A Message From Vision Long Island...

Vision Long Island and the movement for Smart Growth have much to be thankful for over the last year. Most importantly, support from the public has grown tremendously. Growing interest from the small business community, seniors, young people, environmentalists, segments of the building and design/engineering community and numerous public officials have allowed real projects to take shape. Last Friday’s Smart Growth Summit was an inspiring gathering of leadership from 1,100+ folks that are making downtown and infrastructure projects happen across Long Island. For all of the work achieved this year, we are eternally thankful. You can read an overview with select press links below, but watch for a comprehensive post-event roundup that will include workshop summaries, videos and images.

Immediately, folks can help Long Island’s small business community by shopping downtown on Small Business Saturday. A number of events are planned across Long Island. The message you can also send is to not shop on Thanksgiving. It is despicable to see Walmart and others open at or around 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Aside from the hardship this places on working folks, it also distracts people from time with family or friends. Some traditions should be honored; let's keep Thanksgiving a real holiday despite whatever Walmart wants to do.

With that we hope folks have a great Thanksgiving and see you shopping downtown on Saturday

Best,
Eric Alexander, director
Vision Long Island

The 13th Annual Smart Growth Summit

More than 1,100 Long Islanders join together to address
downtown revitalization and infrastructure!

Vision Long Island was very happy to see the outpouring of positive support for the 2014 Smart Growth Summit. More than 1,100 attendees participated at the Melville Marriott, with over 500 for breakfast and 850 for lunch. The energy in the rooms was palpable and a truly optimistic vision emerged.

Highlights from the event included an excellent and thorough speech from Senator Chuck Schumer on federal infrastructure investments at breakfast, an upbeat luncheon keynote from Congresswoman-elect Kathleen Rice, and economic updates from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Suffolk Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory and Nassau Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves. Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos released a report on the demographic challenges and investment solutions. National Grid's Ken Daly announced a $700 million upgrade to the Natural Gas system.

NYS Senators Jack Martins, Phil Boyle and Carl Marcellino committed to bringing infrastructure dollars and jobs for Long Island and passing the small business savings accounts legislation.

Supervisors Judi Bosworth from North Hempstead, Brookhaven's Ed Romaine, Southampton's Anna Throne Holst and Huntington's Frank Petrone, along with Councilmen Steve Flotteron from Islip and Ed Ambrosino from Hempstead outlined redevelopment efforts in Port Washington, Ronkonkoma, North Bellport, Southampton and Huntington Station respectively. Mayors and Trustees from the Villages of Westbury, Great Neck Plaza, Mineola, Freeport, Babylon, Patchogue and Mastic Beach updated folks with their projects. Other Villages present included Great Neck, Manorhaven, Farmingdale, Valley Stream and Brightwaters.

Project and development updates were outlined from Don Monti's Renaissance Downtowns approval in Hempstead, David Wolkoff's Heartland Square project in Brentwood, RXR's approval at Garvies Point in Glen Cove and Tritec's Ronkonkoma HUB. Off Long Island Forest City Ratner presented for a project on Roosevelt Island; Mill Creek presented in redevelopments in Jersey City. Steven Krieger from Engel Burman covered the economic impact of redevelopment on school districts. Around the region developer/invester George Tsunis spoke on the economic importance of infrastructure investment.

Civic, chamber of commerce and neighborhood revitalization groups were present and active throughout the day. A report on Fair Housing was previewed at the Summit as well from the LI Housing Services. Office of Storm Recovery's Jon Kaiman led a post Sandy recovery panel with other NYS officials and Sandy rebuilding groups.

Workshops were held on topics ranging from energy, water, downtown redevelopment, public safety, arts, tourism, parking, jobs, new town centers, fair housing, transit, traffic calming, healthy communities and others - 24 workshops in all with over 150 speakers.

Finally, the 40-table trade show was great and the well-attended Youth Summit at Dowling College with participation from Dowling, St. Joseph's College, Stony Brook University, Hofstra, and Deer Park and Syosset High Schools continued to engage young folks in the future of Long Island.

Vision co-Chair Trudy Fitzimmons reiterated the organization's support for locally-based planning efforts to meet our regional needs.

Special thanks to Vision's Board, staff and of course all of the Summit sponsors: JP Morgan Chase, Jobco, Renaissance Downtowns, National Grid, Southwest Airlines, RXR, Engel Burman, H2M, GPI, South Asian Times, VHB and 50 other basic sponsors.

Check out some of the press coverage from the 13th annual Summit!

On Small Business Saturday... And Every Day

Sponsored by American Express since its creation in 2010, the 2014 rendition is scheduled for Nov. 29.

Always held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Small Business Saturday advocates for local merchants and downtowns. It’s the counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which promote big box stores and Internet sales, respectively.

Many local businesses offer extended hours and/or discounts that day, and American Express typically offers customers additional discounts. Long Island downtowns will once again support the event and the message.

People across the country are organizing events to celebrate the small businesses in their communities. Help bring your neighborhood together on Nov 29 by promoting the Small Business Saturday® celebration in your area.

Businesses can go to the official website here for in store signs and e-marketing materials. They also have a map of participating stores to help you shop in your local downtowns. We know there are a plethora of events associated with Small Business Saturday across Long Island. Here are is a selection:
Westbury - flea market at corner of Post and Maple Avenues from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and a scavenger hunt at 2 p.m.
Farmingdale - Althea's Boutique grand opening at 1 p.m.
Lynbrook - all day
Huntington village - sidewalk sales all day before tree lighting and street fair at 7 p.m.

Pledge To Not Shop On Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving weekend marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, but a growing number of Americans want to call Thanksgiving off-limits.

Thousands have publicly derided corporate retailers like Walmart for opening their doors on Thursday, some as early as 6 a.m. That includes 110,000 in the Boycott Black Thursday Facebook group and another 11,000 on the Boycott Shopping on Thanksgiving Day Facebook group.

The Massachusetts woman behind the latter group maintains a “Naughty and Nice” list. Earlier this week, retailers like Sam’s Club, P.C. Richards, Lowe’s and Home Depot were on the good side of the ledger for promising to stay closed on Thanksgiving; Walmart, Sears, Best Buy and Simon Malls were on the longer naughty side.

The Idaho man behind Boycott Black Thursday estimates $73 million is at stake for businesses from their group based on a $737.57 average holiday budget per person and their 100,000 likes.

“Share this any time someone tells you we can't have an impact on Black Thursday shopping!” he told his followers.

And while a fair number of major retailers are opting to wait until Black Friday, more larger corporations are gambling that any losses generated by forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving will outweigh lost sales to competitors who steal sales from closed stores.

"On Long Island, Walmart and select big box retailers will sadly be open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Long Islanders should vote with their feet, spend time with their families and bring their shopping dollars to downtown small businesses," Vision Long Island Director Eric Alexander said.

For more on the issue, check out this New York Post story.

A Message From Vision Long Island...

The 13th Annual Smart Growth Summit

More than 1,100 Long Islanders join together to address
downtown revitalization and infrastructure!