Editorial: Long Island's fear of rentals
An artist's view of a proposed apartment building at West Main Street and North Ocean Avenue in Patchogue. Credit: Downtown Patchogue Redevelopers
A village election has a way of flying under the radar, for people who don't happen to live in the village. But the election next Tuesday in Patchogue has much broader significance, because of the issue that seems to have gained the most traction: apartments.
Patchogue isn't just any old village. It's one that planners yearn to see succeed, because it can serve as a shining model for downtown revitalization -- one that other communities can strive to emulate. And Patchogue already has important elements in place: a theater that serves as a magnet, an affordable-home development right at the Long Island Rail Road station, an Artspace project that has the potential to make the downtown an important cultural destination.
Mayor Paul Pontieri, seeking a third term, has been the leader of that movement. He and his village board allies on the Patchogue 2012 ticket want to keep it going. Their opponents on the Residents First ticket oppose the current shape of the next big step: redevelopment of the Four Corners, the village's main intersection.
For too long, there have been key vacancies at the Four Corners. Tritec Real Estate Co. had a plan for that: a hotel, retail, office space, and rental units, which could later become condos, as the market for home ownership improves. The village board liked it. But the hotel part didn't work out. Banks wouldn't lend the money in this economy, despite Pontieri and Tritec's efforts to help the hotel developer. So Tritec proposed altering the plan to add 51 apartments, bringing the total to 291. That's now a key issue in the election. But it shouldn't be.
Young people starting out often need rentals, as they begin to build a life. They may want to own a home of their own, but not yet. They're often too busy working long hours at new jobs to be mowing lawns or raking leaves. Young professors at Stony Brook University and scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory are examples. Though Patchogue has a good concentration of rentals, the region doesn't have nearly enough. Apartments at the Four Corners will add customers to existing businesses and to the new retail stores Tritec is adding.
Still, Pontieri's opponents have been pounding on those extra 51 apartments as if they'll attract an invasion of undesirable tenants, not young strivers. They say they fear Section 8, a federal housing program that helps poor people. They reason that James Coughlan, a principal of Tritec, is volunteer board chairman of the Community Development Corp. of Long Island, which does handle Section 8 vouchers -- and that must equal an "Aha!" But CDC has not designated this project for Section 8, and Tritec says it has no intention of accepting Section 8 vouchers there. By the way, there's nothing wrong with helping poor people. Opposition to Section 8 is too often rooted in fear of racial and ethnic minorities, though it helps people of every origin.
If this election ends up changing the dynamic so sharply that it somehow makes Tritec abandon the project, what other developer will take a chance on bringing the Four Corners to life? Without a revival at that intersection, the revitalization of Patchogue will stall. That would be a setback for our region, all because of a stubborn, irrational -- and far too pervasive on Long Island -- fear of rentals.
