By:Scott Brinton
Richard Schary's favorite color must be green.
First, the North Bellmore resident proposed a hiking trail through a 10-mile stretch of green space from Seaford to Bellmore to Wantagh and North Wantagh. The plan would connect a string of state, county and town parks. In December 2000, local elected leaders quickly threw their support behind the proposal and are working to make it a reality.
Now, Schary is calling for a roughly five-mile "greenway" through Nassau's Hub, the bustling business district around the county's Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. A greenway is, as the name implies, a long path of green grass.
Schary, a retired school teacher who serves as a member of the Hub Citizens Advisory Committee, said the path "would give the Hub a basic focal point for pedestrians. The idea would be to make the Hub more accessible without using a car. With this, people could walk around it, bike around it."
The ability to move through the Hub on foot will become ever more important as businesses continue to move into the area, bringing with them increased vehicular traffic, said Schary.
The trail would begin at Hofstra University's arboretum, a park featuring a variety of trees on the college's south side. From there, it would connect to the county's Mitchell Park, a track-and-field complex built for the 1998 Goodwill Games. Then, it would head up Charles Linbergh Boulevard to Museum Row, where the county is building Cradle of Aviation and Firefighters, Children's and Science and Technology museums.
It would continue east to Nassau Community College, where an exercise trail already exists. From there, it would follow Lindbergh Boulevard to Eisenhower County Park in East Meadow.
At Eisenhower, Schary said, "There are one or two gates that are locked that could be opened during the daytime. Then, you could connect to all the walking paths in Eisenhower."
Schary also hopes to create a path along an access road underneath the power lines that run by Eisenhower's north side. He envisions this path as a biking/hiking trail that would extend clear to the Bethpage bikeway.
What Schary needs now is permission from Nassau to open gates at Eisenhower, as well as from Hofstra to open gates at its arboretum.
The greenway "is not difficult. It's not expensive. It's crosswalks, signs, maps," Schary said.
County Legis. Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) supports the greenway plan. "There is an existing path," she said. "Mr. Schary is certainly exploring every possibility to make use of the land that already exists. It's a good idea."
She noted, however, that "we have to get input from the [county] parks administration to see how doable it is."
Fred Soviliero, grounds director at Hofstra, met with Schary last week. Soviliero said, "It would be nice to have as many greenways and walkways for people as possible. I really don't know if it will come to fruition, but it's a good idea." Hofstra officials, he said, are concerned about campus security if the university opens its gates to the public.
Neil Lewis is executive director of the Neighborhood Network, a 30,000-member, Long Island environmental group. He is also chairman of the Hub Citizens Advisory Committee. Lewis said Schary's idea for the greenway grew out of discussions about creating transportation alternatives through the Hub.
Representatives Peter King (R-Seaford) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) recently secured a $500,000 grant to study ways to reduce Hub traffic, Lewis said. Among the proposals under consideration are a light railroad line through the area, as well as trolleys and buses.
The greenway would provide yet another transportation mode through the Hub, Lewis said. "It's a creative idea, and it might help to revitalize interest in the environment of the area, rather than all the cement projects that are taking place."
Schary said, "You're talking about millions of dollars that are being poured into this area" to develop it as Nassau's central business/entertainment district. "Let's let people walk through it."
