I'm sure more reflections will come out in the days ahead, but here are some initial reactions to yesterday's Lighthouse Project outreach meeting, where some 1,000 were in attendance.
- Newsday: Reporter Eden Laikin plays it straight and leads with a sum of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's pitch [Laikin's words]: The megaproject is the solution to the county's four major problems, Suozzi said: high property taxes, the inability of young people to afford homes on Long Island, traffic congestion and pockets of poverty.
- Town of Hempstead counsel to the supervisor (i.e., not Murray, again) had an op/ed in Newsday.
- [p.m. Update]: Nick of the must-read Let There Be Light(house) delivers his takeaways from the meeting.
- Chris Botta -- sitting at the media table -- had a blow-by-blow live blog. He also talked to Suozzi [updated with link]
and will have more on that later. - From Newsday's sports side, Katie Strang had a live blog/chat with fans via the Cover It Live platform.
- 7th Woman recaps and says Charles Wang has gotten very good at these public appearances.
- [Update]: Official's Outlook went and liked what he saw. A sincere wish of his: to hear from opponents. Dialog is hard when one side is silent.
- Islanders official site write-up by Tiger Track's Tom Liodice (who also often does the official site's home game recaps).
As Isleblogger Mike said in comments here yesterday, it's simply frustrating when something that seems to make sense and seems to have little opposition is nonetheless hindered by politics.
In my life I've gotten the growing impression that local/municipal politics can be worst of them all, based on the petty stakes and side arrangements that often draw participants into them. If an official isn't drawn to politics at that level by a passion for their local community, then they're drawn by something else entirely, which rarely has community interests first. That's not a statement on any specific leader, just a general observation of how local machines and bureaucracies get to the point where they move at a glacial pace, and at someone else's choosing. Gotta do things "how we do 'em 'round here" or not at all.