Volume 11, Issue 11 - November 2013 - There Goes The Neighborhood by Long Island Press

“I want a health plan that covers me...and my family.”

Quality health coverage. It’s Our Mission. Fidelis Care offers quality, affordable New York Statesponsored health insurance for children and adults of all ages, and at all stages of life. From New York State of Health: The Official Health Plan Marketplace, to Child Health Plus, Medicaid Managed Care, Medicare Advantage, Managed Long Term Care, and more, we have a program that meets your needs. And, with our growing provider network, you can see a Fidelis Care doctor almost anywhere you go in New York State!

To learn more, call Fidelis Care today at 1-888-FIDELIS (1-888-343-3547) or visit fideliscare.org. We have a health insurance program that's right for you - and the ones you love. Look for Fidelis Care in the Health Plan Marketplace,* with some of the most competitively priced products available! *Products not available in all counties. For more information about Medicaid and Family Health Plus, call New York Medicaid Choice at 1-800-505-5678. For more information about Medicaid, Family Health Plus, and Child Health Plus, call New York Health Options at 1-855-693-6765. Some children who had employer-based health insurance coverage within the past six months may be subject to a waiting period before they can enroll in Child Health Plus. This will depend on your household income and the reason your children lost employer-based coverage.

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NASSAU COUNTY

INDEPENDENCE PARTY CANDIDATES

DISTRICT ATTORNEY

KATHLEEN RICE

RICE MANGANO

NASSAU COUNTY EXECUTIVE

ED MANGANO

A Proven Team of

PROTECTING THE PUBLIC 4 Reduced Crime 4 Froze Property Taxes 4 Building a Better Nassau VOTE FOR THE

INDEPENDENCE PARTY TEAM ROW E • NOVEMBER 5TH

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2013

November In This Issue

Staff

Off The Reservation p.14

EDIT Christopher Twarowski

Hoisting Atrophy By Jed Morey

Editor in Chief/Chief of Investigations

the portrait p.16

Spencer Rumsey Senior Editor

Natalie Portman: Hometown Heroine By Jenna Kern-Rugile

Timothy Bolger Managing Editor

Rashed Mian Staff Writer

“The bad guys are not afraid... Somebody has to stand up.”

Jaime Franchi Staff Writer

Contributors:

Anna Dinger, Peter Tannen, Jenna Kern-Rugile ART Jon Sasala Art Director

Jon Chim

Graphic Artist

INVESTIGATIONS p.20

There Goes The Neighborhood: More Vacant Homes Become Crime Dens, Threatening Long Island By Timothy Bolger

Jim Lennon

Contributing Photographer

Digital Mike Conforti

Director of New Media

Just Saying p.30

Let’s Help America Find A New Enemy! By Peter Tannen

“This is your ending? A lighthouse?” NEWS FEATURE p.32

Hollywood East: Behind the Scenes of L.I.’s Booming TV and Film Industry By Rashed Mian REAR VIEW p.42

Jackie O: L.I.’s First Lady By Spencer Rumsey Art & Soul p.48

LIRR Massacre Film Resurrects Horror, Hope & Familiar Questions By Spencer Rumsey

4 Corners p.54

Airlines: From the Passenger to the Traffic Controller By Timothy Bolger Hot Plate p.60

Farm To Table: L.I. Farms, Restaurants Unite By Rashed Mian

Plus

Letters p.6 Sound Smart p.8 ExpresS p.10 sTaff Picks p.56 Events p.66 CrosswordS p.74

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Bravissimo! If you dread going to the dentist, now there’s a perfect cure: Dr. Carole S. Horowitz, D.M.D. Her philosophy and innovative approach is like no other. Dr. Horowitz offers traditional-style dentistry with flair in her newly renovated, cozy surroundings in Lynbrook and Plainview. She prides herself on delivering the ultimate in expert personal service and developing special relationships with patients, which are often lost nowadays. As a general dentist with more than 25 years experience with all age groups, Dr. Horowitz has built a reputation as one who truly takes the time to listen and treat your families’ needs in a non-rushed calming atmosphere. She believes in giving each patient the time and care necessary, not only clinically, but makes herself available for treatment questions and concerns. Patients rarely have to wait, as time is allocated for each patient’s specific procedure. “Each patient receives our undivided attention for as long as it takes to provide the best treatment possible,” says Dr. Horowitz. “We pride ourselves on this ‘one to one’ experience in which we take special care to assure that treatment is rendered thoroughly and gently with attention to detail.” Dr. Horowitz is a family practitioner treating her third generation of families. She has a strong academic and clinical background. In addition to her “Doctor of Dental Medicine” degree, she holds a degree in Dental Hygiene and Health Education and completed a hospital residency program. She has been speaking for years at local pre-school and elementary schools with her unique methods of educating children about the importance of good dental health, and also has an extensive background in mixed media artpainting, drawing and sculpture. Her inspiration goes back to her roots in Whitestone, N.Y., where a neighborhood doctor made house visits to ill patients.

“I always wanted to have that small-town feel, where my patients felt connected to me and comfortable having their work done,” she says. “It was important to me that my patients not have to wait for weeks for an appointment, be seen promptly for their scheduled visit, and could contact me personally for any questions.” As a family dentist, Dr. Horowitz provides comprehensive care and utilizes all of her skills in cosmetic dentistry and other areas of dentistry to give her patients the very best. She enjoys pediatric dentistry, is excellent with anxious patients, and is sensitive to seniors’ individual needs. She is available Saturdays, evenings, accommodates various schedules, and is happy to address concerns after hours when they arise. Many patients also benefit from the special expertise of her husband, Dr. Ronald Knoll, a skilled prosthodontist who treats cosmetic needs and such problems as difficult dentures, implants, crowns, and bridges as well as TMJ disorders not easily managed by a general dentist. This top-notch husband and wife team satisfies a broad spectrum of dental needs. So make your next appointment with Dr. Horowitz and Dr. Knoll. Their personal warmth, enthusiasm, and depth of knowledge will make you glad you did. Both offices are centrally located and parking accessible. Dr. Carole S. Horowitz, D.M.D. 50 Hempstead Ave., Suite K, Lynbrook, 516-593-9228 1 Pasadena Drive, Plainview, 516-938-1666. Visit their web site at www.familydentalspecialist.com

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Readers React Here’s what you had to say...

