Historical Words of Hope for Long Island

Before I am permanently labeled as "Ms. Doom and Gloom” or “Nelly Naysayer,” I will throw in a historical word of hope. After all, we need only look back to any previous decade to find moments of economic uncertainty, real estate calamity and various other economic undoing. All of which we have overcome.

Does anyone remember the stock market crash of October 1987? Or the early 1990’s when housing on Long Island took what seemed like a devastating turn for the worst with a year long inventory (just like now)? We had hard economic times in the 1970’s after the oil embargo. Even New York City nearly went bankrupt during this time. Thankfully our long term memories minimize the pain of any trauma that befalls us.

Since Long Island is geographically-situated in a prime metropolitan area, the chances of its continued survival are great. In fact, the world is producing enough humans to continue the demand. In 1999, there were 6 billion people in the world. The government has now predicted that in 2012, the population will reach 7 billion people. Yes, in a mere 13 years, the shortest time span in history, one billion more people will have been added to the world. And, of course, many of them will want to come to New York City, be in New York City, live in New York City…And their lives, desires, and circumstances will change so they will decide to live close to New York City and that is where Long Island comes in. So, we know people will continue to come for the same reasons that we are all here and all will be right with the world again.

However, we can’t just sit around with the same old mentality and resign ourselves to business-as-usual. We have options to improve our world so that it will be better for all of us and we can welcome the immigration and migration in a positive manner and not from a defensive standpoint or derision. People-flow is good when we are prepared for people-flow.

There is no doubt that Long Island needs young people-flow to provide a workforce so we can retain all those companies that contribute to the local economy. This requires affordable housing. There is no doubt that Long Island needs people-flow willing to do the type of labor-intensive work that our suburban world requires. This requires a system of acceptance for these types of workers. There is no doubt that Long Island needs more sewers so we can bring more companies and allow for higher-density people-flow housing and development in our downtowns and commercial hubs. This requires creative initiatives to get them built while satisfying the NIMBYs and the Environmentalists. If we can find ways to get it done then we all will be happy, happy, happy.