Affordable Housing Units Receiving County Funds Required To Have Units Available For Disabled And Veterans

 Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone signed legislation requiring affordable housing developments that receive County funding to set aside units for both veterans and individuals with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities.   

 “Suffolk County has the largest population of veterans in New York State so it’s important that we support them in any way we can,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. “I am proud that these two pieces of legislation will not only ensure accessible and secure housing for our esteemed veterans, but also to individuals living with disabilities here on Long Island. Today, we take a significant step forward in our commitment to fostering an inclusive community where every resident has a place to call home.”

 “With the Legislature’s unanimous support and the County Executive’s signing of these two pieces of Legislation we are not only providing increased opportunities for those within our veterans and special needs communities, we are also paving the way for the rest of New York State and the Country to follow our lead when it comes to addressing the housing needs for these individuals that have been overlooked for far too long. Today Suffolk County recognizes and has taken a tremendous step forward in addressing the vital needs of housing by providing such opportunities to our veteran and special needs community members who are ready, willing and able to begin a life with the dignity and independence they all deserve.” stated Legislator Caricappa

The first piece of legislation requires any property receiving County funding to set aside at least 5 units for veterans, but no more than 10% of units in the development. Suffolk County has the largest population of veterans in New York State   

 Similar to the units required to be set aside for veterans, the second piece of legislation requires any property receiving County funding to set aside at least 5 units of non-certified housing for individuals with developmental disabilities as defined by OPWDD at 60% or below AMI and at least 5 ground-floor or elevator accessible units for individuals with disabilities. No more than 10% of units in the development would be required to be set aside. These units will be set aside in perpetuity and they must be spread throughout the development.   

 In 2021, County Executive Bellone committed $10 million in funding to develop new inclusive housing opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The inclusive housing program provides wastewater infrastructure funding for community-based integrated projects that permanently restrict units within the project to individuals eligible to receive services through the New York State Office of People with Developmental Disabilities.   

 There are more than 14,000 individuals on Long Island with disabilities and the majority of them are living at home with aging caregivers. This new legislation will help the County meet the regional need to develop housing for people with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities.  

 Additionally, in an effort to promote veteran housing options, the Suffolk County Planning Commission will add a member to represent and advocate on behalf of the veteran community. Last summer, the Planning Commission appointed Stephanie Baldwin, Esq., to serve as a member of the Commission representing and advocating on behalf of individuals with disabilities.   

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Check Out SUNY Empire's LI Campus In Selden

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

In the middle of Suffolk County, in Selden, is the Long Island Campus of an extraordinary educational institution: Empire State University. Originally called Empire State College, it was elevated to being Empire State University in March.

As its website declares: “Founded in 1971 as the innovative campus of the State University of New York, Empire State University empowers learners from diverse backgrounds to achieve their educational goals. We have decades of experience providing educational access through online teaching and learning, individualized instruction, mentoring, and prior learning assessment.”

It is “a national leader,” it continues, “for high-quality, flexible, and affordable education. We stand alone among public institutions nationwide in our ability to provide impactful academic experiences to learners of all ages.”

The opening of the Long Island Campus happened in 2019. Dr. Merryl Tisch, chair of the SUNY Board of Trustees, and herself a former teacher, said then: “SUNY Empire’s new state-of-the-art campus will ensure that non-traditional learners…have access to the best and most affordable educational opportunities available that can advance their lives and careers.”

The new $14 million SUNY Empire Long Island Campus is on 6.6 acres at 407 College Road. 

I know SUNY Empire well having graduated from it as indeed a “non-traditional” learner compared to most young college and university students.

I first went to Antioch College in Ohio, and in the second year, in 1961, inspired by an Antioch internship at the Cleveland Press, especially the investigative reporting I saw done at the Press, I decided to get into journalism—immediately.

So, I jumped on my motorcycle, my girlfriend (now my wife of 62 years whom I met in our first weeks at Antioch) on the back, and we headed to where we were from: New York (she grew up in Huntington, I in the city) with my aiming to become a journalist. 