For over half of a century, we’ve been fighting on behalf of Long Island’s working men and women for better pay, benefits, and working conditions. Find out how you can get involved to earn the dignity & respect that

YOU DESERVE!

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Good for him [Mangano Ditches News12 Debates, Citing Suozzi Ties,” Oct. 23]. How can a news agency—Newsday and News12 combined—declare themselves independent when their parent company has given big bucks, employed the opponent and they have endorsed the opponent? He didn’t stand a chance of neutrality. John Roulett

This angered me so much [“‘Shameless’ Scalpers Profit from Billy Joel Charity Concert,” Oct. 16]. Tickets for $1,600 each—crazy. All the while, the charity was not getting the benefit. They should have done it in person with Ticketmaster/venue sales only. Noreen Mormando

overkill, the NSA is building a huge new facility in the desert in Utah to further expand its surveillance operations. Due to the size of the new facility there, we can be assured that the federal government is going to keep up surveillance on all Americans. Janet McCarthy, Flushing

@TheFoggiestIdea: Yes, we are. The National Security Agency Plan ahead. MT @LongIslandPress Is (NSA) has been collecting data on all LI Still Due for The Big One? Experts Americans since it was created by a Differ on Storm of the Century directive by President Harry S. [October 2013] Truman. It is one of 16 intelligence agencies of the US Government. It To steal signs from people’s currently has its headquarters at Fort homes is against the law and those Meade, Maryland. It is surrounded by who do it must be prosecuted. It may barbed wire and it is a city of its own sound petty, but the cost of the sign with its own police and fire is not at issue here. In America, departments and its own post office. people should be able to express who they support for office without fear of Yet few members of oppression. Congress, even those Name withheld who are members Let us know of the intelligence Mother Nature is a what you think committees, have b*#ch [“New Dune been aware of the Erodes in Gilgo, agency’s size, scope Threatening Ocean and influence. Some Parkway,” Oct. 13]. But Letters@LongIslandPress.com 1,271 government that dune was never organizations and much more than a big 1,931 private pile of sand, absent companies work on any anchoring such as Facebook.com/LongIslandPress programs related to horizontal erosion counterterrorism, mats. Sprigs of beach homeland security grass and other flora and intelligence @LongIslandPress were added topically, in about 10,000 giving it the look of Joe locations across the Biden’s hair plugs. United States. An Undermining the entire estimated 854,000 proposition is the people hold top www.LongIslandPress.com 10-foot depth of sand security clearances. that was swept away Many security and and yet to be intelligence agencies 990 Stewart Ave., Suite 450, replenished. Ergo this do the same work, Garden City, NY 11530 result. To paraphrase creating redundancy Jimi Hendrix: “And so and waste. castles made of sand fall to the sea, Despite what is to all immediately.” appearances massive (516) 284-3300 Dorian Dale

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THANKSGIVUKKAH On Nov. 28, Jewish Americans will be sitting down to the last Thanksgivukkah for the next 75,000 years. This is the first time that Hannukkah and Thanksgiving have ever coincided—and it won’t happen again until year 79811. What a Thanksgiving feast will look like then? We’re guessing we’ll have moved far beyond canned cranberry sauce. Until then, enjoy your turkey this year with a schmear. Something to look forward to though, no?

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In an ironic twist, the addictive, timeconsuming and all-encompassing video game Minecraft is being hailed by educators and used in academic curriculums all around the world for its educational benefits. In fact, a school in Stockholm made Minecraft compulsory for 13-year-old students to teach them about city planning and environmental issues. It’s used to teach history, science, and even language. Huh. Wonder what’s in store for Angry Birds. In Dubai, there are two smart phones registered for nearly every person. Why? It might be that they need the extra device to send lives back and forth to keep up a constant pace in Candy Crush, but catching up on old episodes of Breaking Bad has us believing something much more sinister might be at play here. After all, Walter White’s second cell phone was an important plot device in the show. Dubai therefore might just be a city full of really interconnected science teachers.

HAUNTING

So it turns out that Stephen King hates the movie version of The Shining. The author, upon the recent release of the cult classic’s sequel Doctor Sleep, has asserted that Jack Torrence was one of his most autobiographical characters, and he can’t get behind Jack Nicholson’s portrayal, saying he “seems crazy from the jump.” More than that, he thought Stanley Kubrick, the director, was “cold” and “compulsive.” Either way, the vision of the twin girls standing in the hallway of the Overlook Hotel is the fuel of nightmares more than 30 years after its screen debut—for many more than just King. “Heeere’s Stevie!” just doesn’t sound the same.

“Long Island had a lasting influence over the course of [Jackie O’s] life, beginning with her birth in Southampton in 1929.” REAR VIEW p.42

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GOOGLE GLASS— the wearable, headmounted computer that looks like normal eyglasswear—is being implemented in surgeries. It makes sense: Surgeons need their hands, need to communicate, need to look things up, and are mobile. Hopefully they won’t be updating their Facebook statuses while they’re elbowdeep in your innards.

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ALLIGATOR

PARTIAL SCORE Suffolk County SPCA officers responded to the home of a Miller Place resident who surrendered a 2-foot long alligator after missing a prior “reptile amnesty day” to gather any scaly critters kept as pets. Points lost for harboring the monster in the first place, but kudos for coming clean—unlike those who’ve let loose the 18 other gators in parking lots, streams and backyards across the Island since September 2012.

BOARDWALK

BULL’S EYE The Long Beach Boardwalk,

after being smashed to smithereens by Hurricane Sandy, re-opened again to the public Oct. 25 following a complete cleanup and reconstruction ongoing since the storm’s wrath. Dozens turned out for the jubilant event, a feat representative of the challenges and rebirth still unfolding across the Island—and highlighting the work that still has yet to be done.

CRACK QUACKS

OFF TARGET A 57-year-old man and 48-year-old woman from Riverhead have been charged with drug felonies after New York State Police, who had observed the

couple acting suspiciously at the iconic Big Duck in Flanders, discovered they were carrying crack cocaine. Really? The Big Duck isn’t weird enough without the hard-core stuff? Should’ve opted for a stroll along the new LBC Boardwalk instead!

