Smithtown Recreation Announces Horseshoe League Champions

Smithtown Recreation is pleased to announce our 2021 Horseshoe league champions as well as second place finishers.  

On Wednesday, August 18^th the first round of the Horseshoe league semi-finals were played in the best of 5 format.  The 1^st place team, Lou Malandra & Larry Bond and 2^nd place team Paul Williams & John Parish

had a bye while 3^rd place team Justin Flores & Chris Malandra played 6^th place team of Anthony Esgro & Mike Rozza.  Justin & Chris won 3 – 0 and will play in the finals against Paul & John.  

Fourth place team, Jay McConnell & Peter Sikinger played 5^th place team, Ed Riss & Jeff Barrington.  Ed & Jeff won 3-2.  Ed & Jeff will play Lou & Larry in the finals.

On Wednesday, August 25^th, 1st place team of Lou & Larry played Ed & Jeff.  Lou and Larry won 3-0 and waited to see who they would face in the finals.  Paul & John played Justin & Chris.  Justin & Chris won 3-1 and advanced to the finals to play Lou & Larry.  

In the championship match Lou & Larry won 3 – 2 against Chris & Justin.  Congratulations to Lou & Larry for winning the 2021 Smithtown Recreation Doubles Horseshoe League!   

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Housing In Suffolk County

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“Welcome to Suffolk County’s affordable housing website. The need for affordable housing has reached crisis proportions throughout the county.” Those are the opening lines of Suffolk County government’s website involving affordable housing here.

Indeed, it is a crisis!

When we purchased our first house in Suffolk, in 1964, in Sayville, the price was $19,000. And there were plenty of houses at the time up for sale in the $15,000 to $17,000 range. But we opted for a roomier place to raise our family after renting for three years (initially, a cottage in Islip for $75 a month).

That was a long time ago, of course, and there’s been a change in what a dollar is worth, and salaries have gone up appreciably. Still, says Jim Morgo, the first president and CEO of Long Island Housing Partnership from when it began in 1988, even with the change in value of a dollar and increases in salaries, the percentage of the rise in the price of housing in Suffolk substantially exceeds that. (As for rents, they’re now “close to $3,000 a month,” he notes.)

Mr. Morgo’s successor after his 17 years at LIHP, Peter J. Elkowitz, Jr., said in a Long Island Metro Business Action presentation last month—titled “Affordable Housing, Opportunities & Obstacles”—the average price of a house in Suffolk had just gone up to $525,000.

“The big issue is supply of homes under $400,000. They are very difficult to find these days,” said Mr. Elkowitz. This $525,000 price had “gone up 19% from the same time last year,” he said. (The $400,000 price is considered, debatably, as “affordable.”)

A big factor: COVID-19 and “people looking for more space to live in,” he said. This involves “health issues.” COVID-19 refugees have flocked to Suffolk County since the pandemic began.

There is “an extremely limited” market overall of houses for sale here with commonly would-be buyers “offering cash on the spot,” said Mr. Elkowitz. 

“LI homes sales soar as Suffolk median price breaks the $500,000 barrier,” was the headline of a Newsday story by its real estate reporter Maura McDermott in June. It started: “Want to buy a home in Suffolk County? It is likely to cost you at least half a million dollars.”

As for houses on the East End, a follow-up story she wrote in August began: “Even the ‘affordable’ East End isn’t so affordable anymore. A year’s worth of COVID-19 bidding wars has driven prices up into the $1 million range in East End communities that once were reasonably priced destinations for those seeking idyllic places to live and vacation on Long Island.”

What about when, hopefully, this pandemic is over or recedes substantially? Ms. McDermott quoted Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal company which conducts research on market trends, saying the ability to work from home “is not going away even if the pandemic is brought under control or eradicated. Remote work is now an embedded factor in the location calculation of consumers.”

According to realtor.com, the “median sold home price” for a house in Sag Harbor is now $1.3 million. We moved from Sayville to Sag Harbor in 1974 buying a house on an acre and a quarter for $45,000.

