Pushing for change
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Daily Point
A tale of two meetings
As Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo met with President Donald Trump over lunch Wednesday in the hopes of getting Trump’s buy-in on the Gateway Tunnel, what might be most notable is who wasn’t in the room.
In September, when Cuomo went to Washington to meet with Trump about Gateway, the room was filled with New York and New Jersey politicians, including former Gov. Chris Christie, Rep. Peter King, and Sens. Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker.
This time, sources told The Point, no one from the New York and New Jersey House or Senate delegations was included.
Sources said King didn’t even know about the meeting until reading about it online on Tuesday. Schumer, meanwhile, apparently was aware of the meeting, but wasn’t among its participants. King and Schumer have both played significant roles in trying to push forward the Gateway project, which would replace the century-old decrepit rail tunnels connecting New Jersey to New York, and the crucial Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River.
In a phone conversation Wednesday with The Point, King noted that Rep. Nita Lowey, who represents the Hudson Valley, should be an important player, too, as she’s likely the next chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
“I hope the governor gets results from the meeting, but I think as we go forward it’s important to have it be bipartisan, and also to make sure that Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Lowey are involved,” King said. “I’m willing to work in the future the way I have in the past . . . It really is going to take a full-court press.”
That likely means that Wednesday’s man-to-man strategy — no matter what the outcome — is just a small step in what will be a long game to get Gateway done.
Randi F. Marshall
Final Point
A bird’s-eye view of the Hub
If you’ve seen one rendering for the Nassau Hub, you’ve seen them all, right?
Not this time.
While the renderings presented at a Nassau County Legislature public hearing Tuesday were just conceptual, and could change after input from the community and others, they are striking in how different they are from past efforts to develop the Hub.
That’s particularly true of the aerial views. What’s most noticeable to the careful observer is just how much space there is, how no building is particularly tall or large, and how the project doesn’t look — dare we use the word so many politicians dislike? — dense.
That’s clearly an effort by developers Scott Rechler and Brett Yormark to appeal to Nassau County and Town of Hempstead officials. Past failures at the Nassau Hub, most especially the $3.8 billion Lighthouse Project, were due in part to all the tall buildings and density suggested for the 77 acres.
Rechler noted the difference at Tuesday’s hearing.
“It’s proportionately consistent with the surrounding community, but substantial enough to serve as a true downtown,” he said of the plan.
That’s a very different message than the ones from previous Hub attempts.
But some things don’t change.
When Rechler and then-partner Charles Wang advocated for the Lighthouse Project in 2008 and 2009, they said they hoped people would say to one another, “Meet me at the Lighthouse.” It became a catchphrase, and then a song and video used by advocates.
Tuesday, Rechler introduced a new phrase he hopes will catch on: “Let’s go to the Hub today.”
Still waiting on the song and video.
Randi F. Marshall
Talking Point
Lobbying for LI Sound
About two dozen environmentalists, elected officials, scientists and business reps from New York and Connecticut are in Washington Wednesday making the rounds of Congress as part of their annual Save the Sound lobbying campaign.
One notable change this time is that Democrats have retaken control of the House of Representatives. That means a change in the group’s focus for preserving Plum Island. Where it used to work with GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, whose district includes Plum Island, now the group is setting its sights on Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi. Suozzi and fellow Democrat Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut are co-chairs with Zeldin of the Long Island Sound Congressional Caucus.
“Now Suozzi has to pick up the ball,” Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, told The Point. “We used to really work with Zeldin on this; now we have to really, really work with Suozzi and DeLauro.”
Esposito said she has had conversations with Suozzi’s staff about finally moving legislation forward to preserve the island, and that he is on board with the effort, “but he has to learn more about Plum Island. It’s not in his district, but now everything has changed.”
The group’s principal ask in its scheduled meetings with eight lawmakers, Esposito said, is to increase funding for wastewater and drinking water infrastructure. It’s asking the federal government to more than double its two state revolving funds, from $2.3 billion to $5 billion. The money is given to states to be allocated to local governments via low-cost loans, and New York is guaranteed 11 percent of the pie. So the increase being sought by the group would mean nearly $300 million more in New York.
The group’s other request is for another hike in dollars for the Long Island Sound Program. Over the last four years, working primarily with Zeldin, the group saw funding increase from $3 million to $12 million. Now it’s seeking $20 million, which Esposito says would put the Sound on equivalent footing with other estuary programs, like Puget Sound in Washington.
“We feel very strongly that these D.C. lobbying trips have really helped increase the budget to $12 million,” Esposito said. “Elected officials tell us that showing up matters.”
Michael Dobie