He's mentioned in a recent newsletter exactly what I've been stating all along...the developers want neither open space or affordable housing.
Here on Long Island, "McMansions" are popping up everywhere, and developments are set up in such a way to encourage as much car use as possible.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
RICHARD AMPER
We have to balance the need for open space with the
need for affordable housing." Over and over we
have heard this refrain, particularly in the recent
debate, now settled, over the Suffolk County Bond Act.
Never was an idea so simple, so apparent, and so wrong. The
fact is we do not have to choose between open space and
affordable housing; we need to choose both. For they are not
competing interests, they are twin
interests with a common enemy - -
sprawl.
Since the dawn of suburbia,
development has tromped across
the Island unplanned and
unchecked. More randomly than
mushrooms, communities have
sprouted wherever anyone had a
notion to build one. Houses were
put up, new school districts set up,
separate and overlapping water
districts created, village governments
established. Then, miles
away constructed office parks and
miles in another direction, shopping
centers. Don't worry about
the distances: we can all just hop
in our cars.
The results are the full list of Long Island's greatest ills.
Inefficient use of infrastructure and fragmented government
fuels sky-high taxes. Loss of open space uncivilizes us,
imperils our tourism and farming economy, and threatens our
drinking water. Unbearable traffic costs us time, money, dirty
skies and jangled nerves.
And what have we got in return? Not affordable housing,
that's for sure.
The statistics are staggering. Data from the Long Island
Index reveal housing prices more than twice as high as the
national average. At $363,700, the average house costs more
than four times the average family income, far above the 2.5
ratio considered affordable. In fact, a majority of Long
Islanders could not afford today to purchase the homes they
live in.
The results are sobering. Families breaking up as retirees
and young people abandon the region. From 1990 to 2000, 20
percent of Long Islanders aged 18-34 left Long Island. That's a
rate five times the national average. A new poll by the Long
Island Index finds that 45 percent of Long Islanders consider it
very likely or somewhat likely that they will leave the region
in the next five years.
That's bad for families and bad for business, too. Our economy
can't survive without keeping and attracting talented young
people. Not to mention vital members of our workforce with
moderate incomes from hospital aides, retail sales staff and
trades people, to teachers, police, and firefighters.
So there's no doubt about it, we need affordable housing. But
giving up open space won't get it. That only means more sprawl,
the same old problem.
The solution is sprawl's opposite.
It's called smart growth, but the
idea is simple. It just means building
what we actually need, in the
places where it makes sense.
It means increasing density
where building belongs in revitalized
downtowns and updated New
England-style villages. Mixeduse
development in downtown
areas brings people, jobs and services
together, stimulating economic
growth. It uses resources
more efficiently and takes advantage
of infrastructure already in
place, relieving pressure on taxes.
Transportation is more efficient,
too, reducing congestion and pollution.
And that's just the start. Bring people back into town, and
watch the market work its magic. While languishing businesses
are reborn, innovative new enterprises and amenities emerge.
Towns become vital and vibrant places: magnets to draw back
the young, educated and curious - the people Long Island needs
most to hold onto.
It's not just a promising idea; it's a reality that is already reaping
benefits in forward-looking regions from Maryland to
California. It's starting to appear on Long Island, too, although
the label "smart growth" has also been stretched to win approval
for projects that don't fit the description.
Smart growth has always been the vision of affordable housing
advocates and has long been supported by environmentalists,
despite the oft-repeated slander of us as "anti-growth". Business
leaders have come aboard, too. And even politicians, perhaps
emboldened by new polls showing these ideas winning increased
favor with the public, are raising the profile of the issue as never
before. The increasing consensus and sense of urgency is all to
the good. Now it's time to act.
It's not as if there is a choice. We can't stand pat, or we will
lose our place among the nation’s most prosperous and progressive
regions. We can't go back to dumb old sprawl. The only
way is forward. Maybe "smart growth" gives us too much credit. No-brainer" would be more apt.