The unaffordability of a house on the East End now is exemplified every day of the work week by what’s been dubbed “the trade parade”—the line of bumper-to-bumper traffic on Route 27, County Road 39A and Montauk Highway, in the morning very slowly heading east with tradespeople and others who would never be able to afford a house today on the East End. And then, as afternoon arrives, the “trade parade” reverses direction and bumper-to-bumper returns west very slowly. 

The Suffolk County “affordable housing” website says: “Families and businesses have all felt the repercussions of this challenge as young workers and our elderly have left Long Island for more affordable housing elsewhere.” Mr. Morgo points out: “In places like North Carolina and parts of Pennsylvania you can get double the size of a home at half the price here.” 

“The issue,” says the county’s website, “did not develop overnight, nor can it be solved overnight. It will take all of us working together to find a multitude of solutions to keep our families together.” 

Next week: what is being done, what can be done, to deal with this crisis?

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. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Hurricane Henri Was A Wake Up Call

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

We dodged a bullet with Henri hitting Rhode Island head-on rather than us last week. But the hurricane threat is far from gone. With the hurricane season running from June 1 to November 30, the threat in the short-term remains possible, and assured in the long-term.

And this comes as climate change is causing more frequent and more severe hurricanes (and other what’s being called extreme weather events). Global warming is heating waters on which hurricanes feed. States along the Gulf of Mexico have been the most impacted in recent times by quickly developing major hurricanes. But the Atlantic coast—including where we are—is a hurricane alley, too.

It seemed definite (as much as hurricane predictions can be definite, although forecasts have gotten very good in recent years) that Henri would strike us.   

Began an article in Newsday: “Long Island stands in the crosshairs of a hurricane that could potentially wreak havoc with flooding, power losses, downed trees and all the misery that come with that.” As for electric outages, an accompanying story was headlined: “Dire Warning On Outages.” It began: “PSEG Long Island said the potential for ‘severe damage’ from Hurricane Henri could cause outages that last up to two weeks…” Two weeks! 

At gas stations on Long Island were lines of cars with people filling up containers for gas to feed generators. At hardware stores, there was a run on bar oil for chain saws getting readied to deal with fallen trees. And there was justifiable high anxiety.

But, amazingly, on the morning that Henri was to clobber us came the report that it had shifted to the east and would likely make landfall in Rhode Island. “A difference of 30 miles compared to the earth’s diameter of 7,900 miles may not seem like much, but it can be when you’re dealing with a hurricane,” said Newsday meteorologist Bill Korbel.

What’s to learn? Two major things:

For decades I’ve written about the need to underground electric lines on Long Island. In April, I related how Kevin Law, on his last day as president and CEO of the Long Island Association, sent a letter to President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer requesting federal help for the undergrounding of electric lines here.  I noted that Mr. Law knew the situation well from previously being president and CEO of the Long Island Power Authority, which owns those lines. He asked that funds be made “available to make electric grids more resilient to climate disasters on Long Island…to bury the electric grid on Long Island.” He linked this to “efforts to invest in our national infrastructure.” And, since, two bills providing trillions for infrastructure work in the U.S. have been passed by Congress. 

Mr. Law pointed out that there are “approximately 10,000 miles of overhead [electric] lines” on Long Island. “Major storms, including Hurricane Isaias, Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Gloria demonstrated the immense vulnerabilities of our grid. These storms caused significant disruption and widespread damage such as downed trees and fallen power lines and left most of Long Island’s residents and businesses in the dark, with some out for longer than a week.”

Hurricane Gloria in 1985 caused a loss of electricity to 700,000 electric ratepayers on Long Island—but nearly all telephone service continued without interruption. Why?  It was because, in the 1970s, telephone lines here began being placed underground. 

The details of the infrastructure legislation are still to be worked out. There is time to include funding for undergrounding electric lines on Long Island. A push by our federal representatives is needed.

Then, re-emphasized by Henri: the need for relocation of structures built in vulnerable areas of our coasts. “Fortunately, Long Island was spared the brunt of Henri,” says Kevin McAllister, founder and president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20. “But our sigh of relief will be short-lived, as there most certainly will be a next time. Whether it’s a named storm or a winter nor’easter, storm surge will be a constant and growing threat and compounded by an accelerating sea level rise. Our days of living on wetland fringes, sand spits, isthmuses and some sections of barrier islands are numbered. The sooner we accept the inevitable and monumental changes that are underway, the sooner we can start moving back, off and out of vulnerable areas, the more resilient we will be. We know where they exist, so let’s get started. For Long Islanders will rue the day we failed to listen to Henri’s wake-up call.”

