Hello, friends,
This'll be a medium-length dive, since news is still breaking on this issue. Today, our county executive, Bruce Blakeman, declared proudly that Las Vegas Sands is entering into an agreement to build a mega-entertainment complex at the site of the Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
I...Have thoughts.
First up:
What Happened To The Hub?!
If there's one thing Nassau County needs, its homes for our children as they grow into adulthood. With property values orbiting somewhere beyond the moon, it's unlikely that most just-turned-18'ers with full time, low-wage jobs are going to be able to afford to buy a house any time soon. And it just so happened that the Coliseum site had 70-odd acres of undeveloped land around it.
The Nassau Hub was supposed to be the answer to this problem.
Developed by RXR, the Hub was billed as "a new suburbia," a "vibrant, walkable mixed-use downtown" in Nassau County. There would have been a mixture of homes and employers, including an emphasis on research and development centers.
Now, I know the website for the Hub was threadbare and devoid of recent information. It's latest bulletin was from around the 2019-2020 era. It spelled a nice picture: 500 housing units (which, while not a lot, is still 500 more than we'd have had otherwise), a massive innovation center organized by Northwell Health, entertainment and retail opportunities, and more.
Unfortunately, the site seems derelict at best, with no updates past 2020. Maybe that's just from CoVID putting the brakes on things? Well, the latest news I have was that RXR was granted an extension on the project in September 2022. RXR's website still lists the Hub as a project.
...But the casino idea was suggested in December 2022?
This is weird. Maybe the idea was floated and RXR decided it didn't want to be involved? I can't tell, and a deeper dive is hard to accomplish at this time, but I'm open to tips.
So What's The New Plan? And how can (will) it go wrong?
Well, there's a lot still to be determined.
First off, the casino everyone's using as the headliner is only 10% of the entire scope of this new version of the Hub. But with Hofstra immediately adjacent to the property, how long will it be until we read a headline that states, "Hofstra student loses tuition at the roulette tables." Having been a college student once upon my life (though I was at Hofstra's friendly-rival school Adelphi), I can confirm with 100% certainty that that time in one's life is not necessarily bringing the best impulse control.
Blakeman also says there will be "outdoor community spaces," although without the construction of actual housing in that area, it's hard to tell what that would mean. Would it be a large park like nearby Eisenhower, open to all County residents? Or, would this imply that the 500-or-so housing units planned for the Hub are going forward and there will in fact be a community?
Bragging about adding hotels is great (Freeport is pretty driven to build one on the Mile), but while that would certainly add some low-entry-point jobs to the area, it would put even more of a tremendous strain on our transportation systems. Even when the Coliseum (whose fate in this affair is unknown, according to Alex Costello of the East Meadow Patch) was the only major draw to the area, traffic was known to back up on the Meadowbrook badly, and Hempstead Turnpike was often hard to navigate. Now - picture being a car accident victim trying to get transported to nearby NUMC, or being a Hofstra or Nassau Community College (it's closer than I thought!) student trying to get to class on time.
I'm not going to dive into the conventional crime-based scare tactics against casinos. I have no idea how much, or if at all, they effect nearby crime statistics. I can't imagine it'll be a positive change, but it might not be so bad. Or, it might. I don't know that research, and that's a lot of statistics to dig into to get a concrete answer. The concern is therefore acknowledged. Do with it as you will.
So What Do I Think?
I think I was much happier with the original Hub solution than I am with what I've heard, here. We need affordable housing in Nassau County. We need to reduce our dependence on our already-strained transportation infrastructure. We need high-paying jobs in cutting edge fields to attract and keep people in our area. Long Island is getting older; a major Northwell Health research facility was a great idea to address the area's medical needs.
These plans are still in their early phases, of course. Things could change. Things are uncertain. For all I know, they're going to build 1,000 housing units with this! No, hotel rooms don't count. I don't know, because I don't think there's been much shared about specific developmental plans.
But I'd like to see an area of affordable housing mixed with a modest entertainment suite (so, renovate the Coliseum, I like that place), plus a healthcare facility, plus some green space. I'm a big fan of green space, especially in communities that might not have much.
Therefore, I would say I am tentatively against this plan. There's too many unknowns and too many changes proposed from the original Hub idea to consider it a spiritual continuation. It's a total change. It's not widely publicized. It's too focused on spectacles like high-end hotels and casinos, and not on things our community actually needs.
Oh, and, oh my. I must take this swing - One more thing: Why are the "crime is so awful!" Republicans like Blakeman suddenly backing a casino if there's any crime risk, at all...?
I bet there are rea$ons.
Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York, with thirty years of that time spent in Freeport. His website can be found at this link.
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