Soon, in 1962, I was a reporter at the Babylon Town Leader with my first big story investigating the scheme of Robert Moses to build a four-lane highway the length of Fire Island and pointing instead to an alternative, a Fire Island National Seashore, which became a reality in 1964.

I started at the daily Long Island Press in 1964, to focus, after seasoning by covering cops-and-courts, on doing investigative reporting and also was given a weekly column in 1969—the forerunner of this column. In the mid-1970s there was concern at the newspaper—of reporters who had been on newspapers that had gone down—that it might be in trouble, too. And I thought, I’d better get a degree.

I enrolled in SUNY Empire, graduating in 1976. The Long Island Press suddenly did cease publication in 1977, in its 157^th year. In 1978, I shifted to being a SUNY Old Westbury journalism professor and also began studying for a graduate degree in media at the New School.

At SUNY Empire I studied mainly with writer Gary Goss which included finishing a book reflecting on my experiences in journalism, titled “Front Row At The Circus.” My wife also went to SUNY Empire eventually leading her to become a teacher of English-for-Speakers-of-Other-Languages in the Sag Harbor school system.

SUNY Empire was a marvelous learning experience—a huge contrast from what would have been the conventional alternative: in my 30s with 18-to-22 year-olds in a classroom.

SUNY Empire was the vision of Dr. Ernest Boyer when he was SUNY chancellor from 1970 to 1975. It now serves nearly 15,000 students at 18 campuses all over New York State with 67 undergraduate degree programs, 22 graduate programs and a doctoral program. It also serves students overseas—including in the Czech Republic, Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, Albania and the Dominican Republic—seeking a U.S. college degree.

Last week, at a commencement ceremony for SUNY Empire in Albany, its sixth president, Dr. Lisa Vollendorf, declared: “Students, you are the first class to graduate from Empire State University. Thanks to the policy changes in the State of New York and the robust academic offerings we have at SUNY Empire, we made the change to university just a few short months ago….I believe that no other institution in the country offers the same high-quality, flexible, affordable educational experience that we offer at Empire State University. We are champions of equity and inclusion, and our faculty, staff, and leadership show up every day to find new ways to deliver on our commitment to access and excellence.”

She noted that “our youngest graduate this year is 19 and the oldest is 79, nearly 16% of this year’s graduates are over age 50, and approximately 15% are under 25, you live in 58 different counties throughout New York State, in 24 U.S. states and territories and in 17 countries around the world.”

“And most of all, please know that you are part of an alumni network that is more than 95,000 people strong.”

Check out SUNY Empire’s Long Island Campus in Selden. 

Michael Pepa And Raymond Hubbs Receive Top Honors In MGA Senior Net Four-Ball

Pepa, Hubbs Capture 30th MGA Senior Net Four-Ball

CORTLANDT MANOR, N.Y. (May 9, 2023) —

Michael Pepa of Smithtown Landing Men’s Club and Raymond Hubbs of Kings Park Golf Association earned top honors Tuesday at Hollow Brook Golf Club, posting a net 7-under 64 to win the 30th MGA Senior Net Four-Ball by two shots.

Pepa and Hubbs bested a trio of tandems that tallied net rounds of 5-under 66. Past winners Ralph Lombardi and Richard Koshar of Neshanic Valley earned second place by way of the team age tiebreaker, while Ralph Scocozza of Somers National and David Vermilyea of the Links at Union Vale took third.

The Long Island duo played consistently, carding four net birdies on the opening nine before adding three more on the way in for their 7-under 64. They had no net bogeys on the card for the day. Their best stretch came between Nos. 9-14, as natural birdies - one for each player - on Nos. 9 and 14 bookended the span that also included net birdies - again,

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Should Smart Phones Be Banned In Schools

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

So-called smart phones were not a problem for a teacher when I started out as a professor 45 years ago. The first cell phones, big and clunky, arrived in 1973, and the internet emerged a decade later, says, yes, an internet search engine which I just visited. But the smart phone, these slim devices providing email and internet access, small computers, have only been here in relatively recent decades. People being hooked on smart phones is widespread.

