As 2019 comes to a close, we look back on the most popular op-ed pieces and columns of the year.

Opinion

Randi F. Marshall

A&nbsp;compromise over where the New York Islanders would play potential playoff games is a good move in what’s been a difficult dance. 
But the agreement also underscores the long-term challenge: As configured, Nassau Coliseum cannot be a permanent home for a successful professional hockey team. 
If nothing else, the deal, which gives the Coliseum one round of playoffs and Barclays Center in Brooklyn the rest, is a reminder of why the Islanders left the Coliseum, of why they plan a new home at Belmont Park, and of why the Uniondale arena is not a viable long-term alternative, as some have suggested, at least not without extensive changes&nbsp;there. 
With opposition to Belmont intensifying, and with wounds from the Amazon HQ2 revolt in Queens still fresh, it’s important to understand the consequences of rejecting vital economic development. Here, that means losing the economic boost that Belmont’s redevelopment can bring, and potentially losing Long Island’s hockey team — again. 
Fans love the Coliseum, warts and all, and the team has played well there. The barn, as it’s fondly still called despite its new Slinky-looking wraparound, is loud, and there’s not a bad seat in the place. But, as the Islanders said in a statement last week, the Coliseum “does not qualify as an NHL major league facility.” 
That’s true for many reasons. But at the heart of it is a financial one: If the NHL and the team had made a purely financial decision about the postseason, there would have been no debate. Barclays Center would be the revenue winner. 
That’s not just because it has thousands of more seats. Barclays has 10 times more luxury suites than the Coliseum.&nbsp;Then there are the restaurants, club seats and other perks Barclays offers, that the Barn does not. 
The Coliseum, even with a $180 million renovation that includes new bathrooms and a nicer facade, can’t provide the financial foundation, never mind the other facilities and spaces, that a pro team requires. 
That’s not to say it’s impossible. But another Coliseum upgrade likely would come at a cost of far more than $100 million, plus a revenue deal to give the team a huge share of the arena and the Hub’s development. Even that might not be enough. Even if it were, is it likely or realistic? Not quite. 
Most Isles fans and observers are familiar with the team’s past money problems. They know that without a successful home, it’s a lot harder for the team to invest in itself, attract talent and build a Stanley Cup contender. 
Enter Belmont. The planned new arena, plus the rest of the development, could give the Islanders its first solid financial footing, while offering the comforts of home ice that fans love about the Coliseum. And, in turn, the arena, when combined with the hotel and retail village,&nbsp;could give the region its own economically vibrant destination with jobs, added tax revenue, and new visitors ready to spend money in the area. 
The anti-corporatist cloud that mushroomed during the Amazon debate isn’t going away. So, there’s little doubt that pushback on the Belmont project will continue, not just on traffic and transit, but also on planned tax exemptions and payments in lieu of taxes. State officials and the developers have to be prepared for that, and must address concerns. 
But there’s also little doubt that if the Amazon opposition spreads to major projects like Belmont and beyond, the Islanders’ future isn’t the only thing at stake. The Island’s economic future is, too.&nbsp; 
Randi F. Marshall is a member of Newsday’s editorial board.

