We were happy to hear that Charles Wang’s proposal for a 60 story tower in the Mitchell Field area seems to be off the table. Anyone who spent hours crawling through the central Nassau traffic during the holidays understands that such massive overdevelopment would be a terrible thing for the area.

However, even though the most dense and urban part of the project has been removed, there is still a lot to worry about. The other proposals and Mr. Wang’s revised proposal still contain massive amounts of building which will cause increased traffic congestion if built.

Even if most of the traffic to the new housing and retail stores is routed over the Meadowbrook Parkway, it will still be unacceptable. The Meadowbrook/Northern State interchange is frequently jammed up these days (in spite of the fact that it was re-engineered not that many years ago). Drivers seeking relief from jams will find alternate routes -- through our local streets.

This is not to say that nothing should be done with the Coliseum. It is clearly dilapidated and doesn’t meet the needs of either the public or sports teams. And there is clearly a need for “starter housing” on Long Island. Too many young people are moving away because of the high cost of housing here. But really, don’t we all have enough retail outlets to choose from? More malls only damage the local towns politicians claim to care about.

To repeat a joke we used several months ago: What’s the best way to get your daddy to buy you a dog? Ask for a pony.

Well, the pony (fortunately) isn’t going to be bought, but let’s see how big a dog we’re going to get.

Meg Morgan Norris

Publisher