Here on Long Island, "McMansions" are popping up everywhere, and developments are set up in such a way to encourage as much car use as possible.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
RICHARD AMPER
We have to balance the need for open space with the
need for affordable housing." Over and over we
have heard this refrain, particularly in the recent
debate, now settled, over the Suffolk County Bond Act.
Never was an idea so simple, so apparent, and so wrong. The
fact is we do not have to choose between open space and
affordable housing; we need to choose both. For they are not
competing interests, they are twin
interests with a common enemy - -
sprawl.
Since the dawn of suburbia,
development has tromped across
the Island unplanned and
unchecked. More randomly than
mushrooms, communities have
sprouted wherever anyone had a
notion to build one. Houses were
put up, new school districts set up,
separate and overlapping water
districts created, village governments
established. Then, miles
away constructed office parks and
miles in another direction, shopping
centers. Don't worry about
the distances: we can all just hop
in our cars.
The results are the full list of Long Island's greatest ills.
Inefficient use of infrastructure and fragmented government
fuels sky-high taxes. Loss of open space uncivilizes us,
imperils our tourism and farming economy, and threatens our
drinking water. Unbearable traffic costs us time, money, dirty
skies and jangled nerves.
And what have we got in return? Not affordable housing,
that's for sure.
The statistics are staggering. Data from the Long Island
Index reveal housing prices more than twice as high as the
national average. At $363,700, the average house costs more
than four times the average family income, far above the 2.5
ratio considered affordable. In fact, a majority of Long
Islanders could not afford today to purchase the homes they
live in.
The results are sobering. Families breaking up as retirees
and young people abandon the region. From 1990 to 2000, 20
percent of Long Islanders aged 18-34 left Long Island. That's a
rate five times the national average. A new poll by the Long
Island Index finds that 45 percent of Long Islanders consider it
very likely or somewhat likely that they will leave the region
in the next five years.
That's bad for families and bad for business, too. Our economy
can't survive without keeping and attracting talented young
people. Not to mention vital members of our workforce with
moderate incomes from hospital aides, retail sales staff and
trades people, to teachers, police, and firefighters.
So there's no doubt about it, we need affordable housing. But
giving up open space won't get it. That only means more sprawl,
the same old problem.
The solution is sprawl's opposite.
It's called smart growth, but the
idea is simple. It just means building
what we actually need, in the
places where it makes sense.
It means increasing density
where building belongs in revitalized
downtowns and updated New
England-style villages. Mixeduse
development in downtown
areas brings people, jobs and services
together, stimulating economic
growth. It uses resources
more efficiently and takes advantage
of infrastructure already in
place, relieving pressure on taxes.
Transportation is more efficient,
too, reducing congestion and pollution.
And that's just the start. Bring people back into town, and
watch the market work its magic. While languishing businesses
are reborn, innovative new enterprises and amenities emerge.
Towns become vital and vibrant places: magnets to draw back
the young, educated and curious - the people Long Island needs
most to hold onto.
It's not just a promising idea; it's a reality that is already reaping
benefits in forward-looking regions from Maryland to
California. It's starting to appear on Long Island, too, although
the label "smart growth" has also been stretched to win approval
for projects that don't fit the description.
Smart growth has always been the vision of affordable housing
advocates and has long been supported by environmentalists,
despite the oft-repeated slander of us as "anti-growth". Business
leaders have come aboard, too. And even politicians, perhaps
emboldened by new polls showing these ideas winning increased
favor with the public, are raising the profile of the issue as never
before. The increasing consensus and sense of urgency is all to
the good. Now it's time to act.
It's not as if there is a choice. We can't stand pat, or we will
lose our place among the nation’s most prosperous and progressive
regions. We can't go back to dumb old sprawl. The only
way is forward. Maybe "smart growth" gives us too much credit. No-brainer" would be more apt.