SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Suffolk Needs More Affordable Housing

By Karl Grossman

A key to dealing with the affordable housing crisis in Suffolk County is having a variety of housing: such as accessory dwelling units, multifamily housing, shared housing, duplexes, small and medium apartment communities. But an obstacle in having diversity in housing types are zoning rules that heavily favor single-family homes. 

Suffolk is largely zoned for single-family homes, notes Michael Daly, founder and leader of East End YIMBY—for Yes In My Backyard—the group working for affordable housing. Zoning in some areas of Suffolk, “especially on the East End, is limited nearly exclusively to single-family homes and is one of the biggest contributing factors to the high cost of a house here and the availability of affordable housing,” he says.

“Zoning rules strangling Long Island,” was the title of a 2019 essay by Professor Michael Lewyn, associate director of the Institute on Land Use and Sustainable Development at the Touro Law Center. “Why isn’t Long Island building more housing? As in many other places, local zoning codes treat housing as a scary thing that must be strictly limited.” 

The issue has been bubbling here for years.

“Why Is It So Hard to Build Multifamily Housing on Long Island?” was the title of a 2016 essay by Nancy Rauch Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation. “Long Island—world-renown for single-family homes—has fewer multifamily housing options than other suburb near New York City,” she wrote. She cited a foundation-commissioned study which found that “land zoned for apartments is vanishingly scarce on Long Island.” She said “enlightened leadership” is necessary to “enable our children and grandchildren, once grown, to live nearby” and also to “attract younger workers if we want the businesses that we need to locate here. The key is to develop multifamily housing that young people can afford.”

The situation isn’t limited to Long Island.

“The Zombie That Is Single-Family Zoning—Destroy It Before It Destroys Us,” was an essay by Atticus LeBlanc in August on www.forbes.com  He wrote that “we’re in a situation where we need much more housing supply. We’ve needed it for a long time, and we still need the ability to create more housing much faster. Single-family zoning remains the biggest obstacle standing in the way.” He said “affordable housing advocates” have sought a change for years “knowing full well that systemic racism runs deep in local housing ordinances, and that more multi-family and shared housing increases inventory, i.e., supply, which allows for more options for those who need it most. With the housing shortage now at all-time highs, affordable housing advocates are no longer the only ones decrying policies that favor only nuclear families. Rather policymakers on both sides of the aisle and at every jurisdiction are paying attention.”

Consider California where decades ago housing prices hit the roof nationally—and where large numbers of people are now living in tents along streets in many areas.

As New York Times reporter Conor Dougherty wrote in August: “California needs more housing. More condominiums, more townhouses near mass transit…There is no other solution to the state’s desperate homelessness problem and a deepening housing affordability crisis, according to a broad collection of economists and housing experts.” Earlier that week the California Legislature “took a big step” toward “advancing a bill that would allow two-unit buildings on lots that for generations have been reserved exclusively for single-family homes.” In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of housing legislation. “California’s New Housing Laws: Here’s What to Know” was the headline of a follow-up New York Times story. Reporting that the “state’s median home price has crept above $800,000,” it said California’s “housing crisis has a seemingly simple solution, according to the laws of supply and demand: Build more housing.” The measures Mr. Newsom signed will allow for the wide construction of duplexes and accessory development units—small dwellings on the same grounds or attached to single-family homes—and other multi-family housing in California.

“The suite of bills,” said a press release from the governor, “will help address” the affordable housing problem. It quoted Mr. Newsom saying: “The housing affordability crisis is undermining the California Dream for families across the state, and threatens our long-term growth and prosperity.”

In Suffolk, Jim Morgo knows a lot about housing—he’s former deputy county executive for housing. For many years his family lived in a single-family home in Bayport. Now, he and his wife reside in a 40-unit condominium, in Bayport, too. Although on five acres, “it doesn’t seem overly dense or overcrowded,” says Mr. Morgo. That’s because “density is not a number, it’s design: the placement of buildings, landscaping, building in harmony with nature.” In contrast, a megamansion on several acres can be “hideous.” 

