Thursday, October 1, 2026
By now, the historic news has spread: the Village of Valley Stream has been awarded $10 million by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative.
This is a monumental win, with the potential to transform our local economy, elevate our business district on Rockaway Avenue and surrounding areas, and benefit every single resident of our community. We would like to thank and congratulate all the elected officials, village employees and community volunteers who made this happen.
At the governor’s news conference on May 13, our neighbors who did the hard work on this grant proposal were publicly recognized. And while the funding itself is cause for celebration, the behavior of our local Republican leadership surrounding the announcement reveals a troubling reality about its priorities.
When Hochul came to Valley Stream to announce the award, our Republican elected officials — Mayor Ed Fare, Town Councilwoman Melissa Miller, Town Supervisor John Ferretti, State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick and County Executive Bruce Blakeman — were all conspicuously absent. Not one of them showed up to celebrate the single largest investment in Valley Stream’s downtown history. Not one. Rigid party loyalty, it seems, trumped a $10 million victory for their own constituents.
In contrast, Valley Stream’s Democratic leadership showed up to support our community. Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, County Legislators Carrié Solages and Cynthia Nuñez, and Village Trustee Kevin Waszak were all in attendance to celebrate this milestone. Assemblywoman Judy Griffin, unable to attend because she was in an active session in Albany, sent a formal letter of celebratory support.
Then the situation went from disappointing to insulting.
Rather than thank the governor whose administration authorized the funding and acknowledge all local legislators who actively championed the application, our village officials decided to exclusively credit Republican representatives while excluding Democratic ones. Crediting Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Blakeman and, most bafflingly, Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra, who doesn’t even represent the village and played no role in securing this award, while specifically excluding the actual representatives, village employees and community volunteers who did the heavy lifting was needlessly partisan.
The Valley Stream Democratic Club will not stand by quietly while local officials rewrite history. Inventing a role for an out-of-district Republican is not a clerical error. It is a deliberate decision to conceal the facts. It is a conscious act of political revisionism. Our community needs a village administration that puts truth and community before politics.
Let’s be plain: A Democratic governor and local Democratic legislators who wrote the letters, and made the calls, delivered this grant. The village’s official statement is an attempt to launder that reality. We encourage everyone to go to the official village website and see for themselves. Take a few minutes and look at the actual DRI application to see who truly advocates for our community.
Valley Stream residents deserve better than an administration that treats a historic community milestone like a partisan loyalty test. Republicans handing other Republicans a ribbon-cutting they didn’t earn, or even take the time to attend, while erasing leaders who actually did the work is shameful.
This grant belongs to the people of Valley Stream, not to any political party, and the work of deciding how it gets spent is just beginning. We stand ready to collaborate with all genuine community partners to ensure that these funds are spent transparently and effectively.
We ask officials to join their Democratic colleagues in making real investments. In upcoming elections, voters will decide what kind of leadership they truly deserve: leadership that puts progress over party lines and, above all, leadership that actually shows up.
Kelly J. Johnson is president of the Valley Stream Democratic Club, which has been dedicated to a shared vision of America and democracy, building community among residents and working to put Democrats in office since 1927.
