NY Wiki: Suffolk Archives

October 15, 2005

Hate on the L.I.E.

A parking lot off of Route 110 was the site of hate crimes last Sunday
and Monday, where teenagers Victor Lopez and David Andrade allegedly
lured males from the Exit 49 rest area of the Long Island Expressway
with promises to engage in sexual activity.

According to Det/Sgt Robert Reecks of the Suffolk County Police Hate
Crimes Bureau, 18-year-old Lopez and 19-year-old Andrade led their
victims to secluded areas where they bound them with duct tape, held
them at gunpoint and demanded money.

Reecks said a 42-year-old homosexual man was the first victim to come
forward. This man said he was attacked on Sunday night but waited
until Monday to report the incident because his assailants threatened
to kill his family if he approached the police.

Reecks said the delay in reporting this crime forced him to play
“catch-up” with the investigation. “Without a doubt, as in any case,
the longer I don’t get it reported, the greater deterioration of
evidence I can gather,” he said, adding that the victim was also
scared to report the crime because he had not yet publicly declared
his sexual orientation.

This 42-year-old victim provided police with a description of the
suspect’s vehicle, and after they broadcast a notification to all
units, a Suffolk County Canine Unit observed the vehicle traveling
southbound on Route 110 in Farmingdale.

Lopez and Andrade, both Copiague residents, were arraigned at First
District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday. They are charged with
robbery as a hate crime in the first degree, as well as unlawful
imprisonment as a hate crime in the second degree.

“We take [hate crimes] very seriously out here,” Reecks said, adding
that Suffolk County reports approximately 22 percent of all hate
crimes in New York State. “It’s a huger percentage on one number,
because we only represent about 9 percent of New York State, however a
lot of police agencies don’t report hate crimes. So they’re either not
reporting them or not recognizing them as hate crimes.”

By Aliza Israel (@ Longislandernews)

August 12, 2005

Real estate commentary

Property Grunt is NY-centric and offers a more commentary.

Brooklyn Squeeze moves to Suffolk.

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July 20, 2005

Anthony Nicoletti, Bayberry Builders

For residential real estate in the Eastern Long Island area,
Anthony Nicoletti is affiliated with Bayberry Builders L.L.C. a
builder of high quality custom homes on the North Fork of Long Island.

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July 17, 2005

South Fork, Hamptons estate agents

House prices keep leaping upward, especially on the South Fork,
where the median price in the first quarter of 2005 surpassed
$700,000, according to Long Island Profiles, a Bay Shore company
that tracks the real estate market. The supply of properties for
sale for $1 million or more seems to be expanding exponentially.

And so is the number of people on a quest for the Holy Grail: the
sales commission on a multimillion-dollar house.

The math is seductive: The ordinary commission, 6 percent of the sale
price, amounts to $60,000 on a $1 million house. Sell just five of
those a year as exclusive listings, and you are talking $300,000 in
gross income. Close a deal on a single $12 million estate - there are
several on the market at the moment - and the potential payoff is a
dizzying $720,000.

That's why the South Fork - one of the country's hottest real estate
markets, with prices rising at double-digit rates every year - now has
more agents and brokers than ever before. Large companies like the
Corcoran Group, Prudential Douglas Elliman and Sotheby's have added
scores of sales people in the Hamptons over the last five years, and
locally owned offices are merging and expanding to compete with the
big names.

Although the rest of Long Island has also seen double-digit growth,
the first-quarter median house price for Nassau and Suffolk was
$447,700, much less than the $700,000-plus on the South Fork.

[NYT]

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July 13, 2005

Calverton Enterprise Park and LIRR

Two "mega" concerts planned for the former Calverton Naval Weapons
Airfield site, now known as Calverton Enterprise Park.

An opportunity of the LIRR ? Or will the LIRR maintain that demand
fon the North Fork is still low, as , Sunrise Express enjoys
record high patronage ?

These events will occur over 2 summer weekends, June 7 & 8th and then
again on August 9th and 10th. Up to 80,000. tickets will be sold
for EACH DAY, some of these tickets will be for peopple who want to
spend the weekend and camp on site, but most will be for people
attending 1 day only.

Yes, the Main Line (or the Greenport Branch) runs right next to the
concert site, and there even is a "station site" for Calverton (it has
not been a station since the mid-80's), that at a minimum a temporary
wooden high level platform could be constructed for (similar to what
Metro-Noth built at Yankee Stadium in case of the NYC transit strike
in December).

Ken Allan, [LIRRCommuters] LIRR Service to Calverton Concert Sites
(LIRRCommuters@yahoogroups.com)
Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 20:23:53

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June 07, 2005

Great South Bay

Great South Bay is a protected, open water bay behind Fire Island
and Jones Beach Islands which extends roughly from the Nassua/Suffolk
County line in the west to Bellport Bay in east. It is the largest
shallow saltwater bay in the state, with sandy shoals and extensive
eelgrass beds. Great South Bay is a highly productive ecosystem and
supports a regionally important commercial and recreational fishery. Sea
turtles, including the Atlantic ridley turtle, loggerhead turtle, and
green turtle, regularly forage in the area.

More Audubon regions. Long Island is Region 1; Great South Bay is point 12 on the map below.

[NY Audubon]

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April 04, 2005

Ferry, North Fork / Orient to New London, CT

Year-round passenger and car ferry from Orient / North Fork,
Long Island to New London, CT.

Ferry status: running, delayed, cancelled due to hurricaine ?

For pedestrian safety, build the pedestrian bridge at the
New London, CT ferry terminal.

Posted by omor at 10:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 06, 2005

Make it here, make it anywhere: Long Island Index

Diana Weir, the vice president of the Long Island Housing Partnership,
said: "People tend to stay in these homes. Most of them are thrilled
to own their own home."

Though developments like those created by the Long Island Housing
Partnership with the cooperation of towns, banks and county, state and
federal agencies have given more than 3,000 families the chance to own
homes, there are still many more people who will leave Long Island for
that chance.

With the median price of a house reported in July by the Long Island
Regional Planning Board to be $394,900, twice the national average,
"people making 120 percent of the median income can't come close to
buying a home on Long Island," said Jim Morgo, Suffolk County's
commissioner of economic development.

As a result, according to the 2005 Long Island Index, a report
on Long Island sponsored by the Rauch Foundation, 20 percent of Long
Islanders aged 18 to 34 left the Island from 1990 to 2000, five times
the national average.

NYT]

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January 10, 2005

Peconic Bay Regional Transportation Authority

Two Tracks Converge
2005 January 09, By JOHN RATHER, The New York Times

AN unusual convergence of events may be opening a way for a
top-to-bottom refashioning of public transportation on the East End,
where traffic snarls and Hamptons summer gridlock have brought cries
for years for something to be done, but where local opposition to new
or wider roads remains fierce.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, already increasing fares
and reducing service for the new year to close budget deficits, wants
to raise an additional $1 billion by selling or leasing properties
including parking lots, train yards and stations.

On the East End, some elected officials and groups want to explore
creating an East End transportation authority that would buy or lease
the Long Island Rail Road tracks that run along the North and South
Forks, transforming them into the arteries of a new light rail and
shuttle bus transit system.

Some of the basic ingredients for a future deal seem to be there. But
the five towns and nine villages that make up the East End would need
to agree first on a common course of action, and the authority, which
owns the L.I.R.R., would need to be persuaded that are financial
advantages to ceding control of the railroad's eastern extremities.

Even the most optimistic of East End transportation advocates agreed
that making all that happen would take some doing, but several of them
indicated that they were poised to give it a try.

"The M.T.A. certainly isn't winning any awards for how they are
running the system out here," said Hank de Cillia of Bridgehampton, a
spokesman for a private advocacy group called the Five Town Rural
Transit Committee. "One of our arguments to them would be that we are
an insignificant, tiny little part of their empire, and we think we
could run it better."

(Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, also has designs on
parts of the L.I.R.R. track system, having proposed a mass transit
light rail loop for the Hub area in central Nassau that would
incorporate the railroad's Oyster Bay and West Hempstead lines. But
the plan is tentative and financing is nowhere near being secured.)

Tom Kelly, an M.T.A. spokesman, said he had not even heard of the
proposed East End authority and could not comment on whether the
M.T.A. would consider lease or sale of East End tracks. "This is not
something we have explored," he said. "I won't say its premature, I
just don't know the legality of it. It might not be feasible." The
Long Island Rail Road public affairs office, informed of the proposal,
did not offer any comment.

But legislation to create an East End transit authority has already
been introduced in Albany. Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr., a
Republican from Sag Harbor, wrote a bill last year to create what
would be called the Peconic Bay Regional Transportation Authority. It
would cover the towns of Southampton, East Hampton, Shelter Island,
Riverhead and Southold, and the nine villages within them.

