Sustainable Long Island
October 2010
Sustainable Long Island Newsletter
The one-stop-shop...
For all Sustainable Long Island news!
In This Issue
Trick or Treat?
NY Governor
LI Bus Cuts
Majora Carter Lecture
In The News
Update: Sustainability Partnership
Annual Report 2009
Brownfields to Greenfield$
Ask Yourself
Board of Directors
Ruth Negron-Gaines- President
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Kevin McDonald - Vice President

The Nature Conservancy
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Charlotte Biblow, Esq. - Secretary

Farrell Fritz, P.C.
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Lauren Furst - Treasurer

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Russ Albanese

Albanese Organization Inc.

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Lennard Axinn

Island Estates

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Robert Bernard

Capital One Bank
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Peter Bogan

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Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III
SUNY College at Old Westbury

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Dr. Miriam K. Deitsch

State University at Farmingdale

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Michelle DiBenedetto

Long Island Housing Partnership

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Pat Edwards

Citibank

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Donald J. Fiore

IBEW, Local 25

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Richard Grafer

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Amy Hagedorn
Hagedorn Foundation

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David Kapell

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Jeff Kraut

North Shore - LIJ Health System

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George O'Neill

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Mitchell H. Pally

Weber Law Group, LLP

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Dr. Robert A. Scott

Adelphi University

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Ron Shiffman

Pratt Institute

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Robert Wieboldt

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Town of Huntington's Small Business Incubator

The Town of Huntington is establishing a Business Incubator at 1268 New York Avenue to grow small businesses for those that live or work in the Town of Huntington.

Starting September 28 - October 28 six three hour courses will be offered at the Tri-Community Youth Agency, 809 New York Avenue, Huntington, N.Y. 11743.

For more information/directions call the Huntington Community Development Agency at:

(631) 351-2881.





















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Greetings!

BOO! Halloween is almost here and it's time for toddlers to dress up in their favorite costume, teenagers as their favorite celebrity, and lets face it adults, we dress up from time-to-time too! This year, Sustainable Long Island wants to join in on the fun and become the best Not-For-Profit on Long Island; as voted by you! That's right, we have been nominated by the Long Island Press in their 2011 Best Not-For-Profit category, along with some other amazing and worthy organizations. Voting is simple - if you feel we deserve your vote simply follow the link below, register or log in to the Long Island Press website, and cast your votes!

Best of Long Island
Click to cast your vote today!


Trick or Treat? We'll take the fruit and veggies!
Youth-run farmers' market near closing date
 

The youth-run farmers' markets in North Bellport and Roosevelt are coming to a close as the season winds down Sunday October 31st. The markets success continues with two new farms joining us, including Milk Pail Farms, who've provided delicious Honey Crisp, Macintosh, and Empire apples and Natural Earth Farms, who've provided fan favorites like broccoli rabe and bok choy. Below is the must-see mini-documentary focusing on the Roosevelt Farmers Market, the benefits it has brought to the community, and the youth impact on the project:

Video
Click photo to view the mini-documentary on the Roosevelt Farmers Market

As featured in the video, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano stopped by the Roosevelt market last month, along with Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, Barbara Greenberg of the Levitt Foundation, and many more friendly faces, to announce the success of the program. Below is some information via the County Executive:

 

County Executive


Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano announced, the success of a farmer's market in Roosevelt operated by neighborhood youth and supplied by local farmers, giving community members unprecedented access to fresh produce. The Roosevelt Youth Farmers Market is partially funded by a $50,000 Community Development Block Grant from Nassau County.

 

"The market provides Roosevelt residents with locally grown fruits, produce and other products, right here in their own neighborhood. It helps establish a sense of community and gives high school students a unique opportunity to learn about the basics of running a business," said County Executive Mangano. "I am pleased that the county was able to help fund this great program, and am sure we can build on our success again for next year."

