsihed, so why is he complaining?
Maybe he doesn't want his kids and grandkids to have to live with it.
Careful, Anonymous #1 - your jealousy is showing. Tell me - what's so great about our Queens "lifestyle"?? - overdevelopment, traffic, lousy schools, illegals on every corner, ugly Archie Bunker houses or cell-block apartment buildings? You sound like some hipster or yuppie Manhattanite jeering at us Queens folk. At least Nassau County is attempting to scale down the size of this project, something that will never be done in your beloved Queens. This "us" vs "them" mentality is getting pretty old.
ugly Archie Bunker houses?
Archie had a nice house compared to the Fedders crap today...
"anonymous said...
Careful, Anonymous #1 - your jealousy is showing. Tell me - what's so great about our Queens "lifestyle"??"
Though I am a Manhattan dweller, permit me to boil it down for you:
1) Proximity to Manhattan.
2) Access to the above w/out the LIRR or an hour-plus drive, then finding parking.
3)Lower (often MUCH lower)property taxes for a given sq/ft space.
4) The likelihood that your kids might actually want to live near you and then take over your house when you retire. The 'burbs are declining in popularity as cities have become safer and more attractive.
Nassau and to a growing extent Suffolk are now second and third tier choices for the young, mostly white offspring of those who live there and the aging housing stock out there appeals more to immigrants who still see those areas as a "step up".
Hardly a week goes by without a news report of some home invasion or robbery spree out there on L.I.
The bad guys have also found those communities with their over paid and inadequately staffed police depts....easy pickins.
The Myth of the Back-to-the-City migration
Lino,
Allow me to respond to your points:
1)"Proximity to Manhattan" is not such a draw as you might think, especially for those of us who choose to live in eastern Queens.A suburban lifestyle, with lower taxes, is what many of us desire. And - horror or horrors - some of us don't even work in Manhattan or have a desire to go there all that often.
2) the LIRR would be very welcome for those of us who have to travel to Manhattan. Our 1 1/2 hour journey includes a bus ride to Flushing and then being crushed and shoved on a smelly train where a word of English is almost never heard. We do have express buses which take more time and are a lot more pleasant, but it costs $11.00 round trip.
3) My property taxes, and those of my neighbors, have risen more than 30% over the past 4 years. They are fast approaching some areas of Nassau, without the advantages of much better public schools, more property and recreation facilities such as pools, beaches.
4) As for your example of kiddies wanting to move back into their retired parents' Queens house, I can give you 10 examples of kids who can't wait to leave Queens, and many of them actually want to move to LI. The post after yours addresses that premise.
"Aging housing stock" in LI being attractive to immigrants?? Maybe in some undesirable areas of the south shore of Suffolk, but hardly endemic to all of LI. And any aging housing stock in Queens won't stand a chance if an unscrupulous developer gets his hand on it and turns it into either McMansions or rows of Fedders houses.
Are you implying that crime rates are higher in LI than they are in Queens?? I'd like to see some statistics on that.
My post to Anonymous #1 was to respond to that all-too-common Manhattan or Queens-centric attitude that disparages anything different. His insulting comments about Nassau prompted me to give my equally insulting comments about Queens. I don't understand why we can't accept that people live in different places for different reasons without demonizing their choices.
I assumed this was a site that highlighted the overdevelopment that is happening every day in Queens. We ought to applaud the efforts of a county, even if it is Nassau, to curb overdevelopment.
anonymous said...
"1)"Proximity to Manhattan" is not such a draw as you might think, especially for those of us who choose to live in eastern Queens.A suburban lifestyle, with lower taxes, is what many of us desire. And - horror or horrors - some of us don't even work in Manhattan or have a desire to go there all that often."
-That last sentence pretty well sets the tone of your response. Darn, we'll just have to muddle-on without you.
This one is both typical and confusing:
"2) the LIRR would be very welcome for those of us who have to travel to Manhattan. Our 1 1/2 hour journey includes a bus ride to Flushing and then being crushed and shoved on a smelly train where a word of English is almost never heard."
Looking at an LIRR map it does seem that eastern Queens is served.