Columnists

OPMAR190222

Without Belmont, goodbye Isles

Marshall: Without Belmont, goodbye Isles

spISLES190217

As the superintendent of the Oceanside school district, I’m compelled to speak out about the disturbing narrative portrayed in the media about an attack that led to the death of one of our&nbsp;students. Oceanside is devastated by Khaseen Morris’ death, and our&nbsp;hearts go out to his family and friends. Many of our young people, especially his friends and those who witnessed the brutal attack, are traumatized.&nbsp; 
Contrary to many&nbsp;headlines reporting that bystanders recorded video yet did not help, many of the teenagers present tried&nbsp;to render assistance. A store worker&nbsp;who was interviewed&nbsp;for one story said that some of the teenagers asked him to call 911. It was reported by&nbsp;some outlets&nbsp;that some witnesses asked store owners for paper towels and attempted to stanch&nbsp; Khaseen’s wounds. A teenager reportedly ran to a nearby firehouse for help because 911 was backed up with calls and put him on hold.&nbsp; 
The assertion that no one helped unfairly paints the&nbsp;young people who were there and did help in a horrible light. When Nassau County police held a news&nbsp;conference to announce the first arrest in this case, the department&nbsp;asked&nbsp;for video of the attack. It’s not the first time police appealed for that type of evidence. Witnesses who were recording video may very well have been trying to help. 
Our administrators and faculty have marshaled district resources to protect and comfort students. We hope to learn more about the details so we can inform our community and hopefully prevent such a tragedy from happening again. For now, we are all reeling. Our instinct as educators is to keep our community’s children safe, physically and emotionally.&nbsp; 
We might&nbsp;never have an accurate account of this awful incident because memory is fallible in the face of fast-moving and frightening circumstances. It will take time for the police to interview all witnesses and piece together as much of the story as possible. By that time, media attention may have&nbsp;waned,&nbsp; but the stain on our young people and this community may remain.&nbsp;As an educator, an advocate for children&nbsp;and a representative of our school community, I will not stand for that. The implication that a&nbsp;rapidly unfolding and terrifying situation that would challenge adults should have been something that groups of teenagers on their way home from school could prevent is not reasonable. It’s an unforgiving and damaging presumption. We simply do not know the entire story&nbsp;and should not&nbsp;rush to judgment. 
Our students are not perfect. We have many hardworking, kind and responsible young people in Oceanside. As in any community, there are some&nbsp;young people who don’t make&nbsp;wise&nbsp;decisions. On the whole, our students raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity, organize drives to donate thousands of pounds of food during the holidays, serve as Best Buddies to peers with special needs, and&nbsp;rally around peers and families in times of struggle. Oceanside is a close-knit community where kindness in tough times is the rule rather than the exception. 
In the weeks and months ahead, I know that our students will support Khaseen’s family and one another. We will find a way as a community to heal from this senseless tragedy and to properly honor the memory of a young person who did not deserve his terrible fate. Khaseen deserves far better than to be the face of an incomplete&nbsp;narrative about his friends and fellow students. 
Phyllis S. Harrington is superintendent of the Oceanside school district.

Commentary

OPHAR190922

In Oceanside tragedy, students did try to help

Opinion: In Oceanside, students did try to help

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It’s almost too good to be true. 
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who emerged this week as a central figure in the&nbsp;impeachment saga engulfing Washington, is <a href="https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/unum/explore-timeline?film=statue-of-liberty&amp;clip=808">pictured</a> as a child&nbsp;in a 1985 documentary by Ken Burns. Burns is the chronicler of sweeping American histories who specializes in the interplay between movers-and-shakers and the grunts on the ground, the ordinary people. Except: 
“There’s no such thing as ordinary people,” Burns said in a Wednesday phone interview. 
That point is underscored by Vindman’s brief ordinary-person appearance in “The Statue of Liberty,” co-produced by Burns and cinematographer Buddy Squires. 
The film covers both the construction of the&nbsp;iconic monument and what liberty means to Americans. Burns says immigrants answered that question best. So he went in search of them: a Holocaust survivor, elderly Italians and a Haitian in an immigration detention center. Mostly, Burns looked for immigrants in Brooklyn. 
“Even then, Brooklyn meant the melting pot,” Burns says. 
That's where he and his camera happened upon&nbsp;Vindman and his twin brother, in the longtime newcomer enclave of Brighton Beach. They were sitting on a bench on what appears to be the boardwalk with an elderly woman between them. Burns asked them some questions, and you can see the results in the clip.&nbsp; 
Speaking over each other,&nbsp;they talk excitedly about coming from Kiev to the United States. 
“Our mother died so we went to Italy, then we came here,” one of them&nbsp;says. They’re identical: Burns isn’t exactly sure which brother is which, though both would grow up to serve in the U.S. Army en route to holding national security roles —&nbsp;Yevgeny is a lawyer on the National Security Council —&nbsp;and play at least a part in American history. 
Burns says their level of assimilation was clear compared to&nbsp;that of&nbsp;the elderly woman, who did not seem comfortable with English. Plus they were thrilled&nbsp;to talk in the clip, which was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/29/fundamentally-un-american-attacks-alexander-vindman/">unearthed</a> by The Washington Post. 
Burns suggests that the brothers had fully drunk “the intoxicating elixir of freedom.” 
What does Vindman the citizen represent today, after reportedly testifying about his concern about President Trump’s fateful call with the Ukrainian president — an incident that launched an official presidential&nbsp;impeachment inquiry? 
“I think he just represents the continuation of the American dream,” says Burns. 
Vindman the immigrant reportedly called himself a patriot during his testimony, even as commentators on the right and the <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1189527179425730560?s=20">president himself</a> began trying to impugn his credibility. 
The question of “who we are” as a country, Burns said, has been questioned recently, as it has in various anti-immigrant moments of the past. 
“Obviously, this assumption that we had of our values has come into question recently,” he said, “and I think it might be important to just understand how many people who are the fabric of who we are now, either in the military or just in the corner store or whatever it is, that they represent who we are.” 
Mark Chiusano is a member of Newsday's editorial board.

