Letters

As Mark Twain said upon seeing his obituary in the newspaper: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” So, too, are the exaggerated reports (and assurances) from Town Hall that the besmirched Liberty Gardens (“Concern for Independent Living”) housing project hawked for County Road 39 is “dead,” “finished” and “over.”

Seems only logical that it would be over and dead, given the misrepresentation from day one that it was affordable “local workforce housing.” State and federal law mandates who gets “Concern” housing (and it ain’t locals, folks).

Then came the sanctimonious and cynical carnival of the “public hearing” choreographed by Ralph Fasano and Jay Schneiderman, creating chaos abetted by the nasty provocations of preacher Michael Daly. This buttressed by busloads of commandeered veterans pitted against intentionally misinformed residents, which exploded into confusion, anger, tears, fistfights and public disgust — not to mention the fatal shooting at another of Mr. Fasano’s retreats soon after. It should have been buried.

But despite no one in Town Hall having any new information, and one-and-all stating that this project is dead in the water, grim reaper Jay Schneiderman just boasted in an interview on Riverhead’s WRIV a few days ago that not only is Liberty Gardens “not dead” but it will be coming up for a vote very soon and he expects it to pass with a split vote. Seems as though he was just waiting for the bad publicity of police action and a fatal shooting to die down before flogging it back to life.

When I asked the question some months ago: “How much harm will Schneiderman do before he finally gets out of office?” It was not rhetorical. His self-interest knows no bounds, as he continues racking up contacts and cronies to further his political career. He would like to add provided housing for “veterans” to his resume. And it seems he doesn’t care how he sold it.

Murmuring is that he wants to run for Congress — as if that august body doesn’t have enough mediocrity and mendacity representing Long Island.

When he finally exhumes Liberty Gardens, the public must halt it, as it did before, for all the same compelling reasons.

Cutting a few apartments from the total is laughable. It is a mammoth, inappropriate facility sleazily marketed, with built-in problems that will impose impossible burdens on all services. It will import people to the area, not ease local housing needs. Dumping it on dangerous, gridlocked County Road 39 and Magee Street will increase traffic. The density proposed is horrific, and can double. The impact on the environment and the surrounding neighborhoods is incalculable.

Schneiderman doesn’t care. To paraphrase another immortal saying: Schneiderman to Southampton: Drop dead.

Frances Genovese

Southampton