The bill did not come to a vote, but Mr. Thiele said he would
reintroduce it this month. He said he believed that East End officials
supported the plan, but added that he had not discussed the proposal
with M.T.A. or Long Island Rail Road officials.

"We have certainly talked to the M.T.A. about the type of service they
provide now, and quite frankly it has been their lack of
responsiveness that has resulted in this," he said.

Mr. de Cillia's group visualizes one-, two- or three-car self-powered
trains running half-hourly on North and South Fork routes, supported
by shuttle buses waiting at the stations to carry riders to or near
their final destinations. This, Mr. de Cillia said, would be a better
way to run a railroad in an area with 29 percent of Long Island's area
but less than 5 percent of its year-round residents.

Currently the L.I.R.R. serves the North Fork with two eastbound and
three westbound trains weekdays and two round trips on weekends
connecting Greenport and Pennsylvania Station. There is also one round
trip connecting Riverhead and Pennsylvania Station on weekdays. On the
South Fork, the railroad runs five westbound and six eastbound trains
on weekdays except on Friday, when there is a seventh eastbound train.
On weekends there are five eastbound and four westbound trains.

The East End plan also envisions small-scale, primarily seasonal ferry
and water taxi service with bus and rail links. Routes might include
service between Orient Point and hamlets on the North and South Forks.
The Cross Sound Ferry Company carries passengers and vehicles between
Orient Point and New London, Conn.

The group contends that its proposal would avert further surrender to
cars and roads while serving residents, visitors and second
homeowners. Its advocates say it would accommodate freight trains in
off-hours, connect seamlessly with the Long Island Rail Road and carry
tradespeople to reduce the daily "trade parade" that East End
residents blame for congesting roads, particularly on the South Fork.
The group said tradespeople could initially drive their vehicles to
secure parking locations near job sites and then travel to and from
the locations by rail. They point out that many commuters to the East
End work in restaurants, schools and area hospitals and had no need to
travel with tools and heavy equipment.

Mr. de Cillia, a business consultant, said the group had been
concerned more with what had to be than on how to do it, but
recognized that creation of the new transportation authority might be
necessary.

Southampton voted on Dec. 17 to make exploring an authority a part of
the town's master plan. "This is really where our focus is," said
Steve Kenny, a Southampton councilman. "What we would really like to
see now is the M.T.A. coming to the table."

Mr. Thiele said a bill that created a new authority for the explicit
purpose of immediately replacing the M.T.A. on the East End would have
slim chance of passage. "That's probably an uphill battle," he said.

But he said chances were far better for establishing a new authority
that would work cooperatively with the M.T.A. He said the new
authority could be financed by what he said was a fair share of fares
and money the East End paid in sales taxes, mortgage taxes and a
number of other taxes to the M.T.A.

"From the research we've done so far it appears that when it comes to
the M.T.A. the East End is definitely a creditor nation," he said. "If
we had our fair share, we believe a train and shuttle bus service
could be covered."

Mr. de Cillia's group estimated that East End residents, second
homeowners and visitors accounted for $40 million in revenues routed

to existing rail and bus service. The group said the amount far
exceeded what the East End got back in services, but made no estimate
of the difference.

A state-created authority would have the power to sell tax-exempt
bonds to finance its operations and buy M.T.A. assets and new
equipment. But backers of the new authority said large-scale borrowing
was not part of their plan.

Instead, they spoke of securing federal financing for new light rail
cars and exploring the possibility of leasing tracks. Mr. de Cillia
said the M.T.A. might even agree to cede the tracks to the new
authority.

Mr. Thiele said the M.T.A.'s announced interest in selling or leasing
assets might be a sign the time was right for significant changes. "We
may be underestimating this thing," he said. "Maybe the M.T.A. would
be glad to let someone else take over."

Whether towns and villages could reach agreement would be another
matter. Some are currently at odds over transportation issues.

Southold is suing East Hampton in federal court in an effort to knock
down East Hampton ordinances that ban car-and-driver ferries and limit
passenger ferries. Southold and Shelter Island, which has joined in
the action, contend that they are being victimized by traffic to and
from the Cross Sound Ferry terminal in Orient and points on the South
Fork.

Joshua Y. Horton, the Southold supervisor, said it was unfair for East
Hampton to bar ferries that could relieve traffic problems on the
North Fork and Shelter Island. "That is the transportation issue that
needs to be addressed," he said.

East Hampton, meanwhile, would be the terminus of a new limited-access
highway built along the Long Island Rail Road tracks that is proposed
for further study in the transportation plan the Southampton town
board added to the town's master plan on Dec. 17.

The road, which Southampton officials concede would be unlikely to be
built, would begin at the eastern end of County Road 39 in Southampton
and end at the East Hampton town line near the East Hampton Airport.

William McGintee, the East Hampton town supervisor, said Southampton
officials had given assurances that no road along the railroad would
be built without his town's consent. "Any plan for that is not worth
the paper it's written on without East Hampton agreeing," he said.

Mr. McGintee said he was more favorably disposed toward an East End
transportation authority. "It is an interesting concept," he said.

But North Fork officials had questions. "I am certainly not a naysayer
in regard to enhanced transportation," Mr. Horton said. "But I am not
sure a new authority with brand-new bonding authority is the answer to
that. There are agencies already in place, and we should be fighting
to have better representation and service from those agencies."

The Greenport mayor, David Kapell, said he had heard what he described
as "loose talk" about an authority. "I don't place much credence in
that," he said. "Whether or not an authority is a viable alternative
is a very complicated issue."

"In my opinion, smaller units of government do not operate efficiently
from an economy standpoint," Mr. Kapell said. "It's hard for me to
understand how you could create a smaller authority that people could
afford to pay for. The problem is one of economics."

The five towns and nine villages are part of a $500,000 federally
financed initiative to find a regional consensus on transportation and
land use. If a consensus were reached, it would target county, state
and federal financing for transportation.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council began the initative,
known as the Sustainable East End Development Strategies, or Seeds,
program, in 2001. Other participants include the M.T.A., the Long
Island Rail Road and state and Suffolk County transportation agencies.

Gerry Bogacz, a planning group director in Manhattan for the council,
said the initiative would not weigh directly on the question of
whether a new transportation authority was warranted. "Seeds is trying
to build a consensus on what needs to be done," he said. "Once that
consensus is reached, it's a question of how do you implement that
consensus."

Some local officials said the initiative had taken so long they
doubted it would yield useful results. But a wealth of statistical
information compiled by Seeds about a range of transportation options
will be available soon.

Patricia Thiele of Sag Harbor, the Seeds coordinator, said data from
computer modeling of transportation alternatives would be released in
April. Ms. Thiele, who is not related to Assemblyman Thiele, said
alternatives studied included road widenings, new roads, increased
rail and ferry service and different types of services.

Mr. de Cillia, who took part in the initiative, said he had reviewed
some of the results. "I have seen enough to know that if you make more
investment in transit you are going to get more riders," he said.

Mr. Bogacz said the results could help lead to an inter-municipal
agreement in 2006. "The data will hopefully tell a story that people
will be able to read," he said.

Previously: Expanded rail service on the South Fork needed, MTA shortchanges
eastern Long Island.

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September 09, 2004

Expanded rail service on the South Fork needed

EDITORIALS
Easthampton Star, 2004 Sept 09
Save the L.I.R.R.

Given the level of service provided on the South Fork by the Long
Island Rail Road, a good argument might be made in favor of tearing up
the tracks and replacing them with a new road (dare we say bypass?)
from near Southampton Village at least to the East Hampton Town line.
Riders, or, perhaps more accurately, would-be riders, have for many
years complained about a schedule that seemed more about moving the
rail cars from one place to another than serving passengers' needs,
particularly on westbound runs. But abandoning rail would make us more
dependent on automobiles at a time when transportation alternatives
should be promoted. Doing away with trains would be a major step
backward.

The idea of tearing up the tracks, if it has been proposed as a way of
getting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's attention, is a
risky gamble. The M.T.A. might just take the South Fork up on it. The
L.I.R.R. seems to have given up on serving the South Fork villages and
hamlets in a meaningful way a while ago. When new passenger cars were
added a few years ago they were chosen with commuters in mind, not
people bringing luggage for a weekend. There's room for a briefcase on
racks above passengers' heads, but not much else. The Friday trains
out of New York City take on the frantic air of a hurricane
evacuation, as riders try to cram their bags and sports equipment into
whatever space they can find.

As proposed in a study commissioned by the Southampton Town Board,
rail service would end at the Southampton train station; buses would
take passengers the rest of the way to Montauk. A new transfer
facility, more like cattle pens than the "visitor center" mentioned in
the study, would accommodate the up to 1,500 passengers per trip as
they are herded onto buses. The consultant who wrote up the study's
findings said that buses would actually serve riders better, by being
able to take them to places like Sag Harbor, for instance, which are
now inaccessible by train.

