Desperation shouldn’t drive development

It must not matter to County Executive Edward Mangano that so many residents and institutions near the Nassau Memorial Coliseum don’t want a casino in their neighborhood. Why else would he reportedly be considering signing a letter of agreement, unilaterally, between the county and the Shinnecock nation in which the county would sell 40 acres of land to the tribe so it could build a gambling complex, generating supposed millions of dollars in revenue for the owners and the county?

Never mind that Charles Wang’s Lighthouse plan was rejected, in part, because then County Legislator Mangano and his Republican colleagues insisted that the increased traffic would cripple the area.

Never mind that students who attend colleges in the area would be neighbors to a huge bad example of how to generate income to fund the services people demand.
Never mind that the county would be losing another 40 acres of what little property it has left.

But people do mind. And their objections matter. And due process matters.

When Wang proposed his Coliseum renewal, residential and business development, he held numerous town hall-style forums at which residents and experts were assembled and people had their say. No one could claim that they didn’t have an opportunity to speak their mind.

When the Town of Hempstead eventually, finally, got around to holding environmental and zoning hearings, there were still more chances for residents from East Meadow to Garden City, from Franklin Square to Long Beach, to speak — or shout — their opinions.

Remember how former County Executive Tom Suozzi was scolded when he first announced the idea of the Lighthouse project? Republicans from every corner, and many others, demanded analyses and traffic studies, wanted to slow the process to a crawl, called for investigations and feasibility reports.

Now the Lighthouse project is all but dead, and the future of the blighted property remains in limbo, with an aging Coliseum and a professional hockey team that has committed to stay only through the end of its lease with the county in 2015.

Though the Hempstead Town Council made it clear that it was not happy with what it saw in Wang’s project during its hearings in 2009, it did come out last summer with its own version of a mixed-use development on the property.

Mangano, and Wang, said that the town’s plan was not “economically viable” enough to satisfy the needs of the county.

No compromise has been reached. It’s unclear if there have even been discussions since the town unveiled its plan.

While the county administration seems perfectly willing to bring a Hub-dominating casino where it’s not wanted, the Elmont community’s longstanding interest in a casino to revitalize the historic Belmont Park property — where there’s already not only gambling, but a public transportation infrastructure in place — is ignored.

Remember the cries of the GOP that the Democratic majority in the County Legislature would “rubber stamp” Suozzi’s headstrong plan? Mangano now wants to enter into a deal to sell a significant piece of the center of Nassau County to the Shinnecocks, and didn’t bother to ask residents, higher-educational institutions, public school boards or businesses in the area what they think of the idea.

If it’s such a great concept, Mangano should call for legislative hearings to solicit input from affected neighbors, and get independent (meaning from neither Republican nor Democratic law firms, accountants or contributors) analysis and financial projections for the undertaking.

Many people have already made up their minds that solving the county’s financial predicament with gambling revenue is a bad bet. But if Mangano can persuade enough people that it’s a prudent and good-government thing to do; if he can tell us how he’ll assuage the concerns of residents, businesses and nearby institutions and effectively deal with all the same environmental, transportation, resource and quality-of-life objections folks had with the Lighthouse plan, we’re willing to listen.