Attention, all residents of Great Neck. You have chosen to live on the North Shore. If you wanted to live in New York City, you would live there. You don’t want your Long Island community to be as congested as the boroughs. Yet, as I describe below, this is exactly what’s ahead for us.
Approximately 1 1/2 years ago, Mayor Bral presented what he coined a “Revitalization Master Plan” for the Village of Great Neck. This plan included many recommendations for multi-story buildings along the two main arteries: Middle Neck Road and East Shore Road.
Due to widespread and much publicized opposition by the community, Mayor Bral appeared to set this plan aside. Since winning re-election in June 2019, it has become clear that he is going ahead with this same revitalization plan that people had previously rejected. The latest step is selling Village property on East Shore Road to Villadom Corp., Kris Torkan, president. Torkan just happens to be on the Board of Trustees in Kings Point. Torkan’s proposal is for a multi-story building to house residents of ages 55 and up, thus adding even more congestion to our village.
We are a small peninsula. There is only one way to leave it—to the south. This means there is great stress on our three southbound roads. We are all too aware of the traffic issues on both East Shore Road and Middle Neck Road, which really should be renamed Bottle Neck Road.
Mayor Bral has already approved a reconstruction of the Millbrook apartments on Middle Neck Road, which will entail approximately 100 new apartments! Now we have the new building on Middle Neck Road and Gutheil Lane, which will comprise approximately 45 new apartments. We also know that the Academy Apartments on Middle Neck Road will be rebuilt in the not-too-distant future.
Meanwhile, Great Neck Plaza has been simultaneously building new multi-story buildings, and soon the empty apartment house on Middle Neck Road, former home of a playhouse, will be razed. A new multi-story building will take its place. Welcome to even more congestion!
Ironically, the Great Neck residents most adversely affected by all these changes are the residents of Kings Point. They reside the furthest north, and therefore have the longest distance to drive in order to leave the peninsula. Yet they have no official input in any of these decisions that impact their quality of life. To make things worse, Kris Torkan, whom they elected to represent them, is content to ignore their best interests by erecting a large residential building on East Shore Road, thereby increasing congestion, and making it even more difficult for them to travel south.
I agree that something should be done with the parcel on East Shore Road, but we need to think long and hard in order to decide what the best solution is for the entire peninsula. I think a medium-size grocery store should be considered. We have already lost Waldbaums, which I am still upset about. Although any store would increase traffic, a supermarket would mean an increase in traffic only in the immediate area. People from Avalon Bay would shop there (probably on foot), as would residents of Kings Point and the Village of Great Neck. People who now have to go all the way down to Northern Blvd. to shop would not have to travel nearly so far, so that traffic along the length of East Shore Road would be eased to some extent.
I urge all Great Neck residents to show initiative and become educated as to what is taking place in your own community. Let your elected officials know if you’re upset about Mayor Bral’s future development plans or any of the other mayors’ plans. There is always strength in numbers. A few years ago, one of Kris Torkan’s pet development projects was, in fact, withdrawn because of massive community opposition—over 600 people came to a meeting to protest his proposed shopping center in Huntington.
Amy Glass
Great Neck