Of condominium life for his wife and him, Mr. Morgo said last week: “It’s wonderful.” 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Shampoo Not Doing The Job? May Be A Knockoff

By Stacey Altherr

Beware: Your favorite make-up or shampoo brand may not be what you think it is.

For years, federal authorities have been trying to wrangle counterfeit beauty products off the shelves of national chain stores. These products are deceivingly similar in packaging, sometimes with a simple extra sticker as the only clue that it may not be a direct shipment from its legitimate producer to even a national drug and beauty chain.

“About 90 percent of these counterfeit items come from China, where manufacturing is cheaper and there’s a copycat culture,” Bob Barchiesi, president of the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition, a D.C.-based trade organization,” said in a 2015 article in Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Diversion of products is the unauthorized sale of products, which can be diluted, have a different formula, or expired.

These counterfeit products are not just a loss of money for the famous brands, but can have health and safety for the users. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, in conjunction with the National Intellectual Property Rights Center, testing of these knock-off products has shown dangerous ingredients such as arsenic, beryllium and cadmium, all known carcinogens not permitted in U.S. products, as well as high levels of aluminum and bacteria. In perfumes and colognes, even urine has been found.

The counterfeit products have become a real problem for the famous brands most likely to be ripped off.

In the same article , Gregg Marrazzo, senior vice president of Long Island cosmetic giant, Estée Lauder called cosmetics counterfeiting, a “global epidemic.”  

For years, fake makes of popular brands were usually found in flea markets, but because of supply chains and more sophisticated internet marketing of products, they are showing up in drug stores and third-party shipping sites like Amazon, despite these national companies best intentions to keep them off the shelves.

Many companies, such as Redken, only sell their products through authorized retailers, and not in drug stores, yet Redken shampoo can be found on some CVS store shelves and can be found in their advertisements.

Patricia Biancaniello, publisher and editor of Smithtown Matters had a recent experience and asked Redken for some guidance,

“We do not authorize the sale of our products in CVS… It is our business decision to sell our products only through distributors and salons by professionals who can offer advice on selecting the best products to meet your needs. These professionals also help to ensure that the customer receives fresh product that meets our quality standards. Unfortunately, some products are diverted outside our normal distribution channels. We take this diversion issue very seriously,” said the response from Redken.

How to know if you are buying the real product? It isn’t easy, but here are some things to look out for:

•  The packaging may look slightly different, including the colors or lettering. Unfortunately, counterfeiters have been getting better at this.
• A separate bar code sticker may be placed over the originally packaged bar code. 
• It smells differently than what you know about that particular product. The texture may also be off.
• There may not be typical information on the packaging, such as batch numbers.
• The price is either slightly or drastically lower.

Smithtown Matters was unable to reach CVS for comment

LTE: The Time Is Now For Sewers In Kings Park

Dear Editor:

The time is now for sewers in Kings Park!

Back in 2009, as part of the county’s ongoing efforts to protect our ground and surface waters and facilitate economic growth, Suffolk County expanded the Kings Park sewage treatment plant and shortly thereafter spent four million dollars on the engineering and design of the Kings Park Sewer District extension.

With a plan firmly in place, a treatment plant operating at half capacity and a sewer pipe already running across Main Street, the extension of the sewer district appeared to be well on its way, yet seemingly, little progress was being made in funding and advancing the expansion efforts. Then, in 2017, the State of New York made $20 million available for the project. Finally, it appeared the largest hurdles had been cleared, yet, four-plus years later, still no sewers.

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised, since as part of the process, it took state lawmakers two years to approve the alienation of a piece of town park maintenance property the size of a two-car garage (that wasn’t even being used as park land) for a pump station critical to the sewer extension. However, even with all required legislative actions in place, the Bellone administration still failed to reach the finish line. During this time, the Town of Smithtown was able to put a sewer pipe in St. James and that community doesn’t even have a sewage treatment plant yet.

