Long Island affordability, safety and traffic focus of Newsday forum on poll results

Long Islanders gathered at the Farmingdale Public Library Wednesday evening to raise concerns over affordability, traffic safety and housing, part of a forum held to discuss an exclusive Newsday-Siena survey analyzing the region's quality of life.

The survey found nearly three-quarters of Long Islanders rated living here highly and feel strongly about the quality of education, public safety and services like hospitals. But issues like cost of living and traffic congestion emerged as notable problems, according to the Siena research. Newsday published multiple articles exploring the survey's findings.

The forum, attended by an audience of about 40, highlighted Newsday's work and largely focused on questions and concerns centered on the price of living — and staying — on Long Island.

Newsday business reporter Brianne Ledda, Newsday senior assistant managing editor Ben Weller and Don Levy, director of the Siena Research Institute, were featured on the panel.

"People really like to live here," Ledda said. "But affordability is a real concern, especially when it comes to housing."

The survey, conducted between May 27 and June 16, contacted 802 respondents across Nassau and Suffolk. The polling found 77% of those surveyed either felt the cost of living on Long Island was much worse or somewhat worse than elsewhere.

Levy said respondents of the survey expressed particular concern over the ability for younger adults in their neighborhood to succeed on Long Island.

"You’d like to live someplace where young people have a chance to get a house," Levy said.

Arthur Abrahamsen, 72, of Manorville, suggested politicians should work to establish affordable communities for 20- to 35-year-olds, including on municipally-owned property. The high cost of living has made life on Long Island unattainable for younger adults, he said.

"These poor kids," Abrahamsen added, "they can only do one thing: Move away."

There has been political pushback to affordable housing, despite an apparent need, said Joann Fanizza, 68, of Farmingdale, where there’s been a concerted effort to build transit-oriented places to live.

Fanizza said she’s received political flyers "lambasting" the idea of building affordable housing, "saying that it’s going to be the end of life as we know on Long Island," adding, "We can’t have this kind of political division when we already know it’s successful in Farmingdale."

Weller said the issue of affordability and housing is "largely a political issue" that is "incredibly complicated" and connected to other quality-of-life concerns outlined in the Siena survey.

"The politicians are reacting to who they perceive to be their constituencies," Weller said. "If they perceive their constituency to be against affordable housing and worried about their own property values, you’ll get that kind of opposition."

The forum also included discussions on traffic congestion and high taxes related to the many school districts in Nassau and Suffolk. 

Traffic congestion was a "dramatic concern for Long Islanders" in the survey, Levy said. 

Mitch Pally, the interim president and CEO of Discover Long Island, who attended the forum, said the issues presented by the survey "are very complex and depend to some degree on where you happen to be in your life, where you happen to live."

When his children were in school, Pally said, he didn't worry as much about the cost of school taxes because he was using those services. Now he sees those costs differently. The same nuances are present in questions over housing, he added. 

"Most Long Islanders will say, ‘we need more affordable housing,’ and then we’ll come across and try to put one next to their house and that’ll be the end of the conversation," Pally said.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