SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Libraries "Palaces For The People"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“In Praise of Public Libraries” was the headline of an extensive piece in the New York Review of Books last month. Reviewed were two new books, The Library Book and Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. Also reviewed was a just-released documentary by master filmmaker Fred Wiseman that was described as “inspirational,” Ex Libris. It is about “the grandest people’s palace of all time: the New York Public Library system, a collection of ninety-two branches.” 

I have a great affection for libraries and great respect for librarians.

We have a wonderful collection of libraries in Suffolk County. But there are difficulties in that although there is a program of New York State grants for the state’s 7,000 libraries (significantly cut in the new state budget), libraries depend on local funding.  

This can be a big problem. For example, last month a proposed budget for the Wyandanch Public Library was voted down, reportedly the first defeat for a library budget in Suffolk in the past five years. A significant tax increase—of nearly 39 percent—came with the $2.8 million budget proposal. There would have been a $272 annual increase for the “average” homeowner in Wyandanch, pushing the library tax to $974 a year.

That’s a lot of money especially to homeowners in Wyandanch, a working-class community, largely African-American. As a result of the defeat of the budget, there was a reversion to the library’s budget of last year and the library’s board decided it needed to eliminate Sunday hours. That’s so sad, a loss of a needed service.

Likewise, a major expansion for the Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Community Library was voted down in February. The plan was exciting. Proponents said it would have turned the library into the finest on Long Island. Kerri Rosalia, the library’s director, told me how the expansion would have allowed it to embrace the dramatic changes in libraries that have been happening across the nation—turning them into community hubs.

Features would have included a small outdoor amphitheater to seat 200 to 300 people and provide outdoor concerts, literature readings, theatrical performances and screening of films. There would be more meeting places for community groups. Other innovations would have included a “Nature Explore Classroom” for children. 

Some people might think that “with Google and eBooks” libraries aren’t important any longer, said Ms. Rosalia, but “we’re certainly not seeing the end of libraries. Recent statistics show library use staying strong and steady.” The Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Community Library has a whopping 46,000 cardholders. But the 30-year bond for the $38.5 million expansion plan was apparently considered too much for a majority of library district voters. The library is now exploring future options. 

All through high school, I worked every weekday afternoon, 20 hours a week, at what was the leading library in Queens, the central branch of the Queensborough Public Library in Jamaica. I held the modest job of shelving books. Working in the library environment, getting to know dedicated librarians, was a terrific experience 

Suffolk libraries include The Smithtown Library. With a main building in Smithtown and branches in Commack, Kings Park and Nesconset, it describes itself as the largest library system on Long Island, the tenth largest in the state. Beyond a wealth of books, like all libraries in Suffolk it is a center for a programs and exhibits. Currently, it’s featuring the “2019 Long Island Room Program Series” with a “focus on some of the ways in which Long Island’s past was driven and shaped by the innovative and inventive ideas of those who lived and worked here.”

When my own family lived in Sayville, the Sayville Library was great. And, having since lived in Noyac for 45 years, we’ve found John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor a treasure, too.  It was built in 1910, its original structure beautiful and historic, but there was no room for expansion. With architectural ingenuity, a tall glass-paneled, light-filled addition—doubling the library’s space—was built and opened in 2016.

The East Hampton Library serves as an important regional history museum. Its Long Island Collection “dedicated to the history and people of Long Island” includes a five-room study area and more than 100,000 items. These include whaling logs, diaries, photographs, postcards, deeds, wills, genealogies, maps, oral histories and early Native American documents and artifacts. I’m thrilled that my articles and the documents I’ve gathered as a Suffolk-based journalist since 1962 have been digitized by the library and now constitute an accessible online “Karl Grossman Research Archive” helping it couple its extraordinary collection of the old with additional material from modern times.

Linking Suffolk’s libraries is the Suffolk County Library System with its Live-brary.com feature allowing patrons to order books for free from any of the system’s 56 libraries and download thousands of eBooks, audiobooks, CDs and DVDs. 

Libraries are indeed “palaces for the people” and should be prized.

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 -Joe Quinn And Otis Pike A Lesson In Successful Campaigning

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Perry Gershon, in running a second time against incumbent U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, will take a similar approach to that of Otis Pike decades ago. Democrat Pike initially lost to a lst Congressional District Republican incumbent and then spent two years moving around the district meeting with voters person-to-person.

Two years later, in 1960, Mr. Pike of Riverhead defeated three-term Representative Stuyvesant Wainwright of Wainscott. Ultimately, Mr. Pike was elected to nine two-year terms—holding office until 1978—the longest tenure ever for any lst C.D. representative. 

