Sustainable Long Island announced the appointment of Ann Fangmann, AICP as its new Executive Director. The appointment is effective immediately.

 

 

Ann grew up on Long Island, and following graduate school continued her career as a Planner in the Nassau County Planning Department and later the Department of Public Works. While there, Ann worked on transit, transportation, and downtown revitalization projects of regional significance. Ann's next position was as a Senior Planner at D&B Engineers and Architects, P.C., specializing in transportation, environmental and land use planning, in addition to grant development and management. While at D&B, Ann worked extensively with the City of Glen Cove, administrating State and Federal grants for transportation projects and the City's waterfront redevelopment program. Ann first joined Sustainable Long Island in February 2015, when she was hired to be the Director of Programs. In that role, she was responsible for directing several concurrent programs in areas such as economic development and community revitalization, facilitating redevelopment of brownfields and vacant properties, environmental health and justice, community health and wellness, transportation linkages, and food access and equity issues island-wide.

Ann is a certified planner by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), has a Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Delaware, and is proficient in GIS. In addition to serving as Secretary of the American Planning Association Long Island Section, Ann is involved with a number of professional organizations in the regional area.

A New York Metropolitan Transportation Council study from 1994 to 2004, referred to during the debate, indicated a 25 percent decrease in pedestrian fatalities in New York state with the exception of Suffolk County. The county experienced a 104 percent increase in these fatalities in that 10-year-or-so period.

"[Route] 25A [needs sidewalks] without a doubt. You got college students coming. They have no transportation. These guys are from Japan and all over the world," Hominick said in an interview after the event.

She added that sidewalks in residential areas might not be necessary.

Others also suggested establishing sidewalks starting with schools to help keep children safe when it's time to go home. Using speed bumps to help people slow down and adhere to the speed limit as well as stop signs was another suggestion. Elena Sadov of Setauket was one of the few members who pointed out that more advanced cars are part of the issue when it comes to pedestrian safety.

"When you look at historic pictures of our town, we were able to coexist with horse traffic," Sadov said. "Because horses were slower we did not need sidewalks. Now the seed of travel has improved tremendously."