The rally was scheduled for 8:30 am in Mineola. I knew that Long Island traffic and the distance I live were both against my being on time. I hit the road at 7:10 am sans make-up and not exactly sure what the hell I was wearing since I dressed in the dark. (That seemed to be common among the other women who attended this morning.)
As expected, I was stuck in traffic on just about every highway. I turned the corner from Old Country Road to Franklin Avenue at 8:28 am and was happy to see the steps to the building were packed with sign carrying supporters. I parked in what felt like Garden City and ran through parking lots (in heels mind you) to get to the steps. There were others making their way to the rally. Union men wearing their Local’s numbers on their hats laughed at me as I trotted by them.
I didn’t need to run. The speeches didn’t start until after 9 am.
Brian Rosenberg has a second career as a politician should his
restaurant/nightclub Sugar in Carle Place have to close should we lose the Islanders. He is trying desperately to impress on people of this county how important the team and that building are to so many people whose livelihood depends on the traffic the Coliseum and all it is brings to the area. The Unions and the Restaurant Association are hoping that their pleas are not falling on deaf ears inside the legislature.
But they may be.
The signs read “Do What’s Right For Long Island!” and “Local Jobs for Local People.” Concise sentiments. But while union workers and fans stood together on the steps, Long Islanders may have been reading an op-ed piece in Newsday by a NIFA director with their morning coffee.
How typical of Nassau County. Nothing gets done easily and sometimes not at all. However, while this opinion piece talked about stadiums not garnering their estimated returns, I don’t believe I saw in his piece anything about the fact that this particular arena HAS ALREADY BEEN IN PLACE FOR A FEW DECADES!!
The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum has been generating revenue and jobs for the County for years. While the construction will be new, the estimated revenue and income has strong roots in past performance. I take particular disagreement with his stance that “Most spending by families at local stadiums is merely the reallocation of entertainment dollars, not additional expenditures.” Hey, Mr. Marlin, without a Coliseum in place that ’reallocation’ of dollars is heading straight out of the county -- along with the jobs.
So after all the speeches by the County Executive, Brian Rosenberg, Frank Borrelli, Charles Wang, Garth Snow, Butch Goring and other community representatives, the doors to the legislature were opened and people filed in. There -- as he has done for 15 years -- Charles Wang waited, and waited. All the other items that needed to be discussed by the Legislature were brought forth FIRST. Same as it had been so many times at the Town of Hempstead meetings.
When the arena item was FINALLY brought to the floor, Newsday’s Randi Marshall Tweeted out “ to start Hub hearing for #Isles new arena. I'm watching on Leg stream.... Waiting for Rob Walker now.” It took so long, even the MSM couldn’t stick around.
Mangano made his presentation and for all the efforts of everyone involved, the vote just on whether or not there can be a vote (not even on the referendum money) now has to wait until next Tuesday, on May 31st at 1 pm. Supposedly there is a by-law that says something like that has to be on the floor for seven days - blah, blah, blah.
Did that little fact not come up before? Procrastination: They name is Nassau County.
So okay then! There are seven days for those who will vote on whether the general public can vote on the referendum to think about it. Why don’t you help them. Let them know what YOU think about it.
Here is the link of those you can contact who should be voting.
According to Ms. Marshall‘s Tweet, "Failure's not an option. Something needs to get done." - Vision LI's Eric Alexander. So far Nassau County doesn’t have a very good track record.
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