Lately I’ve been watching a lot of movies that deal with time travel. A young Mr. Spock meets an old Mr. Spock. Billy Pilgrim in “Slaughterhouse Five.”
In “The Terminator,” a human from the future comes back in time to save the Mother-to-be of the man who saves humanity from the Cyborgs in the future. It’s a good trick; he comes back, impregnates the woman, who bears his son, who is his commander back (forward?) in the future. In Terminator 2, the same woman, Sarah Connor, tries warning Humanity of the destruction that is to come. She has seen it. No one believes her, of course, with her story of time travel and apocalypse.
I feel like Sarah Connor. I’ve seen the future, and now it’s here. I tried warning people, but got ignored or laughed out of the room. So now we can all watch, in slow motion- as the Peninsula goes past the tipping point.
For those who fought along as we tried to stem overdevelopment, for those who cheered when Dr. Bral pulled back his “master plan” for redevelopment of the Village from the public agenda, I have some bad news; that battle is long lost. Some fight on, believing there is a chance for victory, for mitigating the damage caused by greed and short sightedness. WAKE UP!
The war is over, the cyborgs have won, overdevelopment is already happening, and is, I believe, beyond stopping, or even mitigating. “No, Sam!”, “Say it ain’t so!”…. Why do I say this?
If you recall when the war over the “master plan” was raging, there were 19 properties identified as “properties of interest”- ripe for the picking, you might say. Developers had picked out 19 properties to redevelop, and this was the raison d’etre for the “master plan” itself- to give political cover to the developments, as well as the “Citizen’s Advisory Committee”, which was created to give political cover to the plan. Two layers of shade meant to give credibility to all the new development.
Well, the “master plan” is gone. The Citizen’s Advisory Committee is gone. But what about the nineteen “properties of interest”?!
777 Middle Neck is being redeveloped- 44 apartments on the way.
733-741 Middle Neck is being redeveloped- originally 25 apartments or so, the project is now up to 60!
Middle Neck Pharmacy is gone, 10 apartments under construction.
Middle Neck Road and Clover Drive is under construction; 44 apartments.
Just south of this, on the other side of the gas station, 74 Units are going in at 200 Middleneck Road. (where Cafe Rustica used to be, where my kids’ Pediatrician still is).
Just North of this, on the other side of Temple Israel, 100 new apartments are going in. Think they’ll keep the trees, let alone the people, at Millbrook Court?!
In Great Neck Plaza, there are 13 apartments going in at 16 Maple Drive- the corner across from Daruma; where Tasti D-Lite used to be. This is across the street from “The Playhouse”, with 20 apartments, and around the corner from 15 Bond Street, which is renting out 60 apartments.
And then there’s the old sewer site on East Shore Road, which looks like it will be developed into 50+/- apartments.
Catch my drift?! Have you been adding up apartments as you’ve been reading? Let me save you the time: 475.
That’s right folks, as of now there are 475 apartments already built, under construction, or in the final stages of getting paperwork in order!
Is this enough to “revitalize” the Peninsula? Because it’s sure enough to stuff the schools, the parking lots, the roads. Is it enough to keep a supermarket open, or a movie theatre, or an Italian Restaurant (we miss you Bruzell’s, Bevanda, Cafe Rustica).
If there are 74 apartments going in across the street from Associated Market, how many will be built to replace Associated?: The empty storefronts on that block- The warehousing of empty stores (Subsidized by New York State – end this!) is a sure sign something’s in the works.
It’s hard to imagine this Peninsula getting any more divided than it already is- Ethnic differences, Political differences, masks and ant-maskers- now age differences, as Millennials campaign for more apartments- to stay close to parents, or to replay the good old days of the Great Neck they grew up in- as they begin and grow families of their own in the great town they remember growing up in.
The problem is that that town is gone, and will never be back. I’m enough of a Buddhist to understand that nothing lasts forever- that the only constant in life is change. The world is changing. The very concept of “suburb” is changing. At least how this suburb is changing. Can we call it “Urbanurbia”?
We have to learn to live together, without the bitter divisions, in this new version of The Peninsula. It’s the only way to live, especially as we get more crowded.
I’ve never been “an obstructionist”, or an “anti-all-developmentist.”
Clearly, there’s been a need for revitalization, and some level of development- I just argued for scaled-down development- a scale in line with a suburban village.
But 475 apartments?! And this is before Associated goes under the plow, and the last jewels in the crown- the department of public works site turned into- who knows how many apartments (trust me- people already know how many- they’re just not sharing!), and of course, where I got on this merry-go-round, Academy Gardens.
Anyway, to quote Bugs Bunny, before he gets canceled too; “That’s all Folks”!
Sam Yellis
Village of Great Neck
