2024 Smart Growth Summit

For decades now, Vision Long Island has made a huge difference in our communities, connecting great people and generally helping all sorts of folks wrap their heads around the challenges and opportunities to improve our built environment on LI. Their 2024 Smart Growth Summit is happening Friday, December 6, 2024 from 8am-2pm.

The event will feature over 1,000 local community, business and government, downtown revitalization and community development leaders. There will be nearly 20 workshops, 100 speakers, a trade show, and a concurrent Youth Summit. The breakfast “State of the Towns and Villages” session and luncheon alone are worth the program price. 

The full schedule can be viewed on their poster, posted below. Better images are available on  Vision Long Island’s website.

This is a great way to get an in-depth, inside scoop on important local issues, including infrastructure, redevelopment, energy, human needs, small business, walkability, transportation and more.

The LI Smart Growth movement generally attracts great people who care about the future of our communities. For an idea of the quality of folks who attend, check out these in-depth interviews hosted by Eric Alexander featuring a broad range of local leaders. You can also check out Vision’s YouTube channel to see important discussions they’ve hosted in the past, as well as people, projects and policies that they have highlighted. 

It’s really valuable stuff. Best to come check out what they’re talking about now

EVENT DETAILS
When: Friday, December 6. 2024
2024 Smart Growth Summit: 8am-2pm
25th Anniversary Celebration: 2pm-4pm
Where: Crest Hallow Country Club, 8325 Jericho Tpke, Woodbury, NY
Tickets: for each event must be purchased separately. Here is the link to purchase tickets for both events.

“Tower to the People” Tonight at the Cinema Arts Centre!

The Phase 1 groundbreaking ceremony for the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe (TSCW) marked a milestone in a massive international and yet deeply local endeavor to restore Nikola Tesla’s last remaining laboratory, advance his humanistic legacy, and inspire great innovation.

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Huntington Art Walk!

This Sunday!! All new exhibits for the Huntington Village Art Walk! 

Join the Huntington Art Center along with ten other venues around town as they celebrate that vibrant downtown’s deep embrace of the arts. This is “a self-guided tour of the new exhibits at the museums and galleries, in the Village of Huntington, New York.  Many of the artists will be on hand to talk about their inspiration, while you enjoy tasty treats and check out the art scene in the Village! Live music playing along the way.  

Free!  No tickets, just come on down!”


When: Sunday, October 6, 12-5pm
 
More information is available at The Huntington Art Center Website including a map and details regarding the various venues. There’s a lot of information there. Check it out!
 
There will be an info table under the marquee at the Paramount Theater on the day of the event.
 
This is ALWAYS a fantastic event. Enjoy!

September is Disaster Preparedness Month: Local Resources

Photo of Superstorm Sandy aftermath by Katheryn Laible

September is National Preparedness Month., and annual national campaign ”to remind everyone that preparing for emergencies and disasters can keep them, their families and their communities safe.” Thousands of people are harmed by natural disasters each year. The early Fall is known for hurricanes. These and other major storms often come with some warning. Other events like house fires will never be expected. The best we can do, both for our family and in service to those who risk their lives to rescue others,  is be prepared.

Be Ready LI

Be Ready LI is a collaboration from PSEG, 2-1-1 Long Island and United Way of Long Island. The website contains information on what to pack and other ways to prepare including: an emergency supply kit checklist, evacuation routes and family disaster plan advice and more information on how to handle valuable items, assets and pets. There are links to a broad variety of educational and other resources aimed at residents, businesses and others, covering a broad range of potential disasters and ranging from all levels of government, to power and transportation systems, to emergency service providers, as well as resources to track weather events and power outages. There are also special sections dedicated to children, seniors and individuals with special needs.

PSEG's Critical Care Program

There’s a much simpler recent press release from PSEG LI, that something of a quick sheet on how to be prepared. Among resources is a “Critical Care Program” specifically designed to serve individuals with special needs who may literally count on electricity to keep them alive.

Community Emergency Response Team

If you want to advance to the next level of being able to protect your family and neighbors, you might consider joining the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Nassau or Suffolk County. These are federally funded, community based volunteer programs providing special training that prepares citizens to assist emergency responders in the event of disaster, or in providing public education to make our communities more resilient.

At the very least, when you know something’s going to happen, please listen to the advisories, and stay home when recommended. It’s not a matter of personal bravery, but saving emergency management folks from having to put themselves at risk unnecessarily.

