An Opinion
The recent political chatter about “Obamacare” before the Supreme Court of the United States got a great deal of media attention. President Obama added fuel to the fire when he declared, “Ultimately, I am confident the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
For someone who was a law professor those words were absurd. Even if a bill passed unanimously in the house and senate, it could still be overturned – if the law was in violation of the Constitution.
Viewpoint
We’re all still peeved about the Long Island Power Authority’s response to the last two major storms, and its explanations. Most of us want to lash out in some way. The rails are being greased for a re-privatization of our power supply system, and this is all backwards and upside down.
We’re not starting with some noble value. There’s no goal to significantly increase renewable energy or decrease emissions more than LIPA, or to offer better reliability or accountability to customers than LIPA. It’s not clear at all how in the long run this can cost Long Islanders less than LIPA.
Eye on the Island
The seven Nassau theaters in the Cablevision-owned Clearview Cinemas chain are being sold to Bow Tie Cinemas, a privately held Connecticut company, in a transaction which is expected to close in the coming months.
The deal, which includes 34 other Clearview Cinema locales in the metropolitan area, will impact Cablevision’s Optimum Rewards cardholders starting next week.
Still Time To Make Things Right
Written by Michael A. Miller Friday, 01 February 2013 00:00
There is still time to do this better. The Nassau County legislature has a statutory March 5 deadline to adopt a districting plan that doesn’t inject more poison into a system that is already dripping with hostile gamesmanship.
Nassau County is still on one knee from a natural catastrophe. Can’t we agree to skip another political catastrophe right now?
How legislative districts are drawn can matter. The situation in Washington is a direct consequence of heavy gerrymandering of districts, encouraging irresponsible behavior by November-proof Representatives who only fear party primary elections. Over the next few months, it may put our national government back on the brink. The continual gear-grinding in our county government is directly traceable to deals regarding a court-ordered restructuring of the legislature cut by some members of the old Board of Supervisors in 1993. We’re stuck with a system that was designed to maintain a status quo that’s no longer valid.
Let’s acknowledge the late May Newburger of North Hempstead, who as a member of the Board of Supervisors in 1994 tried to undue some of the damage and proposed superior alternatives that couldn’t even get seconded. She was publicly booed, literally, by well-meaning people who were misled into supporting arrangements that benefited only a few. We ended up with exactly the kind of legislature, dominated by partisanship and careerism, that residents testified they didn’t want when this was set up.
Just as it happened a decade ago, the appointed redistricting commission failed to recommend a plan to the county legislature. This “temporary advisory commission” was designed to fail in the county charter. It was always intended that most legislators would pick their constituents. The 1994 charter amendments were based on an assumption that it would always be Republicans making those picks. What is playing out now is delusional thinking on the part of some that with a little help, the natural order of things will soon be restored.
Well, nuts to that. Some of the population shifts between the 19 districts have been fairly extreme, ranging from a gain of just over 12 percent to a loss of just over 8 percent. There’s some heavy population turnover and churn occurring in some neighborhoods, which is being reflected in changing vote patterns. The political parties, now essentially devoid of their old field structures and lacking meaningful intelligence, are largely clueless as to what is really happening out there or what it all means. They’re mostly guessing, and they might as well roll the dice on something that allows citizens to not feel mugged.
Although Republicans may get to mess around with the political fortunes of some Democratic legislators, the districts they’ve proposed aren’t, in the long run, much of an improvement for them and they will not be able to hold even the illusion of “control” for anything like the next ten years. Of course, some of this depends on Democrats.
It is unfortunate that some observers have hooked onto this idea that as few residents as possible should be moved into another district. This reinforces this misconception that these districts belong to the individual legislators. It isn’t “his” district or “her” district. They are our districts.
We could have fair districting right now. All the parties have to do is agree to do it. Insiders no longer have semi-exclusive access to detailed population data (see the Nassau County United Redistricting Coalition web site for one example). Motivated civilians with knowledge of the county can draw a reasonably good map that meets legal requirements in a day or two.
County Executive Mangano can step up. He can appoint such a group and ask the legislature to approve that plan by March 5.
