By Scott Brinton
For more than 1 1/2 years, the Massapequa-based coalition has called upon the state Transportation Department, which developed the plan over 10 years with consultants, to "rethink" the proposal.
Lisa Tyson, of North Bellmore, the coalition's associate director and a member of the DOT's 40-member Technical Advisory Committee for LITP2000, has repeatedly described the plan as "shortsighted," saying it amounts to a 20-year, nearly $5-billion road-widening project. She contends it doesn't provide enough in the way of mass-transit alternatives such as light-rail trolleys.
Meanwhile, in its literature, the DOT says the plan provides increased monies for the Long Island Rail Road and Long Island Bus, while developing a new transportation system using what are called Rapid Commute Vehicles.
The RCVs, which are much like buses, could accommodate up to 24 passengers and would travel along parkways in specially-constructed High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, which would also be open to cars carrying more than two people. The RCVs would ferry passengers to and from park-and-rides along the parkways.
More than any other part of the LITP2000 plan, the RCVs raise Tyson's ire, because they would require that the Southern State Parkway and other parkways like it be widened and likely straightened, and for their bridges to be raised. In the process, she and other South Shore environmental activists believe, the green spaces that line the parkways would inevitably be lost.
In the end, Tyson said, the parkways would wind up looking much like the Long Island Expressway.
On Thursday, Tyson played to her audience at Sacred Heart, asking the roughly 60 meeting attendees: "How many people here want the Southern State Parkway to look like the Long Island Expressway?"
Silence.
"We need a public transportation system that you don't have to drive to get to," Tyson went on to say.
North Bellmore environmentalist Richard Schary followed Tyson at the microphone. Schary, who is a Progressive Coalition member, asked attendees, many of whom were Sacred Heart Church members, to turn in their seats. He pointed out that, beyond Sacred Heart's massive windows, trees shaded the church from the early evening sun. The trees, Schary said, would be gone if LITP2000 goes through. Sacred Heart sits a half-block from the Southern State overpass along Merrick Avenue.
"Right along this [Sacred Heart] will be the new Southern State expressway," said Schary.
The possibility that the Southern State Parkway will be expanded and that trees will be lost had audience members concerned. During a question-and-answer session after the coalition's presentation, Kay McGreevy, of North Merrick, questioned Vincent Corrado, a senior engineer with Dunn Engineering Associates, the West Hampton firm that is serving as a DOT consultant for LITP2000. She wondered whether trees along the parkway would, in fact, be lost.
Corrado said, "The Southern State Parkway is in the plan for widening."
"In other words," retorted McGreevy, "they're planning to widen the parkway and take the trees down."
"Yes," said Corrado. "The first word I said was yes."
Earlier during the evening, Corrado had said, "You're being presented a point of view tonight...The plan is not an HOV plan. It's not a road-widening plan. It's a comprehensive transportation plan."
Also in the audience was New York State Assemblyman David McDonough (R-North Merrick), who lives just south of Sacred Heart. McDonough voiced opposition to LITP2000 during the meeting. Speaking of the proposal to widen the Southern State, he said, "I just don't think Robert Moses, when he made all these parkways out here on Long Island, this is what he had in mind." (For a history of local parkways, including developer Robert Moses' vision for them, see shaded box.)
McDonough also encouraged residents to write to their legislators and express their thoughts and feelings about LITP2000. "If you want to have a stake in this, you've got to get involved," the assemblyman said.
McDonough also spoke of developing transportation alternatives, such as local buses that could move people from their neighborhoods to Long Island Rail Road stations. The assemblyman said that he and state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) recently tested such a 30-passenger bus.
Later during an interview with the Herald, McDonough said of LITP2000: "It would add cars" to the roads. "There's no question about it. The goal should be to reduce the number of cars."
Tyson encouraged residents to write to Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) about the plan. Suozzi sits on the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, which comprises the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Putnam and Westchester counties, as well as the mayor of New York City.
The council must vote unanimously in favor of LITP2000 for it to move forward, according to Tyson. One vote kills it. The council is to vote on the proposal in the near future, likely in September or October.
David Chauvin, Suozzi's deputy press secretary, said the county executive is studying LITP2000 and has yet to reach an opinion about it.
"Right now, we're keeping a completely open mind," said Chauvin.
Nassau County Legislators David Denenberg (D-Merrick) and Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) have condemned LITP2000.
In an interview with the Herald, Denenberg said of the proposal: "It's the single worst plan I've seen government come up with." The legislator said it provides far too few dollars for mass-transit solutions to traffic congestion.
Gonsalves said she plans to fight hard against LITP2000. "I think we're going to win this battle, and we won't let go until we do," the legislator said.