 

"Without the help of Nassau County, the youth-run farmers' market would not be where it is today," said Sarah Lansdale, executive director of Sustainable Long Island. "We are just so grateful that this partnership has helped provide thousands of pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables to a community who was so desperately in need of alternative food options."


Market

 

The Roosevelt Youth Farmer's Market is part of a pilot program established by Sustainable Long Island and the Long Island Farm Bureau to make locally grown produce available to historically underserved communities, with a Youth-run Farmers Market also open in Bellport, Suffolk County. Open every Sunday beginning on July 11 and running until October 31, the Roosevelt market has operated with five Roosevelt High School students at the helm, who each work 25 hours a week at $7.50 per hour, and one part-time seasonal market manager working 30 hours a week at $15 per hour.  All student workers completed a training program and are responsible for promoting and publicizing the market as well as running the farm stand under the direction of the market manager.

 

The Roosevelt Community Revitalization Group is a participating local community partner, along with NuHealth (Nassau Health Care Corporation), which has agreed to host the market at the NuHealth Clinic at 380 Nassau Road. Participating farms include Anderson Farms, Philip A. Schmitt & Son, Deer Run Farms, and W & K Farms.

Questions for the candidates for NY governor
Concerns of Long Island need to be heard

Candidates
Photo credit: Newsday / Audrey C. Tiernan

Seven candidates for New York governor gathered on October 19th at Hofstra University for a lively debate on issues ranging from transportation to taxes. Sustainable Long Island was in attendance and submitted questions to Newsday for the candidates. We have hope that the next New York governor will address some of these problems, along with countless others that effect New York and Long Island specifically!

  1. Long Island is the third most segregated suburban region in the country. That complicates issues such as how to rehabilitate 6,800 brownfields and provide access to fresh, affordable food in some neighborhoods. How will you prioritize helping out the communities that are typically characterized as low-income on Long Island and region wide?
  2. Many Long Islanders often believe we fund New York more than New York funds Long Island. How will you ensure an equitable share of resources be distributed to Long Island
What is your input or suggestion on solutions to these issues? What question would you ask the gubernatorial candidates if you had the chance?
Proposed Cuts to LI Bus
Opposition continues towards the potential loss of LI Bus service

As many of you may know by now, the MTA is threatening to cut its $26 million in funding to Long Island Bus - impacting more than 100,000 riders - and have the county figure out the rest.

LI Bus

 

As expected, opposition to this move has been loud and opponents have been active, including all of us here at Sustainable Long Island. We have attended numerous board meetings and public hearings to testify against this potential loss, including the recent public hearing of the Nassau County Budget to urge them to prioritize LI Bus riders in the 2011 budget. Our testimony was as follows:


We are here today to continue to show Sustainable Long Island's opposition to LI bus cuts, as its elimination is the antithesis of sustainable development.


In these hard economic times, residents of Nassau County are relying on Long Island bus now more than ever for their daily transportation needs - whether to and from work, school, and everything in between. Studies reflect that ridership had increased prior to the service cuts that took place in June.


Without 100,000 bus riders a day, Nassau County's economic development will suffer significantly, traffic congestion will increase, and most importantly communities who rely on the bus system the most will be even further marginalized.


We are urging Nassau County to prioritize LI Bus riders in the 2011 budget, increase its contribution to one of the largest suburban bus systems in the country, and work with, instead of against, the MTA. 


This plan is not at all sound fiscal policy, yet an imprudent attempt by the county to cover its funding woes by causing unheralded anguish for millions of Long Islanders.


Nassau County administration has pledged to bring back economic development and devoted itself to help businesses in the county.  However, by cutting the transportation mode to businesses, how are they to flourish? 


By taking one small step forward by privatizing LI Bus, the county is taking two giant steps backward - cutting the blood-lines of county residents and riders.


The Long Island bus cut is also sending the wrong message to businesses and developers about where and how the region should grow as they determine where to locate jobs. By cutting bus service we are making suburbs even more economically segregated.


