Thursday, July 10, 2025
Names are not arbitrary. They are anchors of identity and pride, and they have power. I am a proud resident of and advocate for Uniondale, and the history of our community illustrates this truth.
For decades, the renaming of portions of Uniondale to East Garden City was calculated — the main purpose seemed to be to associate those areas of Uniondale with Garden City and command higher prestige. The practice became so commonplace that those parts of Uniondale became their own census-designated place under that assumed name.
But Uniondale already has prestige and notoriety. Given its roots as a diverse, working-middle-class community, the entire premise was both exclusionary and racially problematic, and our community fought for decades to make Uniondale whole again. The biggest victory, after extensive advocacy by community leaders and elected officials, was having East Garden City stricken from the census beginning in 2020.
Five years after its elimination as a census-designated place, references to East Garden City are still frustratingly common in media and even official government communications. A clue on “Jeopardy!” even referred to Uniondale’s beloved Museum Row as being in Garden City — even though the 2020 census map placed the regional attraction squarely within the boundaries of the 11553 ZIP code. The outcry was tremendous, and residents, including me, expressed our frustration in interviews in this and other media outlets. Siela Bynoe, my predecessor in the County Legislature, who is now serving in the State Senate, wrote to the show’s executive producer to express her dismay, gaining worldwide attention for Uniondale in the subsequent coverage of the error.
Most recently, the Cradle of Aviation and Museum Row were again the focal point of another miscommunication that deprived Uniondale of its rightful due in the public square. On Wednesday, as the Herald went to press, Nassau County was set to host its annual Juneteenth celebration at the Cradle of Aviation Museum — and I’m thrilled that such a major event, commemorating the end of slavery in America after the Civil War, was held in the Second District. But the fliers inaccurately described the event as being held in Garden City, and I wrote to the county’s Office of Minority Affairs to express my disappointment with the error.
To be sure, there have been positive strides in the dismantling of East Garden City. On June 9, we joined the Long Island Power Authority to celebrate the restoration of the Uniondale name to LIPA’s Nassau Hub substation on Stewart Avenue. That doesn’t obscure the fact that there is still a great deal of work to be done in the realm of awareness and public policy.
Prior to her elevation to the Senate, Bynoe wrote and filed county legislation in January 2024 to prohibit the use of East Garden City in county documents and communications, and to require the use of the name Uniondale in “all County documents of any kind, including but not limited to legislative enactments, maps, software, internal or external correspondence and communications, and all agency records, county department records, and all records within each branch of county government.”
Despite strong public support, the proposal is continuing to languish in the Legislature without a public hearing nearly a year and a half later. Given how the use of East Garden City continues to persist — and the fact that the Town of Hempstead passed similar legislation in 2015 — I fully support this proposal, and urge my colleagues in the majority caucus to calendar this item and enact it without delay.
Change takes more than time. It requires focused effort and commitment from all parties who have the power to make a difference. As Uniondale’s representative in the Legislature, I will use my voice at every opportunity to demand the respect that our community not only deserves but has earned.
Olena Nicks, of Uniondale, represents Nassau County’s 2nd Legislative District.