A more sensible proposal in the study is for expanded rail service on
the South Fork. Trains would run more frequently and shuttle buses or
"light-rail" trains would go to the now unserved hamlets and villages.
People close to the issue say, however, that the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority would not be enthusiastic about this
prospect.

The idea of doing away with rail service would seem to be
counterintuitive for Southampton Town officials, who have made a
mantra of complaints about vehicles headed for destinations in East
Hampton Town. The consultant said that about 10,600 vehicles a day
that cross the Shinnecock Canal on County Road 39 during the summer
are bound for East Hampton. Eliminating rail service east of
Southampton Village would only cause that number to grow as more
people chose personal cars over complex and time-consuming public
transportation.

In East Hampton, replacing the rail bed with a road would seem all but
impossible; the tracks bisect the village. Nor would there be much
space in many locations for a second set of tracks, as might be
required for light-rail service, without the condemnation of numerous
houses. Another unfortunate result would be along the long stretch of
Hither Hills State Park where the L.I.R.R. rails now run. A highway
there seems unthinkable.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has proposed legislation to
create a Peconic Bay regional authority to help deal with
transportation problems in the five East End towns. This authority
would not supplant the M.T.A. but work with it in a supporting role.
Keeping a direct rail connection to New York City should be important
to second-home owners and weekend visitors. Mr. Thiele's much-needed
attempt to seek some middle ground with the M.T.A. could help maintain
and perhaps improve this service. Now is not the time to abandon rail
service on the South Fork or make it less rider-friendly.

[Easthampton Star].

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April 05, 2004

Red light cameras

ON THE ROADS: Lawmakers need to give green light on cameras
Plan your next event with Caterer Search
John Valenti

2004 March 21

It was almost three years ago that Assemb. Patricia Eddington stood at an
intersection in Medford dubbed "Crash Corner" and declared war on
red-light-running drivers in Suffolk County.

Dangerous, she called drivers who act as if green means go, yellow means go
faster and red means nothing. Dangerous, she called the growing trend of drivers
running red lights.

She called for the installation of cameras at dangerous intersections - red-light
cameras - to take license plate photographs of vehicles that entered those
intersections after the light had turned red. She called for an automated system
to ticket those vehicle owners.

This was three years ago, come August. Still, drivers wait for something to be
done to stop red-light runners.

The bill proposed by Eddington (D-Medford) - a bill that would change state law
and allow red-light cameras to be installed in Suffolk - passed the Assembly only
to be sent back for amendment. A similar bill proposed by state Sen. Caesar
Trunzo (R-Islip) passed the Senate, only to be sent back, too.

The political wheel has turned slower than the wheels of red-light runners.
Sometimes not only is justice blind, but so are its lawmakers.

So the Senate and Assembly argue wording, while victims of red-light runners get
added to the list of casualties: a mother and a daughter, killed by an alleged
red-light runner on William Floyd Parkway; a 16-year-old girl, killed by an alleged
red-light runner on Route 58 in Riverhead.

These are just two fatal accidents in the past year that come to mind. There are
more.

"Things move very slowly in Albany," Eddington said last week. "Sometimes, they
only move when there is a great groundswell of constituent concern. Red-light
running is a big issue. I think we have a problem with running red lights on Long
Island."

As a spokesman for Trunzo said: "The real tragedy is that this can be addressed.
This is a problem with a solution."

But the solution has been sidetracked to date by concerns of "Big Brother."

Some state politicians have argued red-light cameras will infringe upon our rights
as Americans. There are concerns about civil liberties.

There are fears that red-light cameras will be used to take photographs of
drivers. There are fears about racial profiling. The fact is all this is wrong.
Red-light cameras photograph license plates - not drivers. The program has been
used on a "test" basis in New York City since 1994 - and red-light violations are
down 50 percent.

The fact is that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that each
year 200,000 motorists are injured and about 1,000 are killed nationwide by
red-light runners. The fact is that most safety experts consider running a red light
the single-most egregious driving violation - other than DWI.

"We oppose the use of photo radar to enforce speed limits," AAA Automobile Club
of New York governmental affairs expert John Corlett said. "But, we make a
distinction between photo radar and red-light cameras - because with red-light
running the balance starts to shift against due process. Red-light running is
clear-cut dangerous conduct. No question. And, it's out of control. Something
needs to be done."

A recent AAA study, in fact, found that 67 percent of AAA members in the
metropolitan area - a membership, Corlett said, considered "conservative" -
favored the use of red-light cameras for enforcement.

"People want this program," Corlett said.

Under current state law, only cities with a population of at least 1 million can
implement a red-light camera system. This is the main reason it has only been
used in New York City. Installed on an experimental basis in 1994, the program
was due to expire in 1999. It was extended into 2004 - and figures to be
extended again.

The ticket issued using red-light cameras would carry about a $100 fine. But it
would not be a moving violation - and no points would be assessed to a driver's
license. Specific language in the law would prohibit insurance companies from
increasing premiums to the vehicle registrant.

It has been almost three years since Pat Eddington stood at that intersection in
Medford, Patchogue-Holbrook Road and Greenbelt Parkway. Almost three years
since she stood there with a mother of three who was almost killed when the
driver of a sport utility vehicle allegedly ran a red light and struck her minivan.

Still, the debate ambles on - while people continue to be injured or killed by
red-light runners all across Long Island.

"It's very frustrating," Eddington said. "Very."

Posted by dc at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2004

North Suffolk news by Newday

Newsday's North Suffolk news

Posted by dc at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2004

Eastern Long Island Newsday

Eastern Long Island Newsday.

Posted by dc at 11:28 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2004

Beechwood Homes

Beechwood Homes's Lake Grove (east Smithtown)

Other projects in Coram, Yaphank and Medford.

Posted by dc at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2003

Street Racing

The crackdown on street racing along Old Dock Road in Yaphank
was a response to complaints from nearby businesses that hundreds of
young people regularly gathered there to race Kevin Krieg, 36, whose
family business, S-K Speed Racing Equipment in Lindenhurst, said he
and his shop do not condone street racing, blamed the illegal
racing on the decline of the drag-racing tracks he used to frequent,
such as National Speedway in Center Moriches. The Island's last
remaining track, the Long Island Dragway in Westhampton, is due
to close within months so a senior condominium complex can be built.

Cops Issue 54 Tickets in Illegal Street Race

By Indrani Sen, Staff Writer

2003 December 01 10:06 PM EST

The scene that police officers came upon at 2:15 Sunday morning on an
industrial strip in Yaphank wasn't straight out of Hollywood. The young men and
women racing souped-up street cars weren't quite as extravagantly stylish as
their counterparts in movies such as "The Fast and the Furious." And there was a
noticeable dearth of supermodels.

But otherwise, all the elements of an action film were there -- unfathomably fast
cars growling alongside each other as the starting flag came down; an elaborate
system to prevent detection of the illegal street race, including last-minute
phone chains and police-frequency scanners; and even a breathless and
dangerous police chase that scattered passers-by.

Suffolk police issued 54 traffic tickets, mostly for speeding and equipment
violations, on about 35 "tricked-out" cars, impounded three vehicles, and
arrested one man who they say sped through a Newsday distribution center full
of workers as he fled. Arthur Wray, 18, of Central Islip, was charged with
second-degree reckless endangerment.

The crackdown on street racing along Old Dock Road was a response to
complaints from nearby businesses that hundreds of young people regularly
gathered there to race, as well as to the deaths in July of Jerold Loudoux, 22, of
Manorville and John Lagadinos, 23, of Lake Ronkonkoma, who were racing
motorcycles on the road, said Insp. Mark White.

Fifth Precinct officers, assisted by Highway Patrol units, had a few tricks of their
own, White said. Knowing the racing rings monitor police scanners, dispatchers
did not put the call out over police radio. Instead, they used the mobile
computers to coordinate the response.

The mother of one of the motorcyclists who died in July, Debra Loudoux, said
she was glad to see the stepped-up enforcement and hopes it deters young
people from racing there in the future.

"Once it goes on for awhile, they think that's the place to go and that it's OK, but
it's not," said Loudoux of Manorville. "I feel that should have been watching the
area better."

But racing devotees insisted that the sport is safe when properly practiced.
"They usually go to somewhere with as little traffic as possible, as little people as
possible," said Adam, 21, of West Islip, who did not want his last name used.
Among the real racers, he said, "it's frowned upon for people to go on highways
because it's dangerous."

Kevin Krieg, 36, whose family business, S-K Speed Racing Equipment in
Lindenhurst, has been a well-known name in Long Island's high-performance car
scene for four decades, said despite the changes in racing over the years, the
bottom line is the same.