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. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Green Amendment On The Ballot In NYS

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

On the ballot in New York State on Election Day this November 2 will be what is being called the Green Amendment. It would be an important and powerful addition to the New York State Constitution. The Green Amendment declares: “Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”

Its prime sponsor in the State Assembly is Steve Englebright of Setauket, chair of the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee and an official from Suffolk long deeply committed to environmental causes. “It is simple,” he says. It would allow every New Yorker “to know that you can raise a family and pass on to the next generation a clean and healthful environment. This proposal is based on the premise that these rights are fundamental…and should be reflected in the state’s Constitution.”

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. of Sag Harbor, a Suffolk official, too, who has long strongly championed environmental causes, is a leading sponsor of the Green Amendment. He says: “It is a great thing.” By providing “a Constitutional right to clean air and clean water and a healthful environment, it elevates environmental policy and initiatives.” 

In the State Senate the prime sponsor is Robert Jackson of Washington Heights in Manhattan. He comments that “to add 15 words to the Constitution of our state, we are helping shape the future of New York….If the voters approve it in November, this language will finally put in place safeguards to require the government to consider the environment and our relationship to the Earth in decision making. If the government fails in that responsibility, New Yorkers will finally have the right to take legal action for a clean environment because it will be in the State Constitution.”

That prospect has led to opposition by The Business Council of New York State. In a memorandum to the legislature, it says it “fails to see the benefit in providing a direct right of action under the State Constitution to remedy an environmental condition because there are numerous adequate remedies available under current state law.” 

Challenging this is Delaware Riverkeeper Maya K. van Rossum, key in the initiative for a Green Amendment in New York State and states through the U.S., and in the U.S. Constitution, too. She is the author of a significant, indeed superb 2017 book, “The Green Amendment, Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment.”

“Passage of a Green Amendment in New York would be as beneficial for the businesses of New York as it would be for the people,” says Pennsylvania-based von Rossum. “A Green Amendment does not pit people and the environment against business; it joins them together in a common cause that benefits everyone.” An attorney, she says that “current…environmental protection laws are not truly recognizing and protecting the rights of people to a healthy environment. This is as much the case in New York as in other states across the nation.” 

“A Constitutional right,” she says, “would provide appropriate access to the courts in those situations when our governmental decisionmakers are not honoring the inalienable right of all people to a healthy environment, including when our current…environmental laws are allowing damaging levels of pollution and degradation to pass unchallenged.” A Green Amendment, she says, would give people a right comparable to Constitutional rights such as freedom of speech, religion, assembly and the press receive. 

Getting an amendment to the New York Constitution adopted isn’t easy. Passage in two sessions of the State Assembly and State Senate and then approval by the voters is necessary.

Leaders of 70 organizations in New York have announced their support for the Green Amendment. They represent groups including the League of Women Voters; Save the Sound; New York Public Interest Research Group; Food & Water Action; Long Island Progressive Coalition; Long Island Chapter Surfrider Foundation; and Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. Their joint statement notes that “while” the state’s Constitution includes a “Conservation Article” which says “the policy of the state shall be to conserve and protect its natural resources,” it is “limited in scope and only recognizes environmental protections as important public policy, not as a fundamental right.”

Actor Mark Ruffalo, who starred in the 2019 film “Dark Waters” based on the real-life legal battle against DuPont over its massive dumping of a toxic chemical that contaminated drinking water, writes the foreword to Ms. von Rossum’s book. He compares it to “Silent Spring,” the 1962 book of Rachel Carson that combined with her efforts, he notes, “are often credited with sparking the birth of the modern environmental movement.” The book “The Green Amendment,” he writes, “has the power to spark a new movement, just as Rachel Carson’s did.”

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. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP : The Cuomo's And Their Impact On LI's Energy

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

This is about Andrew and Mario Cuomo. First, Andrew: a man of contradictions.

