Nassau Hub lease gets an 'aye' from the LIA

Daily Point

LIA adds its support to Sands proposal

After a lengthy, passionate conversation Wednesday, the Long Island Association board of directors voted to support Las Vegas Sands’ proposal to develop the Nassau Hub, with a caveat recognizing that there are still concerns that need to be addressed.

The measure passed 28-2, although there were 11 abstentions due to various conflicts of interest and other issues, those in the room told The Point.

The gathering took place at UBS Arena, a location that several board members noted only exists because of the difficulties of building at the Hub.

Board members told The Point that most of those who spoke at the meeting favored the Sands’ plan to build a casino resort at the Nassau Hub. The Nassau County Legislature is expected to vote Monday on a resolution to transfer the Nassau Coliseum lease to Sands.

Among the speakers during the hourlong conversation were Jeffrey Reynolds, head of the Family & Children’s Association, who told the group that despite his early concerns about the project, Sands has been responsive to his ideas, which he has previously said include ways to mitigate problem gambling and further engage the community. SUNY Old Westbury President Tim Sams also indicated his initial skepticism has waned. Business leaders like Luis Vazquez, with the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Christopher Capece with Heatherwood Luxury Rentals, John Durso with the Long Island Federation of Labor, Kristen Reynolds with Discover Long Island, and Chris Hahn with PSEG Long Island, were among those who spoke in favor of Sands’ proposal, sources said.

According to those in the room, Hahn emphasized trying to reject NIMBYism efforts. In response, LIA board member and Hofstra University President Susan Poser noted that the project wasn’t in anyone else’s backyard — it was in hers. Poser, who has been on record with her opposition to the Sands plan, suggested that the LIA shouldn’t take a position on the project yet — without getting answers to outstanding questions.

Last week, at the legislature’s Rules Committee meeting on the Sands proposal, Poser read the LIA’s mission statement, suggesting that the lack of a mention of a casino in it and other similar statements indicated “business and community consensus” that “Placing a luxury casino development on one of the largest tracts of public land in Long Island is not the kind of economic development that Nassau County or Long Island has envisioned, planned for or needs.”

Multiple board members told The Point that Poser’s comments to the legislature did not come up during the LIA board meeting, but that board members were aware of the remarks heading into the discussion.

On Wednesday, Poser voted against the LIA’s measure. Board members with whom The Point spoke could not identify the other "no" vote.

But several board members emphasized the need for the LIA’s voice on the issue, as the Island’s largest business organization.

“The vast overwhelming majority of people were in favor of supporting the project, even as there are still concerns that need to be addressed,” one LIA board member told The Point after the meeting.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

A call before the fall

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Reference Point

China policy a moving goalpost

Relations with China are a white-hot issue these days. Even U.S. political rivals can agree Beijing is an untrustworthy rival if not an outright enemy while disagreeing on how specifically to deal with President Xi Jinping’s government. China’s expanding influence is slated to be discussed by the U.S. and its Pacific allies on the sidelines of this week’s G-7 meeting in Japan.

Relations with China also were a white-hot issue in 1978, when Newsday’s editorial board considered whether the United States should recognize the People’s Republic of China in a May 18 piece titled “Peking Keeps Pressing for U.S. Recognition.”

The backdrop was the Chinese civil war, which ended in 1949 with Mao Zedong’s Communists controlling the mainland and the Republic of China leadership under Chiang Kai-shek retreating to Taiwan. But the U.S. never recognized the People’s Republic of China and continued to support the exiled government “as if Taiwan were the front line of defense for the U.S. homeland,” as the board put it.

By 1978, though, American businesses were eager to tap into the huge mainland market and some policymakers believed the U.S. could use a tighter relationship with China to constrain the Soviet Union, then viewed as the prime American enemy.

“Tradition and sentiment have a valid role in making foreign policy, but the ultimate determinant is national self-interest,” Newsday’s board wrote, citing as examples Britain restoring relations with the U.S. soon after the Revolutionary War and the U.S. making quick allies of Germany and Japan after World War II.

“Strip away the sentiment and Washington’s decision is no contest,” the board wrote. “Mainland China is more to Americans than just the most populous country in the world. It’s the strategic keystone of U.S. security in the competition with the Soviet Union … China also has mineral resources to develop for export and offers an inviting potential market for American technology and capital goods.”

In 1972, then-President Richard Nixon committed to establishing full diplomatic relations but there was no follow-through.

“And though we share Washington’s concern to protect Taiwan’s autonomy when that day comes, we can understand why a China plundered by extraterritorial concessions in the last century would refuse to make one on Taiwan now,” the board said. “The evidence suggests that Taiwan has no more to fear on this account than Hong Kong.”

Oops. In 2023, China’s authoritarian crackdown on Hong Kong has stoked fears in Taiwan and the U.S. about Xi’s plans for the island nation.

The 1978 editorial board concluded by imploring President Jimmy Carter to recognize China in the “U.S. self-interest” and “soon.”

And he did. Seven months later, on Dec. 15, Carter announced that the United States would formally recognize the People’s Republic of China on Jan. 1, 1979, and sever relations with Taiwan.

Of course, it was more complicated than that. The U.S. has continued to support Taiwan while officially maintaining a policy of strategic ambiguity on whether it would defend the island democracy, a stance shattered as recently as last September when President Joe Biden said bluntly the U.S. would defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

Those mineral resources are still highly valued but another pawn in the faceoff between the world’s two greatest powers, and American businesses are chafing under the market restrictions imposed on them by Beijing.

Now as then, the national self-interest is a moving target.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie, Amanda Fiscina-Wells @adfiscina