Honoring a legend

August 5, 2020

Daily Point

Remembering Pete Hamill (1935-2020)

Pete Hamill was sometimes directly involved in politics, as when he wrote a letter in 1968 that helped convince Robert Kennedy to run for president, but the writer being lionized Wednesday was a master chronicler of New York political figures.

Here are some examples of that sharp eye and dexterity from the pages of Newsday alone:

His 1994 column about the night of Mario Cuomo’s fourth-term gubernatorial election loss is an elegant capstone on an era.

“In his more than two decades of public life, including 12 years as governor, Mario Cuomo didn't end crime, cure AIDS or eradicate poverty,” Hamill wrote. “But he didn't add to the general stupidity, either. A citizen could disagree with him, and many did; but the disagreement was always on a reasonably high level. He did not reduce civic discourse to an argument in a saloon.”

That column captured other New Yorkers who would advance in politics.

“At the elevators [Cuomo] paused again,” Hamill wrote, “and talked about the Great Republican Tide that was supposedly sweeping across the country. ‘I find it hard to believe,’ he said, and laughed. ‘Al D'Amato as chairman of the Banking Committee?’”

In 1994, Hamill put together a list of facetious suggestions of things to privatize in America, including selling “all public housing. Obviously, people like Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley could do a much better job of running these developments than a group of faceless bureaucrats.”

A 1995 Newsday column about the NRA described a young local politician, now U.S. Senate minority leader, and an enduring national problem: “They hate Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) because of his valiant efforts to apply reason to the irrationality of the gun cult.”

And his 1994 column on the death of Jackie Onassis (who he once dated) is full of mournful sentiments for the recently and more distantly departed, sentiments that many in New York journalism and politics are feeling today.

He remembered Jackie addressing him and boxer Jose Torres on a train south en route to bury RFK.

"’I know Bobby loved you guys,’ she said. ‘I'm so sorry.’”

See more of Hamill's Newsday columns here.

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

A show of power at Superblock hearings

The two public hearings to be held on Zoom to discuss the tax breaks for the latest iteration of the Superblock project now include a plan for in-person attendance as well. The question is whether the proposed site will have power restored and, if not, whether electricity in Long Beach is widespread enough Thursday and Friday to even hold the Zoom versions of the hearings.

The meetings are slated for the ballroom of the city’s Allegria Hotel, at 6 p.m. Thursday and at 10 a.m. Friday. Nassau County Industrial Development Agency Chairman Richard Kessel said he thinks the room can hold around 50 people if social distancing is observed, and both Zoom attendees and in-person attendees will be allowed to ask questions.

But whether the meetings are actually held as scheduled will be decided on the day of each hearing, Kessel told The Point Wednesday, depending on the power situation.

It’s quite a transition, from planning no in-person attendance to arranging for that attendance to potentially losing the venue. And although Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s order suspending the state law that demands public attendance be allowed at all meetings of public bodies is set to expire Wednesday unless it is extended, Kessel said that was not the reason he secured a spot for in-person comments.

“The city of Long Beach requested that this be done publicly, in person, because the council felt it was important that people have the chance to speak their piece, and we understood that,” Kessel said.

Under discussion is a 25-year $52 million tax break on the luxury oceanfront project, which includes 200 condos on which full taxes will be paid and 238 apartments, a 1,000-car garage and some first-floor retail space, planned by local developer Engel Burman.

Two prior attempts at all-apartment projects seeking $129 million in breaks and $109 million in tax forgiveness were soundly defeated when public outcry became overwhelming.

And in this case the deal already has been reduced from a 30-year break to 25 years because, according to Kessel, the IDA board thought 30 years was too long.

So what could happen at the hearings that would make a difference?

Kessel said he has no idea how many people will show up to speak, with even more uncertainty after the storm, and he believes some will come to speak in favor of the project and tax breaks, along with those who come out to oppose it.

The deal on offer is scheduled for a vote on Aug. 20, and thus far the vitriol this iteration of the project has faced has been minimal compared to past attempts. The fact that the tax break is smaller and Engel Burman has worked hard to smooth the path with public meetings have helped. Also, former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who was passionate in opposition to prior tax breaks for the site, now favors this deal although it is unclear why he feels differently this time.

So can it be stopped or amended?

“Of course, the point of public hearings is to see what the public thinks,” Kessel said. “We’ll certainly be open to what people have to say.”

When they get a chance to say it, that is.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Pencil Point

New bully on the block

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/cartoons

Final Point

Joining forces against a common enemy

CD1 Democrat Nancy Goroff hopes to use planned presidential fundraisers on the East End this week as a cudgel against her GOP opponent, incumbent Lee Zeldin.

“I'm not surprised that Trump is bringing his dog and pony show to Long Island when my opponent, Congressman Lee Zeldin, is the President's biggest cheerleader in the House,” Goroff said in a statement.

“It's disturbing to hear that he's offering up photo ops in exchange for donations, yet another example of his blatant disregard for public health guidelines,” the statement said in part.

It’s fair to expect that Trump would be a main subject of attack for Goroff over the next few months, as the president was during the primary.

In a sign of how far that primary is in the rear-view mirror, the statement was sent to The Point by Hannah Jeffrey, Perry Gershon’s 2020 campaign manager and now Goroff’s communications director.

That kind of staff transfer from vanquished primary candidate to winner didn’t happen in 2018, according to Gershon. The then-Democratic nominee picked up some volunteers from former opponents two years ago but that was mostly it, he says. This time around, however, with two very well-financed campaigns, there might have been more new staff to poach.

There were millions of dollars spent in the intense, multi-candidate primary contest, and a few sharp elbows thrown but Gershon says he’s now doing “everything I can” to help Goroff. He says he recommended Jeffrey to the Goroff campaign and has spoken to Goroff several times, beyond last month’s unity Zoom call that featured the likes of Gershon, primary hopeful Suffolk Legis. Bridget Fleming, and Suffolk County party head Rich Schaffer.

“I would like nothing more than to see Nancy win," Gershon said.

Jeffrey said that during the primary she “had always had an immense amount of respect for Nancy's background as a scientist and her desire to run.”

Her own background is in communications, including being communications director for then-Braddock Mayor John Fetterman’s successful campaign for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor in 2018.

Fetterman has been on the receiving end of the kind of media coverage that candidates from Long Island to Pittsburgh might salivate over, including being memorably described by The Washington Post as “the giant who lives in an abandoned car dealership beside a steel mill” and “a walking folk hero, half Pete Seeger, half Metallica.”

Goroff’s not 6-foot-8, but surely her new communications staffer will be happy to explain why she stands tall, anyway.