Nina Petraro Bastardi, Candidate For Nassau County Legislature, Sheds Light On Her Support For The Lighthouse
We asked candidates to stick in their two cents here at The Community Alliance blog, and the guest posts are just rolling in.
Here's a post from Nina Bastardi, Democratic candidate for Nassau County Legislature, running against long-time incumbent (a NC Legislature original), Republican, John Ciotti.
As some of you may recall, Nina was formerly the president of Nassau County's Young Republicans. Having seen the light -- if not the Lighthouse -- and having since been saved from the Borg-like "Resisistence is Futile" hold of the local GOP, Nina is now part of the Democratic organization (is that an oxymoron?).
Fortunately, Nina is focused, organized, and still knows how to put together a cogent campaign on the issues. [In other words, Nina still thinks like a Republican. LOL So, electing her, in our opinion, would give constituents the very best of both worlds!]
Nina has zeroed in on the issues that truly concern Nassau County residents: property taxes, revitalizing downtowns, next generation housing, and the special districts, among others. [Is it any wonder we feel such a close affinity to her campaign, and so enthusiatically endorse Nina's candidacy?]
Anyway, here's Nina Bastardi on the Lighthouse Project...
It’s ok to come back to reality for a moment: building the Lighthouse project alone is not going to ‘save Nassau County.’ It may be the single biggest development proposed since Levittown, but it is nowhere near the size or scale of the Levittown development, by any measure. It will not spawn hundreds of other similar developments in Nassau County, create a massive expansion of our tax-base, or get everyone to drive less. At less than one hundred acres of new development, it isn’t even that big.
But what it’ll be is proof that things can still happen in Nassau County. Nassau has stopped growing, and stopped innovating. It is becoming more like a boring bedroom community, as businesses close, taxes continue to rise, and our well-educated younger generation continues to leave. Meanwhile new growth and development continue even during a recession…in places other than here.
We need a visible project to jump-start our local economy. We need projects happening here that aren’t necessarily happening everywhere else. We need to get creative while we are faced with an uncertain future. We need to actually start doing the things we are always saying we must do to build our way to the future. The Lighthouse is a major investment in our local economy, a tangible beginning for the model of “New Suburbia,” and will finally put an end to that now-proven conventional wisdom: nothing gets done in Nassau County. That’s why I support The Lighthouse, and that’s why Nina supports it.
This idea that Town of Hempstead officials have floated, in which ‘reasonable development at the Nassau Coliseum site’ and ‘The Lighthouse project as-planned’ are mutually exclusive, is absolutely ridiculous. The Lighthouse needs to be, and has been, thoroughly vetted through the mandatory state environmental quality review process, and will require infrastructure improvements of which every level of government is more than aware. Make no mistake: local government often moves at a snail’s pace. But our procedures work, and with competent, interested people involved at every level, approvals for the Lighthouse project can certainly be expedited, and still done properly. As a member of the county government, and someone interested in moving this project forward, Nina will make sure of that.
Nothing has ever been accomplished by obstructing progress. And our old guard elected officials are great at doing just that. Their “experience” working in local government really should matter to us: it’s been a bad experience for everyone. There has been no progress, problems have persisted for years, no one actually wants to re-organize our costly government structure, and now they can’t even approve a project they don’t have to finance… one that may just be the beginning of a better future.
Thus, when someone like Nina comes along, a candidate with ideas, who knows that politics can get ridiculous, and isn’t a partisan hack… you have to support her. There will be nothing more miserable for everyone if we just keep returning the same old tired faces to office. And nothing will change. And we’ll still be complaining about that every day. They say at some point ‘something’s gotta give,’ and The Lighthouse will be that moment. But only if it gets approved.
Nina can help make it happen.
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Check out Nina Bastardi's website at www.electnina.com, and her supporters' blog (because everyone needs a blog) at http://notjustsomegirl.weebly.com.
We welcome all candidates -- including the incumbents, who, too often, seem content to rest on their, er, um, laurels -- to chime in here at The Community Alliance blog. Send your guest posts to us at thecommunityalliance@yahoo.com.
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