"When you go on a roller coaster and you go over the first hump, how do you
feel that split second?" he said. "That's what drag racing does."

Krieg, who said he and his shop do not condone street racing, blamed the illegal
racing on the decline of the drag-racing tracks he used to frequent, such as
National Speedway in Center Moriches. The Island's last remaining track, the
Long Island Dragway in Westhampton, is due to close within months so a senior
condominium complex can be built.

"You're never going to get rid of the kids' need and want to go fast," he said, "so
what you've got to do is channel it properly."

Adam said he and his friends race mainly for the fun of it and not for the
winner's pool, which tends to be a few hundred dollars. His interest in racing
came from his father, he said, though his taste in cars has diverged. The older
generation tends toward the American muscle cars, whereas many younger
racers are "hot-rodding" smaller imported cars such as Honda Civics and Nissan
Altimas by opening up their exhaust systems and intakes, fitting them with
racing tires and adding canisters of nitrous oxide to boost the horsepower.

"You could buy a new Camaro, and with the money you spend on that, you'd
have to do a lot more work to a Honda to make it even compare," Adam said.
"It makes the challenge of beating one even more fun."

John Reina, 40, whose produce delivery business, Suffolk Banana, is on Old
Dock Road, said he understands the fun of it -- he used to race himself. But the
two wooden crosses on his front lawn that commemorate where the young
motorcyclists were killed in July have given him a different perspective.

"I feel bad that there's not a place for the kids to go, but I don't think this is the
place for them to do it," Reina said. "I don't want them dying anywhere, but I
especially don't want them dying on my lawn."

Posted by dc at 10:45 PM | Comments (3)

November 23, 2003

New Urban Long Island

Long Island developers and planners have not yet considered building sidewalks
where none exist now, but several proposals for new developments would create
old-fashioned village centers complete with sidewalks. Assemblyman Steven
Englebright is backing a $250 million development that would convert a series of
strip malls in East Setauket into a village center. In Brentwood, Gerald Wolkoff
has proposed a $4 billion complex of apartments, town houses, restaurants and
shops on a 460-acre site that would be called Heartland Town Square.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 23, 2003

Wide Island
By VIVIAN S. TOY

When Robert Moses unveiled Long Island's parkways and Levittown advertised its
reasonably priced cookie-cutter homes, New Yorkers couldn't uproot themselves
from the city fast enough to claim their own patch of grass and breathe in all that
fresh suburban air.

But now a recent study suggests that the two-car garages that go with that
suburban dream may actually be hazardous to your health.

The study, which surveyed 200,000 men and women living in 448 counties across
the country, found that people living in communities marked by sprawling
development walked less in their daily routine and weighed more than people
who live in more compact urban areas. Suburbanites, the study found, are also
more likely to become obese and suffer from high blood pressure.

Health and nutrition experts on Long Island say this study, the first to directly link
obesity with the way communities are designed, simply reinforces what they have
been saying for years - that Long Islanders need to work on increasing their level
of physical activity.

Some planners and developers have heartily embraced the study's results,
saying that it supports their efforts to redevelop downtown areas and create
more pedestrian-friendly communities. But others view the results with heavy
skepticism and criticize the study as anti-suburban and anti-development. Even if
you can't walk a block or so to pick up a quart of milk in Long Island, they argue,
the suburbs provide more parks and open space than cities do and therefore
more opportunities for exercise and physical activity.

Debbie Brown, a recent transplant to Dix Hills from Brooklyn, let out a big laugh
when she was told about the study as she waited for her order at the
drive-through window at a Dunkin' Donuts in Hempstead. "Oh, I believe it," she
said. "My exercise agenda is horrible, and I don't walk anywhere."

A woman who was two cars behind Ms. Brown agreed. "People don't even walk
around the corner out here, and nothing is convenient without a car," she said.
"It's just a different way of living."

She said that she and her husband refused to buy a car for 12 full months after
they moved from New York City to Rockville Centre in 2001. But now that they
have succumbed, she said, she was too embarrassed to give her name "because
I'm so excited to have discovered this drive-through."

Reid Ewing, the lead author of the study and a professor at the National Center
for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland, said that researchers have found
that the amount of physical activity people got during their leisure time did not
vary much between cities and suburbs. "The difference isn't in their leisure but in
how they spend the rest of their time," he said. "In an urban environment, you
move more for transportation purposes. Instead of walking out of the house and
into your car, you're walking to lunch or the subway, and you're climbing up and
down those subway stairs."

The study used data from surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. It found that in Manhattan - the most compact urban area in the
nation - an average adult weighs 161.1 pounds, while the average adult weighs
165.8 pounds in Nassau County and 166.4 in Suffolk County. The expected
probability of obesity also increased from west to east, with 11.5 percent
probability in New York City, 17 percent in Nassau and 17.8 percent in Suffolk.

Patrick Duggan, the executive director of Sustainable Long Island, a group that
promotes pedestrian-friendly development, thinks he knows why. "We have such
limited walkability in Long Island communities," he said. "We just live such
sedentary lives that it's not a big jump to make the correlation between sprawl
and obesity."

Mr. Duggan said his group hoped to study the way the design of specific Long
Island communities affects health and obesity. "We just have not thought about
the health implications when thinking about the design of our communities," he
said. "I think the study is significant enough that planners and policy makers
need to take notice, and we need to think about how if you're driving all the time,
you're not contributing to your health in a meaningful way."

Lee E. Koppelman, the executive director of the Long Island Regional Planning
Board, said that he was very skeptical of the study's findings because he
contends that the difference of five pounds between city dwellers and
suburbanites was negligible. "I know when I weigh myself at home, I'm 169, but
at my internist's it's 177," he said. "So to me statistically, five pounds is a dead
heat. The importance of the study is that obesity is a national problem, and
people in New York aren't off the hook. They're just as much at risk as people in
the suburbs."

He has a point. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions nationally, and federal
health officials are saying that it may soon overtake smoking as the nation's
biggest health threat. A recent national survey found that almost 65 percent of
the adult population in the United States was overweight and almost one adult in
three was obese. State Health Department figures show that while less than 10
percent of the population was obese in 1985, the figure had grown to 20 to 24
percent by 2001.

Obesity is measured by a person's body mass index, which is weight in relation to
height. Anyone with an index figure of 25 or higher is considered overweight;
anyone with a figure of 30 or higher is considered obese. (To calculate your body
mass index, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/bmi-adult.htm.)

While it may be true that Long Islanders are completely dependent on their cars
to perform even the simplest errand, Dr. Koppelman said, "we probably play
more golf and tennis and make use of hiking trails more than people in the city."
Besides, he added, "even in the city everybody goes places by bus, subway or
taxi, and the only people walking significant distances are the tourists gawking at
buildings."

Even if Long Island residents wanted to go for a walk in their neighborhoods,
many would find it difficult because most areas were built without sidewalks. Long
Island led the way in the 1950's when suburban communities across the country
revised their zoning codes to make sidewalks optional.

"People didn't want them because sidewalks and smokestacks were the symbols
of what people fled from in the cities," Dr. Koppelman said. And homeowners
didn't want people walking on what they considered their private property.

Dan Burden, a national planning consultant and the executive director of
Walkable Communities Inc., has surveyed dozens of neighborhoods on Long
Island and said measuring "walkability" on a scale of 1 to 10, Long Island rates a
low 3. "It's extremely difficult to find a place where you're not running the whole
challenge of 'can I get there from here safely without having to drive?' " he said.

Some areas of the country that developed without sidewalks are now trying to
add them. For example, Columbus, Ohio, where Mr. Burden grew up and which
has sidewalks along only 40 percent of its streets, has spent more than $4 million
in the last three years to build sidewalks near schools so that children can walk
there more easily.

Long Island developers and planners have not yet considered building sidewalks
where none exist now, but several proposals for new developments would create
old-fashioned village centers complete with sidewalks. Assemblyman Steven
Englebright is backing a $250 million development that would convert a series of
strip malls in East Setauket into a village center. In Brentwood, Gerald Wolkoff
has proposed a $4 billion complex of apartments, town houses, restaurants and
shops on a 460-acre site that would be called Heartland Town Square.

"This would give people a different lifestyle than they're used to in the suburbs,"
Mr. Wolkoff said. "It would be like when I was a kid in Brooklyn, and I could walk
to the store or to a friend's house, and it's an added bonus that it would help cut
down on obesity."

Although the new study did not examine childhood obesity, it noted that C.D.C.
figures show that 15 percent of the nation's children 6 to 19 are overweight. It
also noted that a recent poll conducted by the Surface Transportation Policy
Project in Washington found that while 71 percent of 800 parents of school-age
children walked or biked to school when they were young, only 18 percent of
their children do the same.

"So even children aren't getting as much physical activity in the course of their
everyday lives as children used to," said Dr. Ewing, the study's lead author.

