Newsday's cost-of-living series highlighted some of the Island's most intractable issues.

Newsday's cost-of-living series highlighted some of the Island's most intractable issues.

Newsday’s weeklong “Feeling the Squeeze” series, which delved into Long Island’s high cost of living and its tremendous impact on residents across the region, highlights some of the Island’s most intractable issues, the intricately intertwined challenges that make it so difficult to live and work here — from transportation and food costs to housing and day care.

These issues aren’t new. However, one thing becomes even more clear every time we talk about them: There are no simple solutions.

But the consequences to doing nothing — to allowing the noose to just keep tightening — are severe. Long Island is on the verge of losing its middle, the workers and residents who make the Island what it is, our teachers and nurses, construction workers and plumbers, small-business owners and service employees. The more costs continue to rise, the harder it becomes for Long Islanders to hang on. But there’s no place to go — unless they leave the Island altogether.

This is a crisis for our region and for our identity. It’s a crisis in how we can manage the higher cost of living with providing the lifestyles and resources that Long Island offers. It will remain a crisis until we can take the potential solutions and turn them into reality. This will require shifting long-standing thinking about housing, transportation and more.

The most important way to chip away at the Island’s lack of affordability is by offering more housing options — at a variety of price points, in a variety of styles, meant for a variety of people in locations that are suitable. We’ve clearly discovered — after plenty of failed attempts and political missteps — that sweeping generalizations or policy reform aren’t the answer here. But strategic, carefully planned efforts to build more housing can help. Taking vacant malls or tired downtowns or old industrial and commercial properties and turning them into a vibrant mix of uses is a good place to start.

Meanwhile, finding ways to make child care more affordable, to improve public transit so more people don’t need their cars as much and to think through how to moderate utility costs are all lofty — though far from easy — goals, too. Getting New York’s congressional delegation to increase the federal deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, would be a big help.

It all may seem insurmountable or unsolvable especially in such divisive, uncivil times. These issues don’t just impact a select few, who are unknown or unconnected to the rest of us. We are the ones who cannot afford to stay here. Our neighbors, our friends, our children’s teachers and our parents’ caregivers are the ones who cannot afford to stay here. Once we realize why this matters and the very real dangers of not taking action, we’ll be more willing take the first steps.

MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.

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