In response to Ms. Diane Bentivegna’s chimera regarding New Hyde Park, I think people need to bring a little perspective to this matter.
She writes:
“The LIRR Expansion Project was our alarm clock and, yes, the sleeping giant has been awakened. We remain vigilant. We remain united. We pledge to preserve and protect our suburban neighborhoods from the political agendas of some who have demonstrated little interest in our values, our culture and the goals we have for our families and future.”
My God.
The people making these arguments have to understand something: this is being played out all over the country. In San Francisco, where restrictive zoning and housing policy have made shelter unaffordable for any new resident who isn’t a millionaire and made people who never dreamed they could be made homeless live in the streets, now splattered with human feces, fierce political battles are waged. And even so, local voters keep a tight hold on building any additional housing. They like things just fine, especially since restricting the supply of something they already own makes the price go up. By a lot.
Nashville has experienced explosive growth in the past decade. There too, locals complain about all these “outsiders” coming in and rearranging the landscape. Oddly enough, they have no trouble taking the outsiders’ wealth and jobs they bring.
In New York City, housing is tight, but at least we’re sometimes enlightened enough to do something about it. Using a loophole to take scarce Manhattan acreage assigned for affordable housing at Hudson Yards so Stephen Ross’ Related Companies could build luxury condos instead, was not one of those enlightened moments. And so, more displacement is the result. As is the wretched excess of those gauche apartment units.
When I first wrote about this issue for The Island Now, I quoted the great 20th Century philosopher Buddy Hackett. Now, I must quote another one, named Myron Cohen, who famously said “Everybody gotta be someplace.”
I came here in 1962. The land that sites Pro Health Plaza was virgin forest. What was then called “Long Island Jewish Hospital” was a solitary building on Lakeville Road. The Sperry defense plant was still in operation.
Then the developers came, mimicking William Levitt’s suburban formula. At this time, Suffolk was almost all farmland. So too, was a great deal of Nassau. In that time, over 6 million newcomers made Long Island their home.
Oddly enough, our school systems didn’t fall over a cliff from this massive influx. And from that one example alone, you can see how hollow the arguments against building new housing are.
Now then: Who gets to be the chosen one to stand athwart the Exit 33 overpass and shout, “enough is enough?”
Because by that standard, anyone who came before us could have denied anyone who is making this argument today the choice to live here. But that is how myopic people are. There is this shrill, messianic outcry as to what will befall our communities if we allow more people to live here. History shows they’re wrong.
I suppose it is natural for people to resist change. I’ve personally seen a lot of it here, and yes, the traffic can be abhorrent, but I wouldn’t say the overall quality of life has suffered. We’re entering a whole new demographic reality in this country, and it must be accommodated.
We don’t really have a choice. We can’t keep advocating policies that shaft the young and the old and deny them their right to decent housing they can afford in places they elect to live in. No one should haughtily reserve for themselves the right to decide who can live here and who can’t.
Those decisions not only affect your town, they ripple across an entire country.
Having said that, I don’t think anyone is proposing building a monstrosity like Co-Op City here. Concerns about population density are legitimate. The proposals being floated for more apartment spaces adjacent to mass transit are actually quite modest in their scope.
Aside from that, at bottom, I don’t think it’s the “Noise and The Traffic” that bothers people. When you’re surrounded by 20 million people, the complaint doesn’t sound genuine.
I think the real issue is xenophobia. That’s what they mean by preserving “tradition, culture and values.”
But the preservation angle provides a fig leaf of moral cover the advocates need. These policies are wrong-headed, exclusionary and destructive.
Donald Davret
Roslyn