Joseph Quinn of Smithtown worked should-to-shoulder with Mr. Pike. Mr. Quinn, a teacher, was a key Pike campaign aide and was a staff assistant to him through his Congressional years. Mr. Quinn also would become, for 23 years, the Democratic leader of Smithtown—a town which might be critical to Mr. Gershon’s chances. 

Mr. Gershon of East Hampton was defeated last year by 11,000 votes, a narrow 4 percent of votes cast. He won Southampton, East Hampton, Shelter Island and Southold towns. But Mr. Zeldin won in Brookhaven, Riverhead and Smithtown—where Mr. Gershon lost by 7,000 votes. “He lost the race in Smithtown,” commented Mr. Quinn last week.

Back in 1958, in his first race for Congress, Mr. Pike did worse. “He lost by 40,000 votes to Wainwright,” Mr. Quinn recounted. The strategy of Mr. Pike, a Riverhead town justice, for his re-run was to move around the district, connecting with voters, speaking at every venue possible. If there were “three people he could go and talk with, Otis would be there,” said Mr. Quinn. 

Mr. Pike used humor. “He made fun of himself. He would tell people in 1960 that in the 1958 election” Democrats he’d name in various states “got elected—but Otis Pike got murdered!”

Mr. Gershon, with $5 million spent (including in a primary) in his campaign last year, would not be emulating Mr. Pike on campaign spending. Mr. Pike spent but $12,000 on the 1960 campaign, said Mr. Quinn, extremely low even then. But Mr. Pike was famously frugal—including as a congressman. There was but one piece of campaign literature in 1960, a four-page flier. Emphasizing that this was a shoestring campaign, shoestrings were sold at Pike campaign appearances for $1 a pair.

Mr. Wainwright, meanwhile, came from money. Financer Jay Gould, a railroad magnate considered one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age, was his grandfather.

Both men had solid World War II military records. Mr. Pike was a Marine fighter pilot in the Pacific. Mr. Wainwright was an Army officer overseas with the Office of Strategic Services. 

It was very helpful to Mr. Pike that John F. Kennedy was running for president and heading the Democratic ticket in 1960, said Mr. Quinn. Will Mr. Zeldin’s chances in 2020 with incumbent President Donald Trump expected to head the GOP ticket help or hurt him? Mr. Zeldin of Shirley and President Trump are politically and personally close. In Smithtown, said Mr. Quinn, since Mr. Trump’s election two years ago activity in Democratic politics has increased greatly. Democratic meetings that used to bring out few people now bring out many, he said. Whether this will translate to votes remains to be seen. And Mr. Trump won in 2016 in Smithtown by 28 points, the largest margin of any Suffolk town. 

A big break for Mr. Pike came in 1960 when “Wainwright was out sailing on his yacht off Nantucket and missed an important vote.” Mr. Zeldin, however, has actively worked the district in his three terms. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Gershon’s emphasis will be traveling the district to “convince the district at large that I represent a better future for its people.” It will be maximum exposure, Pike-like.

Another example being cited of a Democratic challenger in the lst C.D. running twice and then winning is George Hochbrueckner, then of Coram (now of Laurel). He ran and narrowly lost to incumbent Representative William Carney of Hauppauge in 1984. But unlike Mr. Pike, he didn’t face an incumbent the second time—Mr. Carney dropped out. With the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster happening in 1986, opposition in Suffolk to the Shoreham nuclear power plant and Mr. Carney’s zealous advocacy of it had become yet more intense. So after four terms, Mr. Carney, who began as a Conservative with GOP endorsement, didn’t run again. Mr. Hochbrueckner faced Republican Gregory Blass of South Jamesport, presiding officer of the Suffolk Legislature, and won.  The Shoreham plant was stopped from going into operation. And Mr. Carney became a lobbyist in Washington for the nuclear power industry. 

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 - Suffolk County "National Leader In Environmental Initiatives"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

With Earth Day celebrated this week, three cheers to the Suffolk County Legislature for having just passed a set of measures aimed at restricting the use plastic—that substance that has polluted the planet.

Sponsoring the bills was Kara Hahn who before becoming a legislator held positions with the legislature including as its director of communications. That involved presenting the words and accomplishments of members of the panel. As a legislator herself, first elected in 2011, Ms. Hahn’s own words—and accomplishments—have been very noteworthy.

“The scale of the worldwide single-use plastics problem has become an ever-increasing threat to our environment and everything that relies on it, including human health,” said Legislator Hahn after the passage of a sweeping package of Suffolk environmental regulations on plastic. “The plastics crisis is more urgent than people realize, and today we as a county have taken action to address the challenges posed by these dangerous pollutants. It is my hope that our action will spur other leaders to take a bold stand against expediency in favor of sustainability.”