LOU REED

BULL’S EYE The legendary singer/ songwriter/guitarist and Velvet Underground founder lost his battle with liver disease, passing away in his Hamptons home Oct. 27 and unleashing a torrent of tributes across the arts and entertainment world. Born in Brooklyn and raised in

THe Target Freeport, the art-punk poet will forever be remembered for his innovation, attitude, style and raw power—a true pioneer, wordsmith, rebel, outlaw, and a Long Islander who influenced generations of artists and musicians to come. Linger on, Lou. Linger on.

STEPHEN BALDWIN PARTIAL SCORE The born-again Christian and youngest B-brother paid another $100,000

in Rockland County Court toward the $400,000 he owes as part of a plea deal for felony tax-delinquincy charges. The former Bio-Dome star, like the Miller Place alligator keeper, did wrong and is repenting. Kudos, we say. Now can you please get your brother to keep his hands off photographers!? Oye!

$1,200

The online resale cost of $79-$150 tickets to see Billy Joel perform a surprise concert benefiting Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Food Bank on Oct. 16 at The Paramount theater in Huntington.

STANDING UNITED: Long Beach residents form a human chain of hands in remembrance to makr the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, which devastated much of the City by the Sea. (Joe Abate/Long Island Press)

Pink Slip

Christopher Atkins Jason Chaffetz Xu Shousheng Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst Kurt Pasche & Jaclyn Nugent Wojciech Braszczok

“I was worried that this place was going to become like Detroit.” —Central Islip Fire District Fire Marshal Chris Poss INVESTIGATIONS p.20

GOP demands + Obama stands x Government shutdown – Obamacare defunded his ground FurloughS Workers

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Bryna Rifkin Doug Lamborn, Scott Tipton, Mike Coffman & Cory Gardner Tiona Rodriguez Alan Gottlieb To see why go to longislandpress.com/pinkslip

Economy Loses ÷ Republicans cave = $24 Billion 16 days later

let’s do this again in january!

The Rund wn

Re v i ew

Hack BY KIERAN CROWLEY

Your To-Do List for this month

ENJOY LONG ISLAND RESTAURANT WEEK Running Sunday, Nov. 3-10, this annual blessing offers amazing deals on outstanding meals all across the Island. Feast on a three-course prix-fixe dinner for $27.95 per person, all week long (Saturday up to 7 p.m.). Bring the family, a loved one, or treat yourself to these special, price-is-right feasts! Check out www.longislandrestaurantweek.com to find participating restaurants and the perfect match!

GOOGLE “MEDIEVAL LAND” & “GAME OF THRONES”

Master comedic spoofers Bad Lip Reading have transformed the brutally dark and violent HBO super show into a medieval theme park— “Medieval Land Fun-Time World,” to be precise—and this is the absolutely hilarious trailer for the movie. Because winter is coming, dear friends. Winter is coming.

SPREAD THE WORD

November is American Diabetes, Lung Cancer Awareness, Native American Indian Heritage, National Healthy Skin and National Family Caregivers Month. Reflect upon these issues and those suffering. Support local efforts to combat these diseases, further these causes and spread the word about the ongoing challenges so many are still facing. Raise awareness. Lend a hand. Join the movement.

A celebrity food critic’s husband is discovered slain in their multi-milliondollar Upper East Side townhouse, his throat slashed, butt cheek missing and naked corpse garnished in parsley, garlic and Parmesan cheese. The couple’s husky, Skippy, is guarding the body. Enter F.X. Shepherd, pet columnist for the daily tabloid New York Mail, mistakenly sent to cover the murder by his Australian overlords/editors instead of the real cops reporter, who’s out on “holiday” and has the same last name. The request interrupts Shepherd’s chicken souvlaki lunch and kicks off a quest for the truth that transports readers on an inside tour of the salaciously cutthroat-bloodlust world of tabloid journalism and the grisly, backbreaking, raw shoeleather work of crime and court reporting in New York City. Crowley, a bestselling author and awardwinning investigative journalist formerly of the New York Post, knows the subject matter inside-out, having covered countless murders and trials and making it his personal hobby along the way to find evidence overlooked by NYPD crime scene detectives. The man is a legend, a master of his craft, and Hack is a seamlessly flowing, imaginative translation of these realms, blended together in exciting, suspenseful and oftentimes hilariously moving prose that reads like a conversation while serving as engrossing fiction, compelling insight and eye-opening commentary. It’s a joy to read and captures the imagination from the start. Crowley is not just a monster journalist, he’s also one hell of a storyteller. Nails it. —Christopher Twarowski

ORDER A MOJITO

Why? Do you really need a reason? They go down smooth, linger on the tongue for just a bit, are minty—and they possess this magical ability to transport you to a far-away beach somewhere not cold. This limey cocktail also has the power to actually taste better when shared with friends and loved ones. There are primo restaurants and bars across Long Island whose expert staff can whip up one of these (and any other) sweet elixirs. But who’s the best, you ask? The best bartender, the best bar or the best mojito? All three? That’s up to you! Go to BestOf.LongIslandPress.com and vote for your favorite today before time runs out!

PLAY DEER HUNTER 2014

The iPhone and Android smartphone game is taking users by storm, though it’s not for the faint of heart. Flush out rabbits and an assortment of other creatures (more than 100 animal species are represented) while traveling the globe in search of the most prized and exotic game. Go it alone or join friends in global cooperative challenges. But look out, these critters bite back!

FOLLOW MAVEN

SMELL THE BACON We knew the time would WATCH CAESAR & OTTO’S DEADLY XMAS

LI filmmaker Dave Campfield’s comedy-horror has been racking up awards at festivals across the country and drops Nov. 19 on DVD at Blockbuster and Family Video. Head down to 112 Video World in Medford for its release party and see what all the hubbub’s about.

come when the most genius iPhone and Android app would be invented. It is here. There’s now a plug-in attachment that releases the scent of bacon whenever you get a notification. The “Scentee” attaches through the headphone socket and comes equipped with capsules that are released whenever you desire—say when your significant other sends you a text message or your alarm clock goes off. Yes, you can now truly wake up to the smell of bacon, every single day! Without the grease! But then there would be no actual bacon. Someone needs to create an app that makes that.

DOWNLOAD BLACKBERRY BBM APP BlackBerry devices may be on the verge of extinction, but the cell phone maker did find a way to make a splash by rolling out an iPhone and Android app for its wildly popular messaging service, BBM, satisfying former “CrackBerry” addicts who jumped ship to other smartphones but lamented losing BlackBerry Messenger. Relive the BlackBerry craze!

