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Daniel Gale, estate agent

Daniel Gale, estate agent.

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."

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

LIRR Huntington Yard 5

State Senator Carl Marcellino was the first to the microphone where he insisted
that the LIRR should look into better utilizing the Oyster Bay Line to help alleviate
traffic on the eastern parts of the Port Jefferson Line. Marcellino argued that
infrequent timetables are among a host of reasons that make riders from
neighboring towns travel to Huntington Station.

“These people would prefer to stay closer to their homes,” he said. “Take those
facilities and put them to better use.” He added, as many after him did, that
electrification to Port Jefferson station would be “a solution to a whole number of
problems,” and offered to lead the charge to obtain the proper funds.

...

Other topics brought up by speakers included the diesel exhaust, especially its
effect on young athletes at Manor Field Park; the fact that the Huntington Station
site is the most congested of all the six preliminary sites; that electrification to
Port Jefferson should already have been included among the other large railroad
projects listed earlier; pre-existing parking issues that will worsen with the
addition of a rail facility; and the fact that electrification to Port Jefferson would
be much cheaper if done now than in another 20 years, should the LIRR later
decide the public is right.

Previously: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

longislandernews.com
The Long-IslanderRecordHalf Hollow Hills NewspaperNorthport Journal

Huntington Station residents Maureen Ramirez (left) and Mary Feldman look over
maps and information provided by the Long Island Railroad during its information
session last week.

Long Islander Photo/Brian Ferry

HUNTINGTON STATION
Residents Bombard Railroad With Questions

By Brian Ferry

Some may wonder if the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) knew what they were
getting themselves into when they hosted a string of four public meetings over
the past two weeks.

The agency is required to hold such meetings as part of the development of an
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which will narrow down six potential sites
to one preferred site for the construction of a 16-track electric car storage,
cleaning, and maintenance facility. At the final meeting held November 13 at
Huntington Intermediate School, hundreds of Huntington Station residents turned
out to tell LIRR officials the site located in their backyards — adjacent to Manor
Park fields — is out of the question.

Like the meetings before it, the one at Huntington Intermediate started with a
two-hour information open house, where residents could speak with a dozen
different LIRR officials who were on hand (including LIRR President James
Dermody); view maps, photos and descriptions of each site; and watch a
seven-minute video about the agency’s intentions and desires for establishing the
rail yard.

“We’re interested in what may be built in the community,” said South Huntington
resident Mike Mifsud, who was attending the open house portion with his wife
Anna. They also attended an anti-railroad facility rally held at Manor Field Park on
October 8. “Also, our son plays football in Manor Field Park, so there’s an interest
of ours too.”

In fact, shortly after railroad officials opened the public hearing portion of the
meeting, a parade of Bulldogs youth football players and cheerleaders marched
into the auditorium and took seats front and center.

Once inside for the public forum, officials from the LIRR and AKRF (an
independent consulting firm assisting with the EIS) gave short presentations.
LIRR Chief Planning Officer Elisa Picca explained how the Port Jefferson Branch
rail yard is one of a number of projects that the agency and the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA) are working to complete over the next 10 years
or so. Those other projects include the Brooklyn Atlantic Avenue Terminal, the
Jamaica AirTrain, the new M-7 Rail Car, and the East Side Access project at
Grand Central Station. She added that today, there are 87,000 commuters who
travel to Penn Station on the Port Jefferson Branch during the four-hour morning
rush. They estimate that this ridership, with the second terminal at Grand Central
Station, will increase to 128,000 by 2020.

But as soon as the microphone was handed over to the crowd, a barrage of
arguments were thrown at the officials and at the unfortunate stenographer
designated to take the minutes of this meeting.

State Senator Carl Marcellino was the first to the microphone where he insisted
that the LIRR should look into better utilizing the Oyster Bay Line to help alleviate
traffic on the eastern parts of the Port Jefferson Line. Marcellino argued that
infrequent timetables are among a host of reasons that make riders from
neighboring towns travel to Huntington Station.

“These people would prefer to stay closer to their homes,” he said. “Take those
facilities and put them to better use.” He added, as many after him did, that
electrification to Port Jefferson station would be “a solution to a whole number of
problems,” and offered to lead the charge to obtain the proper funds.

