Readers Write: 7-Eleven donations disprove NIMBY philosophy

The Island Now

7-Eleven donates food to rink for celebration” (Community News — Dec. 5) illustrates how the narrow-minded people who practice the not in my back yard (NIMBY) philosophy and attempted for several years to prevent 7-Eleven from opening up a 24-hour convenience store along Middle Neck Road have been proven  wrong.

Contrary to popular myth, not every Great Neck resident has a six figure income and  is a millionaire living in Kings Point.  Consumers have voted with their feet and welcomed 7-Eleven into the neighborhood.  Many maids, visiting health care providers, landscapers, painters, roofers and construction workers who work for residents of Great Neck Village along with Kings Point and other neighboring villages and other unincorporated areas of Great Neck who travel along Middle Neck Road to and from work now enjoy the convenience of shopping at a 7-Eleven store. 

Hundreds of vacant gas station sites similar to this one have been successfully converted to 7-Eleven stores with no negative impacts to crime, traffic and the environment.  

The owners of 7-Eleven provided gainful employment to construction contractors and their employees building their local establishment. They also pay taxes like the rest of us.  By being open 24 hours, they also provide additional security to a neighborhood whose streets are virtually empty late at night.  Don’t forget that they also provide gainful employment to stock clerks, cooks and cashiers along with those who deliver beverage and food supplies.  

Many are actually students working their way through college, single parents, retirees looking for supplemental income, new immigrants or one of the 6 percent of fellow Great Neck residents currently out of work.  

All are neighbors, who also pay taxes and are just trying to earn a living.  Most customers are also Great Neck neighbors patronizing the establishment on a voluntary basis.  

How refreshing to see that liberal communities such as the Village of Great Neck who joined with the Moral Majority social police and politically extreme reactionary conservatives and attempted to use government rules, regulations and zoning laws to impose their own moral values on others lost.  

For those who opposed the opening of 7-Eleven, please feel free to patronize one of the many other overpriced “trendy” or yuppie establishments along Middle Neck Road. You are welcome to pay more for a far less satisfying products.  This is the basic nature of free enterprise and how life works in a free society.   

Consumers are free to make their own individual decisions and choices on a voluntary basis to select which establishment they desire to patronize and spend their money.

Larry Penner

Great Neck 

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