I went to a Hempstead Town Board meeting yesterday and a hockey game broke out.

[inthebrain]

The last Republican stronghold on Long Island is feeling the heat. They tryed to fuck with out beloved hockey team and are getting creamed for it.


Islanders fans score big at town board meeting

To paraphrase the old sports observation, I went to a Hempstead Town Board meeting yesterday and a hockey game broke out. What's more, the Islanders won, big.

On the official calendar, it technically was a hearing convened by Supervisor Kate Murray on the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the Lighthouse Project at Nassau Coliseum. But don't you believe it. In reality it was a public referendum on the future of the Islanders. The people spoke, loudly. They want the team to stay and they want it badly.

Take it from this former town beat reporter. Public hearings are held every week, but they never are like this one. The meetings generally are not held in a two-tiered theater. The audience normally doesn't give the developer a standing ovation. Usually, these meetings are known for perfunctory "yea” votes like the one early on yesterday's agenda, for public parking field maps in Baldwin.

This meeting was different because Islanders fans made it so. In fact, if the Lighthouse development -- anchored by a refurbished Coliseum -- does get done, it will be because Islanders fans drove the train. Credit Islanders owner and Lighthouse co-developer Charles Wang with having the genius to make his $4-billion proposal tied inextricably to the Islanders' future. But he gets only an assist here. He's the John Tonelli to the fans' Bob Nystrom. If this goes
through (and it looks as if it will), fans will have scored the goal.
http://www.newsday.com/columnists/mark-herrmann/islanders-fans-score-big-at-town-board-meeting-1.1349010