With the dangers of nuclear power a journalistic focus of mine for decades, I thought his role in the closing of the Indian Point nuclear power plants—25 miles north of New York City (and with Long Island in accident range, too)—an act of courage. He faced fierce nuclear industry opposition. The two-plant facility shut down this past April. 

But while engaged in seeking to have Indian Point closed, Mr. Cuomo pushed for a $7.6 billion state bail-out to allow four aging nuclear power plants near Syracuse and also Rochester in upstate New York to keep operating. Their owners said they had become uneconomic to run. The Cuomo 2016 bail-out was linked to a “Clean Energy Standard” he advanced under which much of the electricity used in the state would come from “clean and renewable energy sources.” Under the $7.6 bail-out, the four nuclear plants were considered as producing “clean and renewable” electricity—despite green energy advocates saying this was false.  

Residential ratepayers, businesses and other entities including schools and governments in New York State have since been paying, and for years will continue to have to pay an added charge on their electric bills for the Cuomo nuclear bail-out.

Likewise, as the City & State website headlined, “Cuomo contradicts his own harassment law.” Mr. Cuomo, who will end being New York’s governor in a matter of days because of a major sexual harassment scandal, pushed for a less burdensome definition of sexual harassment in a law he signed in 2019. “It was a change that Cuomo celebrated and something he has taken credit for implementing,” noted City & State. But his actions, as determined by the New York attorney general, points to his having repeatedly violated this law and a cause he embraced.

Mario Cuomo, in the case of the Shoreham nuclear power plant on Long Island, was as strong as his son was on Indian Point—but in the end left Long Islanders unnecessarily with a bill of also more than $7 billion. 

I first met Mario Cuomo when he pursued the Democratic nomination to run for governor in 1982. I was co-anchor of the evening news on the then Long Island commercial TV station, WSNL-TV/67 in Smithtown, and Mr. Cuomo came to be interviewed. The battle over the Shoreham plant was raging and I questioned him about it. He seemed unaware of much concerning nuclear power. After the taping, I suggested we sit down and I’d offer him a book I had written, published in 1980, “Cover Up: What You ARE NOT Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power.”

In authoring the book, I felt it would be helpful to reproduce as facsimiles many government and industry documents to authenticate the facts. Mr. Cuomo’s jaw dropped as he examined the documents. For example, there was the passage of a report done by Brookhaven National Laboratory on the consequences of a nuclear power plant accident declaring that “the possible size of the area of such a disaster might be equal to that of the State of Pennsylvania.” 

Mr. Cuomo cringed seeing the reproduction of the “nuclear clause” that is still in every homeowner’s insurance policy in the U.S. which says: “This policy does not cover loss or damage caused by nuclear reaction or nuclear radiation or radioactive contamination.” 

This sit-down with Mr. Cuomo might have been a factor in his becoming opposed to Shoreham. The key to stopping Shoreham was the Long Island Power Act of 1985. Under it, the state would create a Long Island Power Authority to replace the Long Island Lighting Company, the builder and owner of Shoreham, and close the nuclear plant. As for cost, the act provided for the state to acquire the stock of LILCO, enormously reduced because of LILCO’s nuclear adventure, or to purchase LILCO’s assets. 

Citizens to Replace LILCO, the organization spearheading support for the act, called for acquisition of stock, far cheaper, it emphasized, than buying LILCO’s assets. Mr. Cuomo opposed that believing it too radical for Wall Street. So Long Island’s electric ratepayers got stuck with a far larger debt than necessary to stop Shoreham—now $7.5 billion. The Citizens to Replace LILCO chair, Maurice Barbash, spoke painfully for years about Mr. Cuomo telephoning him at his office in Babylon and, with the kind of bullying later to be closely associated with Andrew, threatening to send state auditors to look into his building business because of his group’s stance.

Also, under the act, LIPA was to have a board elected by Long Islanders which would set this area’s energy policy and chart its energy future. Mario Cuomo suspended that after LIPA was founded switching to having a board of trustees appointed by three officials in Albany: the Assembly speaker, Senate president—and governor. Goodbye to a grassroots democratic energy process here.

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.