However, now, at long last, there is an opportunity to make sewers in Kings Park a reality through a vote by district residents. Only current sewer district residents will take part in the vote; property and business owners who will also be impacted by the expansion will not be able to participate in the voting. While the circumstance is far from ideal, it still represents a chance for this project to finally be realized.

This vote on December 14 has nothing to do with politics, it is a vote for the future of Kings Park and our environment and I will continue to work diligently to try to ensure the proposition’s passage. Then I will do the same for both Smithtown and St. James to ensure these downtowns get hooked into sewer systems as well. This investment in our downtowns is vitally important for our businesses as well as our home values.

Sincerely,
Rob Trotta, Suffolk County Legislator, 13thLD

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Housing In Suffolk County Welcome The YIMBYs

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman 

East End YIMBY—for Yes In My Backyard—continued its work at encouraging affordable housing at a meeting last week. It was refreshing to observe a group of folks—of varied ages and backgrounds including two veteran architects and a long-time former New York State housing specialist—gathered. 

It was a contrast to those who oppose affordable housing under the banner of NIMBY—Not In My Backyard.

Opening the meeting in Sag Harbor—where the median price of a house has reached an unaffordable-for-most-people median price of $1.3 million—Michael Daly, the YIMBY’s founder and leader, spoke of the group being “committed to taking action.”  

“We advocate” for affordable housing, he emphasized. This includes endeavoring to “educate ourselves and others,” he said. An emphasis is on appearances at meetings of government panels and civic associations and countering the NIMBYs who “regurgitate myths” which have discouraged “affordable housing for so long.”

Mr. Daly, a real estate broker, described the myths as including the claim that affordable housing “hurts the environment” when, in fact, “community housing goes through stringent environmental review;” it drives down property values although “repeated research” shows it has “no negative impact on home prices;” looks “cheap” but, in fact, it must comply with “all the same building codes and regulations” as market-rate projects;” hurts the quality of local schools when “the opposite is true.”

The focus at the meeting was indeed on “taking action” and strategies were discussed.

What YIMBY is facing is not new in Suffolk County.

The challenge, however, is more intense as the median price of a house in Suffolk has skyrocketed to now $535,000. 

My first job as a reporter in Suffolk was at the Babylon Town Leader in a town that was hit, along with the rest of western Suffolk, by the first wave of the huge post-World War II population move onto Long Island. An issue when I began at the Leader in 1962 was the resistance in Babylon to housing other than single-family residences. I was assigned to write about the several garden apartments that had been built, the need they met, and whether they did or didn’t conflict with the communities in which they were built. I found no conflict.

Up the road from where I live in Noyac, in 2019 the Sandy Hollow Cove Apartments opened in Tuckahoe. On a 2.6-acre site, three buildings offering 14 studio apartments, 12 one-bedroom apartments and two two-bedroom units, were built. The landscaping is lovely. It’s a joint project of the private company Georgica Green Venues, the Town of Southampton, the Suffolk County Office of Community Development and New York State Homes & Community Renewal. They are for people with low and moderate incomes. The apartments harmonize with housing in the area.

When they opened, Kathy Hochul, the state’s lieutenant governor and now governor, said: “Everyone deserves the dignity of a good home, which is why we are committed to our statewide investment in affordable and supportive housing. The Sandy Hollow Cove Apartments will help to ensure working families in Southampton have affordable, high-quality housing options.”

Mr. Daly comments that “it’s a beautiful community development and we need so many more of these community developments.” 

Earlier this year on Shelter Island, Bob Kohn, who had recently been appointed a member of its Community Housing Board, opposed and decried the town joining in providing affordable housing. At a Community Housing Board meeting in June, he referred it as “socialized housing.” He said those who couldn’t afford to live on Shelter Island should go elsewhere. He was bounced from the board. The median price of a house on Shelter Island has skyrocketed to $1.4 million.

