It appears that Thomas Tweedy, the former mayor of Floral Park and current candidate for Hempstead Town Board, is attempting to rewrite history.
In your profile of Oct. 25, Tweedy claimed that his criticism of the Long Island Rail Road’s third-track project resulted in benefits to local residents, such as “grade crossing eliminations.”
This is an absolutely ridiculous assertion. As Floral Park mayor, Tweedy was one of the staunchest opponents of the project and tried everything he could to block it entirely.
Even as other local leaders dropped their opposition to the project in order to negotiate funding and benefits for their communities, Tweedy opposed the project to the bitter end.
Additionally, the MTA always intended to eliminate several grade crossings as part of the project. Tweedy was in no way responsible for the elimination of grade crossings in Floral Park or anywhere else.
Like former state Sen. Elaine Phillips before him, it seems Tweedy is trying to retroactively paint himself as some kind of transit advocate, when, if it had been up to him, this critically important infrastructure investment never would have moved forward.
Perhaps Tweedy should stick to his actual strengths, rather than trying to spin one of the biggest miscalculations of his political career as a positive.
Matthew Zeidman
New Hyde Park
