Great Neck Plaza resident Stein eyes village trustee seat

Adam Lidgett

Great Neck Plaza resident Jonathan Stein has thrown his hat in the ring to seek a trustee position with the village board.

Stein, an attorney who has lived in the village since 2009 and has done business with Great Neck Plaza since 2010, said he decided to run in the March election back in November 2014.

“One day [my wife and I] were just walking down the street with our newborn twins in the stroller looking at the ‘for rent’ sings and the stores that went out of business,” he said. “I was complaining to my wife and she said to go do something about it.” 

Stein said the village has been in a state of decline and that current trustees are “putting Band-Aids” on issues. Neighboring villages in Manhasset and Roslyn, he said, have been facing similar problems, such as high rents, but are experiencing revivals.

“It doesn’t seem like anything is working here,” Stein said. “People are leaving, and just having gone to a couple meetings and read through the ones I’ve missed, it seems [the board] has focused on all the wrong things.”

Stein has created a campaign website, JonathanForTrustee.com, through which supporters may donate funding. A Fundly.com page set up for Stein’s campaign had three contributions for $100 by Friday morning.

One issue that Stein said he sees as a primary concern of the village is a lack of available parking, which he addressed at the Jan. 7 trustees meeting. He said he was concerned a parking report given last month would not be made public and may lead to increased meter rates. 

Mayor Jean Celender said at the meeting that no official report had been made and that a parking consultant only made a series of suggestions on how the board may alleviate its parking concerns. 

She said the recommendations were only preliminary findings and that the announcement of the report was made public. 

The parking consultant, Jerry Giosa of Level G Associations, said in December that the main issues the village faces are employees of local businesses parking in spots intended for shoppers, a dearth of merchant parking and not enough vehicle turnover in the spots. His preliminary recommendations included shortening parking time on Middle Neck Road from a two-hour maximum to an hour and a half, increasing parking fees to 50 cents per hour and shortening parking time in Gussack Plaza. 

“Instead of focusing on parking turnover, maybe we should wonder why we’re turning into a village of hair salons and yogurt places,” Stein said. “Maybe we should look to get people to park here for other reasons.”

Stein said the village trustees should be debating what kind of character they want the village to have. Stein said he also wants to look at certain village functions to see if they can be reworked, such as the Business Improvement District. 

He said that the money spent on the district might be better served somewhere else, adding he would analyze the program to determine what distinguishes it from other neighboring villages.

“I don’t really see [the Business Improvement District] do anything that isn’t done anywhere else,” Stein said. “They’re not really doing anything novel and they’re pending bit of money on that.”

Stein has to receive a minimum of 100 signatures on a petition to become eligible to be placed on the March 18 ballot. He said that as of Jan. 15 he has 85 signatures but expects to reach the minimum soon.

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