Five Towns Letters to the Editor

Posted

Consider residents when holding meetings

To the Editor:

I read the Sept. 23-29 article “Proposed Inwood project seeks 25-year PILOT,” about the proposed Inwood project. I am opposed to a project of this magnitude. It’s just too big. However, what bothered me more is that your article states that “only one resident attended the hearing.”

It should be noted that the hearing was held on Monday, Sept. 20, the eve of Sukkot, which prohibited most of the predominantly Orthodox Jewish residents of the Five Towns from attending.

Unfortunately, this practice has become all too commonplace. Meetings “conveniently” held just around the time that residents are celebrating holidays so that we don’t have time to show up; traffic studies being conducted on holidays and on Saturdays, when many are prohibited from driving. The timing for this meeting was entirely inappropriate, and insensitive to the Five Towns community at large.

The residents of the Five Towns have proven time and again that we care very much about massive projects being proposed in our midst, such as the “6th town” (the proposed Woodmere Club development) and the “Pearsall Monster” (the proposed Cedarhurst development).

Historically, we show up en masse to meetings like this, and I’m sure we would have had a lot to say at that hearing had it not been for the terribly inconvenient timing. At the very least, the Town of Hempstead should extend its public comment period to allow residents to voice their opinions.

Rena Saffra
Cedarhurst

Support the Climate Act

To the Editor:

Regarding the story “U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reveals findings of Back Bays Study” (Sept. 16-22):

It is astonishing that an article about the high risk of flood damage faced by South Shore residents does not mention climate change. Why are our local elected officials supporting a plan to spend $3.8 billion in taxpayer money on resiliency measures such as “elevating more than 14,000 homes”? We know from the science that without addressing the source of the problem — climate change caused by fossil-fuel emissions — resiliency measures will ultimately fail.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and State Sen. Todd Kaminsky must realize that the real solution is a transformation to a renewable economy. The State Legislature must pass the Climate and Community Investment Act, which will create jobs and revenue by making corporate polluters pay their fair share to mitigate the damage they have done to our communities.

If our leaders truly want to combat the disastrous effects of climate change on the South Shore, and benefit every South Shore resident, they must support the CCIA.

Laura Maffei

Cedarhurst