Nassau County's contribution to the LI Bus is at its lowest level of funding in many years. If the County cannot afford to expend more, how will it find the resources to privatize the system?  It is impossible to run a bus system on $9 million. Just look at Suffolk County, who spends more than three times that amount to run its private system. It is time for the county to readjust their priorities and take into account some of the solutions organizations, like these here today, have provided you all with ways to meet funding obligations within your current budget.   


We urge you to prioritize LI Bus riders in the 2011 budget and increase your contribution to one of the largest suburban bus systems in the country.


Show Nassau County residents and all of us here today that you can act in good faith and work with the MTA to revive the LI bus.


Thank you.

 

  LI Bus


Earlier this month, we joined hundreds of bus riders, transit, planning, labor and environmental advocates at the Mineola Intermodal Facility to hold a mock funeral for LI Bus service. The service, immediately followed by a funeral procession to the steps of the Nassau County Legislature, offered a vision of a County without a fully functioning bus system and was a call for County Executive Mangano and the County Legislature to come to bus riders' aid.


"Discontinuing this service will cause the Long Island workforce, seniors, young adults, and thousands more to truly mourn this potential move," says Sarah Lansdale, Executive Director of Sustainable Long Island.  "The MTA is not committing itself to sustainable growth by cutting Long Island Bus services."  "It is an ill-advised effort to balance finances, which would leave 100,000 daily bus riders with no alternatives to get to work, home, and school."

Below is Sustainable Long Island's "Eulogy" for Long Island Bus:

Long Island Bus...you have been so helpful in implementing Sustainable Long Island's mission, promoting sustainable development throughout all of Long Island. Today, our mission hits the brakes.

Long Island Bus, you have been integral in supporting community development, reducing traffic congestion, automobile pollution, and providing a service that absolutely no one can duplicate.

You have promoted economic development by bringing jobs to hundreds of people, and bringing people to thousands of jobs.

You have been so important to our to our senior citizens who will now be hindered in their mobility. You have been so crucial to our young adults, who may now leave our region due to the affordability of what alternative transportation options are left. They often say you don't know what you have until it's gone, but in this case, each and every resident in Nassau County knew exactly what they had and exactly what they've lost.

You enabled social equity, facilitated environmental justice, and promoted economic development and for that, we at Sustainable Long Island mourn the loss of what was the backbone of Long Island growth.

Today we not only pay tribute to the death of Long Island Bus, but to the death of functional Long Island Transportation as a whole.

Rest in Peace Long Island bus, 32 million riders a year and 100,000 riders a day, will surely miss you.

LI Bus

Majora Carter Lecture at Adelphi University
"We are the environment!" - says @majoracarter (tweeted live)

Majora

On October 6, 2010 Environmental Justice Advocate Majora Carter spoke at Adelphi University on issues regarding environmental health and economic development. Sustainable Long Island had the privilege of introducing Majora that night, as well as hold a private reception beforehand, hosted by Adelphi University, and attended by local community partners and Majora herself. We also tweeted live from her lecture and below are some of the tweets from the event:


  • When told local development takes time, @majoracarter quotes Dr. King: "I hope you'll understand our legitimate, unavoidable impatience."
  • It doesn't make sense that we process water that falls from the sky, the same way we process water that goes down your toilet -@majoracarter
  • Environmental equality is something we need to focus on... it's something crucial to the future of our nation - @majoracarter
  • No community should have to bear the brunt of environmental burdens and not enjoy the environmental benefits - @majoracarter
  • I have to thank @SustainableLI because when I first heard about you, I loved (the idea) and had to steal the name! - @majoracarter
Majora
For the rest of the Majora Carter lecture feed visit us on Follow us on Twitter
In The News
Check out some of the past month's news, notes, and quotes

Anton Papers
 

Summit roots out funds for Suffolk sewers (Click for Article)

Sarah Lansdale, executive director of Sustainable Long Island, said the challenge to preserving water quality will be in striking a balance between communities
that are equipped to expand and those that aren't, so development is focused in the right places.


