IT IS TIME FOR SOME ANSWERS NO MORE POLITICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE WANT AND DESERVE THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

           I was a resident on of Westbury from 1970 - 1999, my parents still live there, but I moved from my family and freinds because there was no way possible to afford to buy a house and live on Long Island. I now currently live in Coral Springs, Florida and own a condo, something even though with the housing crash I would never been able to do in Nassau County. Many people around my age (45) have moved instead of keeping there roots in Nassau County because of the same reasons. That is a sad state of affairs for once a thriving area. I remember when I was young Long Island talking about being its own state, boy how far the Island has fallen.

          Little by little Long Island has lost its identity. The Island was known for beatiful suburbs, great public schools, high tech companies like Grumman (The comapny that built the Lunar Module and the F14), and our community identity The New York Islanders. What has the Island have left? That is the question that needs to be answered. My parents have a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house and still pay $8,000.00 a year in taxes, my parents did vote YES yesterday. Nassau County voters did not say NO to the Islanders it was NO MORE TAXES!!!!!

          Long Island will not change its way of doing anything. The Island still thinks its 1950's - 1980's, when it was a growing and thriving community. WELL ITS TIME TO WAKE UP!!!!! The Island is now a community on the decline. No not because The Islanders will more than likely move, that is only a symptom of the slow demise of Long Island.

          The original Lighthouse Project was a vision. It was to be privately funded, but a Small Town Politician Kate Murray had the project killed. Instead of trying to revitalize the community or maybe try to work with Charles Wang her cronies and her killed the project. Then they put together their own idea, with no vision at all, what they were willing to let be built. Not caring about the economics of the situation. They played hardball politics and everybody lost. What could have been the start of a revitalization of Long Island as a whole was killed by THE TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD. It was only done because of politics, no other reason.

         I also blame Charles Wang, he stopped talking to the media a complete blackout. He could have tried to get public opinion on his side and maybe work with the town government but he did not. No compromise in any way. He just ended it and left the fans blowing in the wind. We did not here anything for over a year.

       The idea they came up with to build the new arena was flawed, but was a nice starting point. The only problem was they did not get everybody on board, they announced the deal but did not do any promotion of it until only a couple of weeks prior. They let the opposing politicians stir up their contingency before they even started any promotion. The opposition had too much time to launch the attack with total outright lies even before the details were released. Like the $58.00 tax hike when net it would probably $13.80, again too little too late. They did not even explain if the Islanders leave and the NVMC closes their would be a tax hike of $16.00 until much later. That is poor planning on Wang and Mangano.

        It is time that the Long Island community take control. There needs to be progress not stagnation, or else this community will whither and die a slow death.

        What can Nassau County do to build a new arena and a hub for the community. This has been in debate since Bill Torrey was still the GM. He started trying to negotiate with the County. So that means politics has stopped the progress for close to 20 years. But what is funny is that they turned a light security prison into a hard prison, that is within less than a mile from the following places:East Meadow High School, a retirement community, Nassau County Medical Center, and Eisenhower Park. That community standard was ok but not the Lighthouse Project. That is what is wrong. LI let its industry move because we would not give any tax breaks to big companies, and now other states are better off and LI continues to whither and die.

  1.     It is time to stop with SAME OLD POLITICS!!!! Wang, Republicans, and Democrats have to work together that will keep THE NEW YORK ISLANDERS where they belong on LONG ISLAND. As far as I am concerned that could be either Nassau County, Suffolk County, and yes Queens or Brooklyn. Queens and Brooklyn is part of the city of NY but the land is actually on LONG ISLAND. This could be a start of the REVITALIZATION OF LONG ISLAND or JUST ANOTHER SYMPTOM OF A DIEING COMMUNITY!!!!!!!!!

2.    Wang needs to inform the fans of his intention. No more media blackouts.

3.    Wang needs to keep improving the team

4.     The people on Long Island must push their politicians to work out a deal.

Michael Pastore