As Shelter Island Supervisor Gerry Siller noted with Mr. Kohn’s termination, Town Code sets the board’s purpose as to “promote community housing” specifically “in order to maintain the local economy, community services and the economic and social diversity that characterize the Town of Shelter Island.” Mr. Siller said of Mr. Kohn’s plan, “the only problem it will solve is to ensure that the wealthy few who can still afford to live here will have accessible labor in the next town. That is simply not the community we want.” 

NIMBYs are still around. Welcome the YIMBYs.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Goat Yoga "Just What Do You Mean By 'Interacting ?'

Don’t Get My Goat 

By June Capossela Kempf

During one of my recent ‘Can we talk’ conversations with my daughter, I had been obsessing over some of my many worries until my stress stories began to rub Jeannie the wrong way.

 “You need to chill out Mom. Take a walk. Read a book. Try doing something different. Something that’ll take your mind off your troubles.”

“Like what?”

“How ‘bout a Yoga class – or better still: Since you’re such an animal lover, go over the top and try goat yoga,” she said with a giggle. 

“Goats do Yoga?” I asked.

“No silly, you do Yoga, while adorable goats ‘interact’ with you. it’s supposed to be relaxing and fun.

“Just what do you mean by ‘interacting’?

“Well, the goats have the same soothing effect on you as holding a cuddly puppy or an adorable little baby. They are affectionate and snuggle up with you as you go through the various yoga routines. They even hop on your back and sort of massage you with their hooves. Yogis claim that they come out of these sessions feeling warm and fuzzy all over.”  

“Hooves!! My back hurts already, that’s one reason I’m stressed. The last thing I need is a goat trampling with cloven hooves up and down my deteriorating disks. I have nightmares more soothing than that…”

Jeannie’s eyes began to roll. Jeanne tends to do that a lot lately. Anyway, I pushed on with the conversation – just to bug her.

“Just where do I find a guru who can make me ‘one’ with a goat?”

“All I know,” she said. “Is that some farmers and groups with access to goats, host sessions as a novelty and an income producer. The trend started out West, but I am sure there are classes somewhere around here.  Google it.”

So, I did.

Under the heading, ’What is goat yoga?’, Google confirmed what Jeannie told me and also provided a wealth of information I didn’t need to know. They described each yoga position from downward dog to mountain pose, creating the impression that the lower you are to the ground, the more likely you are to find a goat on your back – interacting. The mountain position appealed to me for the moment.

But then, I scrolled down to the Q & A section of the Google page and saw some disturbing queries from other researchers:

 Q “Do the goats relieve themselves on you?”

 A “Sometimes they do,” was the answer.

 Baaaa!   

The second question was just as strange.

Q “Do the goats wear clothes while they are bonding with the yogis?”

A “They sometimes wear T shirts.”

“What, no diapers?” I yelled at the screen.”

Double Baaaa!!

Need I know more? 

To be fair, I could stand a little bit more information – like whose idea was this in the first place? I continued my search and learned that the concept was established by a motivational speaker and marketer in Monroe, Oregon by the name: Lainey Moore.

Google says that Lainey found herself inspired by the distractions created by six adorable goats which she filmed leaping all over some ecstatic yogis as they happily worked through their various poses. Naturally she posted the whole scene and before she knew it, the video went viral. Soon her idea escalated and ‘Voila’, the trendy and profitable venture was launched. Finally, through her tireless promotional endeavors, she soon became known as the Queen of Goat Yoga.

Google had volumes more to say about the subject, including the facts that only Nanny goats and kids were suitable for nuzzling noses and numbing the nerves of human beings. Who knew?

Nevertheless, I read enough to know that there was no way I was going to calm down, while hooved, non-potty-trained Kids meandered all over my back.

Just let me assume a comfortable position on the couch and become one with my blankie; and I will become as cool and collected as a lotus blossom blissfully drifting across the still waters of a peaceful pond somewhere in Shangri-la. Ummm!  

June Capossela Kempf: Essayist and  Author of : Yo God! Jay’s Story, a memoir  and Lady of the Dollhouse, a YA mystery

*Smithtown Historical Society offers Goat Yoga