Mark Chiusano

opchi191030

Ken Burns on finding young Alexander Vindman in Brooklyn

Chiusano: Ken Burns on finding young Alexander Vindman in Brooklyn

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Are “objectivity,” “perfectionism” and “worship of the written word” aspects of “white-supremacy culture” that need to be eradicated from our public schools? According to the New York Post, a slide making that extraordinary claim was included in a mandatory seminar for New York City school administrators held by the city Department of Education as part of a pro-diversity program. 
The report on the seminar is part of a series of Post stories alleging that, under the stewardship of Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, a $23 million anti-racism initiative in the school system has taken a bizarre and toxic turn that some would consider more racist than anti-racist. Critics claim that anti-bias training sessions, many of them mandatory for school personnel, promote hostility toward whites and Asian Americans — and sometimes minimize anti-Semitism. 
Thus, a DOE-sponsored workshop organized by the Center for Racial Justice in Education — an advocacy group which gets about $400,000 from the city for these sessions — featured a speaker who reportedly claimed that Asian American students “benefit from white supremacy” and enjoy “proximity to white privilege.” Another speaker was quoted as saying that school interventions should focus on helping middle-class black students over poor white students in the name of “racial equity.” 
Meanwhile, a Jewish educator told the Post that when attendees at ameeting were asked to share experiences that inspired them to work for racial justice, she talked about her grandparents’ ordeal as Holocaust survivors — only to be “verbally attacked” for making this about “being Jewish” rather than about “black and brown” students. 
Other people unhappy with the training say its focus on “interrogating whiteness” makes white people feel “belittled and harassed” instead of promoting understanding, and that people who complain are accused of being “fragile.” The materials used at such sessions include “white privilege exercise” worksheets in which people are asked to rate their own privileged status, sometimes based on highly questionable claims. Is “I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to ‘the person in charge,’ I will be facing a person of my race” really a statement that applies to white people in New York in 2019? 
The DOE has not commented on the material or content of the anti-bias training. But comments from supporters of the initiative, including Matt Gonzales, an outside adviser on the DOE’s school diversity task force, suggest that the criticism is well-founded. Gonzales told the Post that the program “requires discomfort” and that “having to talk about someone’s own whiteness is a requirement for them to become liberated.” Meanwhile, Carranza himself has said that people who don’t think the initiative is beneficial “are the ones that need to reflect even harder upon what they believe.” 
Most people agree that racial prejudice against African Americans, Latinos and other groups remains a problem that needs to be addressed. But this particular brand of “anti-racist” ideology does more harm than good. It rejects the goal of treating people as individuals and stresses group identity. It also assigns racial labels to cultural values that have nothing to do with race (such as individualism and the work ethic), and then defines whiteness as conformity to those values. It presumes that white people, and many if not most members of minority groups, are infected with a white supremacist mentality and that constant self-policing is needed to root it out. 
&nbsp;Cathy Young is a contributing editor to Reason magazine.