“This site is clearly located in the midst of a residential neighborhood,” said State
Assemblyman James Conte. “It is adjacent to Manor Field Park where these guys
play every weekend,” he said, as he motioned to the Bulldog contingent in the
audience. “I firmly believe that all of the reasons not to build in Greenlawn firmly
apply to this site only a half-mile away.”

Among local officials who spoke, Town Councilwoman Susan Berland claimed that
the Huntington Station site is topographically unsuitable, requiring over 500,000
cu. yards of fill to bring the property up 15 feet and equal to the grade of the
track. She added that a developer is in the final approval stages for building 109
new homes on this land.

Gerard Brindman, a town resident and vice president of the LIRR Commuter
Council, drew a Bronx cheer from many in the crowd when he stated that the
Council favors building the facility, though they have no preference as to the site
chosen. He argued, “If we get a yard built, we can add three more peak trains.”
At the end of his three minutes, Brindman added his personal opinion, saying,
“Myself — and I am not saying this so I can get to my car safely — I’d like to see
this facility put as far east as possible.”

Other topics brought up by speakers included the diesel exhaust, especially its
effect on young athletes at Manor Field Park; the fact that the Huntington Station
site is the most congested of all the six preliminary sites; that electrification to
Port Jefferson should already have been included among the other large railroad
projects listed earlier; pre-existing parking issues that will worsen with the
addition of a rail facility; and the fact that electrification to Port Jefferson would
be much cheaper if done now than in another 20 years, should the LIRR later
decide the public is right.

Pat Boucher, a Huntington Country Farms resident, first pointed out that all of the
roads in the Huntington Country Farms development were left off the LIRR maps
included in the mailed information packets and map boards in the other room.

“It is beyond comprehension how this property could have passed the initial list of
considerations,” she said. She argued that with a facility here or anywhere else in
the towns of Huntington or Smithtown would mean that the railroad tracks across
Park Avenue would be closed much more often, creating more gridlock and
cutting off the only direct route to Huntington Hospital from areas south of the
tracks. She added that with this development in the final stages of approval is a
designation to reserve 2.9 acres for parkland.

“This is a far superior plan for this land,” she concluded

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

2003 Nov 20

LIRR Huntington Yard 4

Through speeches, letters and even songs, many Huntington and Smithtown
residents are doing exactly that: opposing proposals to build a yard in their
communities. During a series of MTA-sponsored meetings earlier this month,
more than 2,000 residents turned out to voice their opinions on the planned
16-track facility, which would store electric cars deployed to Huntington.
Residents were shown six possible sites in Huntington Station, Kings Park, East
Northport and Smithtown. The MTA pulled a similar plan to build a 16-track
nighttime storage and maintenance yard in Greenlawn in 2000 after residents
expressed strong opposition.
...
One of the voices favoring the yard has been the LIRR Commuter's Council.
Vice-Chairman Gerry Bringmann said surveys have shown that riders want more
service and the council believes the yard is a critical component to achieving that
goal. "The railroad is kind of maxed-out," he said. "The only way they can
increase service is by building a rail yard."

Previously: 0, 1, 2, 3.

Residents Resist Huntington Rail Yard

By Denise M. Bonilla, Staff Writer

Daniel Karpen wanted to make his opposition to a proposed Long Island Rail Road
yard in Huntington Station resonate with MTA officials. So, when he was given the
floor during a pubic hearing last week, Karpen used his three minutes to sing
them a song.

"Choo-Choos on the Rails With Whistles" he sang to the tune of the Beatles' "Lucy
in the Sky With Diamonds," using a train whistle for added effect. Karpen, 55, an
inventor of "glare-free headlights" and civic activist, delivered the original lyrics
and familiar melody to both lighten the mood and encourage the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority to look for more creative solutions to a need for more
trains, he said.

"A yard is not going to work," he said. "There's got to be a group of people that
get up and say, 'Not in my backyard.'"

Through speeches, letters and even songs, many Huntington and Smithtown
residents are doing exactly that: opposing proposals to build a yard in their
communities. During a series of MTA-sponsored meetings earlier this month,
more than 2,000 residents turned out to voice their opinions on the planned
16-track facility, which would store electric cars deployed to Huntington.
Residents were shown six possible sites in Huntington Station, Kings Park, East
Northport and Smithtown. The MTA pulled a similar plan to build a 16-track
nighttime storage and maintenance yard in Greenlawn in 2000 after residents
expressed strong opposition.

