Why a vote against the Nassau Coliseum is a vote against your community

$58 dollars a year.

That’s a number that may cost Long Island the Islanders. That’s the number that may close down the Nassau Coliseum.

The county is holding a vote August 1st, a special referendum so the people of Nassau County can make their voices heard and say “Yes, we want a new Coliseum. Yes, we want the New York Islanders to stay. Yes, we care about our community.”

Or maybe you can vote No. Maybe you can turn your back on not only the Islanders, but the businesses in the Coliseum area and the surrounding communities.  Maybe you will vote No because you refuse to look at all the positive aspects at this and all you see is your property taxes going up again.

I know we are already one of the highest taxed counties in the nation. But we are talking about $58 a year per household. That isn’t money that will be thrown to the wind. That isn’t money that you’re throwing away. It’s money that will help your community – our community – thrive, grow and become something to be proud of.

What are you voting against? Are you voting against the the guaranteed 11.5% revenue the county will receive from every Coliseum event? Are you voting against the fact that the county residents will actually own the arena and land development rights? The 1.2 billion dollars in revenue? The 3,000 permanent jobs? The 1,400 construction jobs? The revitalization of the community? The sales and entertainment tax revenue? The bettering of our neighborhood? A landmark attraction we can be proud of? Have you read the economic studies on the project?

Or are you just voting against a $58 per year tax increase? Or maybe you think this is just about the Islanders and hockey. Well, it’s not. It’s about so much more than that. It’s about so much more than you or your backyard and what you don’t want in it.

What you can’t see from the sanctity of your backyards is that Long Island desperately needs revitalization. This project can provide that. In addition to the jobs it will create, the new Coliseum and minor league ballpark will be the starting point of a renewal that will spread from Uniondale and Garden City to the surrounding areas, creating a domino effect that will revitalize the entire area.

You say you’re afraid of the traffic it will create. People afraid of more traffic should be afraid of less traffic.  When the Islanders leave us for a state that gives them the home they deserve, there will be less traffic. When the stores and restaurants that rely on the Islander fans for business close down there will be less traffic. When Museum Row is left as a tiny blot on what could have been a booming place of commerce and living, there will be less traffic.  Hempstead Turnpike will continue to decline and exist as just miles of strip malls with shuttered stores. When the Coliseum and the Islanders are gone, the suburban blight will continue to spread until it encroaches on your backyards and only then will you stand up and shout that something needs to be done about the stagnation. The rest of us are standing up now. We’re not waiting for it to get worse. We want to make it better.

We want to give our kids a reason to stay here after college and give others a reason to visit, work and live here. This is a grand opportunity for Nassau County. I drive past the Coliseum every day on my way to work and I would gladly sit in a little more traffic if it means a reason to be proud of the place where I live.
If we let this opportunity go, it will be a heartbreak to the thousands of people who have shown support for this project. All the people who have been on the brink of leaving the area will go and the Islanders will be gone with them. Nassau County will be poorer, in so many ways.

$58 a year. If we don’t build the new Coliseum, you’ll be spending that money anyhow and you won’t be spending it within the county. You’ll be buying train tickets to Manhattan to take your kids to see Disney on Ice at the Garden because the Coliseum will be gone. You’ll be driving to New Jersey for concerts because the Coliseum will be gone. You’ll be paying to see the Islanders – who will have a different name, a different logo – play against the Rangers at MSG because they will be gone.

One day you’ll be driving down Hempstead Turnpike and you’ll wonder what happened. When did that restaurant close down? Where did the deli go? Wasn’t there a coffee shop here? You’ll notice that the blight that starts by the strip of empty land that used to be the Nassau Coliseum stretches all the way down into East Meadow, Levittown and beyond. Because as one community goes, they all go. That whole area will become another ugly strip of land in what’s becoming an increasingly dismal Long Island. There will be a domino effect and the surrounding towns – most of which to the west are already pockets of despair – will get worse when they need to get better. Property values will go down. People who had intended to spend the rest of their lives here will leave. College graduates who left town for school won’t come back. Young people will flee.

This is what happens when a team leaves town. This is what happens when you are offered a way to make your community thrive and jobs and jump start the local economy and you turn it down. This is what happens when you think only of yourself, your own backyard and your needs instead of the needs of the community at large. You lose in the long run, because your town will suffer and you will suffer right along with it.

Don’t look at this as a referendum to give money to a hockey team. Look at it as a way to add value to your community and not turn it into a wasteland.

This is not just about the Islanders and hockey. It’s about our community. It’s about our county.

You say $58 a year is too much to give up, so you’re going to vote No. But look at how much we all stand to lose if you do that. Then go educate yourself and look at how much we stand to gain if you say Yes.

You’re not saying Yes to Mangano. You’re not saying Yes to Charles Wang. You’re not even saying Yes to the Islanders. You’re saying yes, I want to make Nassau County a better place.