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) launches Nov. 18, becoming the first mission to explore the Red Planet’s Martian atmosphere. The launch of the 5,410-pound spacecraft will be streamed live. MAVEN should reach Mars in September 2014 for its one-Earth-year-long quest. To view the liftoff and learn more about this historic voyage, check out www.nasa. gov/maven and www.lasp. colorado.edu/home/maven

HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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Thanks Long Island! You’ve nominated Petro as a Long Island Press Best of Long Island business again for the 4th consecutive year!

Thanks to your votes, you’ve made us winners for the past three years! And, we’re counting on your help to be the winner for heating oil services again this year. Please visit bestof.longislandpress.com/voting/ to cast your vote and help make it happen. From home heating oil to propane and plumbing to generators, Petro is one to know for all of your home services. All backed by 24/7 service and support, whatever the weather!

1.800.645.4328 | petro.com

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Hoisting Atrophy O f f t h e R e s e rvat i o n

BY Jed Morey Publisher, Long Island Press www.jedmorey.com @jedmorey

t’s the most wonderful time of the year. If politics is your sport, nothing compares to retail politics at the local level. No irrational exuberance surrounding national figures with long coattails or embarrassing blowback; just a good, old-fashioned boots-onthe-ground slugfest where committee members rule the day. This year’s election is one where ideology takes a backseat to patronage in the battle of the bureaucrats. This is small ball, baby. It’s been a while since I pulled my thoughts out of the national and international clouds to take a look at what is happening here at home. So forgive me as I reminisce for a moment before handicapping the county executive race in Nassau County, far and away the most interesting local political story of the season. A little more than a decade ago I ran for mayor in my hometown of Glen Cove. In doing so I found myself on the opposite end (and losing side) of the Suozzi family machine. While this was my adopted hometown, I was a so-called carpetbagger living in the feudal regime run by generations of Suozzis. The race was so parochial, my opponent even sent out a campaign flyer that told the good citizens of Glen Cove that I was untrustworthy because I was born in Canada. Glen Cove is the land of homemade pasta sauce, not maple syrup. I never had a chance. As a Republican candidate (hard to believe, I know), I briefly found myself in the fascinating world of the

Nassau County GOP. My first (and last) general meeting at GOP headquarters in Westbury was as if I had set the dashboard clock on my DeLorean to 1950. The nearly all-white and graying crowd milled about greeting one another with hearty slaps on the back while the power brokers huddled quietly in the corner of the room whispering among themselves and occasionally surveying the crowd. Gradually, everyone took a seat in a folding chair facing a large map and a podium where chairman Joseph

the politicians who occupy positions on the ballots, whether it’s Brookhaven, Southampton or Glen Cove, have gone to where the action really is: knocking on doors. There is no more authentic or humbling experience than standing in someone’s living room and listening to what they want from their local officials. Which brings me to the two men atop the Nassau County ticket who are appropriately playing small ball, and in doing so, missing the larger picture altogether.

‘’Our troubles in suburbia are so thick that there is an air of inevitability to our decline. Mangano and Suozzi know it, which is why this is the ultimate bureaucratic contest.” Mondello presided over the meeting. “This is a business!” he bellowed on more than one occasion. Mr. Mondello’s countenance would move from ashen to crimson within seconds as he addressed the audience alternately with the coolness of a CEO and the vigor of a college football coach. The overarching message was that we were to adhere to the script, send our money directly to headquarters and essentially fall in line. The lessons I learned from this experience will stay with me forever. My 15 minutes of fame in Glen Cove has all but faded away, allowing me near perfect anonymity as I watch the lawn signs sprout up all over town with this year’s crop of candidates. My hope is that

When watching current County Executive Ed Mangano and former county executive Tom Suozzi fight to be the one to circle the bowl next, it’s hard not to get caught up in the partisan bickering. And there is some great “inside baseball” going on here. Suozzi says Mangano is responsible for Nassau’s $2 billion debt. He’s not. Mangano claims to have presented balanced budgets. He didn’t. Suozzi attacks Mangano for being soft on gun control. This is grasping at straws. Mangano asserts that he has made progress on the property tax assessment issue. He hasn’t. The biggest disconnect of this race, however, is ideology. The truth of this contest is that the two parties these men

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represent are indistinguishable from one another. The assessment situation is fixable. But it must come from Albany—and the nine Long Island senators hold the key. Unfortunately, neither Mangano nor Suozzi will cop to this admission because each is cozy with law firms that extract exorbitant fees from tax grievances. Both men share an antipathy toward labor and favor privatization. Mangano spends an inordinate amount of time cozying up to donors and Suozzi spent his political off-season consulting for an investment bank and commissioning works of art. In everything they have done and represent, they are shills for corporate America and complicit in an overall scheme designed to liquidate taxpayers, privatize public works, and ride the status quo deep into the ground. It’s hardly their fault, mind you. Our troubles in suburbia are so thick that there is an air of inevitability to our decline. Mangano and Suozzi know it, which is why this is the ultimate bureaucratic contest. As voters, this election comes down to which starting lineup you want on the field playing in a game that won’t affect the outcome of your season. Got a buddy sandwiched in a cubicle in North Hempstead waiting to return to a cushy county job? Vote for Suozzi. Have a relative in the county who needs three more years to pad his or her pension before retirement? Vote for Mangano. Want real change and a chance to redefine our future? Sorry. Not on the ballot. Either way, I’ll be glued to my television as usual, watching Jerry Kremer and Larry Levy narrate the inevitable. And loving every minute of it.

