Strange bedfellows
A man leaves the headquarters of Uber in San Francisco on Dec. 16, 2014. Credit: AP
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Talking Point
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The environmental review for the redevelopment of Belmont Park officially got underway Tuesday with the release of key documents and the announcement of two back-to-back meetings on March 22.
But behind the scenes, the work — especially regarding the project’s impact on the Long Island Rail Road — already has begun.
An Empire State Development Corp. document released Tuesday outlines the scope of the planned analysis of traffic, parking, noise and other factors. It also notes the importance of the LIRR as part of Belmont’s development.
“The LIRR is committed to developing a plan to expand LIRR service to Belmont Park station for events year-round; the extent and utilization of this service expansion will be confirmed with MTA/LIRR,” the document said.
According to LIRR President Patrick Nowakowski, railroad officials have held three meetings with developers, a consortium that includes the New York Islanders, Sterling Project Development and the Oak View Group.
“They are at the point that they are doing their environmental analysis of the project,” Nowakowski told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board last week. “So, obviously, interfacing with us is part of that.”
Nowakowski assured MTA board members that he would keep them updated about those conversations and any developments in the plans for the Belmont LIRR stop.
In response, MTA board member Mitchell Pally noted his particular concern that trains now can only get directly to Belmont from the west.
“We need to figure out a way to get people to Belmont by train from the east, and that does not mean taking them to Jamaica and turning them around,” said Pally, of Stony Brook. “That is not an acceptable alternative.”
The report indicates that there’s no need for a review of the platform, stairways or elevated walkways, since they already accommodate much heavier traffic during the Belmont Stakes than any sports or entertainment event would get at the new arena.
Randi F. Marshall
Bonus Point
Uber won’t go down without a fight in Suffolk County
As the Suffolk County Legislature considers a bill to ban ride-sharing operations like Uber and Lyft for six months in an attempt to force the state to fork over a share of its 4 percent surcharge on ride-sharing, expect a potent counter-argument to the holding pattern to come from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The advocacy group, which has long partnered with Uber, has sent a letter to all 18 county legislators touting Uber and its peers as potent weapons to help keep people from driving after consuming alcohol.
The Feb. 23 letter, signed by MADD’s state executive director, Richard Mallow, notes that Suffolk led New York’s 62 counties in alcohol-related crashes in 2016, including 394 with injuries and 35 with fatalities. Last year, with ride-sharing in place for seven months after its approval by the State Legislature, the number of alcohol-related crashes with fatalities dropped to 25, a reduction of nearly 30 percent.
The letter calls that “proof that ride-sharing is helping keep New York communities safer . . .”
Safety is always a tough trump card to beat.
Michael Dobie
Pencil Point
Keeping our schools safe
Click here to see more cartoons about gun violence in America.
Daily Point
Push for gun regulations brings NY’s fractured Democrats together
New York’s Democratic legislators are so serious about passing new gun regulations, they’re even willing to work together if they have to.
A Tuesday news conference in Albany brought together a cast of characters rarely seen on the same stage. Mainline Senate Democrats, members of the breakaway Senate Independent Democratic Conference and even Assembly Democrats got together to push for big changes in New York’s gun regulations.
The IDC members usually work with Senate Republicans, using the power of their combined numbers to stymie other Democrats. But the push for changes at the federal level promised by President Donald Trump and other Republicans is quickly petering out as the president appears to be backing down, and that has these state-level Democrats ramping up.
The changes they will push for together are:
- A law creating extreme-risk protection orders that would allow judges to bar people from possessing or purchasing guns if they are found to be likely to harm themselves or others.
- More effective background checks, including a 10-day period during which purchases could be denied while background checks are run. The federal law, which allows only three days for the FBI to stop purchases, allowed a man in Charleston, South Carolina, to kill nine people with a gun he should have been barred from buying.
- A provision to force the surrender of guns after practically all domestic-violence convictions.
- A law requiring owners to lock up their guns when they are not in the owners’ possession.
In an election year, with the Senate majority in play, gun control is an issue on which the Democrats can likely make hay and work together. It’s an issue on which even the state’s Republican voters sometimes disagree with conservatives in the rest of the country, a point Sen. Todd Kaminsky stressed at the news conference. He pointed out what none of these bills are asking for: arming schoolteachers in the Empire State.
Lane Filler