And what a problem for educators!

Currently, two Suffolk County school districts are considering steps to deal with them. 

The headline last month in the Shelter Island Reporter: “Will S.I. School ban cellphones?” The Shelter Island “Board of Education to explore the concept,” was the subhead.

The article followed a piece in October, also by reporter Julie Lane, about a teacher banning the use of cellphones in class. That earlier piece began with a quote from the teacher: “You cannot learn at the same time you are looking at other information.” Wrote Lane: “That’s the long and short of why Shelter Island School social studies teacher Peter Miedema has implemented a no-cellphone policy in his humanities classes….Without face-to-face communication, there’s a critical element missing in teaching, Mr. Miedema said.” And she added, quoting him: “Things don’t stick when you’re not paying attention.”

Last month’s article by Lane began, “When some Shelter Island teachers learned last October about social studies teacher Peter Miedema’s banning cellphones in his humanities class, they thought they would like to follow suit.” It reported on the school board meeting at which a ban on cell phone use would be “on the table at the request of teachers” and also, how “Board member Kathleen Lynch, a psychotherapist, said some of her young patients seek limits on phone use, realizing how much of their attention is devoted to text messages and alerts.”

The piece said: “District Clerk Jacqueline Dunning would be contacting officials in neighboring districts to explore their policies on cellphone use that will help to inform the Board of Education as it explores the issue this summer.”

In Sag Harbor, Cailin Riley for the Express News Group reported in March that a “new, more restrictive cellphone policy for students could be coming at Pierson Middle-High School, and if the initial response to a presentation outlining it at the board meeting on Monday night is any indication, it would be well-received by teachers and parents alike.”

“Andrew Richards, a representative from a company named Yondr,” wrote Riley, “gave a presentation at the meeting on a product sold by the company that helps eliminate the distraction of cellphones at events and concerts—and also in school districts. The company sells a patented pouch that locks when it is closed. The magnetic lock can only be unlocked by a small, handheld circular device similar to the mechanism used to remove security tags from clothing sold in retail stores.”

“Essentially,” she said, “students are required to place their phones in their pouches and lock the pouch at the start of the day, under the guidance of staff — to ensure they don’t find creative workarounds, like slipping a stick of deodorant in the pouch instead of their phone.”

“Several School Board members said they would support the implementation of the pouch system, and two parents weighed in during public comment say they would welcome the new policy,” continued the article.

These days, as a professor at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, I need to include in the syllabi for my classes this statement: Smart phones and similar electronic devices, because they divert a student’s attention, are not to be used during class. Please put your smart phone or similar device away and forget about texting or checking on email during class.

Allow me to note that my problem with smart phones being used in class is not personal. Having one of these devices—mine an Apple IPhone—I find indispensable. Every once in a while I can’t find mine and panic breaks out. But as I tell my students, I do not believe that using a smart phone and multi-tasking in class is possible. It will interfere with learning, I explain.

And it’s not just students with this problematic diversion.

Last month my wife and I were at a restaurant and at the next table were a woman and her daughter. The woman was on her smart phone throughout their dinner. The daughter went beyond that: she was at her medium-size IPad computer during the dinner only moving it slightly to eat. They did not utter a word to each other during the entire dinner, so immersed as they were for more than an hour on their respective devices.

This is some societal situation these days isolating people in electronic worlds. 

Should the use of smart phones be banned in schools? Yes 

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: Do You Have A Right To Clean Air, Water & Environment

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman 

Maya K. van Rossum, the leading figure nationally behind the Green Amendment, a constitutional amendment declaring “that each person shall have a right to clean air and water and a healthful environment” came to Suffolk County to give a keynote address at a three-day “Docs Equinox” celebration dedicated to Earth Day week. 