State law requires school districts to provide buses for high school students who
live three miles or farther from school, and the distance drops to two miles for
younger students. But many districts on Long Island provide buses for shorter
distances.

Levittown, for example, now provides transportation for any child who lives half a
mile or more from school. Thirty years ago, about 50 percent of the district's
students walked to school, but only 20 percent walk to school now. Herman A.
Sirois, the district superintendent, said the increased busing came mainly
because of concerns about traffic safety. "Our streets were not built for four-car
families," he said, noting that the original Levittown homes all had one-car
garages. "Who could afford two cars in the 1950's and who needed it when most
moms stayed at home? But society has changed, and the response to the
increased traffic has been to bus our children to school."

In fact, according to census data, the number of cars available for personal use
to Long Island households has increased from 522,132 in 1960 to 916,686 in
2000. And the number of households with two or more cars at their disposal rose
from 29.4 percent in 1960 to 65.2 percent in 2000.

But, Dr. Sirois said, walking to school - or not walking - had little effect on weight.
"Our kids aren't getting fatter because they're not walking to school any more,''
he said. "It's because television advertises junk food, and the kids decide they've
got to have junk food."

He added that with the growth in soccer leagues and other organized sports
leagues outside of school, children have many more opportunities to get exercise
than they used to. True enough, said Josephine Connolly, a professor of family
medicine at Stony Brook University who specializes in physical health and
nutrition. "But kids spend so much time riding in a car to get to activities, and a
lot of the time at the activity is often spent sitting around, and many of the
venues tend to sell junk food," she said. "It's so different from just playing
outside in the neighborhood, and there are no vending machines in my
backyard."

At the Center for Weight Management for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish
Health System, experts are t trying to inject more physical activity into sedentary
suburban lives. Eileen Rosendahl, the center's clinical supervisor, said that
patients have often been unable to lose weight despite a series of diets and a
host of gyms. "What has a more long-term effect is simply integrating more
movement into their daily lives, and that involves learning new life strategies,"
she said.

One strategy is to have patients wear pedometers to measure the distance they
walk every day. For most people, that's about 3,000 steps a day, or about a mile
and a half. To help people lose weight, physiologists at the center may set a daily
goal of 10,000 steps and devise ways to reach that goal.

That might include parking farther from the supermarket entrance and watching
less television, which has a natural tendency to get people up and about.

Those strategies are similar to those used by Weight Watchers. Maggie Jerchau,
who led Weight Watchers meetings on Long Island for 12 years before
transferring to Manhattan three years ago, said that people in the suburbs often
don't realize how little physical activity they get.

Ms. Jerchau started wearing a pedometer nine years ago and has found that
when she works from her home in Wantagh, she tends to clock only 2,300 steps
a day. But when she goes into Manhattan, the number climbs to 10,000. "We're
all very busy people, especially moms on Long Island who are running around all
day getting their kids everywhere they have to go," she said. "But what I try to
tell people is you shouldn't confuse busy with active, and if you're just getting in
and out of the car, you're not being active."

The health departments of Nassau and Suffolk Counties are working to help
tackle obesity. Nassau plans to conduct a telephone survey to assess the
behavioral patterns of residents next year, and Suffolk already provides an
extensive health-education program to local schools.

More than a third of Suffolk's 72 school districts have signed up for the county
program. The curriculum on physical activity starts in kindergarten, where
children are urged to set a goal for physical activities each day; suggestions
include walking to school and playing tag. By the fifth grade, students are asked
to map out 30 minutes of physical activity and 30 minutes of exercise daily.

"The program focuses on teaching children skills they can use to develop healthy
lifestyles for the rest of their lives," said Lori Benincasa, Suffolk County's director
of health education.

State law requires only two semesters of health education during middle and high
school, but the county's program provides lessons from kindergarten through the
12th grade.

Robert Wieboldt, the executive director of the Long Island Builders Association,
said he agreed with efforts to make Long Island more pedestrian friendly, but
changing Long Island's well-ingrained car culture, he said, will not be easy.

"Out here people look askance at people who walk,'' he said. "In the city or even
other suburbs it's the norm, but here when somebody sees somebody walking,
unless you're wearing expensive jogging clothes, they think you got a D.W.I."

Posted by dc at 04:45 PM | Comments (7)

New Urban Long Island

------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 23, 2003

Wide Island
By VIVIAN S. TOY

But now a recent study suggests that the two-car garages that go with that
suburban dream may actually be hazardous to your health.

A woman who was two cars behind Ms. Brown agreed. "People don't even walk
around the corner out here, and nothing is convenient without a car," she said.
"It's just a different way of living."

Long Island developers and planners have not yet considered building sidewalks
where none exist now, but several proposals for new developments would create
old-fashioned village centers complete with sidewalks. Assemblyman Steven
Englebright is backing a $250 million development that would convert a series of
strip malls in East Setauket into a village center. In Brentwood, Gerald Wolkoff
has proposed a $4 billion complex of apartments, town houses, restaurants and
shops on a 460-acre site that would be called Heartland Town Square.

"So even children aren't getting as much physical activity in the course of their
everyday lives as children used to," said Dr. Ewing, the study's lead author.

That might include parking farther from the supermarket entrance and watching
less television, which has a natural tendency to get people up and about.

"The program focuses on teaching children skills they can use to develop healthy
lifestyles for the rest of their lives," said Lori Benincasa, Suffolk County's director
of health education.

State law requires only two semesters of health education during middle and high
school, but the county's program provides lessons from kindergarten through the
12th grade.

Posted by dc at 04:45 PM | Comments (7)

October 02, 2003

Suffolk GIS

Suffolk County keeps track
of where things happen.

Exhibit 1: Traffic Accidents.

Detail:

Posted by dc at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2003

Township maps

From Suffolk County Gov't

Posted by dc at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2003

Shirley's dangerous William Floyd Parkway

From 1999 to 2001, there have been seven fatal accidents on the 5.2-mile stretch
of the six-lane William Floyd Parkway south of Sunrise Highway compared with
five fatal accidents on the lesser traveled 10.5-mile portion north of Sunrise.

Residents said drivers pick up speed on the roadway as it changes from 45 mph to
55 mph. The speed limit rises about a half-mile before Robinwood Road, the scene
of Saturday's accident.

A Deadly Stretch of Road
Shirley mom, daughter killed in crash; son, friend critical

By Joie Tyrrell, Staff Writer

2003 September 08, 8:14 PM EDT

When Lydia Mohn leaves her Shirley home, she's always cautious when she gets
to the six-lane William Floyd Parkway.

She uses the same intersection at Robinwood Road where a mother and
daughter were killed Saturday night after police said a motorist ran a red light
and struck their car.

"It's my main way to get out and I'm scared to death," said Mohn, who had
traveled that road just 10 minutes prior to the accident. "You don't know if people
are going to stop."

As the tight-knit community mourned the loss of Roseann Brooks and her
17-year-old daughter, residents Monday questioned the safety of the William
Floyd Parkway. The death rate on its more heavily traveled southern five miles is
higher than the rate on the lightly traveled northern and central sections,
according to a Newsday analysis of Suffolk County records.

The fatality rate is also many times higher than the rates on some of Long
Island's busiest highways: the LIE and the Northern and Southern State
Parkways, according to the analysis.

From 1999 to 2001, there have been seven fatal accidents on the 5.2-mile
stretch of the road south of Sunrise Highway compared with five fatal accidents
on the lesser traveled 10.5-mile portion north of Sunrise.

Residents said drivers pick up speed on the roadway as it changes from 45 mph
to 55 mph. The speed limit rises about a half-mile before Robinwood Road, the
scene of Saturday's accident.

"They should make it all one speed limit," Mohn said. "It's ridiculous that it
changes."

Suffolk County officials tested the traffic lights in the area Monday and said they
were working properly. Richard LaValle, chief deputy commissioner of public
works for Suffolk County, said the county is looking into timing the signals along
William Floyd to control the speed of traffic.

The county has made improvements along the southern section of William Floyd
in recent years, including restricting turning at Stuart Road. "In general, we do
everything we can to keep the road as safe as possible," LaValle said.
"Unfortunately, we can't account for all the actions of the drivers. Some accidents
you might not be able to ever prevent."

Legis. Peter O'Leary (R-Moriches) said his office received calls from residents
Monday complaining about the parkway and he has requested a study of the
road. New homes have been built and a new King Kullen supermarket and Home
Depot are under construction alongside the Parkway.

In the seven years that tow-truck operator Keith Whitman has worked the
William Floyd Parkway, his business has jumped at least 40 percent. "There are
at least one or two every week south of Sunrise Highway," said Whitman, owner
of Wood's Towing and Auto Repair in Shirley. "The town is growing so much and
there is so much going on, I don't think the town can handle the traffic."