Cathy Young

OPYOU190529

Diversity training goes overboard

Young: Diversity training goes overboard

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The middle class is the backbone of our nation — built on the premise that in return for hard work, prosperity and financial security are achievable. But the middle class is increasingly falling behind under the pressure of rising costs and stagnant wages. It is hard out there and we know it. 
Now, our middle class faces a new and unexpected threat: the federal government. The Trump administration has tried to take away health care by dismantling the Affordable Care Act; it has undermined the organized labor movement that helped build the middle class; and it has put New York’s communities and environment at risk with regressive policies like potential offshore drilling around Long Island. 
The most significant economic threat to New York is the cap on state and local tax deductions. While President Donald Trump promised a tax cut for the middle class, the capping of SALT deductions goes in the opposite direction — hurting about 530,000 taxpayers on Long Island, or more than a third of its taxpayers. It is an egregious act of partisanship that targets Democratic states to pay for tax cuts in Republican states, and it is particularly shameful that Republican representatives from Long Island failed to stand up for their constituents. 
The administration’s policies make the state’s 2 percent cap on local property taxes even more critical for New York, where the property tax burden is more than two-and-a-half times the typical state income tax burden. 
In 2011, after years of trying to rein in out-of-control property taxes — Govs. George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David A. Paterson all tried — we passed the first local property tax cap. The 2 percent property tax cap changed long-term trends, and saved New Yorkers nearly $25 billion. On Long Island, it has saved taxpayers $8.7 billion, with the typical Nassau taxpayer saving $7,611 and the typical Suffolk taxpayer saving $6,284. 
By every measure the tax cap has been a success, but that success is not guaranteed if it does not remain in place. 
That’s why in this year’s budget I call on the State Legislature to make the 2 percent property tax cap permanent. I will not sign a budget that does not include a permanent tax cap. 
Our middle class simply cannot sustain a return to the days of skyrocketing property taxes, especially in the face of the challenges and uncertainty emanating from Washington. So let’s cap it for today. And keep it for tomorrow. 
And let’s not stop there. 
Let’s cut the income tax rate once again for middle-class New Yorkers. And let’s fight SALT until the federal government rolls back this devastating assault on our state and its taxpayers. 
In New York, we have not forgotten the middle class and we stand with middle-class families more than ever in the face of the federal assault. Since I took office, we have prioritized groundbreaking initiatives and investments to lift up hard-working families and reduce obstacles to prosperity. 
We have made too much progress to turn back now. It’s time that the State Legislature enshrines the 2 percent local property tax cap — a fundamental principle of fiscal responsibility — so that we can send a message loud and clear to the middle class that says New York is on their side. 
&nbsp;Andrew M. Cuomo is governor of New York State.

OPCUO190303

Why NY needs a permanent tax cap

Cuomo in opinion piece: NY needs a permanent tax cap

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The dead heat between Tiffany Cabán and Melinda Katz in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney — now amid a full manual recount — has befuddled many political pundits. Still, much can be gleaned from this veritable kaleidoscope of Queens politics. 
If Cabán ultimately wins the race, conventional wisdom will trumpet that as another example of the supposed ascendancy of progressive Democrats, especially since Cabán’s momentum was turbocharged by the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. AOC’s seemingly kingmaker status would benefit from a Cabán victory, but the more complicated truth lies beneath the surface. 
Let’s consider several facts. 
First, in low-turnout Democratic primaries, the most progressive candidate usually has the edge. That is the line that connects Sen. Bernie Sanders’ strength in caucus states in 2016 and AOC’s victory over Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018 to Cabán. 
Alternatively, in larger-turnout primaries the most progressive candidate tends to lose. This thread connects Hillary Clinton’s primary victories to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s landslide victory last year against Cynthia Nixon to the major statewide Democratic primaries in 2017 and 2018 (New Jersey, Virginia, California, Michigan, Delaware and Rhode Island). 
Progressives hold the passion factor advantage in low-turnout, multi-candidate primaries (Cabán received almost a third of her vote from sweeping two of Queens’ 18 Assembly Districts), but better-known candidates who have bridges to multiple constituencies in the Democratic Party hold the advantage in larger-turnout primaries (Katz carried 14 of Queens’ 18 Assembly Districts). 
This DA primary was a dead heat precisely because the 91,000 vote turnout (in the 2018 gubernatorial primary Queens produced 190,000 votes) fell within the twilight zone. In other words, had turnout been under 85,000 votes Cabán would have had a comfortable victory, but if the turnout had crossed 100,000 votes Katz would have had a clear victory. That is the lesson conventional wisdom will likely ignore. 
Second, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will rejoice at having endorsed the winning candidate if Cabán overcomes Katz’ current 16-vote lead. But come April if the two Democratic presidential candidates are fighting over Cabán’s just under 40 percent share in the New York primary, they will leave open a larger pool of at least 60 percent of the Queens primary vote for other presidential contenders. 
A Cabán victory will not signal the dominance of the left in Democratic primaries, nor would a Katz win erase the potency of the progressive pulse in Democratic primaries. The take-away lessons here are that progressives won’t prevail in large turnout Democratic primaries unless they learn to crack the code for winning minority votes; and traditional Democrats need to figure out how to maximize the turnout from the so-called iron triangle — minority, Jewish and white Catholic voters — to win primaries. 
To find clarity within this Queens kaleidoscope, as British writer Samuel Johnson observed about marriage in 1791, would be “a triumph of optimism over experience.” 
Bruce N. Gyory is a political and strategic consultant at Manatt, Phelps &amp; Phillips LLP and an adjunct professor of political science at SUNY Albany.

