By John C. O'Connell
These and other questions plague not only Nassau and Suffolk counties, but thousands of other suburban areas throughout the country. Elected officials, developers, zoning and planning board members, health-care organizations, emergency-management agencies, utilities, business owners and community leaders all have roles to play in resolving issues of affordable housing, environmental conservation, utility costs, transportation, security and neighborhood quality of life.
Now academia has joined the effort to analyze the challenges facing suburbia in 2003 and figure out what needs to be done to meet them. Through research and input from the county's, the region's and the nation's enlightened thinkers, Hofstra University's new Center for Suburban Studies will develop and recommend solutions for suburbia's most vexing problems.
Hofstra is a fitting place for such studies. "Hofstra started back in 1935," said university spokesman Michael DeLuise. "When the war came, it almost put us out of business," with so many potential students away in the armed services. "But then, after the war, when Levittown came, Hofstra became the largest college in America," DeLuise said. "Right now, 50 percent of Americans live in the suburbs, and the first suburb was Levittown. We invented this. We've been thinking about the problems of suburbia for a very long time."
"I envision the Center for Suburban Studies to be a think tank on critical issues facing suburban and regional areas," said Stuart Rabinowitz, Hofstra's president since May 2001. "We expect to draw on the expertise of our faculty and the research skills of our students to examine issues, hold conferences, produce papers and to study legislative issues and proposals and serve as a clearing house and forum for other planning and interested organizations.
"In the next few years," Rabinowitz continued, "we plan to hold major conferences and host forums to provide valuable answers to suburban questions relating to smart growth, energy policy and management, local area homeland security, preservation of open space, affordable housing and downtown revitalization, as well as other topics dealing with suburban communities."
Hofstra's Center for Suburban Studies starts off with a success story at the top: Richard Guardino announced last week that he would be stepping down as Town of Hempstead supervisor to become executive dean of the university's Business Development Center and the new suburban studies program.
Rabinowitz sought out Guardino for the job. "Who better to put things together?" DeLuise said. "Rich was the head of the largest suburban town in the country."
Hofstra sees suburban studies as a community service. Working in conjunction with people at the federal, state, regional, county and local levels, "We're going to be doing research and then solving the problems," DeLuise said. "It's for all of us."
Everyone has ideas about transportation, affordable housing or pollution, "but what we need to do is look at what the real problems are, and some real solutions," DeLuise continued. "We're looking at something that's a completely nonpartisan effort. These problems are real problems and they need to be addressed, and they need to be addressed quickly. It's about time that someplace addresses those issues, and we feel this is the place that's going to make things happen."