The better prepared we are, the better off we’ll be.

We Will Never Forget…

Photo of the WTC memorial lights by Colin Hopkins

Like a mantra, we read and republish this piece each 9/11. It’s been years since it was first written. Though the children are older, adults now who have no memory of this day, the sentiment remains the same…

Photo Credit: Colin Hopkins, who was three weeks on the job as an iron worker when the towers fell, and then got to witness the new spire rise to the sky…

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The Gus Scutari Challenge Coin

Photo of Gus Scutari Challenge Coin by Katheryn Laible

Thank You Gus

I always mention Gus Scutari on Memorial Day as coordinating that parade down Jackson Avenue in Syosset was very important to him. It was also how most of the broader community got to know him. Maybe, though, the 4th of July is an even better time to talk about him.

Here is the story I was blessed to write with Gus. I share it often because I think what Gus had to say was important, that the impact he had on people was incredibly positive, and that his brand of patriotism is among those I most deeply appreciate. I also find that, the more I read those words, which are mostly his, the more I learn.

Gus was friendly, and witty. He knew how to have a good time, and how to make other people feel seen and heard. He felt very strongly about the American Flag, and honoring our Nation’s Veterans. At the same time, his patriotism was very personal. Gus cared about the big systems and decisions, for sure, but what he really emphasized was the importance of the individual; the everyday choices we make as citizens, and the idea that America will only ever be as good as we, its people, will.

Gus wanted folks to give it their best and to think for themselves. He wanted people to be good to each together. Mostly, he wanted us to give it our best to be worthy of so many who give so much, and to let the world know that most of the folks he met in this life seemed to agree. For this, he was deeply thankful.

From an event honoring local champion of veterans Gus Scutari in 2016

Honoring Good Citizenship

I wrote recently about Max becoming an Eagle Scout. One of the things a parent is instructed to do when their child earns this honor is to alert all the localities’ elected officials and other key civic associations, all the way up to the President and whomever else, that someone has basically just earned a degree in good citizenship. Everyone has their own way of responding and you end up with this pile of certificates that I find fascinating.

By far, the most meaningful token came from the local VFW, Post No. 6394, recently named the “Gus Scutari” Post in Syosset: A Gus Scutari Challenge Coin. This coin speaks not only to who Gus was as a person, but to the impact he had on those around him; an impact perhaps most directly illustrated in this very endeavor by our local veterans to imbue Gus’ joyful, earnest civic spirit in others. It’s what Gus did himself, after all, for so many years with whomever caught his eye and returned his friendly smile.

In addition to his nickname, “Mr. Memorial Day,” Gus was also the “Americanism Chairman of Nassau County.” A proud booster of the Scouts, he attended ALL local Eagle Ceremonies. He was known for his entertaining, thoughtful speeches, and for his way of pinning a US flag on the kid’s chest as a badge of good citizenship and a reminder to keep it up.

I don’t think Gus ever left the house without his VFW hat. He was known as a WWII hero, though he’d tell you over and again, he got lucky. When he told the Vietnam Veterans and so many others that their own service was at least as honorable, thank you for doing the best you could figure how, it meant a very great deal. Every Memorial Day, Gus encouraged folks to make the best of things; to be good citizens worthy of the fact that young people give their lives for them. Gus was a great booster for both the VFW and the American Legion in Syosset and beyond. Moreover, he was an incredible ambassador and a proud, responsible member of the United States. If you asked, many who knew of him would tell you that Gus was The Community Spirit of Syosset, if not America herself.

Because it’s up to US

Gus advanced the Patriot Pen and Voice of America Scholarship Programs and would regularly talk to young and old alike about history and current events, honoring people for their service and asking folks to think about things and consider what it is best We the People do.

Why? Because the basic message from Gus is that we have the freedom to make what we will of this Nation, and that, yes, the grand actions of leaders and heroes are important, but it’s how everyday people choose to conduct themselves that makes a difference, and that sometimes it may seem like a crazy thing to do, but doing the right thing seems to work out pretty well most of the time. Even when it doesn’t, it’s still the right thing to do.

It was an honor for Max to receive this coin, and I am blessed that he shares it with me and that together we can offer it to you. May we go on out there, try to stand up straight and make the best of whatever life hands us. May we take it at least as well as we give it, give it our best to be decent and honorable, and remember, whatever happens, to laugh.

May God Bless America.