The measures, passed April 9, include: prohibiting eateries from providing cups, containers, trays and other disposable items made of polystyrene—commonly referred to as Styrofoam; outlawing plastic straws and stirrers in favor of biodegradable alternatives; barring the sale in Suffolk of polystyrene packing materials (including those commonly used Styrofoam “peanuts”; and prohibiting county park concessionaires from distributing single-use cups, utensils or straws made from non-biodegradable substances.

The bills now go to the county executive who is expected to sign them into law.

The measures of Ms. Hahn, of Setauket, codify recommendations of the county’s Single-Use Plastic Reduction Task Force which she leads. She is also chairwoman of the legislature’s Environment, Planning and Agriculture Committee. And she is the legislature’s Democratic majority leader.

The Earth Day Network says online about Earth Day 2019, observed on Monday, that human beings have “upset the balance of nature.” 

The plastics deluge is a prime example. Ms. Hahn cites research of the Ocean Conservancy finding that “every year 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate in our marine environments. As a result, ingested plastic has been found in more than 60% of all seabirds and in 100% of sea turtles species. While this has been devastating to marine life and ocean ecosystems, the impacts of plastic and, in particular, polystyrene are also a tangible threat to human health. The World Health Organization classifies styrene as a probable human carcinogen and the Environmental Protection Agency says the polystyrene manufacturing process is the fifth largest creator of hazardous waste in the United States.”

Furthermore, says Ms. Hahn, “in recent years, minute micro-plastics and fibers, measuring the width of a human hair or far less, have been found in an extraordinary range of products, such as honey and sugar, shellfish, bottled and tap water, beer, processed foods, table salt and soft drinks, which means that just like the sea turtles and birds, we humans are ingesting plastic virtually every day.”

The Suffolk Legislature has a long history of environmental initiatives. 

 In 1988 it enacted a ban on Styrofoam by supermarkets and fast-food restaurants to protect air quality and groundwater from the “hazards and toxicity” associated with its disposal. I watched as executives from the fast-food and plastics industries paraded before the legislature denying any harm from plastic. Indeed, it was two decades before—in the 1967 movie The Graduate—that a family friend advises young Benjamin Braddock: “There is a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”

The 1988 Suffolk ban was overturned on a technical issue. “It’s been 30 years since Suffolk first sounded the alarm on the dangers of single-use plastic,” comments Ms. Hahn. “During those three decades not a single piece of plastic has biodegraded. We must…reduce use or now suffer the consequences for generations to come.”

As the years have passed, Suffolk, the nation and world have “thought about” plastics and there’s a growing conclusion that there’s no “great future” for this substance that litters the Earth and is a serious threat to people’s health and other forms of life.

Suffolk has been in the forefront of environmental action from programs to preserve farmland to the fight against plastics to the successful battle to stop the placement here of nuclear power plants. The Long Island History Journal in 2011 ran an extensive article which in its title described Suffolk as a “National Leader in Environmental Initiatives.” It cited among other accomplishments the enactment in 1970 of a “groundbreaking” Suffolk County Environmental Bill of Rights that “made environmental conservation an objective for the county.”

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. 

Flynn Memorial Complex To Get $4 Million Renovation

Town of Smithtown Presents $4 Million State-of-the-Art Park

(SMITHTOWN, NY:)  Smithtown Town Officials unveiled details for a $4 Million renovation of Flynn Memorial Softball Complex during the April 9th work session. David Swift Architects and RDA Landscape Architecture led the presentation to the Town Board, giving an interactive tour of the Old Commack Road park reconstruction.

“Flynn Memorial was once an economic boom for the town of Smithtown. Based on favorable discussions with the USSSA, local sports leagues and a number of other major organizations, we are confident that this reconstruction will generate major tournaments while providing our youth with state-of-the-art ball fields to play and compete on.” - Supervisor Ed Wehrheim

The park’s four fields will be resurfaced with synthetic turf with a built-in drainage system underneath. This modern approach to field maintenance will allow playtime after rain and is much friendlier on the environment, not requiring nitrogen fertilizers to maintain. The fields are equipped with warning tracks and pitchers’ warm-up mounds. The park will feature LED Energy efficient sports lighting for night games, a rare feature among fields across Long Island. In the center of all four ball fields, a two-story air conditioned building will house a concession stand, pro shop and handicapped accessible bathrooms on the first floor with the second floor for officials, giving them an all access view of the entire field. The design also includes additional parking and a storage garage to keep field equipment on hand for ease of access.