O'Leary said police have stepped up patrols and could soon add Smart Signs --
which alert motorists to their speed.

For drivers, such as Donna Mazzone, of Mastic Beach, the roadway is like a
gamble every time she drives it. "The speed limit is 55 and they do 65 and 70,"
she said.

Staff writer Robert Fresco contributed to this story.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lifata0909,0,4936042.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines

Posted by dc at 04:45 AM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2003

Farming on LI

Saving the Farm On Long Island Sound; Agriculture Boomlet Revives Debate

By KIRK JOHNSON ( Series ) 1937 words

2003 August 13, Wednesday
METROPOLITAN DESK

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- One of the constants of life on Long Island for the last
half-century, so relentless as to seem almost a motor of history, has been the
steady swallowing up the farmland. Suburban development, roaring east from
New York City, changed the quality of the air and water, overwhelmed old
patterns of transportation and transformed the connections between people and
the land.

But now, here on the island's east end, there is a plot twist. To Ed Harbes, it is
called opportunity.

Mr. Harbes, a fifth-generation Long Island farmer, is doing quite well and wants
to expand his acreage, not contract. And he is not alone. Agriculture, in a part of
the nation that might seem the least likely of breadbaskets, is hot.

''The business has grown in very healthy fashion,'' said Mr. Harbes, 45, who
reinvented his farm in the late 1980's -- giving over the potato fields his father
cultivated to sweet corn and pumpkins that he sells to weekenders and tourists
from two farm stands. Chardonnay and merlot grapes for a Harbes winery were
planted this spring. Three of Mr. Harbes's eight children now say they want to
stay in the family business, which has taken on 10 new employees in the last few
years.

Here on Long Island Sound's southeastern edge, 70 miles from Manhattan, the
environmental and political implications of a strengthened farm economy are
immense, conservationists, farmers and local elected officials say. The question
of what land is saved, what is built upon, who profits and who loses -- a real
estate equation that has been at the heart of the Sound's environmental
trajectory for decades, if not centuries -- are all in play here as agriculture
asserts its muscle.

August 13, 2003, Wednesday

METROPOLITAN DESK

Saving the Farm On Long Island Sound; Agriculture Boomlet Revives Debate

By KIRK JOHNSON ( Series ) 1937 words

But now, here on the island's east end, there is a plot twist. To Ed Harbes, it is
called opportunity.

But the shifting debate about the land also reflects a much deeper pattern on the
Sound -- how fundamentally its fate, for better and for worse, has always been in
the hands of local politics and passions. Although its deep waters, stretching out
110 miles from New York City to Rhode Island, have shaped much of the climate
and economy of the Northeast, historians say the Sound has always been like the
proverbial elephant as described by blind men -- understood by its parts, never
by the whole.

''You've got a resource that has so many different boundaries -- no one ever
looks at what the big picture is,'' said Tom Andersen, author of ''This Fine Piece
of Water: An Environmental History of Long Island Sound'' (Yale University Press,
2002). ''The decisions are made in isolation. That's the Sound's character.''

That picture is clear in Riverhead, where the economics of farming and the
intricacies of zoning have become bound up with the Sound's fate along the
stretch of majestic bluffs and cliffs that form Riverhead's northern boundary on
the water.

Last year, town officials drafted a long-term development plan for Riverhead that
would have focused development along the Sound -- by far the most valuable
land in town -- as a way of preserving farmland in the interior. It was a trade-off
that many environmentalists condemned, and they threatened to push instead
for a plan the farmers hated -- a revision of the zoning rules that would sharply
reduce the value of any farmland sold for development.

The farmers fought back. Working through their trade group, the Long Island
Farm Bureau, they forged an unlikely political alliance of agricultural interests,
home builders and environmentalists, and they offered an alternative vision.

Their plan would preserve farmland values. Environmentalist support was
rewarded by shifting development away from the Sound and by aiming to save
more open space than the town's version would have. Builders would get a
streamlined development process -- and in perhaps the most divisive element of
all -- the ability to build higher density clustered homes at up to six units per acre
within the town's agricultural zone -- an area that was off limits under the town
plan.

Riverhead's elected town supervisor, Robert F. Kozakiewicz -- whose family's
farm here is still run by his parents and a brother -- said the plan was still being
debated. But he said he believes that substantial elements of the ''stakeholders
proposal,'' as the farmer-led effort is called, will probably be incorporated when
the town board votes this fall.

Some critics say the farmers and their allies have hijacked Riverhead's future --
horse trading to get everything they want now, in protecting the agricultural
industry, and everything they want in the future, in being able to sell out to a
housing developer when times change or retirement looms.

''It's a scheme,'' said Richard L. Amper, the executive director of Pine Barrens
Society, a conservation group based in nearby Manorville. ''What they are
producing is a shell game -- they're not reducing development, just moving it
around.''

Some farmers also oppose the plan -- especially the idea of building town houses
near the farms -- and are fighting back as well.

''The whole issue here is density,'' said Art Binder, a horse and bison rancher
who favors cowboy hats and is running for a seat on the Town Board this fall on
his opposition to the idea of higher-density housing in Riverhead. ''If you want to
save the farmland, then you just can't develop it at six units per acre.''

Both supporters and opponents agree that farming has changed. What had been
a mostly wholesale business subject to the fluctuations of national and global
markets, especially when potato-growing was king, has shifted to retail, specialty
foods and tourism -- or even further to what some people here call
''agri-tainment.'' (Mr. Harbes, for example, builds mazes in his corn fields for
children to wander through.) And the higher profit margins of that shift are
showing.

Between 1997 and 2001, farm cash receipts here in Suffolk County rose more
than 40 percent, to $5,543 an acre, according to the most recent figures from the
State Department of Agriculture and Markets. That was more than 10 times the
statewide average and far higher than any other county in New York.

And much of the rest of Riverhead's economy has gone along for the ride,
residents say. The dozens of small wineries that have sprung up on Long Island's
North Fork attract weekend tourists who like to shop at farm stands and who are
at least partly drawn by the idea of farm land itself, almost as a kind of a prop.
One resident is even pushing for a rule in the master plan that would require any
new homes built on farmland -- especially the clustered houses -- to look like
farm buildings, the better to fool the tourists.

That agricultural strength, in turn -- not to mention the tentacles it extends into
other aspects of the local economy, from restaurants to gas stations -- is what
gives preservationists here hope. Land on which people are making money, they
say, and in which farmers see a bright future, is simply less attractive to
development. Supporters of the farmer-led stakeholder plan say they hope to
permanently preserve up the 12,000 acres of farm open space, compared to
only 5,000 under the town's plan. About half of Long Island's total farmland of
34,000 acres is within Riverhead's borders.

''Preservation is terrific, but a strong agriculture industry is what's keeping this
area rural,'' said Timothy Caufield, a vice president at the Peconic Land Trust, a
conservation group.

And so, by such convoluted means and tangled trails, one of the last big
undeveloped coastal sections on all of the Sound may be saved -- not by the
dictates of an environmental regulator, but through the self-interested
give-and-take of the market.

''A relatively undeveloped Long Island Sound coastline is one of Riverhead's
largest assets,'' said Eve Kaplan, an environmentalist who helped put together
the stakeholder group.

Ms. Kaplan said she thinks there is an inevitable exchange for retaining the gift of
an undeveloped Sound. Development pressure is immense and cannot be
completely stopped. The things with highest priority are the ones that should be
saved, she said.

''You have to accept that some development is inevitable, and not everyone
wants to do that,'' she said.

Many people on both sides of the land conservation debate in Riverhead say that
much of what has happened here in rethinking how and where development
should occur comes down to one man, Richard Wines, 57, a soft-spoken former
Wall Street investor relations consultant. Even some people who vehemently
hate parts of the stakeholder proposal, like Mr. Amper at the Pine Barrens
Society and farmers like Mr. Binder, have only kind words to say about Mr.
Wines, even though he came up with many of the ideas.

Mr. Wines is a modest man who plays down his role. His strength, he said, is that
he can talk to all the power groups. As a former businessman, he said that he
understands the builders. As a small farmer, he knows that community as well.
But he also donated the development rights to his farm last year to the Peconic
Land Trust, which means that as long as there are lawyers to defend the claim,
the 15 acres of his little spread can never be built upon. That gave him capital,
he said, in talking to environmentalists.

Mr. Wines, sitting in front of his house a few feet from his potato field on a recent
afternoon, said he approached the land debate here in exactly the same way he
would have approached a deal-making conference on Wall Street: by making
sure that everyone at the table had an economic incentive to follow through.

''A business deal is most likely to succeed if all the parties benefit,'' he said.
''Land preservation needs to be the same way.''

Human Nature

Over many years of settlement, Long Island Sound has been a breadbasket and
a dumping ground, a private playground for the wealthy and a symbol of
environmental despair.

