The New Suburbanist: Lessons from Loss of Oren Bennaeim

Paul Glader

Every day I walk down the Middle Neck Road, crossing the street from West to East, I find myself thinking about Oren Bennaeim.

Oren is a man I never met (at least knowingly). But he is a neighbor.

He worked out at a gym where I used to exercise. He has a wife and children, as do I.

He crossed the street the same place, same way I do every day.

This loss, I believe, mandates adding speed cameras at this intersection to enforce red lights, limit speeds and record violators.

But the loss also gives us greater pause to reflect.

As we read in The Great Neck News in recent weeks, Oren was struck by a hit-and-run driver at this very intersection on Sept. 30.

He died six days later at the age of 43, leaving a wife, Jivanna, and child, Tristan, now without a husband and without a father.

“He’s gone, but I would hate to see it happen again,” said Jivanna Bennaeim, the widow of Mr. Bennaeim, in an interview with The News in September. “Great Neck is a great town … but I think people are so busy, so stressed and in such a rush.”

The death of Oren Bennaeim is obviously sobering and worrisome to the many young families, who live in the hundreds of apartments and cooperative buildings within walking distance of the Great Neck Train station.

Many of us live in apartments by choice because we like to walk to the train, commute into the city and shop at local stores as much as possible.

Many of us believe in a virtue of community, neighbors.

We notice when motorists are talking on cell phones and blowing throw stop signs. We might flip you off when we are crossing a crosswalk where we have the legal right of way and motorists try to speed through it, nearly hitting pedestrians.

And, by the way, the violators are often not driving ram-shackle cars like the one that struck Oren Bennaeim.

In fact, I find unaware drivers are often driving luxury vehicles. (By pointing that out, I don’t mean to sound like Bernie Sanders. Many of us pedestrian, center city dwellers also drive sports cars or luxury vehicles.)

So what about Oren Bennaeim and his legacy?

What measure of justice can we find other than locating the driver who ended his life?

Here are a few thoughts:

1. Make downtown Great Neck more human friendly

Why do many people, like me, cross Middle Neck Road at the location Mr. Bennaeim crossed?

It’s because the sidewalk stretch on the east side is much safer and more pleasant than on the west side.

The west side sidewalk that stretches along the fence of The Garden at Great Neck strip mall is extremely narrow and right next to the roadway. It is as if the shopping mall developer tried to squeeze as many parking spots as possible and forgot about human beings who walk in the area.

Pedestrians such as moms with strollers worry about cars losing control and hitting them. Others worry cars will hit puddles and splash people.

It is nerve-wracking and stress inducing to walk such a lousy stretch of sidewalk. And, by the way, it’s the furthest thing from a peaceful “Garden.”

The Garden should, seriously, move the fence line back (taking out a row of parking spaces) and make for a much wider sidewalk.

They should plant trees as barriers between the roadway and sidewalk. This is European and early American urban design methods in practice.

Using these kinds of basic design principles are what establish the most livable cities on earth.

Violating them in the name of extra parking spaces or revenue for developers is what makes unsafe and aesthetically dismal cities.

I cross the street every day because the other side of the street comes closer to good urban design principles that make our city more livable and our citizens safer.

On the bright side, Great Neck has more and better sidewalks than other neighboring communities such as Manhasset.

Let’s keep building on that advantage. And let’s spark an urban development competition between the North Shore long Island communities.

The best-designed, most livable communities will have the best businesses and home values long term.

2. Install Speed Cameras to enforce stoplights and speeds on Middle Neck Road

It is a sick irony that crossing the street (to a safe sidewalk) is a deadly endeavor because motorists often treat Middle Neck Road as if it is the Indianapolis 500 motor speedway track.

Motorists are often trying to beat the light. Some motorists are not paying attention.

Pedestrians often have to beware, looking once, twice or three times to see what cars are doing. It seems patently obvious that we need speed cameras at this particular (and perhaps other) intersection.

We need notices up that speed-enforcing cameras will ticket motorists.

The word gets out and behavior follows. Motorists will whine and try to get speed cameras removed. That’s too bad.

The death of Oren Bennaeim dictates intervention and oversight.

We can’t lose any more neighbors in this way. And cameras at the intersection will help law enforcement arrest motorists like the hit and run driver who killed Mr. Bennaeim.

3. Respect All Human Life

Our communities have much care and concern for our children getting on busses and safely traversing school crosswalks.

Let’s extend the same care and concern for citizens and pedestrians of all ages. Let’s design our cities around humans, not just cars and commerce/consumerism/businesses.

I would be pleased if some reminder of Mr. Bennaeim helps remind us of this point.

Perhaps we need a physical marker or some kind? Perhaps we need a memorial fund of some kind? Perhaps we need a task force to look at these issues?

4. Emphasize the concept of neighborliness

North Shore communities such as Great Neck often feel like what they are – suburban communities of New York City.

Young people often leave when they graduate high school and only come back for holidays (perhaps until they have families of their own and tire of city life).

Our community can tend toward insularity in the suburbs: We socialize with those in our own friend circles, our own religious communities, our own racial or ethnic circles, with parents of children who attend the same schools as our children.

When I read about the death of Oren Bennaeim and think about him during my walk to the train station, I wonder about how we, how I, can be a better neighbor.

How can I care about other people and extend respect, peace, Shalom to more people than those in my current circle?

Great Neck resident Paul Glader is an associate professor of journalism at The King’s College in New York City and leads an international non-profit called The Media Project.

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