Eye on the Island

Uncovered Campaigns

New York’s print and broadcast media outlets collectively made in-kind contributions this spring to the re-election campaigns of U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. House Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) by refusing to acknowledge the people who want their jobs.

Newspapers, radio, and TV stations, with few exceptions, boosted Senator Gillibrand and Rep. McCarthy by ignoring for months the three candidates who competed in the state’s Republican U.S. Senate primary election on Tuesday, June 26 as well as the two rivals who competed in the Republican and Conservative primary contests in New York’s 4th Congressional District (CD) on that same day.

LIRR’s Quiet Cars

Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) riders know that the LIRR’s good news usually comes with a disclaimer, and its bad news is either withheld or chronicled in complaints filed by a U.S. attorney (e.g., the LIRR’s disability scandal).

But let’s focus for the moment on June 2012’s good news, and the disclaimer. The LIRR announced that effective Monday, June 18, it was expanding its Quiet Car Pilot Program “to include all peak single-level electric trains that operate to/from Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal during the rush hours,” according to a LIRR pamphlet left recently on riders’ seats.

GOP Primary Battle

The registered Republicans in Nassau County’s 4th Congressional District (CD) are being asked on Tuesday, June 26 to choose their nominee for the U.S. House seat which has been held for nearly 16 years by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola).

Nassau County Legislator Fran Becker (R-Lynbrook) is the GOP’s official choice, and Becker won a 2010 Republican Congressional primary against one of the challengers he’ll face later this month, Frank Scaturro, a Hempstead resident who grew up in New Hyde Park. One difference in this election cycle is that the Becker-Scaturro race on June 26 is a head-to-head match-up whereas two years ago a third candidate also ran, finishing far behind both Becker and Scaturro. Legislator Becker, president of Becker & Associates and a Certified Financial Planner, lost to Rep. McCarthy in 2010’s general election.

Aqueduct Debacle

The region’s newspaper editorial boards have embarrassingly cast their lot with Governor Andrew Cuomo since he took office in 2011 so, when the centerpiece of the governor’s 2012 State of the State address fell apart this month, what did they do?

If you were an editorial page writer last week at either The New York Times or The New York Daily News, you scolded the Committee to Save New York (CSNY), a legal political entity charged with burnishing the governor’s image, for accepting money from gambling interests. Now, that is hilarious.

Belmont Weekend

Belmont Racetrack will be at the center of the sports world on Saturday, June 9, as I'll Have Another attempts to win thoroughbred horse racing’s Belmont Stakes and become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

In keeping with tradition, Garden City and Floral Park will host Belmont Stakes-related street fairs this weekend but, in a break with the past, the two communities are holding their events on separate days.

Distracted Walkers

The late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who said he received no respect, liked to talk about the time he was arrested for jaywalking.

A crowd gathered to watch the police officer take him out of the intersection for walking against the traffic light, Dangerfield explained. Making matters worse, one bystander shouted, “Don’t take him alive!”

Payson’s Legacy

Casey Stengel, the New York Mets’ manager in their inaugural season, was one of the first two individuals inducted into the Mets’ Hall of Fame. I imagine few Mets fans, however, can name the other.

Yet Joan Payson (1903-1975), a Manhasset resident who purchased a nearly 80 percent ownership stake in the Mets when they were first created, is finally getting her due thanks to two native New Yorkers now working at academic institutions in Ohio and Connecticut.

Redeveloping LI

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article last week about how the economic turbulence of recent years, coupled with $4 a gallon gasoline, has given rise to transit-oriented developments (TOD).

TODs are residential real estate projects built near train stations and commercial districts. They give people easy access to mass transportation, and are situated within walking distance of local businesses.

LIRR Rides Return

The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is restoring half-hourly midday service, between Monday and Friday, on the Port Washington branch starting on Monday, May 14.

This is great news for the commuters in northern Nassau who had fled to their cars since late 2010, unwilling or unable to wait an hour for the next train to arrive. But the episode also highlights something the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) often downplays: fare box revenue—the money generated for the MTA when riders pay out of their own pocket to purchase a ticket—matters.

A Survivor’s Tale

Plato is credited with saying people should be kind because “everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

While I’ve never met Millie Werber of Great Neck, her hard battle to survive World War II, first in Poland and then in Germany, has been memorably chronicled by Werber and Eve Keller in the just-published Two Rings: A Story of Love and War (PublicAffairs, 2012).