It’s time to get creative, Long Island

Nassau County communities are headed toward an intersection of competing interests — development, the changing needs for housing and economic sustainability — not only on the county and town levels, but on our neighborhoods’ main streets as well.

On one side of the debate are residents who want what they have now to remain that way. They live on small, tree-shaded streets lined with single-family homes in quiet sections of their towns and love the quality of life they’ve enjoyed for decades. They not only want those streets to remain as is, they want their entire community shielded from change.

And there are other people who believe the way to best preserve their quality of life is to redevelop selected areas.

One group wants no change, an impossibility. Others want to make some changes that will provide for evolving needs, but are met with opposition.

The vast majority in the middle understand that many people, young and old, can’t afford to live here anymore, and that a significant loss of residents means significantly fewer customers for community-supporting businesses, ever-increasing property taxes to compensate for a smaller commercial base, and the eventual blight that consumes neighborhoods beset with empty stores and foreclosed houses.

Long Island has developed a reputation for no longer being a desirable place for young people to live. A lack of affordable housing has driven many 20-somethings to other parts of the country. The population of 25- to 34-year-olds dropped by 15 percent from 2000 to 2009, according to the Long Island Index, while that population increased 5 percent, on average, in other areas of the country.

In Nassau County, we’ve built out as far as we can, so the only way to expand the tax base is through the redevelopment of blighted or vacant buildings. And to bring about this change, we need open minds.