Viewpoint

The Lake Success Horror II: A Big Pond

Most readers know Lake Success as one of Long Island’s exclusive villages. Others know the area mostly as the home of a massive health care complex, with fields of hospital and medical buildings large enough that they now have their own zip code. But some people may not be fully aware that there is an actual lake.

It can be briefly glanced through the trees, as one drives south down from the LIE to the parkway along Lakeville Road, down a hill big enough that it once had a name (Success Hill, of course). If you slow down (very carefully, please), you can at times see the sun gleaming off this big basin of water, behind the wrought iron fencing and the signs posted every few feet that say “No Trespassing” and “Swimming and Fishing Prohibited.”

Why One Little Patch of Land Matters

Assembly Bill 1275 would approve the transfer of a little piece of Fuschillo Park in Carle Place from the Town of North Hempstead to the local water district. The district wants to use part of the parking lot for a water facility, “alienating” the public from a piece of their park. An old, established body of case law and precedent requires the approval of the State Legislature. Some lawmakers take these bills very seriously. Usually, the state insists that lost parkland be replaced in some way. Meanwhile, the same Town and its Housing Authority want to drop a 48-unit housing development over every inch of Alvan Petrus Park in Port Washington, but they don’t believe that this requires any special approval or consideration.

Final Thoughts (For Now) on the Coming Austerity

1. By the time you read this, a state financial oversight board may be taking control of Nassau County’s finances, limiting the ability of locally-elected officials to make decisions regarding budgets, revenues, debts and contracts.

Dominoes

Six years ago, I wrote at length about massive federal government deficits and the eventual possibility of slashed spending “cutting off not only the most vulnerable individuals but also every state and local government program that relies on Washington dollars.” Federal government debt at that time was just closing in on $7.4 trillion. This week it hit $14 trillion. The federal budget deficit six years ago was a mere $430 billion ($560 billion if Social Security funds were excluded). Child’s play.

Less

Four days after the big storm and highways with two lanes still have only one open, and shops along major thoroughfares are losing revenue because no one can come close to parking near a curb. Yesterday, I passed a small street that looked like no plow ever came through.

I grew up in an unincorporated neighborhood. Back in the day, not long after a big snow, town crews using dump trucks and backhoes would clear roads to the curb, dumping large piles of snow in parks and other strategic locations. All winter, kids sledded down the snow hills, sometimes maybe 15 feet high. But the streets, corners and intersections were cleared. Around much of Long Island, this is a lost municipal art. We’re losing institutional memory of how to attack a major snow fall. But there’s more to it. Over the last twenty years, my town has reduced its highway crew by about half, without significant improvements in technology or in deployment theory. It’s just less.

Trojan Horses and Black Swans

There was a Trojan Horse in the big Washington tax cut compromise last week. As part of the deal, the Build America Bonds program will be allowed to expire in a few days.

The Build America Bonds were created as part of the 2009 federal stimulus. The federal government pays 35 percent of the interest costs on these taxable bonds in order to drive down borrowing costs for local governments and funnel money into infrastructure projects that create or maintain jobs. The program has been wildly popular with investors and underwriters. $185 billion worth of bonds have been sold, restarting the slumping market for municipal credit, which puts dollars into the pockets of every state and local government taxpayer. The popularity has only been growing. In November, states and municipalities issued $15.8 billion in Build America Bonds, the highest one-month total since the program began.

The bonds are helping to build and rebuild bridges, highways, dormitories and more.

Our Veterans, Our Business

There are 174,000 veterans in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, including people who have served in the Reserves and the National Guard. Only San Diego exceeds Long Island in the percentage of veterans among adult citizens. Some 7,000 Long Islanders have served in the Armed Forces since September 2001.

Although Long Island has no active duty bases, 11 different units of the Army and Air National Guards, and the Army, Naval and Marine Reserves are based here. Many Long Islanders, of course, serve in Guard and Reserve units based in other parts of the state.

Charter Reform Now

Starting during the summer, a group called Education Reform Now Advocacy Committee sent a series of mailers to voters, pumping Senator Craig Johnson for “fighting for the education our kids deserve,” and “fighting for our kids’ education.” Most voters probably assumed that this was about support for public school districts. Actually, this group is an advocacy committee for charter schools. Made me wonder why this group had to be so evasive if their cause was so just. By October, the group’s mailings thanked Senator Johnson for rooting out government waste, investing in green technologies and other activities that don’t seem directly related to education.

Just Keep Shopping

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”

That quote is from the 1912 platform of the National Progressive Party, formed by supporters of Theodore Roosevelt, resident of Oyster Bay and the man for whom our Nassau County executive and legislative building is named. Even if you don’t agree with that statement, wouldn’t it be refreshing, engaging, even exciting to hear any major political force in this country talk like that today? In one short paragraph, you’ve got intrigue, courage, idealism and even a tip of the hat to the importance of wisdom and diplomacy in government. Statesmanship. One of America’s lost values.

We Do Our Part

1. “We Do Our Part.” Saw that National Recovery Agency motto and blue eagle logo in the opening credits of a couple of old movies on Turner this week. In 1933, 1934 and 1935, that eagle meant that your company was voluntarily adopting new rules for hour limits, minimum wages and production standards to help stabilize markets and stop the downward spiral of salaries. The New Deal was about balancing the scales between business, labor and farmers. It was about cooperative effort and mutual sacrifice to right the country.