I go to N.E. Queens regularly. While it does indeed take me 1-1/2 hours via MTA the "smelly train" is pure suburban bullshit. The train where "a word of English is almost never heard." -is almost certainly the 7 which is one of, and often THE highest rated and cleanest of the entire MTA rapid transit fleet.
"3) My property taxes, and those of my neighbors, have risen more than 30% over the past 4 years. "
Taxes in the suburbs will always be higher for the simple reason that they do not have the economies of scale that cities have. One of our managers lives in some NJ suburb. She paid 400K for a semi rural location and her taxes are $12500/yr. My business partners both live in Queens in larger houses and pay less than half that figure.
"4) As for your example of kiddies wanting to move back into their retired parents' Queens house, I can give you 10 examples of kids who can't wait to leave Queens, and many of them actually want to move to LI. The post after yours addresses that premise."
We have over 280 employees, I can give you a lot more than 10 examples of people who want to, and do live in the city. As an occasional investor I get WSJ regularly.
The editorial line is:
Cities= Liberal
Suburbs/rural= conservative
Draw you own conclusions.
"Are you implying that crime rates are higher in LI than they are in Queens?? I'd like to see some statistics on that."
I didn't imply anything. My comment was "Hardly a week goes by without a news report of some home invasion or robbery spree out there on L.I.".
Crime is on the rise on L.I.
http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/crime-reports-nassau
"I don't understand why we can't accept that people live in different places for different reasons without demonizing their choices"
That's fair enough, I'll leave it at that.
Lino said...
That last sentence pretty well sets the tone of your response. Darn, we'll just have to muddle-on without you.
And here's Lino the Manhattanite looking down his nose at Queens people. He has such a superiority complex!
This one is both typical and confusing:
Looking at an LIRR map it does seem that eastern Queens is served.
I go to N.E. Queens regularly. While it does indeed take me 1-1/2 hours via MTA the "smelly train" is pure suburban bullshit. The train where "a word of English is almost never heard." -is almost certainly the 7 which is one of, and often THE highest rated and cleanest of the entire MTA rapid transit fleet.
Yeah, ok. I ride that train weekly. Clean? I think not. 1 1/2 hours is about right after you transfer to a crowded bus at Main Street.
Taxes in the suburbs will always be higher for the simple reason that they do not have the economies of scale that cities have.
Has nothing to do with economies of scale. Has a lot to do with having better roads, schools and the like because people with more money will pay more for these services.
The editorial line is:
Cities= Liberal
Suburbs/rural= conservative
Draw you own conclusions.
How do you explain Staten Island then?
I didn't imply anything. My comment was "Hardly a week goes by without a news report of some home invasion or robbery spree out there on L.I.".
Crime is on the rise on L.I.
Crime is on the rise everywhere. it's the economy, stupid.
"And here's Lino the Manhattanite looking down his nose at Queens people. He has such a superiority complex!"
-Balls. Your original comment was full of the usual anti-Manhattan crap that suburbanites spout.
"Yeah, ok. I ride that train weekly. Clean? I think not. 1 1/2 hours is about right after you transfer to a crowded bus at Main Street."
Wrong. From when I catch the train at either 77th or 86th to when I'am on Bell or points north: 1-20min to 1-35. I have done it hundreds of times since 1996.
"Has nothing to do with economies of scale. Has a lot to do with having better roads, schools and the like because people with more money will pay more for these services."
Fine, you are welcome to do-so. The gop nearly bankrupted both Nassau and Suffolk with bizarre labor contracts and the resulting high taxes which you can now not escape. But hey, they kept the "undesirables" out...Till recently.
"How do you explain Staten Island then?"
What is your point here. Staten Is. bears as much to a city as I to the pope.
"Crime is on the rise everywhere. it's the economy, stupid."
"Stupid"-is the one who thought that moving to a dead 'burb would shelter them from all those people you wish not to be around. face it, they have found your little hamlets, they are easy targets.
Lock 'n load bro, they're comin'.
I didn't write the original comment. I live in Bayside and have been commuting from Midtown here for 20 years. I know how long it takes. Staten Island was part of NYC last time I checked. And lock and load is not a comment I would expect from an anti-2nd amendment lib.
"And lock and load is not a comment I would expect from an anti-2nd amendment lib."
No, and your not talking to one...ust not a rambo jerk.
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