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NATALIE PORTMAN HOMETOWN HEROINE She’s played a ballerina, a queen, a stripper and two famous Annes (Frank and Boleyn). She was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine. She won the Academy Award for her performance in the psychological thriller Black Swan, along with a Golden Globe and several other major accolades. Yet during one of her nearly 20 David Letterman Show appearances, Natalie Portman told the host, “I’ll always still be a kid from Long Island.” Portman, who was born in Jerusalem and lived there until age 3, spent most of her formative years in Jericho, attending Solomon Schechter Day School in Glen Cove, and graduating in 1999 from Syosset High School, where she was valedictorian and also voted “Most Likely to Win Jeopardy.” “Natalie was brilliant in every subject,” says Jill Goldberg, her guidance counselor at Syosset High School when the actress was still known by her given name, Natalie Hershlag (Portman is her grandmother’s maiden name). “She balanced her work here with her professional life seamlessly, maintaining a flawless average. She’s just a brilliant, remarkable person, inside and out. I absolutely adore her.” Portman studied ballet and modern dance at the American Theater Dance Workshop in New Hyde Park and attended the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Wheatley Heights. Her road to stardom began at age 10, when she was “discovered” at an LI pizza parlor by a Revlon scout looking for child models. By age 12, Portman was cast in her first film, Leon: The Professional. Roles followed in Heat (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996) and Mars Attacks! (1996). But despite her busy career, academics always came first—a value instilled by her parents, Dr. Avner Hershlag, chief of North Shore-LIJ’s Center for Human Reproduction, and Shelley Hershlag, an artist. “Natalie’s parents didn’t let her work on major films during the school year,” says Goldberg. “They valued education very highly.” They made an exception for Portman’s starring role on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank during her high school junior year. Natalie’s grandfather’s parents and his younger brother were killed in concentration camps, making it extremely personal. Promoting the play on the Today Show in 1997, she told Matt Lauer, “I read the diary

at 12, and it’s very close to my own family history. It’s very important to remind people of the wrongs of racism and hatred.” During her senior year, Portman reached superstardom as Queen Amidala in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, famously missing its premiere to study for finals. Her studiousness paid off. Portman graduated with a 4.0 average from Syosset High and continued her education at Harvard, majoring in psychology. At the time, Portman said, “I don’t care if [college] ruins my career. I’d rather be smart than a movie star.” The actress lived for a time in Sea Cliff, where longtime resident and Bart’s Barber Shop owner Joseph Mazzeo once cut her hair. “She came in with her mom, and I had no idea who she was,” Mazzeo recalls. “She was growing her hair out, and she said, ‘Give me a Mohawk.’” He later learned that she’d shaved her head for a movie roll. “Her mom looked nervous,” Mazzeo says, “but Natalie told me, ‘I bet you think I’m 14, but I’m 24.’” Portman, now 32, reprises her role as astrophysicist Jane Foster in Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, debuting this month—and her science cred isn’t fiction. In high school, Portman co-authored a paper titled “A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar,” which earned her semifinalist honors in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search. She continued her distinguished science career at Harvard, contributing to a study on memory called “Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence.” She may still be “just a kid from Long Island,” but with her brains, beauty and killer-acting chops, she’s done LI proud.

the

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the foreclosure crisis has spawned these vacant houses, which were all photographed within one square mile in a neighborhood off of lowel avenue in Central islip. photos by Jon sasala/long island press

There Goes the Neighborhood forecLosed homes sheLTer crIme, ThreaTen communITIes By TImoThy BoLger tbolger@longislandpress.com

After the residents moved out of their Central Islip house following Superstorm Sandy last year, squatters eventually seized the opportunity to claim it as their own, make themselves at home and smoke some crack cocaine. The light blue one-story ranch on a dead end with a big overgrown yard tucked between an industrial complex and an empty lot overlooking a junkyard made an ideal crack house—except for the fact that it’s about 1,000 feet across the railroad tracks from an MTA Police station. The windows aren’t boarded up or broken. The home-security alarm sign on the lawn gives the illusion that some upstanding citizens still live inside. One neighbor says she hadn’t noticed anyone new there. “It’s quiet here,” the neighbor says. “One time I saw a car here, I called and they got rid of it.” But what Suffolk County police said they found inside belied the mostly undisturbed facade facing East End Avenue. It was a nondescript version of derelict properties left unmaintained by absentee landlords, homeowners that couldn’t pay their mortgages or lenders that foreclosed—magnets for drugs, prostitution, squatters and burglars that steal copper pipes to sell for scrap. “It ain’t my house but if I come inside I got squatters rights,” James Jones allegedly told Suffolk police officers in September when they arrested him and three others accused of smoking crack in the house in September, court records show. “Everybody smoked rock in here, but they ain’t no rock in here now.” Rock, for the uninitiated, is slang for crack. The address Jones gave police as his home was another foreclosed house a dozen blocks away at 405 Ackerman Street, one of 157 the Town

a suspect police arrested last month in this vacant Central islip house on East End avenue tried to convince officers that he had squatters’ rights to the dwelling, which he allegedly admitted smoking crack cocaine in, according to court documents.

“Everybody’s afraid,” says Brian McCluskey, the outspoken head of the South Bay Shore Civic Association, who doesn’t count himself among the fearful. “The bad guys are not afraid...because they got nothing to lose. Somebody has to stand up.”

sTreeT hassLe

of Islip boarded up so far this year, up from 69 last year and 35 in 2011. Sources with knowledge of the investigation say beds were rented out for $3.50 nightly in the Central Islip house, which had no plumbing and feces littering the yard. While police have been dealing with crack for 30 years, squatters have been increasingly frustrating police in the five years since the 2008 housing bubble burst and the ensuing financial crisis sparked an explosion of foreclosed homes nationwide. Local lawmakers, authorities and neighborhood watches especially have their work cut out for them fighting some of the nation’s worst foreclosure rates on Long Island, where minority areas hit harder than others buck recovery, threatening the entire region. New York State had the thirdhighest number of homes in foreclosure in the nation—5 percent of mortgages, with 8 percent more in serious delinquency—behind Florida and New Jersey

as of August, according to analytics firm CoreLogic’s latest report this summer. CoreLogic found in March that Nassau and Suffolk counties combined had the highest rate of houses in foreclosure statewide, totaling the thirdhighest percentage of foreclosures in any major metropolitan market outside The Sunshine State. Central Islip had the highest volume, rate and concentration of foreclosures in Suffolk based on 90-day Pre-Foreclosure Filing Notices recorded by the state Department of Financial Services through last summer, ahead of Brentwood, Wyandanch, Shirley and Bay Shore, according to a report this spring by the nonprofit Empire Justice Center. That all adds up to a lot of headaches for neighbors of foreclosed, vacant homes who fear—and sometimes face—reprisals from reporting to police that the crooks have moved in next door, since many low-level offenders return soon after authorities take action.