OPGYO190711

Lessons from Queens DA race

Opinion: Lessons from Queens DA race

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As Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg bounced around South Carolina trying to drum up black support recently, media coverage was thick. Buttigieg is a flavor of the moment in a campaign that may burn through a dozen media darlings. 
His outreach did not work. Even in heavily black communities like North Charleston and Orangeburg, the crowds for the South Bend, Indiana, mayor were mostly white. Stories from The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and The Post and Courier of Charleston dutifully reported the lack of black turnout. 
But none of those stories used the word “gay.” That, given the animus against homosexuality and same-sex marriage among many in the black community and its churches, is journalistic malpractice. 
There have been plenty of stories about Buttigieg’s sexual orientation, and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg. Most have put some focus on whether voters will reject the Harvard University graduate because he is married to a man. But the stories have focused on the homophobia of white conservatives as a stumbling block for Buttigieg, which it isn’t. He has no shot at getting their votes in a general election, gay or not. 
If Buttigieg’s gayness hurts him in this primary race or the general election, it will be with the black Democratic voters whose support he desperately needs, not white Republicans he could never woo. 
About 12 percent of all voters, and 25 percent of Democratic primary voters, are black. As New York Times columnist Charles Blow pointed out in an April piece about Buttigieg’s chances with blacks (which never mentioned that he is gay), the majority of Democratic primary voters in 2016 in the early voting states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia were black. 
According to a 2017 poll from the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of black Americans supported same-sex marriage, while 64 percent of white voters do. But in the past two elections, about 90 percent of blacks voted Democrat, so having a big percentage of that population oppose Buttigieg’s lifestyle is potentially a problem. That could be particularly true, in a primary or general election, with black churchgoers, whose pastors have historically opposed homosexuality. 
Will it be? Opinions vary. 
“He will only have a problem with those black churches who have consumed the Kool-Aid of the white evangelicals,” the Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, said in an interview. Butts said black voters will judge Buttigieg on his policies and stances, not his sexuality, even though many oppose same-sex marriage. But Butts allowed that if Buttigieg tried to “push it down their throats, kiss and hold hands in front of cameras,” moves about which the candidate has been public, he could push away black voters. And in a field with more than 20 options, alienating any significant part of a large block of voters is deadly. 
The Rev. William Owens, who heads the Coalition of African-American Pastors, a group that includes thousands of black clergy members who fight for laws supporting biblical values, says Buttigieg’s sexuality makes his candidacy a nonstarter for many churchgoing black Democrats. 
“You might get a few newcomer black pastors who are trying to pacify white liberals by supporting gay marriage, but the bulk of us are highly opposed,” Owens said. 
The campaign will show whether homosexuality is still enough of a taboo in the black community to cost Buttigieg. But pointing out potential homophobia among large blocks of Democratic voters appears to be a taboo in the journalism community. That journalistic finger-pointing is reserved for conservative voters. 
And that’s not right. 
Lane Filler is a member of Newsday’s editorial board.

Lane Filler

OPFIL190508

Tell truth about Buttigieg and the black vote

Filler: Tell truth about Buttigieg, black vote

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