Getting LI to mirror San Diego's rebound

Long Island could be a better place in three years -- less than the time it takes to get through high school. The forecast for a brighter economic future, offered as part of the Long Island Index report released Wednesday, was actually three to five years.

But why wait?

For years, the notion's persisted that Long Island was at a crossroads. At a tipping point. Not so.

The region, by choosing for decades to stubbornly cling to the remnants of a status quo, chose inertia. That has left veteran Long Islanders to watch property taxes soar, property values decline, and children and grandchildren pack up and get out.

There have been many small but significant positives. The villages of Mineola and Patchogue, for example, were among the communities that welcomed enough change to reinvigorate their downtown areas. They succeeded where monster projects, like the Hub in Nassau and the Heartland development project in Suffolk, can't seem to get moving. Why? Perhaps a look at Long Island through another region's eyes can help.

During a program at Farmingdale State College Wednesday, Mary Walshok, associate vice chancellor at the University of California, San Diego, talked about that city's 40-year sojourn from being what she called a "cul-de-sac community" to an innovative, entrepreneurial powerhouse.

The region managed to bring research, capital and entrepreneurship together, which in turn created jobs in a region now chockablock with small, smart businesses, including biotech and sports technology.

Walshok believes Long Island can do the same, in a fraction of the time, she agreed, because Nassau and Suffolk already have multiples of what San Diego did not have when their effort began.

There was no UC-San Diego before 1960; and no significant research facilities.

Long Island has three SUNYs -- Stony Brook, Farmingdale and Old Westbury -- along with Hofstra University and a host of other colleges. Plus two prominent research facilities: Brookhaven National and Cold Spring Harbor labs.

Although most residents likely don't realize it, the region already has another advantage over San Diego: an effort called Accelerate Long Island, which for the first time is having those and other significant local institutions work together.

And there are other advantages: Long Island is seeing the rise of a new generation of leadership that has no problem taking risks and working across traditional roadblocks.

All of which has set some things moving. There's been a recent, significant rise in patents, federal grants. Last year, Long Island was second to Silicon Valley in small-business research grants.

Who knew? But what will it take to meet the mark in three years? How about starting with a little optimism?

It is becoming increasingly clear that the region's suburban nature can be preserved. One way is concentrating desperately needed multifamily housing to reinvigorate Long Island's multitude of dying downtowns.

And what about more smart risk taking, especially among government officials?

One immediate challenge, according to the Index, would be to leverage the increasing federal investment and scientific activity into local commercial activity. That would mean good-paying jobs and a needed boost to the local economy.

There are other ideas as well. One is a magnet science and engineering high school. Another is an effort that would take science, technology, engineering and math to more school children.

Walshok spoke of "the power of place," saying that residents of San Diego loved their city.

Long Island, with all of its technical and natural resources, enjoys a power of place too. And that alone should help fuel the kind of collaboration -- public, private and government -- needed to fuel significant change.

Three years? Let's go.