McCluskey, a 72-year-old retired Wall Street trader and Jack LaLannetype whose anti-crime rants sometimes border on advocating vigilantism, had gotten into a fight with his neighbor who was throwing a rave this summer, and he was returning home for his mouth guard to go another round when police arrived. Until recently Jason Nagy, a convicted child rapist and registered sex offender, lived near McCluskey in a house Bank of America recouped from prior owners who had failed to pay their mortgage. Nagy’s address on the sex offender registry was still listed at that house as of press time. “I go down there and say, ‘Jason, close it down!’” recalls McCluskey, the only one of a handful of residents contacted by the Press willing to share his story of confronting a neighboring squatter. “He says, ‘Come on, I’m just trying to make two bucks a head!’” The house is one of three distressed properties, including two boarded-up houses that McCluskey termed “shooting galleries”—used not for firing guns, but injecting heroin—on Bay Avenue, a ConTInUeD on PAGe 22

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narrow service road to historic mansions south of Montauk Highway. “Property owners have a responsibility to care for, secure and maintain their assets, and banks and mortgage companies also have a legal responsibility to care for and maintain the properties that they manage or that they hold,” says Inez Bibiglia, spokeswoman for Islip town. Touting last month’s boarding up of the Ackerman Street crack house, she says: “It’s boarded up, it’s secure now, that’s the point. However, these poor people have to live next to this for how long?” A lot of Long Islanders have the same question.

dIrTy BouLevard

McCluskey may settle that debate with a more hands-on approach than most folks, but most-impacted municipalities are doubling efforts to tamp back the flames of foreclosure. Suffolk being geographically larger than Nassau, the 10 easternmost towns appear to confront the problem more than the three west of the county line. But foreclosures were most pronounced in minority communities in both counties, Empire Justice Center found. “In the wake of the foreclosure crisis, hundreds of homes have been abandoned across our town,” Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine said of a proposed $100 annual vacant-home registration fee to complement LI’s first housing-violation reporting smartphone app. “While the previous owners vacated these houses, they are still owned by someone—whether it be a bank, a corporation or some other entity,” he said. “This law makes clear to those owners that they are just as responsible for maintaining their property as the hardworking families who live here.” Brookhaven boarded up 307 vacant homes last year and 326 so far this year as of October. The town also bulldozes blighted properties semi-regularly. Since the Town of Huntington passed its law cracking down on blight in 2011, code enforcers cited 108 properties,

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authorities recently boarded up this vacant house on ackerman street in Central islip, where drugs and prostitution were rampant, to the shagrin of neighbors with young children who live nearby.

which aren’t necessarily foreclosed, a town spokesman says. Fifty two have been cleaned up. Suffolk police also busted a party with nearly 600 people in a vacant warehouse in Huntington Station last month. Kevin Bonner, a deputy Babylon town supervisor, says the town scheduled meetings with banks and other owners of houses who hold 11 properties on that town’s new abandoned house registry, which may soon be bolstered. Riverhead officials said they sent notices of violations to 40 nuisance properties last year but only three ended in town action. Town of Smithtown officials say the number of times the town board ordered properties cleaned up doubled in the past year from two in 2012 to four in ‘13. A North Hempstead town spokesman said its workers cleaned up 14 properties since October 2012. Southampton, East Hampton and Oyster Bay town officials said derelict properties are secured when town supervisors learn to direct staff to a particular address and were unable to provide statistics. Stats were also unavailable for the towns of Shelter Island, Southold and Hempstead—the southwest corner of Nassau that Empire Justice Center found had the seven communities most impacted by foreclosures in that county. How effective the efforts in any of these towns will be remains to be seen.

hangIn’ round

Squatters breaking back into boarded-up houses. Scrappers stealing copper pipes from houses without turning off the water or gas lines first, causing leaks. Derelict properties full of suspicious characters right across the street from schools. ConTInUeD on PAGe 24

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Continued From page 22

On a recent October morning Chris Pross, the Central Islip Fire District fire marshal, drives by houses such as these and dozens more during one of his regular vacant-house patrols in his department-issued SUV with this reporter riding shotgun. “No copper” is spray-painted in big black letters on the sealed front door of one boarded-up house, a message to would-be thieves not to waste their time. “That’s a telltale indicator,” Pross says, pointing to a pair of junk-filled shopping carts outside an open basement door behind a boarded-up house on St. Johns Street, where squatters ripped boards from three windows. “There’s at least one or two guys in there.” He counts 116 derelict properties that are either secured or have been boarded up within the fire district, nine of which he terms unsecured. Some are so structurally unsafe, firefighters can’t risk going inside if a fire breaks out. And those are only the ones Pross is aware of. When a 45-year-old squatter lit a fire in the basement of a derelict home on Sycamore Street to keep warm on a cold night in January, the fire department was unaware the house was vacant until it burned down, killing him inside. Two firefighters were hurt responding to that blaze. “These are the ones that are potentially dangerous,” he says outside the burned-out house that could have spread to a neighboring home full of sleeping residents—some of which may be illegally subdivided multi-family dwellings packed with more potential victims. Pross, who lives in the neighborhood, has a trained eye that can spot a house of suspected squatters just by glancing at the windows. He worked in the same capacity for Islip Town since ’87 until the fire district—concerned with a lack of code enforcement in the area— hired him the year before the ’08 Wall Street crash. Despite the overwhelming number of blighted properties, he sees progress. “Every block east of Lowell Avenue… had at least two vacant homes on it at one point, and I was worried that this place

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A convicted child rapist was still listed in the sex offender registry as living in this foreclosed home on Bay Avenue in Bay Shore as of press time.

was going to become like Detroit,” Pross says, estimating that the rate is now more like one on every other block. “But it’s starting to bounce back, thankfully.”