The proposed sites have caused an outcry from residents who say the yard would
bring noise, pollution and increased traffic along with depressed property values.
Some politicians also have decried the proposed sites, including Assemb. James
Conte (R-Huntington Station). "I cannot sit idle while the MTA continues to
devalue my hometown," Conte told MTA officials at a recent meeting.

Greg Szurnicki, president of the Kings Park Civic Association, said the Kings Park
and Smithtown sites would cause traffic and other problems and would do nothing
to assist economic revitalization efforts in the area. "They try to seduce us really,
seduce in a respect that this is going to be good for us," he said of the MTA.

Eileen Darwin of Huntington has helped form the Stop the LIRR committee, a
group of civic associations and individuals opposed to the yard. She said the
committee has gathered more than 4,000 signatures on a petition they plan to
present to Gov. George Pataki after Thanksgiving.

"Rather than stuffing this project down our throats and ruining our community,
let's find out what is really needed," she said at a recent MTA meeting.

LIRR president James Dermody said the yard is one tier of a plan to meet a
projected increase in service from the East Side Access project, which seeks to
link the LIRR to the subway and Metro-North Commuter Railroad at Grand Central
Terminal by 2012. Dermody said the LIRR plans to increase its fleet by 20
percent to handle the increased ridership. The railroad zeroed in on the area
between Huntington and Smithtown because surveys showed 77 percent of
customers who ride the Port Jefferson branch use those stations, he added.

The MTA and LIRR will collect comments on the proposed site until Dec. 31. In
2004, a draft environmental-impact report will be drawn up followed in early 2005
with public hearings on those findings. They hope to have the yard built by 2011.
"We heard arguments against almost every site," Dermody said. "Now, we have
to sit down and say, 'Are those arguments valid?'"

One of the voices favoring the yard has been the LIRR Commuter's Council.
Vice-Chairman Gerry Bringmann said surveys have shown that riders want more
service and the council believes the yard is a critical component to achieving that
goal. "The railroad is kind of maxed-out," he said. "The only way they can
increase service is by building a rail yard."

The council, however, stops short of offering a preferred location for the yard.
Bringmann said he can understand why residents are upset about having a rail
yard in their neighborhood. "It's like a jail or a power station," he said. "You know
you need them, but no one wants one in their backyard."

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Buy LIRR tickets online at lirrticket.com

Buy LIRR tickets online at lirrticket.com .

LIRR East Side access by 2011

The MTA is expected to receive $77 million in federal funds to bring the Long
Island Rail Road to the East Side and study the feasibility of finally building a
Second Avenue subway by year 2011.

Commuters would save about a half hour on their daily commutes with a
Grand Central stop, noted upstate Rep. John Sweeney (R-Saratoga).

The East Side Access Project will link the LIRR, via the 63rd Street Tunnel, to
Grand Central Terminal. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the funds will be a
"shot in the arm" for the project, aimed at helping tens of thousands of Nassau,
Suffolk and Queens commuters slash up to three hours from their daily travels to
and from work.

'Home Stretch' For LIRR Extension
By Joshua Robin, Staff Writer

2003 November 13, 5:49 PM EST

The MTA is expected to receive $77 million in federal funds to bring the Long
Island Rail Road to the East Side and study the feasibility of finally building a
Second Avenue subway.

The money, approved late Wednesday by a bipartisan conference committee of
senators and representatives, is part of an $88.9 billion bill expected to be signed
later this year by President George W. Bush.

It marks a giant step in the long sought-after route change for the LIRR, which
carries about 100,000 passengers a day to Penn Station.

"We're absolutely in the homestretch," Peter Kalikow, chairman of the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, told commissioners at a meeting Thursday
morning.

Still, the MTA must find an additional $5 billion to fund the project known as East
Side Access, which is expected to be completed in 2011.

Sen. Charles Schumer said state officials were close to agreeing to match the $75
million in federal aid. He said he would try to ensure that both governments
repeat their respective allocations annually, until the project is done.

"The bottom line is people now see how important rail transportation is in
Manhattan," Schumer said.

The Second Avenue subway, which MTA officials hope to complete by 2020, is
expected to cost nearly $17 billion, adjusted for inflation.

