Looks Like We Made It! (For now)

*Author's Note: For actual HOCKEY talk about tonight, please visit me on www.hockeybuzz.com. Thanks.

The excitement I have today knowing that there is actually a hockey game again in Uniondale has been severely tempered by the articles in today's Newsday regarding yesterday's re-zoning hearings.

All I can say is -- The Town of Hempstead Board may have created a whole new definition for STUPID.

The Lighthouse developers spent the entire day being grilled by the Town Board. They asked the same questions over and over again. Charles Wang became so frustrated that he had to beg them not to badger his consultants. But I have a question of my own.

Where were all these questions, concerns and opposition at every PRIOR public meeting? Where were these "concerned citizens" on August 4th? Or how about at the Town Hall meetings last year and the year before?

Why didn't board member Dorothy Goosby, the only Democrat on the board, ask all these questions months or years ago? What has Ms. Murray offered you for your role yesterday Ms. Goosby?

For sure, while I sat in the back with the "real media" yesterday morning, I couldn't help but feel so much of what was happening was staged. Perhaps prompted by the overwhelming support the project received on August 4th, the Town of Hempstead stacked the deck for this hearing. Certainly the headlines this morning don't give us anything to hang our hopes on.

"Town shows doubts on the Lighthouse." Yes, the Town of Hempstead or more importantly the Village of Garden City will indeed define a whole new meaning for STUPID.

I am not a reporter, so please, the next few sentences will be not be particularly politically correct. Forgive me, but here goes.

Hey! Ms. Goosby. You complained that "the people in your district" will never be able to afford the type of housing that is being proposed. Can they afford to type of housing that already exists on Stewart Ave. by the Source Mall? Are the prices the Lighthouse is proposing any different from those already in place in the Garden City and Mineola housing markets? NO.

So if the developers said there would be housing in the $150,000 range, the rest of the board would squeal "AAHAHHHHH!!! Not in my neighborhood!" So he gives you pricing that's in line with the rest of Nassau County and that's not good enough.

The board complained about the height of the towers, twice the height of the Let me tell you something. Every time I drive down Hempstead Turnpike I LOOK for that tallest building. I enjoy seeing it. It's a landmark for me that tells me I'm close to my destination. It doesn't ruin the landscape of suburbia.

Yesterday I tried to think of what it would be like to see those two towers in the distance, I thought of how beautiful it would be. Long Island's commercial landscape is flat and emotionless. The only really interesting commercial building is the RXR plaza with it's rounded glass walls. Those two towers rising over Nassau wouldn't be a blight, they'd be a beauty.

I'm really disgusted with what I feel will come of yesterday's hearings. The Town will more than likely drag their feet. They will not make a decision until AFTER the election so that all those who need to be elected or RE-elected won't have to worry about how this most important decision of the decade will effect them.

And just like everything else in Nassau County.... this will never get done. And it makes me sick.