SHELTERED LIFE

Pross isn’t the only one banking on a comeback. John Rizzo, chief economist for the Long Island Association, issued a statement last month spinning recent declines in The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index as good news. “This pattern may reflect higher mortgage rates and rising home prices,” said Rizzo, who is also a professor of economics at Stony Brook University. “This is a positive sign for the housing recovery,” he said. “Despite today’s results for pending sales, yearover-year actual sales in September 2013 were 10.7 percent higher, the 27th consecutive year-over-year increase. Moreover, the recent decline in mortgage rates may serve to bolster sales going forward.” Ruhi Maker, an attorney with the Empire Justice Center who helped compile the nonprofit’s report investigating LI’s foreclosure crisis this spring, cautions that it may be too soon to start popping champagne. “If [people] are only reading the national media or if they’re only looking at the county-level data, they’re thinking the problem doesn’t exist,” she says. “But when you go down to the census track data, the block data or the zip code data, you start seeing that it’s like two nations.” For example, the Suffolk County clerk’s office noted in its annual report that 589 Judgments of Foreclosure were filed last year, down from 722 in 2011. But the Empire Justice Center report found that 10 of the 94 zip codes in the county accounted for 34 percent of 90-day foreclosure notices through the Continued on page 26

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Continued From page 24

second quarter of 2012. She notes that the impacts of Central Islip having the densest amount of foreclosures in Suffolk—thanks, in part, to the state’s extra-slow foreclosure process—are lagging demand and home prices continuing to fall in the community this year, while both rise elsewhere. “It’s sort of like the tip of the iceberg is what your seeing right now,” Maker says. “We haven’t reached bottom… Although it may already be bad, there’s potential for it to get worse.” The stunted economic recovery may be setting up another wave of foreclosures in similarly low-income minority communities, where homeowners often have the most difficulty in securing home-loan modifications, she warns. “Some people are doing well, some people are getting raises, some people are getting jobs,” Maker says. “But there’s an equal number of people who aren’t getting raises, who aren’t getting jobs, who therefore still can’t afford their mortgages and who are still at risk for foreclosure.”

FOGGY NOTION

State, county and town-level lawmakers frequently tout efforts to reclaim blighted properties, rebuild them

For reliability, service and value

and help families—prioritizing first-time homeowners—move in. Although in some cases, the new homes come with a view of a neighboring run-down house. “Besides boarding them up, how do we get them with families living in them?” Islip Town Councilman Steve Flotteran asks rhetorically. “Take the weakest home on the street and slowly it’ll be the strongest because those homes will be refurbished with new homeowners who are creditworthy that the Long Island Housing Partnership screens and educates to make sure they’re stable to buy the home.” While nonprofits such as LIHP also try to stem foreclosures by advocating in court for homeowners who lenders seek requests for judicial intervention against, often there’s little stopping houses from landing in legal limbo for years. Joining in the vacant-home reclaiming efforts is the Suffolk County Land Bank Corporation, one of 10 nonprofits created by a 2011 state law that can acquire vacant, abandoned or foreclosed properties and raze, rebuild or remodel them. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who granted $675,000 to the Suffolk land bank last month using last year’s National Mortgage Settlement with the nation’s largest banks, said such initiatives are “helping to empower local communities to rebuild their own

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neighborhoods, house by house, block by block.” Proceeds from the resale of renovated properties will go back to the land banks to fund future redevelopments, which will also be financed by private and public funding, such as grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Two years ago, when I saw these abandoned and polluted properties littering the county, I knew that we had to do something,” said Majority Leader DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville), whose district includes some of the hardest-hit areas. “This grant will finally allow us to start reclaiming the worst of these blighted parcels, and in the process, also revitalize neighborhoods around them.”

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In the meantime, squatters like Jones of Central Islip and Nagy of Bay Shore will likely be settling into the nicest abandoned homes they can find before winter puts the region into a deep freeze. Some may even go as far as to mow the lawn, trim the hedges and make home repairs to keep up appearances in hopes of forestalling being tossed to the curb, according to Pross, the fire marshal. But experts say it’s almost unheard of for squatters to legally stake a claim

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of squatters’ rights in landlord-tenant court and succeed in obtaining a house they acquired in a hostile takeover through the law of adverse possession, which requires a decade of possession in New York State. “I’ve dealt with it once or twice, but it is a bigger issue in the city than on Long Island,” says Elliot Schlissel, a Lynbrook-based foreclosure defense attorney, noting that it’s likelier that a bank rents a house back to the owners the lender foreclosed on. “The issue of squatters is: Do you need to evict them [through the courts] or can you just throw them out?” Civic leaders like McCluskey would be glad to help show such squatters the door. It’s keeping them from coming back that’s proven difficult. For police tasked with combating the issue, it can be like a bad game of whack-a-mole. “If there’s a spot where a drug dealer can set up and do his business off the street, they exploit that,” says Sgt. Daniel Fischer of the Third Precinct Community Oriented Police Enforcement (COPE) Unit. “We close one, and they move on to the other.” As long as everyone works together, eventually there should be fewer vacant houses in these communities in which criminals can hide. For now, it’s hard not to drive around and spot houses that evoke the recently bankrupted Motor City.

Tom Suozzi and Jay Jacobs Are they:

A. Democratic Imposters B. Racist C. Elitist D. Greedy Self-Dealers E. All of the above Look at the following information, and then you decide. 1. Andrew Hardwick was both the first Democrat, as well as the first African American ever elected Mayor of Freeport in its 350 year history. This year, Democratic County Executive Candidate Tom Suozzi and Nassau Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs endorsed and supported white Republican Robert Kennedy, to unseat Democratic African –American Freeport Mayor Hardwick. Mayor Hardwick still managed to get almost half of the votes without either the Republican or Democratic Party’s support. Hardwick requested that the FBI look into voter fraud by his opponent, that investigation is ongoing. Also, channel 7 did a story confirming that there was fraud, to see that story go to www.hardwickfornassau.com Had it not been for Suozzi and Jacobs betrayal, Mayor Hardwick would have easily won re-election. One of the first acts of the new white Republican Mayor was to fire the Village’s outside law firm and hire Tom Suozzi’s law firm in its place. Did they do this because of race, or to

enrich themselves – or both? As a side note, just recently the Nassau Dems criticized Governor Cuomo for not endorsing Democratic Candidate Tom Suozzi, saying that Cuomo was not a good Democrat for failing to support a fellow Democrat. How are Suozzi and Jacobs able to justify their shameless support of a white Republican against an African –American Democratic incumbent Mayor? YOU DECIDE 2. When Tom Suozzi was the Nassau County Executive, the county was sued for millions of dollars in discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits. YOU DECIDE 3. Was it legal or proper for Jay Jacobs to interfere with the judicial system to help Tom Suozzi’s private law firm who was defending wealthy catering companies against claims brought by catering employees most of whom were poor minority working people, who were wrongfully deprived of the gratuities they were entitled to? After all of the cases were properly consolidated with a particular judge who had similar prior pending cases and thus would be familiar with all of the issues, a judge Tom Suozzi did not like, was it proper for Jacobs to speak with certain Judicial personnel which resulted in the cases being suddenly reassigned to another Judge? It seems to be the same old story with Suozzi and Jacobs: money, self-enrichment at the