The Staten Island Ferry also is expected to receive $5 million in the bill to be
used for a new boat and terminal rehabilitation.

Additionally, the High Line -- an abandoned rail line on the far West Side -- also
received $500,000 to study how to turn the popular, weed-choked route into a
pedestrian walkway.

In all, the New York metropolitan region received about $90 million in funds,
Schumer's office said.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
----------------------------------------------

Grand LIRR plan closer

Friday, 2003 November 14th

A plan to bring Long Island Rail Road trains into Grand Central Terminal is getting
a $75 million boost, jumping an important hurdle in Washington, officials said
yesterday.

A deal to provide the federal funds for the rail link - slated to ease the daily
commutes of tens of thousands of riders - was hammered out Wednesday by a
conference committee comprising members of the House of Representatives and
U.S. Senate.

The funding for the so-called East Side Access project is a strong sign that the
feds are committed to seeing it become reality, Metropolitan Transportation
Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow said.

The LIRR brings more than 100,000 commuters into Penn Station each morning.
Tens of thousands double back to the East Side by subway, bus, cab or foot.

Such commuters would save about a half hour on their daily commutes with a
Grand Central stop, noted upstate Rep. John Sweeney (R-Saratoga), who was on
the conference committee.

The funding is in the transportation appropriations bill that must first be passed
by both legislative houses and then signed by President Bush.

Pete Donohue
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

Heimer

Heimer building engineering inspections.

NY Times Real Estate Map.

NY Times Real Estate Map.

Parking, Flushing

Huntington LIRR yard hearings

The Long Island Rail Road will host four informational meetings on the North
Shore over the next two weeks to hear from residents regarding a 16-track
storage yard proposed east of the Huntington station. info.

previously, 2, 3.

And note that taxi service to get to the meetings.

Meetings On New Rail Yard
By Joie Tyrrell. STAFF WRITER

2003 November 04

The Long Island Rail Road will host four informational meetings on the North
Shore over the next two weeks to hear from residents regarding a 16-track
storage yard proposed east of the Huntington station.

The railroad has been hosting such meetings since June as it is considering four
sites in Smithtown and two locations in eastern Huntington for the rail yard. So
far, the railroad has met with strong opposition from several residents.
Huntington town officials held a meeting in August, where hundreds of residents
rallied against the plan.

Railroad officials have said the yard is necessary to add service on the Port
Jefferson line.

The LIRR will host meetings tomorrow at Kings Park High School, Thursday at
Smithtown High School, Nov. 12 at East Northport Middle School and Nov. 13 at
Huntington Intermediate School. There will be an open house from 5 to 7 p.m.
and a public hearing from 7 to 9 p.m.

Sites in Huntington being considered are land next to the Huntington State
Armory and a parcel west of Bread and Cheese Hollow Road south of Pulaski
Road. In Smithtown, potential locations are two sites in Kings Park near a sand
mine; a parcel at the Kings Park Psychiatric Center; and land next to St.
Catherine of Siena Medical Center.

The Federal Transit Administration will review the findings and issue a decision on
the site. A final environmental impact statement is scheduled to be finished by
the end of 2005.

Comments may be submitted orally or in writing at these meetings through Dec.
31. Written comments may be addressed to: Peter Palamaro, editorial officer,
LIRR Public Affairs Department, Jamaica Station, Mail Code 0536, Jamaica, NY
11435. Comments may also be submitted at www.mta.info by clicking on the MTA
Home button and then on Planning Studies.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Glen cove hiring center

In 1994, La Fuerza Unida opened a hiring center in response to complaints that
immigrant day laborers were creating a nuisance by gathering on streets and
contributing to overcrowded housing. The center, which began in a trailer on city
land, moved to a renovated shop on Sea Cliff Avenue. It is run by a bilingual
coordinator who acts as a liaison between the workers and the contractors, and
English instruction and other programs are provided.

25 Years and Time to Celebrate
By Pat Burson. STAFF WRITER
2003 November 09

Since La Fuerza Unida began 25 years ago to assist Hispanic and poor people in
Glen Cove, Pascual Blanco has measured its success by the thousands of lives
the nonprofit has touched.

Such as the young girl from the Dominican Republic, who was tutored by a
volunteer at the agency, went on to study education in college and returned to
head up its tutorial program.