But when people reached for a new definition -- a repaired, restored, managed
Sound -- nature did not respond according to the rule book.

For every push to achieve a certain end, the whorls of the ecosystem have
pushed right back, often in unexpected ways.

This is the seventh article of a summer-long series on the evolving nature of
Long Island Sound. Part 8 will look for the imprint of the past, and the hints of
what may come. Research into the muck at the bottom and the web of life in the
water are producing some surprises.

Additional materials, including a preview of the last part of the series, are online
at nytimes.com/lisound.

CAPTIONS: Photos: Richard Wines, with his wife, Nancy Gilbert, knows about the
housing-agriculture debate in Riverhead. He has the perspective of being both a
businessman and a farmer.; Art Binder, a horse and bison rancher, is a
candidate for a seat on the Town Board in this fall's election. He opposes the idea
of higher-density housing in Riverhead. (Photographs by Angel Franco/The New
York Times)(pg. B8); With new housing sprouting up next to farmland in
Riverhead, N.Y., on Long Island Sound's southeastern edge, Rex Farr works
among his grapevines.; Customers examine the vegetables and delicacies at the
Harbes stand, part of the fifth-generation Long Island family farm. (Photographs
by Angel Franco/The New York Times)(pg. B1)

Chart: ''Green Acres''
By switching to higher-profit crops, Long Island farmers have increased their
income per acre.

Graph tracks cash receipts per acre from all farm products in Suffolk County
from 1994-2002.

(Source by New York Agricultural Statistics Service)

Map of Long Island highlighting Riverhead (pg. B8)

Posted by dc at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2003

LIRR Port Jefferson line yard 1: At Huntington ?

longislandernews.com
The Long-IslanderRecordHalf Hollow Hills NewspaperNorthport Journal

The Long-Islander News

Residents from the Town of Huntington turned out in droves for a public meeting
with the town board on August 27. Residents were given three minutes to speak
on the record about concerns they have over the LIRR’s desire to build a
multi-track train facility within the town’s boundaries.

Long-Islander Photo/Brian Ferry

TOWN OF HUNTINGTON
It’s Everyone vs. The LIRR At Hearing

Town board, residents unanimous in opposition to rail yard

By Brian Ferry

On August 27, the Huntington Town Board met with an assemblage of residents
concerned with the MTA and LIRR’s interest in creating an Environmental Impact
Statement that would ultimately allow for the construction of an electric train
storage, cleaning, and maintenance facility. It was the first time the town board
addressed the public since meeting with LIRR Acting President James Dermody in
a closed-door session on August 20.

“We were clear with him that we thought both sites were very problematic,”
Councilman Mark Cuthbertson said of the earlier meeting with Dermody. “He told
us they’re very much listening to public input at this point, and they will have
their public meetings in the near future.” Cuthbertson said that a LIRR public
meeting may happen sometime this fall.

In the meantime, residents had to be satisfied with the town’s meeting — a
transcript of which is to be included in a package officials plan to send to the MTA
and LIRR to represent the town’s formal statement.

It was standing room only for the August 27 meeting. With a thick stack of yellow
cards in hand representing the number of public speakers, Supervisor Frank
Petrone opened the meeting by stating that the town board is unanimously
opposed to a train facility in the town of Huntington.

Of the agencies’ six remaining sites under consideration, two are within the
geographical boundaries of the Town of Huntington. According to maps provided
by the LIRR, site 2 is between the LIRR right-of-way (to the north) and East 5th
Street in Huntington Station, and site 10 is between the LIRR right-of-way (to the
south) and Pulaski Road, just west of Townline Road in East Northport. Another
three areas, site 11 and two designated as site 12, are in the Kings
Park / Commack area but remain within close proximity of East Northport
residents.

Numerous local and state elected officials attended the public meeting.
Assemblyman Steve Levy, who does not represent the area but is a Democratic
candidate for Suffolk County Executive, was careful to say that he didn’t condemn
the LIRR outright, but had many questions to pose to their officials, such as
whether or not the facility was definitely needed, whether or not the east-side
access project involving Grand Central Station was definitely happening. He
added that host communities should receive incentives should the facility be built
in their communities.

Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper called the LIRR’s interests “preposterous”
because of the lack of open space. “I am here to say the MTA is wrong,” he said.

“My opposition is not to the existence of a rail yard within the Town of Huntington.
My opposition is to the placement of a rail yard within a softball’s throw of a
children’s ball field,” Cooper said. “My opposition is to the placement of a rail yard
in the middle of a residential neighborhood that is already facing dramatic
economic challenges.”

State Assemblyman James Conte did not address the town board but did provide
to The Long-Islander a copy of a letter that he sent to LIRR’s Dermody.

“To me and many of the people I represent, site #2 has many fatally flawed
weaknesses including: Size and layout: Terrain and geology; Traffic; and
Conflicts with nearby properties,” Conte’s letter reads. “As you state in your April
30, 2003 letter: ‘The community of Greenlawn is exempt because of a decision in
2000 by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority not to build in that area.’ I
firmly believe that all of the reasons not to build in Greenlawn apply to a site
1/2-mile away in Huntington Station.”

Huntington Station resident Richard Rankin was among the first community
members to address the town board. He also sent a letter to the newspaper with
some of the questions he feels remain unanswered after all the meeting that
have occurred already.

“The need for a train yard is obvious,” he said at the meeting, going on to say,
“the complaints are all real issues and perhaps they can be dealt with.”

Mark Cuthbertson interjected between speakers to elaborate on one point. Alan
Leon spoke of concern with the East Northport, Commack, and Kings Park
impacts, and suggested that the necessary electrification of points east of
Huntington Station would create all new traffic problems for commuters and
residents alike. Cuthbertson said that Dermody made it clear at their meeting that
the MTA and LIRR are in no financial position to purchase additional “switching”
locomotives that could run on either electric or diesel power.

Manny Darwin, another Huntington Station resident, touched on many of the
common issues that others have brought up in the past and will continue to bring
up as long as their questions remain unanswered. These questions involve the
amounts of noise pollution, the storage and use of chemicals and fuels, the
gradient of the property, the use of lights, and more. However, Darwin also
addressed a major concern regarding the Huntington Station site that no one else
has directly made the connection with.

“The yard will virtually abut Manor Field with its tennis courts, baseball field,
children’s playground, and the Huntington Community Center currently
undergoing renovation and expansion,” he said. “Most importantly, the yard has
the potential to be an attractive nuisance. Children are naturally curious and the
proximity of Manor Field to the facility may well draw the more adventuresome to
divert their attention to the exciting things going on within the yard.”

Speaking directly after Manny Darwin was his wife Eileen Darwin. After the
meeting she added that it is her opinion that the MTA needs to approach this need
on a regional approach in order to best understand what options are available to
them. They also need to determine what the long-term needs of the LIRR are and
how the region can adapt accordingly. But the crowd favored her parting
comment, which came the night of the meeting. As the bell rang to signal the end
of her three minutes to speak, she concluded with, “200 years ago Benjamin
Franklin sent a kite with a key into the sky and discovered electricity. Sadly, the
MTA is still in the dark.”

Along with the submission of their formal statement, the Darwins included a
recent article from the East Hampton Star about how Montauk residents are
furious over LIRR diesel trains creating various types of pollution in their region.
The New York Times followed with their own account in the Long Island section
this past Sunday. There is both a train station and six-track rail yard located at
the Edgemere Road stop. Residents and business owners complain about 24-hour
noise pollution, the smell of diesel exhaust, as well as eyesores reported by the
Star to include “‘shanty-like’ temporary buildings, overflowing garbage
containers, old rusted equipment, and ‘suspicious’ storage containers.” The Times
reported that one condo, Montauk Manor, has lost thousands of dollars due to
refunds paid to residents who are bothered at night by the train engines. The
Times also reports that LIRR spokesman Brian Dolan insists the trains must sit
idle because the engines take several hours to warm up to operational
temperatures. Residents have formed an organization called the Montauk
Anti-Pollution Coalition to fight the LIRR and MTA.

Theresa Feeney, a resident of the Huntington Country Farms development located
directly across from the Manor Park site, said the MTA should consider sites other
than those in the towns of Huntington and Smithtown.

“It defies business sense and common sense for the LIRR to not consider other
viable sites,” she said. “We’re counting on you [the town board] to help us get
Huntington Station removed from the LIRR’s site list.”

Cuthbertson said, looking back, that the August 27 public meeting was very
helpful and called it a very solid outpouring of opposition to those proposed sites.

“I think we made a very compelling record to send the MTA about our feelings
concerning the rail yards,” he said.

