Eye on the Island

Coliseum’s Future

County Executive Edward Mangano made news last week by suggesting a public referendum may determine whether Nassau residents invest $400 million for the construction of a new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a county-owned facility.

“For too long, Nassau Coliseum and the property that surrounds it has laid to waste rather than generate revenue for the county that can help hold the line on property taxes,” the county executive stated. “The aging Coliseum is no longer competitive with other sports complexes and conference centers around the region and nation. Long Island’s only professional sports team, the New York Islanders, have threatened to leave Nassau County in three years if a new Coliseum is not built.”

Bus System Reprieve

Remember reading and hearing about how the Republican-controlled New York State Senate allocated $8.6 million toward the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Long Island Bus (LIB) system, thereby averting significant LIB service reductions this summer?

No, I didn’t think so, and you’re not to blame. The editorial boards at Newsday and The New York Times operate in a parallel universe where Republican office holders are cartoon characters, working 24/7 to protect the interests of millionaires while punishing widows and orphans. So these same editorial writers are unable to portray accurately this fact: three of Nassau’s GOP state Senators intervened late last month on behalf of LIB’s riders, saving the Long Islanders who use the system from draconian service cuts through year-end 2011.

Hofstra’s History

Scholars with an expertise on what the world looked like in the 1930s are traveling to Hofstra University starting on Thursday, April 7, and many are staying through Saturday, April 9 for a three-day conference being billed as 1935: The Reality and the Promise.

The 1935-1936 school year was Hofstra’s first so 1935 holds special meaning for the Hempstead institution, which has expanded dramatically over the past 75 years from a regional school to one with a national profile.

Levy’s Departure

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who only last year switched political parties to run for governor, announced last week he would not seek another four-year term in his current post. This stunning development has numerous repercussions, many of which won’t be known for months.

The incumbent county executive’s exit makes the 2011 general election for Suffolk County’s top job a toss-up as the Republicans scramble to find a successor to Levy, and prospective Democratic candidates for county executive, such as Babylon town supervisor Steve Bellone, instantly lose their long-shot status. Despite his ill-fated bid for governor in 2010, Steve Levy was heavily favored to win re-election to the office he’d first won in 2003 as a Democrat.

Lucci’s Life

Susan Lucci’s All My Life (It Books) is being released on Tuesday, March 29, and the legendary daytime TV star will promote her autobiography with an appearance on Wednesday, March 30, at 7 p.m. at Huntington’s Book Revue.

Lucci, a Garden City High School alumna who returned to her hometown after graduating from Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY and marrying Helmut Huber, a one-time executive chef at the Garden City Hotel, had this to say about their move back to Long Island after residing in Forest Hills, Queens.

Reform and the GOP

Beyond their passion for Democrats, most New York editorial boards and good government groups also share a belief in the magical municipal powers of taxpayer-funded campaigns and non-partisan redistricting.

Both bad ideas are circulating in Albany. Yet the Republicans can win the public debate on these issues, even as The New York Times’ editorial page, Citizens Union and former New York City Ed Koch label GOP state lawmakers as the enemies of reform. Far from it, the Republicans should say. Their 32-30 majority in the state Senate, populated with legislators from New York’s suburban and upstate districts, is the only thing standing in the way of a state government that is controlled completely by Democrats from New York City, as was the case in 2009 and 2010. The current fundraising and redistricting processes put the Republicans in the position they enjoy in Albany today. Moreover, the best way for the GOP to lose their majority in the state Legislature’s upper chamber between 2012 and 2020 is to surrender unilaterally the inherent fundraising advantages which come from being an incumbent state Senator, and to limit the influence they’ll have over the process this year of redrawing the state’s Congressional and state legislative district lines.

Nassau’s NIFA Fight

The Mangano administration has expended too much energy trying to discredit the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), the state-created entity, which has enacted a control period over the county’s finances. It didn’t have to be this way, and a course correction is warranted.

Rather than suing NIFA—and that lawsuit can be dropped by Nassau County, the plaintiff—County Executive Edward Mangano and his allies in Mineola should employ tactics used by most successful boxers in their winning bouts: conserve energy, and counterpunch effectively. The combatant on the losing side of a fight is rarely knocked out. The vanquished boxer usually collapses due to exhaustion, or because their spirit has been broken.

New Thinking Needed

Nassau’s roadways are packed, and finding affordable housing remains a challenge, explaining why Sustainable Long Island’s proposed public policy remedies to these problems are gaining a broader audience.

“We built Long Island for cars,” said Sarah Lansdale, executive director of Sustainable Long Island, which will hold its 5th annual sustainability conference on Friday, March 4 at Carlyle on the Green, Bethpage. The morning keynote speakers are state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Nassau native and former state Assemblyman, and Woody Tasch, chairman and president of Slow Money, a group which allocates capital to start-up food enterprises. Moreover, Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) has confirmed that he’ll be there as the afternoon session’s keynote speaker.

The Blink of an Eye

Showing again a shrewd sense of timing, NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip released on Tuesday, Feb. 1 his memoir, In the Blink of an Eye (Hyperion), which he co-wrote with Newsday columnist Ellis Henican.

It will debut at #11 on The New York Times’ nonfiction bestseller list on Sunday, Feb. 20, the same day NASCAR fans will enjoy their Super Bowl, the annual running of the Daytona 500 in Florida.

Skaters’ Legacy

U.S. figure skaters who’ve won Olympic gold medals become household names, and many of them appear in Rise, a compelling documentary about the greatest American skaters you’ve probably never heard of.

Before Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill, there was 16-year-old Laurence Owen, who won the 1961 U.S. women’s figure skating championship and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And long before Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano burst onto the scene, there was 16-year-old Doug Ramsay, winner of the 1960 U.S. men’s junior figure skating title.