"The alternative is not 'sewers or nothing,'" Lansdale said. "We have to identify strategies that can be implemented countywide."


Suffolk County Approves Town of Brookhaven Blight Code Amendments (Click for Article)

"I am pleased to see that Brookhaven embraced modern planning tools and community based planning principles, such as adaptive reuse, and recognized the importance of how blight affects communities," added Sustainable Long Island's Sarah Lansdale, an at large member on the Suffolk County Planning Commission.

Levy Announces Key County Step, addition of county-owned land parcels, in 'Wyandanch Rising' Initiative (Click for Press Release)

Sarah Lansdale, Executive Director of Sustainable Long Island stated, "Having facilitated the start of 'Wyandanch Rising' back in 2003, Sustainable Long Island takes great pride in seeing Suffolk County's dedication to this project."

Lansdale continued, "The signing of this legislation assures community members that Wyandanch is continuing to make major progress in its revitalization plans."

Levy

Planning advocates can't sway opposition to Avalon Bay (Click for Article)

"There's still that fundamental suburban fear about change," said Sarah Lansdale, executive director of Sustainable Long Island, a nonprofit that encourages community planning and supports the Avalon Bay project.


Lansdale argued that the rentals, 75 percent of them market rate, would have brought in "people with means to the neighborhood," she said. "That would stimulate the creation of additional local businesses."

UPDATE: Sustainability Partnership
On August 9, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer opened a meeting with high-level officials of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transportation (DOT), and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), all members of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, to discuss and better understand the needs, obstacles and red tape experienced by localities as they seek to revitalize downtown cores and promote sustainable development.

Sustainable Long Island was one of organizing sustainability advocates of the event and was excited to see Senator Schumer's call for federal agencies to assist local communities.

The news was just recently released that since this meeting, the New York metro region was awarded a $3.5 million Regional Planning Grant for downtown revitalization and sustainable development!

 

This initiative was first announced at Sustainable Long Island's 4th Annual Sustainability Conference on June 4, focused on the Green Economy. Senator Schumer was a keynote speaker at the conference and specifically mentioned our February op-ed in Newsday (located below) as a key part of this initiative.

Oped


Annual Report 2009
Rethink. Rebuild. Renew

Our Annual Report for the calendar year of 2009 has been released and features some of last year's greatest successes and accomplishments. Get an inside look at the beginnings of our food equity program, the inaugural year of our High School Fellowship, and some of the first steps of the Farmingville community planning process.

Annual Report


Brownfields to Greenfield$
Updated Version To Be Released This Fall

BrownfieldSustainable Long Island is currently working on updating the Brownfields to Greenfields manual to be released later this month. The programs and initiatives involved with cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields are constantly evolving. The purpose of this manual is to provide an understanding of the brownfield redevelopment process and the opportunities available in New York.It is designed to provide information for local government officials seeking to facilitate brownfield redevelopment in their communities, citizens hoping to understand how the process affects them, developers and investors seeking to participate in this growing marketplace, groups that wish to facilitate the redevelopment process, and end-users of redeveloped property.

The ultimate goal is to facilitate full stakeholder participation in the brownfield process. This manual provides information on: New York State, federal, and private funding and financial incentives; technical assistance and liability protection available for the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites in New York State; and an overview of the various brownfield programs administered by the New York State Department of State (NYSDOS).


Ask Yourself Long Island:

A community has been blighted by abandoned commercial properties whose history leads people to believe that there are residual toxins in the soil and in the buildings; the owners are also long gone. How does a community regain control over these brownfields properties, redevelop them, and energize the neighborhood?




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Sincerely,

Sarah Lansdale, Executive Director
Sust
ainable Long Island