� 2003 Long Islander Newspapers, Inc.
(631) 427-7000
322 Main Street
Huntington, NY 11743

Posted by dc at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2003

TIP 2005: transport plan

A New Road Map For Transportation On LI

By Joie Tyrrell, Staff Writer

2003 August 30, 7:53 PM EDT

Video cameras to monitor traffic and alert authorities to disabled vehicles along
Old Country Road.

Construction of 37 more miles of bikeways and pedestrian paths on Long Island.

Resurrection of a commuter ferry from Glen Cove.

A third track on the main line of the Long Island Rail Road and a host of road
improvements in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

These are just some of the projects big and small identified in the 2004-2006
New York Metropolitan Area Transportation Improvement Plan for Long Island, a
list submitted to the federal government from local agencies in their quest for
transportation dollars. The plan, known as TIP, is a multiyear program to
prioritize transportation projects.

It is prepared by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, the planning
organization for the region, and must be approved by both county executives,
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the state Department of
Transportation. Once approved locally, the plan goes before the regional group,
which includes the city and the mid-Hudson Valley, and then to the state before it
is forwarded to the federal government.

"It is the most important transportation planning document there is," said Mitch
Pally, vice president for government affairs for the Long Island Association, the
region's largest business group.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will not approve the use of federal funds
unless the project is identified in the plan. Past projects include construction of
the HOV lane on the Long Island Expressway and purchase of new M-7 rail cars
for the LIRR. Inclusion, however, does not guarantee funding.

In the 2004-2006 plan, more than $5.5 billion is earmarked for Long Island.

The plan was scheduled for a vote earlier this month, but none was taken
because Suffolk officials and local planners had reservations about two projects:
Route 347 and a rest stop at Exit 51 of the Long Island Expressway.

Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney initially declined to sign off on the plan,
county officials said, because expansion plans for Route 347 were not made
enough of a priority. The state DOT's plan for Route 347 calls for major
improvements to ease traffic from the Northern State Parkway through Route
25A in Mount Sinai, including building an additional lane.

"Route 347 has become the major east-west transportation corridor
on the North Shore of Suffolk County, where we have seen tremendous growth
in population and business," Pally said. "We have talked about expanding Route
347 for the last three years, and we are still talking and we are not doing anything."

Gaffney also balked at the plan because construction of a visitor information
center at Exit 51 off the LIE was not slated until 2007.

"The county was concerned about the schedule for both of them," said DOT
spokeswoman Eileen Peters. "We went over what was involved ... and we made
a firm commitment to them that we would look at the project schedule and
accelerate the schedules wherever it was convenient."

Bob Shinnick, director of transportation operations for Suffolk County, said the
county executive is expected to approve the plan. Ballots have recently been
mailed.

"It's our feeling as a county that the state has indicated a good enough
willingness to advance those projects," Shinnick said.

Other highlights of the 2004-2006 plan are several major bridge projects,
including replacement of the Roslyn viaduct and rehabilitation of the northbound
bridge on the Robert Moses Causeway over the Great South Bay. If approved,
the INFORM overhead motorist alert system will be expanded to include the
Meadowbrook State Parkway.

The plan also includes provisions for mass transit, emphasizing the purchase of
new equipment for Suffolk Transit and Long Island Bus. Suffolk Transit recently
kicked off an advertising campaign to increase its 4.5 million bus ridership by 3
to 5 percent.

"[The plan] does show a commitment for public transportation," said Lisa Tyson,
director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group in
Massapequa. " ... We would want more money going into public transportation."

For the LIRR, the plan calls for modernizing the signal system, investing in the
railroad's rolling stock and funding for an environmental impact statement as well
as a preliminary design for a third track on the main line between Bellerose
and Hicksville.

"That is the most important mass transit project on Long Island," Pally said of the
LIRR plans. "It will do more to improve the mass transit system than anything
else.

"It's only a first step but a very important first step."

Posted by dc at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2003

Port Jefferson LIRR line yard

Port Jefferson LIRR yard planning will allow better service on the Port Jefferson line.

Posted by dc at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2003

Freeport alien worker site

Freeport Hiring Site Works Out
Tide turns for laborer haven

By Bart Jones STAFF WRITER

2003 July 04

When the Freeport day laborer hiring site opened in September, so few workers
showed up most days that coordinator Oscar Cortes thought the project might
flop.

As few as five workers would arrive, while three blocks away in the Dunkin'
Donuts and Long Island Rail Road parking lots, a throng of 100 or more men,
mainly Latin American immigrants, would wait for landscaping and construction
contractors to come by and offer them daily jobs.

Today, the roles are reversed: Cortes' site is attracting the bulk of day laborers
in Freeport, while the Dunkin' Donuts location is nearly deserted.

The three groups running the site - Catholic Charities, The Workplace Project of
Hempstead and the Village of Freeport - are calling it a success that may serve
as a model for other communities wrestling with one of the most contentious
issues on Long Island.

"We've turned the corner," Cortes, a Nicaraguan immigrant who holds an MBA
from Adelphi University, said one morning last week as about 40 men waited for
work at the site, in a municipal parking lot on Bennington Avenue in a
semi-industrial zone.

As the Freeport center nears its one-year anniversary, immigration advocates
are launching a renewed effort to set up more day labor hiring sites on Long
Island. They've created a fund that already has $130,000 and is expected to
grow to $250,000 shortly. They say they are taking the initiative because
governments across Long Island have failed to do so.

"We've stepped forward because nobody else was," said Darren Sandow,
program officer for the newly created Work Long Island Fund. "From the Nassau
border all the way out to Montauk, you've got a growing population of day
laborers."

Long Island is home to an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 day laborers. The majority
wait on street corners in communities including
Franklin Square, Inwood, Westbury,
Farmingville and Southampton,
where they crowd around the vehicles of contractors who pull up. But
Freeport, Glen Cove, and
Huntington Station
have created formal hiring sites.

Proponents say the centers resolve traffic safety problems and get the men off
dangerously busy street corners and onto organized sites where they also can
study English, computers and other subjects. Opponents say the locations often
fail to attract many workers and aid illegal activity because some workers are
undocumented immigrants who don't pay income taxes.

The issue has provoked heated debate. A proposed hiring site in
Farmingville was shot down in 2001,
while one that opened in Farmingdale
last August closed about a month later after some community opposition.

Although immigrant advocates and Mayor William F. Glacken are claiming victory
with the new site in Freeport, not everyone supports the idea. "There is no way
that anyone on the face of the Earth can convince me that what's going on there
is legitimate," said local resident Georgia Prunty. She added, "I'd rather be a
dead patriot than a live coward, because we're losing our country."

Cortes, who is employed by Catholic Charities immigrant services, said the
center's turnaround began in early May, when Freeport police intensified efforts
to direct contractors to it. The workers soon followed.

At 6:30 a.m. sharp each day, the men draw numbers to determine who will get
the first jobs that come in. Usually at least half of the 40 or so who show up get
work, Cortes said.

While waiting, they play soccer on the paved parking lot, take English classes
and surf the Internet on one of five computers inside a trailer that has running
water, a bathroom and a television.

"From the first day I came, this has been a good thing," Francisco Machado, 34, a
native of El Salvador, said in Spanish.

Still, not all of Freeport's day laborers are using the location. On Tuesday at 7:15
a.m., a dozen workers were gathered at the Dunkin' Donuts location. A handful
also waited for work at a couple other spots.

Cortes said he hopes to lure all the workers to the new site. "We've finally
arrived," he said. "This is the true deal."

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lisite263358324jul04,0,4778521.story?coll=ny-linews-archive

Posted by dc at 10:33 PM |

NY Wiki

New York Wiki

October 15, 2005

Hate on the L.I.E.

August 12, 2005

Real estate commentary

July 20, 2005

Anthony Nicoletti, Bayberry Builders

July 17, 2005

South Fork, Hamptons estate agents

July 13, 2005

Calverton Enterprise Park and LIRR

June 07, 2005

Great South Bay

April 04, 2005

Ferry, North Fork / Orient to New London, CT

February 06, 2005

Make it here, make it anywhere: Long Island Index

January 10, 2005

Peconic Bay Regional Transportation Authority

September 09, 2004

Expanded rail service on the South Fork needed

April 05, 2004

Red light cameras

April 04, 2004

North Suffolk news by Newday

February 19, 2004

Eastern Long Island Newsday

February 15, 2004

Beechwood Homes

December 01, 2003

Street Racing

November 23, 2003

New Urban Long Island

New Urban Long Island

October 02, 2003

Suffolk GIS

October 01, 2003

Township maps

September 10, 2003

Shirley's dangerous William Floyd Parkway

September 09, 2003

Farming on LI

September 06, 2003

LIRR Port Jefferson line yard 1: At Huntington ?

September 04, 2003

TIP 2005: transport plan

September 03, 2003

Port Jefferson LIRR line yard

July 07, 2003

Freeport alien worker site