Or the few men from El Salvador, who started out on the street trying to hustle a
day's pay for a day's work, learned a trade and started their own small
landscaping companies.

"Those are the byproducts of our effort," said Blanco, who in 1978 helped start
La Fuerza Unida, which in English means "the united force."

"We look at the potential and positive things that a newcomer brings in order to
build their skills, which in turn will be beneficial to our society here," Blanco, 61,
said.

La Fuerza Unida will mark its 25th anniversary with a gala Thursday night at
Chateau Briand in Carle Place. A portion of the proceeds from the event will help
establish a scholarship in the name of co-founder Teodoro Pérez.

Blanco, who has lived in Glen Cove since coming to the United States in 1961
from Puerto Rico, was one of a group of concerned residents who started the
organization to help Hispanic and low- and moderate-income people.

They started organizing in his home, applied for nonprofit status, "and then we
began to knock on doors of funders," Blanco said.

They spent their first $2,000 donation from a Catholic foundation in part on a
used typewriter. "We used to spend a lot of hours ... writing grant proposals," he
said. "We were then able to get our first grant for operations and programs from
Nassau County Youth Board."

The nonprofit opened its first office at 14 Glen St. in 1981 under the name La
Fuerza Unida de Glen Cove. In 1995, it was renamed La Fuerza Unida Inc. when
the agency expanded its reach to all of Long Island and Queens.

It has grown, and now offers programs that target neighborhood preservation,
economic and community development, immigration and citizenship and
education, among others.

El Salvador native Amilcar Valle, 19, works as a waiter and is perfecting his
English in the agency's adult education program. "It's beautiful really," he said.
"I'm learning a lot. I can feel it when I talk outside, at work. I know I can use
now different words. "

In 1994, La Fuerza Unida opened a hiring center in response to complaints that
immigrant day laborers were creating a nuisance by gathering on streets and
contributing to overcrowded housing. The center, which began in a trailer on city
land, moved to a renovated shop on Sea Cliff Avenue. It is run by a bilingual
coordinator who acts as a liaison between the workers and the contractors, and
English instruction and other programs are provided.

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who first worked as a pro bono lawyer
for the group and supported its hiring center as Glen Cove mayor, will be among
honorees at the gala.

"I think [Blanco and La Fuerza] have really touched a lot of people's lives ... and
have made a lot of people's lives better," Suozzi said.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Huntington elections: town vs city

Richard McGrath, a Huntington school board member, is running for Huntington town
council with this mantra: "We want a quality town, not an overdeveloped city."

Hypocrisy in Huntington Council Race

October 30, 2003

Don't be fooled by the glibness and charm of the salesman, or by his ability to
think on his feet. Take a deep whiff of what Richard McGrath is selling, and it
comes up smelling too much like racism and hypocrisy.

McGrath, a Huntington school board member, is running for Huntington town
council with this mantra: "We want a quality town, not an overdeveloped city."
That is classic racist code: "Town" equals "us" and "city" equals "them." And we
all know who "they" are.

In his latest campaign mailing, addressed to Democratic incumbents Susan
Berland and Marlene Budd, McGrath says: "You've done enough harm to
Huntington Station." The mailing offers a collage of headlines, including drug
arrests, shooting incidents and fires. The nauseating subliminal message is clear:
Only McGrath will keep you safe from "them."

The town is working to revitalize Huntington Station and develop housing for
working families. McGrath is working to block that, and he has drawn large,
cheering crowds.

One plan is to encourage apartments above stores. That seemed like a good idea
to McGrath when he was getting started in life and lived over a store in
Huntington. Now he blasts this sensible approach as a bad idea. Though McGrath
does not seem to understand why, that is breathtakingly hypocritical.

Speaking of failure to understand, why did Tracey Edwards, an African-American
and a registered Democrat who is McGrath's Republican running mate, allow her
name to appear on this trashy mailing? Both running mates deserve boos for this
campaign.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Garden City vs Hempstead

Garden City, a blue-chip school district that had only nine black students,
spent $13,150 per student in 1997. Right across the community line in
Hempstead, where the district taught 4,311 black students but only 46
whites, per-pupil spending reached only $11,590. Seventy-six percent of
Garden City High School seniors received Regents diplomas that year: only 6
percent of Hempstead seniors did.

-- Newsday.