THE LIGHTHOUSE BRAWL? After Thursday It Was Every Which Way You Can But Loose, Until . . .

One would think that at the start of the Islanders season we’d actually talking about hockey. Sadly, we are not. As what has been made clear, weeks even before the hearing, was a polarization of two sides.

One: a town board who likes to do things their way. Albeit, the criticism is that this way is archaic, out-of-touch, and not exactly a wunderkind to the advent of development and progress. Piggyback on this that Long Island is in an economical and developmental malaise, with the Nassau Coliseum being a national venue embarrassment, it seems to magnify this issue.

Two: a Lighthouse Group who was asked weeks before the hearing to actually think and talk about size and scope, but has been looking at the whole enchilada instead. Their stance is they asked many times what the ToH wanted earlier that summer .

The third player in all of this is the Republicans vs Democrats. Whether the specter of that tainted half-wit Alphonse D’Amato or Joseph Mondello, the “blow it out your duffel bag” leader of the Water Buffaloes Republican Party, it is now, thanks to Thursdays strong talk, now part of the battle for the Legislature. The Democrats have had a tenuous hold upon it.

According to sources, 4 Democrat incumbents run neck-in-neck in polls with Republicans. “Without the legislature, Suozzi is a dead-man walking next year”

Some think that Suozzi’s push behind the Lighthouse is to make sure that Republicans also need to spend money and focus on Kate Murray now that her opponent has been re-trotted out after disappearing almost instantaneously with the Kate Murray/Charles Wang handshake. This way, they cannot just flood the legislature fight solely.

“Suozzi is a brilliant politician. Do not doubt he’d do that in a second. Look at the timing, and it right at Charles own deadline. You think it took that long for them to hammer out a lease?”

Whatever the case, it is now firmly a politicized issue…whether it was as per Randi Marshall’s excellent piece in Newsday, back when D’Amato and Wang had a falling out. Or whether that was all just rumor and innuendo thrown onto the town board and Lighthouse Project disparity, it is now electrified with political undercurrents.

Source: “If I was Suozzi, I’d keep Charles close. I’d drive him around and make sure he doesn’t come to any agreement until the election are settled. There is a lot on the line for Democrats now.”

Mike Picker looking a lot like Ma Boggs?

The Lighthouse Project has seem loaded to bear even before the hearings. They have been reticent to sit at any table to talk about the size and scope of the project. Statements have come out of them that they cannot scale things down because it would make delays. It was repeated again on Thursday. However is speaking to several experts on development, I found out the following…

It’s not true.

SEQR Expert: No need to re-do it.

ToH Elected Official: The environmental review is for the land. Just because something small is built on it means nothing to any delays or redoing anything.

I even cornered Scott Rechler on Thursday who, despite giving me the company line, did admit some room on scaling down if it was modest.

Fact is, any compromise would likely not delay a thing. The issue is simply: Lighthouse Project doesn’t want to compromise, because Charles Wang does not want to.

Isles fans who are starting to read between the lines, are starting to see this message instead of buying the rhetoric

It was this philosophy that deserves some bashing. For it is basically a middle finger to Islander fans who have been asked to do so much, show up, and then get disheartened by a hearing that they had to know full well that would be wrought with tough questions and no clear answers. After all, two weeks before it, letters got sent to Suozzi from the ToH.

Scott Rechler admitted in conversation with me on Thursday, that even though he has not dealt with quite what they have experienced with the Town of Hempstead before in other development deals, he also has very limited experience in dealing with the Town of Hempstead.

However, according to those who have developmental experience with the ToH, “whether you like the questions or not, after that hearing it is incumbent on the developers to come back and answer those issues with the town board.”

Instead we got a few weeks of a game of chicken and a lot of rhetoric. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the whole thing. I have been on top of this battle since last December. We are at the start of the season, and many of us are not sure what to expect next. It needs to stop and things need to start to come to an accord with some flexibility by both sides. Not blame, politics and rhetoric.

The most concerning thing is what happens now. Because, after Thursday, “it got ugly” said one source at the Town of Hempstead. They felt, per that same source, that it was not going to have a happy ending by simply using media time to bash the other side.

A few hours later, the impossible happened. Despite the fact that Town Board was waiting for Wang, Kate Murray called him instead.

Eden Laiken beat me to the story, but here is a link from Newsday.

Now, will tonight’s game have more rhetoric launched their way when Tom Suozzi drops the puck? Or will next week’s meeting to talk about working out a compromise actually have two sides actually looking to work out a deal instead of just one?

Per Newsday:
Murray, a Republican, said she was “delighted” Wang agreed to meet. She said she reiterated to Wang during the conversation that there were still unanswered questions about traffic, water and the exact number of buildings planned for the site. And then she asked if there was “room for discussion.”

“We had a frank conversation and talked about the project,” Murray said in an interview on Friday. “I’m looking to promote development, I’m not looking to close the door on anything. I asked about the possibility of amending the project and exploring options.”

Personally, I would like to think it was anything but a chat over who was going to pass the Grey Poupon mustard.

RRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!

Charles: Wanger here! Better make it good. I have a team to watch tank another season so we can draft big!

Kate: It’s me, Kate.

Charles: Ha ha, Tom, you a funny guy. (honey, Suozzi is calling me again…told me he’s Kate) Yuck! yuck! yuck!

Kate: No really. It’s me. I have nothing to say about the Lighthouse Project, since I am presiding over it. I can’t make any suggestions or judgments at all. So I cannot say something like: if you want your ass not to be singed by us voting no and stuck in Broolyn with Spike Lee and Vinny Barbarino, you better get you and your boys over to meet us to discuss what we can work out.

Charles: “Are you going to vote yes or no”

Kate: “Charles, don’t be an asshole” ((CLICK!))

However, per Newsday, however they conversed…
Murray declined to say whether she would ask Wang to scale down the project or detail her own vision for the site.

“I’d like to negotiate that with the developers,” she said, “not in the press.”

Per a high-placed ToH source, the Town Board nor Murray will provide a vision. What they will do is work out what the board is comfortable with as opposed to what was being forced on them that they did not seem to be willing to vote upon.

Source: “6 out of 8 board members are just looking for something to be comfortable with. They have real issues and they are answerable to their constituents. The Lighthouse Project need to come just like any other developer when board members have questions and issues, answer and alleviate some of them”

Some are concerned that Tom Suozzi has become the new person for Charles Wang to follow off the cliff. The new Mike Milbury, Al D’Amato, etc etc. That if so, this would be tremendously concerning since Suozzi has his own agenda as do the Democrats. Just as the Republicans have theirs. Neither, it seems seem to quite coincide with Islanders fans nor the season that we are on the cusp of.

Let’s hope that politics drains out of the pool as quickly as it was let in. Let us hope that next week, major principals will hash out something solid so that we Isles fans don’t have to feel torn further by angst and kool-aid from all facets as a season starts with hockey barely a story. Let there be an accord. Negotiation.

As my pal Nick Giglia says as the mantra of his own blog: Let There Be Lighthouse.