Back in October, the Great Neck Villages Officials Association met to discuss the revitalization of the peninsula.
This was certainly a positive step. Finally, the mayors of the peninsulas’ villages got to hear from Eric Alexander, who champions the “Complete Streets” concept of road design. Some of us have been championing this for years. Many of us had already been to a forum hosted by the Great Neck News and Steven Blank, where mayors from around the county and others (including Mr. Alexander) discussed revitalization, and how their villages (Farmingdale, Mineola) have made great progress.
Neither Mayor Bral nor any of the Village of Great Neck trustees found the time or thought it important enough to attend. (Steven Reiter, of the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District, and Dennis Grossman of the BZA do get props for being there).
The Great Neck News article about the October meeting contained two very disturbing quotes. Deputy Mayor Sobel referred to the “20 something people who try and bottleneck progress.”
Architect Mark Stumer referred to the “twenty-something people who show up here and have nothing but complaining to do.”
How dare you! Shame on you both!
First of all, there are usually less than twenty of us who show up! (C’mon, people, lend your voice! Get involved!) But the idea that those of us who do show up are “complaining”, or “obstructing” (Mayor Bral’s favorite term) is silly and I’m using the word “silly” to be polite!
Residents are concerned about overdevelopment: Over 800 people voted for Mr. Wu in the last election. Thousands signed petitions against overdevelopment.
“Bottleneck progress”?! How about choking and killing the peninsula with hundreds of more cars on roads that can’t get any bigger? How about having reached the absolute limit on getting rid of our own sh*t?!
Or overcrowded classrooms, or having to tap into NYC water supply, because we’ve already overstretched, over-polluted and tapped out our own groundwater?! I’m sure the eleven new homes Mr. Lalezarian is putting up on the last few acres of watershed will have “no significant environmental impact”!
This is not the ranting of a fear-mongering “obstructionist.” Some would say the same about those concerned with climate change and its “hypothetical” problems.
I call B.S.! These problems are real, and they are costing using tens of millions of dollars now. Costing who? The developers? No, the taxpayers of the peninsula!
$30 million for new sewer capacity! $10 Million for new classrooms!
This $40 million is a very real, immediate cost of overdevelopment.
I’m looking for revitalization as well- but it must be sustainable, and maintain some sense of the quality of life we sought when moving to Great Neck.
Now that Mayor Bral’s phony “master Plan” was exposed by the “obstructionists” as being a shill for the developers to pick and choose their projects of choice, the administration is just going ahead with them one project at a time without any “master plan” at all.
No vision of the future. No regard for the cumulative effect of all the overscale buildings designed to maximize profits (I get it), built at the expense of our community.
You want us to stop “complaining”, or “bottlenecking progress”? Stop trying to push through mega projects that will overload our already overloaded infrastructure.
Recently, I attended the meeting where the plan for 533 Middle Neck Road (Middle Neck Pharmacy), was approved, with SUPPORT from us “complainers”. The building suits the location, is only three stories, with a deep setback in front -a nice project.
And finally- gotta love (not!) the way Mayor Bral has moved public comment to the end of Board meetings- which means waiting till midnight in some cases to get to add input and thoughts. I guess that’s one way to avoid hearing the “complaints”! Nothing like gagging the public- oh- and how many “objectionists” were invited to that meeting back in October? This community deserves a voice.
At the forum I attended the biggest obstacle the mayors talked about wasn’t community opposition; it was the red tape and delays suffered by prospective new businesses by the Villages’ bureaucracy! Get your own house in order!
P.S. Mayor Celender- can we please at least get a recycling garbage can somewhere on North Station Plaza by the LIRR station? Can we start revitalization with at least that?
Sam Yellis
Great Neck
