Senator Clinton Joins County Executives, Town Supervisors to Address Challenges Facing Long Island
Senator Clinton Joins County Executives, Town Supervisors to Address Challenges Facing Long Island
Leaders Discuss Senator Clinton's Suburban Core Opportunity, Restoration, and Enhancement (SCORE) Act
As part of her ongoing effort to help address the current challenges facing Long Island, Senator Clinton today brought together Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and Town Supervisors for a frank discussion of ways to promote and implement a smart growth agenda for the Island. The meeting was a follow-up to the "Suburban Evolution" Conference that Senator Clinton hosted with the Long Island Housing Partnership in February of this year.
"Long Island's challenges as one of the nation's oldest suburbs are increasingly putting the pinch on employers and residents. Today's meeting clearly demonstrates that we are all committed to helping Long Island implement a smart growth agenda for the future," Senator Clinton said of the meeting.
Senator Clinton said that the meeting was planned to include a discussion of Long Island officials' plans for sustainable growth and a mutual agreement to work together to examine the challenges and opportunities their towns face. All participants have taken steps to share ideas on the issues of housing, economic development, transportation and Brownfield redevelopment. In particular, the group is working to explore ways that neighboring towns impact one another - both positively and negatively - and ways they may be able to work regionally and cooperatively to achieve shared goals.
"Long Island's future is not a partisan issue. Government officials, as well as leaders from the private sector, civic groups and activists, must work together to develop proposals to ensure that Long Island's growth in the future remains smart and strong," Senator Clinton said.
The meeting also was to include a discussion of Senator Clinton's "Suburban Core Opportunity, Restoration, and Enhancement (SCORE) Act of 2005" which has received support from local Long Island officials. The bill establishes a $250 million Reinvestment Fund authorization within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to support suburban revitalization projects. It was introduced by Senator Clinton in May of this year as a means to promote revitalization initiatives in America's older suburban communities and help slow down sprawl.
The $250 million Reinvestment Fund created by the SCORE Act would allow local community leaders and elected authorities to develop initiatives in cooperation with private-sector partners. The proposal would create local "revolving funds" to promote additional and ongoing reinvestment and revitalization projects to create a "cycle of success" within these first suburb communities, stimulating public and private investment, collaborative planning and citizen participation. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House by Congressman King (R-NY) and Congresswoman McCarthy (D-NY).
"Long Island's suburbs face significant economic and growth-related challenges and would benefit tremendously from a federal program targeted to their needs that fosters new investment and revitalization," Senator Clinton said.
On February 7th, at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale, hundreds of Long Islanders attended the Long Island Housing Partnership's annual symposium entitled "Suburban Evolution", which centered this year on Smart Growth concepts. Senator Clinton and Congressman Peter King moderated the discussion of issues including Brownfields, affordable housing, transportation, downtown revitalization and environmental preservation.
As home to 2.8 million New Yorkers, there are considerable challenges facing Long Island as its population continues to grow:
- On Long Island the median price of a house is twice the national average, and 4.7 times the median family income. In fact, a majority of Long Islanders could not afford to purchase the homes they now live in.
- Three out of every four Long Island workers drive alone to work and only 1 out of 10 Long Islanders takes public transportation to work.
- Nearly two-thirds of Long Island's land surface is covered with buildings, pavement, or other man-made structures. However, since residential property accounts for three-fourths of this land, less than 10% of the Island's total land remains.
http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=243358&&