ISLANDWIDE
Providing Transportation Choices
Tri-State
Transportation
2006
In order to achieve Smart Growth, Long Island needs partners who can command highly specialized, deeply complicated, and oft-times amazingly convoluted issues. Transportation is one such concern. In its myriad aspects, it remains one of the most daunting and deeply critical issues facing Long Island.
We commend the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, an organization that commands a rare voice of reason and technical expertise. Full of knowledge and hard-hitting advocacy, Tri-State has proven itself among the most determined forces to be reckoned with.
Tri-State is unafraid to push the envelope and demand the creative transportation solutions that Long Island’s future depends on. The organization has put a spotlight on the dangers of Long Island roads and has provided extraordinary support to efforts aimed at reducing pedestrian accidents. Champions of public transportation, Tri-State was a leader in ensuring funding for LI Bus and spearheaded the Coalition for the Third Track, an effort aimed at expanding and addressing key issues with the Long Island Rail Road.
From the Smart Growth perspective, Tri-State’s most important contribution has been its relentless push on the NY and NJ Departments of Transportation to create roadways that incorporate land use considerations and allow for mixed use development. It is in this arena, that VISION has had the greatest opportunity to work with them.
Tri-State’s early advocacy for ‘Smart’ transportation planning was a significant factor in advancing commercial corridor charrettes and plans, most notably in the Town of Brookhaven. More recently, their 2005 Smart Growth Summit presentation on transforming the NJ Department of Transportation essentially established a new paradigm of how the large agency can best serve its regions. We look forward to helping Tri-State carry these progressive ideas into the new administration, where we’ll have a valuable opportunity to further advance ‘Smart’ community-centered planning.
Preserving
Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty
Historic and Critical Environmental Areas
Waterfront
Revitalization
New York State Department of State
2005
The NYS Department of State, Division of Coastal Resources is being honored for its commitment to Long Island’s waterfront redevelopment efforts through grants and technical assistance. The NYS Department of State, Division of Coastal Resources works in partnership with community groups, non-profit organizations, state and federal agencies, and local governments to make communities better places to live, work and visit. Its staff and administration are dedicated to advancing Smart Growth principles through waterfront planning and redevelopment.
The NYS Division of Coastal Resources is involved in a wide variety of programs and initiatives that help revitalize, promote and protect communities and waterfronts. Over the past 20 years, the Division has worked with hundreds of local governments and communities to prepare Local Waterfront Revitalization Programs that define a local vision for the waterfront, and have provided technical and financial assistance to hundreds more communities for plans and projects that have expanded public access, reinvigorated urban waterfronts, restored habitats, and strengthened local economies.
The Division is continuing to expand collaborative relationships through numerous statewide and regional initiatives to assure that the quality of life for New Yorkers continues to flourish, both within and beyond the coastal area. Prominent among these initiatives are: Quality Communities Community Center Revitalization Committee, an interagency work group created to show communities how they can enhance their downtowns and community centers; Heritage Areas Advisory Commission; New York State Scenic Byways Advisory Board; New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee; Canal Recreationway Commission; Hudson River Valley Greenway; and New York State Bird Conservation Area Program Advisory Committee, to name a few.
The NYS Department of State has created two multi-media tools that are part of an ambitious and extensive effort to educate decision-makers on how to plan and implement the revitalization of communities by implementing Smart Growth practices.
Making the Most of Your Waterfront teaches communities how to preserve and give new life to waterfronts by bringing stakeholders together to develop comprehensive development strategies. It effectively illustrates how problems can be solved when there is a clear vision for the future, community consensus, and established public/private partnerships.
The Opportunities Waiting to Happen multi-media package includes a website, guidebooks and videos that provide readily accessible information on how to enhance waterfronts and revitalize communities. It promotes the application of many Smart Growth principles, such as community participation in planning, private/public partnerships and the advancement of regional planning efforts.
Long Island’s notoriously high cost of living is especially hard on senior citizens and people with disabilities. Many seniors whose incomes decline after retirement cannot afford to stay on Long Island and enjoy the standard of living to which they have contributed so much. Catholic Charities’ Housing Department provides disadvantaged people with the opportunity for safe and affordable housing and access to a supportive network of services. The program currently operates 15 housing facilities in Nassau and Suffolk counties, totaling more than 1,250 units. Housing units for people struggling with HIV / AIDS, chemical dependency, mental illness, developmental disabilities, and crisis pregnancy are managed and operated by other programs at Catholic Charities.
In addition to providing safe, affordable apartments, Catholic Charities’ Housing Department works to ensure the physical, social, and spiritual well-being of residents. All sites have social services coordinators, who arrange events at each facility and help residents access services for which they are eligible. Two pastoral care coordinators, one working in Nassau County and one in Suffolk, are responsible for keeping in touch with the residents, identifying their needs, and connecting them with a variety of services. Weekly on-site medical services are available at most sites, as is access to Catholic Charities’ Food and Nutrition Program (FAN). Other services are available through partnerships with local parishes.
Housing facilities are listed below:
Neil S. Yellin has over 20 years experience in public management. In 1987, after ten years in New York City government, he came to MTA Long Island Bus. He became the agency’s second in command as Vice President of Policy and Planning in 1993, and was appointed president in March 1998.
Neil is considered a leader in local suburban mobility issues. He is credited with successfully designing and implementing new transit services to meet the emerging travel demands of Long Island’s growing economy.
Long Island Bus provides convenient service throughout Nassau County, western Suffolk County and into eastern Queens. It now operates 330 buses on 54 routes serving 96 communities, 47 Long Island Railroad stations and 5 New York City Transit subways, as well as shopping centers, colleges, museums, parks, theatres and beaches.
Between 1998 and 2002, ridership increased by 17.4% to reach 31.3 million — the highest level in Long Island Bus’ 30 year history.
One of Neil’s crowning achievements is his instrumental role in converting the LI Bus fleet to natural gas. The Fifty-eight new natural gas-fueled buses scheduled for delivery in late-2003 and 2004 will make LI Bus the first bus service to convert its entire fleet from polluting diesel to clean-running natural gas. This achievement has elevated LI Bus to a position of national prominence in alternative fuels transportation.
Even in times of tight budgets, Neil Yellin has kept Long Island Bus running. His service is marked by increasing ridership, improving safety, and facilitating the conversion to natural gas vehicles. Neil is a true leader in providing transportation choice to Nassau County and the greater region.