The Delaware Riverkeeper for three decades, van Rossum is the author of the 2017 book “The Green Amendment, Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment.” She coined and defined the term Green Amendment as a constitutional guarantee equivalent to other constitutional guarantees.

She founded the national group Green Amendments For The Generations which is working for inclusion of the amendment in every state constitution in the United States and becoming part of the U.S. Constitution, too. 

Attending “Docs Equinox” was the prime sponsor in the New York State Assembly of the state’s Green Amendment, former Assemblyman Steve Englebright of Setauket. The amendment, which was on the state’s election ballot in 2021 and passed by 70% of the vote, took effect at the start of last year. Englebright said that it was “already making a difference” by providing the legal basis constitutionally in New York for a clean and healthy environment. 

After van Rossum spoke, Jacqui Lofaro, founder and executive director of Hamptons Doc Fest, declared: “I hope some of your passion rubs off on all of us.” The keynote address of van Rossum was indeed passionate and inspiring.

At the “Docs Equinox” celebration, which ran between April 14^th and 16^th, the documentary film “The Grab” was screened. In it, a team of investigative journalists, led by Nathan Halverson of The Center for Investigative Reporting, based in California, exposes manipulations now underway by several nations, including China and Saudi Arabia, to obtain and control water resources, land ownership and food production all over the world. It was directed and produced over a six-year period by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and released last year.  

After its showing, from the audience, Nigel Noble, himself an Oscar-winning filmmaker from East Hampton, declared that it was “the most important film I’ve ever seen in my life and everybody in the world should see the film.”

It is stunning and shocking, a must-see documentary.

After “The Grab” was screened, Cowperthwaite and Halverson were interviewed by Lofaro via Zoom. They detailed the difficulties of making the film and the importance of what it reveals. Halverson said what is going on is “still solvable” to stop, but if that does not happen it will be “disastrous for the human species.” Cowperthwaite said it was critical to “get the word out” about what is happening and for people to act. She described investigative reporting as “completely crucial to our democracy.” 

In her keynote address, van Rossum related how it was through the battle in Pennsylvania against the “highly polluting” process of fracking that the vision of a Green Amendment was born. An attorney as well as environmental champion, she said a long-overlooked Environmental Rights Amendment added in 1971 to the Pennsylvania Constitution protecting people’s rights to “pure water, clean air and a healthy environment” was how the vision of the Green Amendment was born. It was used in Pennsylvania by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network to bring a lawsuit against fracking. Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is a process in which 600 chemicals, many of them cancer-causing, are injected into the earth under high pressure, along with huge amounts of water, to break up shale formations and release gas and oil in them. The result has been widespread and serious contamination of groundwater all over the U.S. 

She said “we breathed legal life” into this amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution and that has led to the campaign to have “that kind” of amendment “in every state constitution” and the U.S. Constitution. Such a “Green Amendment,” she said, would “lift up environmental rights to other rights such as the rights of religion and free speech.” 

Also shown at “Docs Equinox” celebration was the documentary film “Invisible Hand.” It focuses on the “rights of nature,” a concept that a river or watershed or ecosystem, as examples, shall be granted personhood in courts of law and be provided with legal standing in their defense. Its executive producer is the environmentally committed actor Mark Ruffalo. A director, Joshua Boaz Pribanic, was interviewed via Zoom by Christina Strassfield, executive director of the Southampton Arts Center.  

The theme of this “Docs Equinox,” said Lofaro, was “All in for the Aquifer.” She noted that on Long Island, “We stand above our water. It’s all [the potable water] we’ve got. We have to preserve it.” And, also participating in “Docs Equinox” with tables in an area which Lofaro called “Water Central” were five area environmental groups: Group for the East End, The Nature Conservancy, Peconic Baykeeper, Peconic Estuary Partnership and the Surfrider Foundation.

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.