Thursday, January 7, 2010

Kate's Fuzzy Math On Lighthouse Density Plans

Funny thing about politics and the way the podium can be used. It seems that according to LIBN.com (a very good website for LI), that Kate Murray addressed a board of Realtors discussing the proposed Lighthouse Project.
This is what it had to say:


Murray: Lighthouse density equals Manhattan
Thu, Jan 7, 2010
Featured posts, Real Estate
Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray said the density proposed for the $3.8 billion Lighthouse redevelopment of Nassau Coliseum and its parking lots is “like the upper west side” of Manhattan.

Murray addressed more than 100 members of the Long Island Board of Realtors Thursday at the Milleridge Inn in Jericho and told them that Lighthouse developer Charles Wang has a new political leadership to contend with, which she intimated was in favor of scaling back the project.

The town has yet to complete its environmental review of the plan to build a new hockey arena, hotel, retail shops and residences on 77 acres in Uniondale. Wang who also owns the New York Islanders, has hinted he might move the team if the Lighthouse project doesn’t go forward.


Wow, right? Scarey? Right? Okay, so I had a little look see on the web, but I don't think her numbers add up. So I posted the following comment:


7thWoman Says:
January 7th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
After doing a little investigating, Ms. Murray is obviously speaking out of her hat. Here are the REAL statistics as per population density.
Upper West Side of Manhattan is 2.5 sq miles. The population is 207,700 which is 83,000 per square mile. WOW!

The Upper EAST side has almost the same amount of residents at 207,500 but is smaller at 1.76 sq. miles. That’s a whopping 118,00 per. okay, I’m getting that closed in feeling already.

The Lighthouse Project is 1/4 square mile with an estimated total population of 4,846, which if you do the math is 19,384 residents per square mile. hmmmm…. Fuzzy Math Katie dear?

Now, look further and the Village of Hempstead has a density of 14,400 per square mile. So basically, the Lighthouse development has proposed a project that is basically in line with …

THE EXISTING VILLAGE OF HEMPSTEAD.
Ah yes, politics. Where you can say whatever you want without having all the numbers first.

Now, the sad thing is that Ms. Murray's tub thumping sounded like the NEW County Executive will give the Lighthouse Developers a hard time. Hopefully, the new Republican administration will be SMART enough to review the actual FACTS and not just take things they hear as gospel.

Because obviously, the Gospel According To Kate is somewhat flawed.

4 comments:

TheBard said...

Whats that? The math doesn't add up to what I want so I can scare people? Just Make it up, no one will question it!

Steve said...

The Islanders do NOT have to put up with any of Fat Murray's stupidity and idle threats, they just have to pack up and leave by 2015, preferably to NYC. I really don't understand why you're so fearful about the possibility that the Isles may leave Nassau County. You once said on your blog that you don't want the Islanders in Willets Point because it is a hazardous land.
OK, then why don't you come up with ANY evidence that the Shea stadium in Flushing right beside the chemical waste land in Willets Point have had foundation problems. Why did a large structure like Shea built right next to a chemical wasteland (more than 150 years of dumping at Willets Point had taken place when the Shea was built) last 45 years (1962 to 2007)despite subsequent addition of harmful chemicals in Willets Point? Again, these chemicals do not give a rat's ass on human made borders (such as Willets Point and Flushing) and they undoubtedly reached below the Shea stadium.
Also, Fred Wilpon has built Citi Field right besides the old Shea. He probably did it because the land was still safe and the chemical wasteland next door was going to be cleaned up through remediation. And if the Islanders win the bid for the Willets Point project they will be on top of the soil that had been CLEANED up (such as digging out 7 feet of land and putting in chemicals to neutralize them). Also, the Islanders will be able to OWN their arena and the surrounding buildings (up to 9.5 million square feet).
Meanwhile, back in NVMC, the Islanders will be severely limited by what they can build because Nassau County owns NVMC. Also, as the Islanders signed a sublease with SMG that has angered the Republicans, these crooks may want additional control of SMG in NVMC after 2015 as the crooks would probably believe that the Islanders have been 'stealing' money from SMG for 5 or 6 years. As you may very well know, SMG took a huge chunk of revenues from NVMC events including a significant potion of ticket sales from the Islanders games, and all of parking, and concessions since 1979. A significant portion of that likely have gone to bribe the Republicans (why is Mangano so upset that SMG has a significant revenue source from NVMC when he 'will go ahead with the Lighthouse project' ?). And also, how do we know what other kind of injustice that the TOH and Nassau county will inflict on the Isles by developing and occupying a county owned facility?

Rob McGowan said...

Great blog, Dee. It's great to see that the bloggers can find the facts and make the people who are elected to govern our Town look like complete fools. This stuff needs to stop. I will never understand why it is so difficult for two sides to just sit down and talk about what needs to be done. Obviously Murray doesn't want the Islanders to leave. If she didn't care, it would have been made public by now and these stupid "he-said she-said" games wouldn't be see-sawing all over the Internet. Wang obviously doesn't want to move the team because he is still making efforts to work with the Town and has made a few comments here and there indicating that he is still hopeful. That says alot about Wang considering he is a man that always sticks to his deadline rules - see Sean Bergenheim playing in Sweden for a year. I am still optimistic (maybe foolishly) that this will get done on a smaller scale than Wang has proposed. As long as the Islanders stay I don't care.

Steve said...

Hey Rob, do you really think that Fat Murray cares if the Islanders leave? If she says Wang 'has a new political leadership to contend with' she is likely implying that the Islanders need to cave into Republican's demands if they want to stay in NVMC. The Isles do NOT have to do so. Also, by Wang signing a sub-lease with SMG that has greatly angered the Republicans, Wang may want to punch his ticket OUT of Nassau County. Why did the Republicans get upset that the sublease was signed by Suozi if it helped the Islanders. The Republicans do NOT care about the Islanders.