“We’ve already begun talks with a number of softball leagues and tournaments… These weekend events will help to attract tourism, dining and shopping that will help our local mom and pop shops with foot traffic, thousands of dollars in town fees… the potential to revive our small business districts is endless.” Councilman Tom Lohmann, Parks Liaison

Fans will enjoy covered bleachers to stay cool in the summer sun, and protective fencing along the outfield and backstops to protect pedestrians walking from each field. The playground will also be relocated more central to the fields.

Flynn Memorial Park park was constructed in 1979. This is the first renovation/rebuild since it’s dedication. Two of the four ball fields are slated to be completed by 2020 with a completion date ready for the 2021 season.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Chair Of County Human Rights Commission Rabbi Dr. Steven Moss Retires

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Rabbi Dr. Steven MossA central figure in the realms of social justice and religious life in Suffolk County, Rabbi Dr. Steven Moss, for 28 years the chairperson of the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission, is retiring. 

Not only has Rabbi Moss led the commission but he is co-chair of the Suffolk County Anti-Bias Task Force, and over his 25 years with the county task force has gone from town to town in Suffolk successfully working for the establishment of town anti-bias task forces.  

Further, he is chairperson of the Suffolk County Community College-based Center for Human Understanding and Social Justice featuring the Holocaust Collection. 

And he is director and founder of STOP/BIAS, an educational program for bias/hate crime offenders.

He served three terms as president of the Suffolk County Board of Rabbis.

And he holds the rank of Chief of Chaplains with the Suffolk County Police Department and been a department chaplain since 1986.  

Also, he is co-chair of the Islip Town Anti-Bias Task Force and was a long-time member of the Islip Town Board of Ethics.

Since 1972, he has been the rabbi at B’nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale and thus is the longest-serving synagogue rabbi in Suffolk County.

He will become rabbi emeritus at B’nai Israel upon his retirement in July. He is involved in “redefining” his many other positions. For example, he will step down as chair of the Center for Human Understanding and Social Justice, but will remain a member of its board.

He would like “to remain involved” in activities here but is “aware of the responsibility anyone has as a chair.” At B’nai Israel, “when needed by any congregant I will come back,” he said. He notes his long and deep connection with the families of the congregation. “I named the current president and bar mitzvahed him.” When a teacher or doctor retires, she or he “can’t continue, but a rabbi is always a rabbi.” 

He and his wife, Judy, will be spending part of the year in Florida and part at their home in Holbrook. 

The retirement of Rabbi Moss—although he still will be involved in some of his many activities—represents an incalculable loss for Suffolk County. Nevertheless, his many decades of service have been a huge gift to this county and its people. 

I know Rabbi Moss well. He was our family’s rabbi when we lived in Sayville. My wife, Janet, and I became friends with Rabbi Moss and Judy, a teacher. I’ll never forget when they first came to our house and he spoke about how, in addition to being the rabbi at B’nai Israel, he ministered to cancer patients—including children with terminal cancer—in New York City. What a commitment to humanity that reflected. He mentioned last week that he was a chaplain for the New York Board of Rabbis working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 1970 to 2000 and “the longest-serving chaplain” for the board.

I recall vividly 1973 and the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, when it looked like Israel could be destroyed, Rabbi Moss giving a sermon at B’nai Israel providing comfort and wisdom to a synagogue full of frightened congregants.

He will be moving to “the next stage in my life—moving to a different spiritual stage in my life.” He will be translating a 17^th Century book “on death and dying” out of the mystical teachings of Judaism of the Kabbalah, writing a book on his spiritual encounters with God, and a history of “the anti-bias task force” activity in Suffolk County.

Rabbi Moss is an avid cyclist and on June 18 will embark on a 60-mile ride from the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to Krakow, a center of Jewish life before the Holocaust. Also, he will visit Vilna in Poland where in the 19^th Century “my grandmother’s grandfather served as a rabbi.” 

Raised in Belle Harbor in the Rockaways, he was “always interested in Jewish spirituality and religion.” Indeed, at his home synagogue, he recalled, he gave a sermon when he was 11. At 12, he wrote to the graduate school for rabbis and cantors, Hebrew Union College, asking for admittance to study to be a rabbi. He was advised that he needed to graduate college first. And he did, at NYU, and then when he arrived at Hebrew Union there was “an amazing thing at the interview—they had my letter.”

His involvement in social justice, he said, derives from “a rabbi’s role and the role of the Jewish community and Jewish people that we must be inclusive, that God is in every human being, that we are all equal before God. And everyone in the community, every person, has an equal role.” 

His Temple B’nai Israel is a success story in Suffolk. “When I came in 1972, 50 families were members. Now there are 400.” A spiritual success story, too, is Rabbi Steven Moss.

There will be a gala lunch in honor of Rabbi Moss at the Watermill in Smithtown on June 23. Reservations can be made through Temple B’nai Israel.

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.