An Oddball Opinion

I'm going to break ranks here. I bleed orange and blue and everything, but I'm getting a little tired of this Texas Hold'em all-in approach to the "Lighthouse Project." I'm in favor, I'm in favor and I want it to happen but good holy christmas--what's the rush? Is the reason you're not going to an Islanders game really because of the arena? I mean, if they were contenders are you telling me you'd be staying home because there's not an expensive steak restaurant there? Please.

What's more disturbing is the complete lack of interest on the environmental impact of this project. Again, I want it to happen, but if Hempstead has to take some time to get their collective heads around what this will do to the environment then I am fine with that. I like my water to be as unpolluted as possible and if that means I have to go to some more games and park in a crumbling parking lot and watch an antiquated scoreboard then I'll survive. Think I'm overreacting? Check out this article from the same paper that's treating Wang like he's Ghandi.

Call me a whiny liberal environmentalist if you want (hell, I'm just happy someone's reading this blog) but here's how I see it: One of the richest men in America uses a hockey team to strong arm some local politicians into approving a gigantic building project. As far as I know it's environmentally sound, but if the project were somehow to be considered a huge environmental liability, how could these politicians possibly stand up to the onslaught of Newsday and Wang dragging us fans along with them? I'm guessing the politicians would be strung up before getting a chance to explain the delicate intricacies of our aquifers or whatever other problematic impact the project might present. I don't exactly know how to take the moderate road of wanting the team to stay and getting a new arena while avoiding feeling bullied into supporting Wang's project on his terms. Open to suggestion...

Related articles (for those wondering where the hell this all came from) here and here.

Long Island Threatens to Move One of its Last Redeeming Qualities

I’m sure if this blog is ever to achieve some moderate level of success, I’ll have to avoid insulting Long Island. Until that time let me say that the Islanders are one of the few things you can say about the place until you resort to, “well, it’s not New Jersey.” I think without the Islanders the few cultural attachments to the rest of the world will be gone and the Island might as well sink into the North Atlantic taking a significant chunk of the country’s strip malls and douche bags with it leaving the rest of the country to wonder why it suddenly got so quiet.

It was amazing yesterday to see how a single preseason game made everyone lose their mind. A wise man once said, “don’t believe the hype—don-don-don’t believe the hype.” Luckily, the Lighthouse project is taking a long time to approve which gives the Islanders some time to show the ever-patient New York area sports fans a chance to see what’s happening here. I had a Ranger fan sing, “I’m Going to Kansas City” to me, I had Islander fans telling me, “they stink they deserve to move.” But they’re not moving—they’re just threatening to. And as much as I was wrong about Mark Streit being awful before the season began and several other things, I know the Islanders aren’t moving. Don’t take a poor attendance as a sign of dispassionate fans. I’m happy to compare our passion with any team’s fans. As white collar as Long Island can be sometimes, the Nassau Coliseum is as blue collar as it gets. Try going to a Ranger game sometime where there are so many suits you’re not sure if you’re going to see the hockey or Pavarotti perform Carmen. Anyway, I’m OK, you’re OK, let’s not lose are heads just yet.

Good News

I just finished a Geography class which was one of the most depressing regular scheduled hours of my life. Basically, Long Island is an environmental disaster and our water is close to being completely poisoned. In that light, politicians in Hempstead should be commended for doing a thorough job on the environmental impact of the project. Also, the locals may have heard that traffic can be a problem around here. Something else to look into. But they said they would have already approved the revamped coliseum if that’s all Wang wanted. Clearly they’re on our side and want this to happen but this project is, in my estimation, unprecedented so there’s a bit of catching up to do. If nothing else, this whole thing has momentarily seized the attention of the New York sports media—something I never thought the Islanders had in them.