Suburban studies expert addresses L.I. dysfunction in Rockville Centre talk

This isn’t your children’s suburbs.

“This isn’t even the suburbs of your children’s children,” lecturer Lawrence Levy intoned multiple times to a rapt audience that filled the basement room of the Rockville Centre Public Library on the night of June 7. “It’s a bleak picture, but not an unbeatable one. We need to be smart, successful and resourceful.”

As the executive director of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, Levy is an expert on the dynamic demographic change that suburbia is currently facing. “While it's mostly for the better, there are still incredible challenges [this demographic change] presents,” Levy explained. “Before 2035, Long Island will be less than half white. It will be poorer, older, more polluted, and have less drinking water. [If we do nothing] it will be the poster child for suburban dysfunction.”

Invited to speak by the Rockville Centre Democratic Club, the former political columnist and editorialist led an hour-long address to an audience of club members and interested individuals alike on the problems of suburbia and their possible solutions. For Levy, speaking at the library was a homecoming of sorts. As a resident of Rockville Centre for over a decade, Levy declared that this was a village he knows and loves.

Levy began his talk by telling the story of Green Acres — the area where he grew up. “When the community was first built, nearly 600 white, Jewish, middle-class families moved in. The school was in the center of the community, every parent was a surrogate parent — it was a great community.”

However, by the mid-90s, the community was very different. Now 75 percent non-white, the Civic Association asked to change the name of their community from Green Acres to Millbrook, which is now part of Valley Stream. Levy explained that due to the reputation of the Green Acres Mall — known to be a place “where black people from Queens shopped”— members of the community were afraid of being tagged by a name and wanted to protect their image. However, despite the demographic and name changes, Levy declared that there was not a lovelier place on Nassau County to live.

“Valley Stream has become a picture of what Long Island looks like in less than 50 years from now” Levy explained. “Yet, there’s still a disconnect between the perception and reality of suburbia. Politicians haven’t discarded the ‘Father Knows Best’ image — and the reality is quite different.”

According to Levy, the suburban poor are largely forgotten by policymakers due to this lasting myth of wealth and wellness. “In Nassau, there are 33 medically underserved communities. [The county] also has the half-dozen best public schools in the U.S. and the half-dozen worst public schools in the U.S.” Levy explained that the false perception of Long Island and suburbia as beacons of wealth prevents solving this increasing fragmentation. “We must either bond together behind a common vision or face a war of attrition,” Levy said.

Audience members agreed that the very incentives which made suburbia attractive in the first place —multiple government entities, high benefits and job security for civil service members — are now contributing to its problems.

Levy offered a few solutions he said would help alleviate these suburban woes. “First, we’ve got to start doing iconic mega-projects which will put people to work. [These projects] will jolt the economy, create new forms of living, and —importantly — show ourselves we can do it.”

He also emphasized the need to spice-up village downtowns via transportation and housing alternatives. “Downtowns are perfect for denser housing and decentralized businesses,” Levy explained. “The lack of affordable housing is discouraging young people from staying and it’s hard to travel on trains to towns. A portion of suburbia needs to return to city neighborhoods.”

Levy concluded with his strong belief that immigrants on Long Island need to be embraced and welcomed into communities. “So much attention is focused on the 2-3 percent of immigrants who are undocumented,” Levy said. “However, immigrants are propping up Long Island’s housing market and are demanding better services, which will make suburbia more sustainable in the long run.”

Dr. Richard Skolnik, the newly elected president of the Rockville Centre Democratic club, commended Levy’s ideas. “Larry is in a rare position to see the totality of the problem,” Skolnik said. “He has a cosmic overview of [what needs to be done] and also has contact with the movers and shakers in his… unique position. His lecture was great.”