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Review: 'Leaving Long Island' on Ch. 21

Verne Gay | Off Camera

May 27, 2008

Reason to watch: This one's about you and your future (How's that for a compelling reason?), asking why young people are leaving the Island in droves, and how this demographic drain will ultimately impact Suffolk and Nassau counties.

What it's about: Why did the population between the ages of 25 to 34 decline 35 percent on Long Island from 1990 to 2006? Therein lies a grim story about cost-of-living, culture, taxes and other factors that have put the squeeze on young people and squeezed them right out of Suffolk and Nassau, perhaps never to return. Reasons will be explored via that trusty TV tool - the town meeting. These were taped at Hofstra and moderated by Newsday columnist Joye Brown and former Suffolk County Executive Patrick Halpin. Tonight's edition is starkly, and accurately, titled "The Crisis," followed by "Solutions" (tomorrow) and "Hope for the Future" (Thursday). The show is hosted by Laura Savini, WLIW's vice president of marketing and communications.

Many LI leaders are present and accounted for here (only the first half-hour was available for preview), including Nancy Rauch Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation; Paul Pontieri Jr., mayor of Patchogue; Matt Crosson, Long Island Association president (and co-host of Ch. 21's "Crosson and Welles"); Wayne Hall, mayor of Hempstead, and many others. Crosson, speaking tonight, sets the table with this thought: "Long Island is losing young people at the same time the baby boomer [retirement] tsunami is beginning, [and] we will be in serious trouble. ... The Island's economy depends on the availability of young people in the workforce, and if we don't have that, the cost of living goes even higher, and [business] growth will be virtually impossible."

The consequence of this vicious cycle is a decline in housing prices.

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Bottom line: Ch. 21's important series is strongest on clarifying the problem, though viewers will have to judge for themselves on whether "Solutions" (tomorrow) meets the same standard. Tonight's "town hall" is crisp and intelligent, but one senses that the ways to fix this are complicated, intractable and enormously difficult. Nevertheless, anyone who pays a steep tax dollar here or wants to buy (or sell) a house on Long Island will feel this series' relevance sharply and deeply.

Leaving Long Island tonight through Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW/21.