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expense of the minority community. This doesn’t seem to be what the Democratic Party stands for, or even legal. Suozzi and Jacob’s pals at Newsday refused to report this story. Only Long Island Business News did. YOU DECIDE 4. After losing his mayoral election Andrew Hardwick decided to run for Nassau County Executive so he could give Nassau’s minority community a much needed voice in Nassau County government. He needed only 1500 signatures to get on the ballot, he got in excess of 8000. What do the Democrats do, they have their high priced lawyers successfully launch an attack to get him off the ballot and prevent the Nassau County minority community from being able to have a minority County Executive Candidate on the ballot. Suozzi and Jacobs, brag that they have influence at and with Newsday, the NY State Attorney General, the Court System, and the Nassau County District Attorney, and from the above it looks like they do. You decide what if anything should be done about it. Show them how you feel by voting for and writing in Andrew Hardwick for Nassau County Executive on your ballot on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, 2013! I am Andrew Hardwick, and I believe they are (E) all of the above.

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J u s t S ay i n g

Let’s Help America Find A New Enemy! By Peter Tannen

With all our attention focused on the national debt and our fear of people having health insurance, there’s one serious problem we’ve all been ignoring: America is now facing a shortage of meaningful enemies. Think about it: The war in Iraq is essentially over, the conflict in Afghanistan is winding down, and Syria is now being inspected for chemical and biological weapons. Not only that, but Russia doesn’t want to bury us anymore; they just want to sell us their oil and gas. And even Cuba has stopped hating us and is now taking baby steps toward private enterprise. But without a menacing, new enemy, there’s just no way the Pentagon can justify spending nearly $700 billion each year—20 percent of every tax dollar we send to Washington. (By comparison, the entire budget for the Environmental Protection Agency is $10.5 billion.) Note: This means our military budget is now six times more than China’s, 11 times more than Russia’s and 27 times more than Iran’s. It’s clear that America needs somebody to be afraid of—a reliable new boogeyman to help our threatened military economy. And we need to act fast—before bands of know-nothing congressmen slash military spending down to the size where they can “drown it in the bathtub,” as some people have threatened. To help us get started in the arduous search for a new enemy, here are some thoughts and directions that immediately come to mind: 1. “Satan” does not qualify, despite enormous numbers of leaflets from fundamentalist churches left on my doorstep. Unfortunately, he (or she) cannot be engaged in combat by anything our Military-IndustrialCongressional Complex is able to produce. 2. Sorry, the “United Nations” doesn’t work as an enemy, either. Let’s get real—they can’t even make their

own diplomats pay the $17,000,000 they owe New York City for parking tickets. The idea that the 192 member states of the UN will actually agree to invade somebody is far-fetched, to say the least. 3. “Muslims.” The bad news is that more and more Muslims have been exposed by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security as ordinary people who just want to be left alone to worship as they choose. The wacko little groups of jihadists are in decline, and it is clear that Muslims pose no more danger to America than Boston Red Sox fans. 4. “Nation States.” Two come to mind: North Korea and China. North Korea is a truly bizarre country that, in the 65 years of its existence, has never even figured out how to feed its own people. Occasionally, they pound their chests and fire a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan. China, of course, could become a problem but we owe them so much money, and buy so many of their products, that both our economies would self-destruct if it became our enemy.

5. “Environmentalists” are considered by some Military/Industrial folks to be the enemy, but so few Americans seem to really pay attention to what’s going on in our environment (look up “Fracking” and “Does Sonar Cause Deafness In Dolphins and Whales?” on Google) that they do not seem to pose a serious threat. 5. “Telemarketers.” They are ranked No. 1 on everyone’s list, and are universally despised. The problem is, we don’t know what they look like or where to find them. Before they become our official enemy, the Pentagon will have to do a nationwide survey which will almost certainly include annoying telemarketing calls at dinnertime to find out your opinion. As you can see, picking a new enemy isn’t easy. So...if you have any thoughts about who America’s next enemy should be, send us an email*. We’ll pass all your ideas along to the proper authorities in Washington. It’s the patriotic thing to do.

*Send your e-mail to JustSaying@LongIslandPress.com

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PeteR Tannen is a humor writer who has won multiple awards from the National Press Club (Washington, D.C.), the Press Club of Long Island and the Florida Press Association. His columns can also be heard on select Public Radio stations across the U.S. www.tannenweekly.com

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Hollywood East F e at u r e

Behind the Scenes of L.I.’s Booming TV and Film Industry By Rashed Mian rmian@longislandpress.com

A barrage of gunfire erupts on the Long Beach Bridge as a group of trigger-happy thugs fire a hail of bullets toward a half-dozen unsuspecting FBI agents assigned to protect the daughter of a United States general, pinning them inside their SUVs just before a massive explosion rocks the drawbridge. A bloodied FBI agent trapped inside a mangled Chevrolet Suburban on the other side of the melee takes out a gunman with her pistol before realizing she’s outmanned and outgunned. She hands over the little girl but promises she’ll find her, no matter what. About 40 miles east at the Fire Island Lighthouse, a deranged serial killer with a twisted interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s literature who was sprung out of jail by equally psychopathic groupies is holding his ex-wife hostage, hell-bent on making her suffer in front of the FBI agent who spoiled his killing spree. “This is your ending?” the ex-wife hisses. “A lighthouse?” The FBI agent, Ryan Hardy, chases the English professor-turned-maniacal killer into a nearby cabin, which soon becomes engulfed by towering flames. Horrific screams piercing through the crackling fire eventually fade as the murderer takes his last breath on one of Long Island’s most popular beaches. At least that’s what we’re led to believe. Much like Edgar Allan Poe’s work, this is all fiction. [Do you actually think Long Island is a breeding ground for ballsy AK-47-toting kidnappers and bloodthirsty English literature fanatics who get off on killing? C’mon.] Both scenes—the former, which was featured in the pilot to NBC’s new hit series The Blacklist, and the latter, the season finale of Fox’s The Following—are examples of the major productions undertaken by television and movie studios daily on LI. The pivotal scene in The Blacklist pilot, edited down to about 2 minutes and 30 seconds, took an entire weekend in March to shoot. Nassau County police had to issue an alert to drivers that northbound traffic would be diverted due to “activity” on the bridge. The producers apparently had such

WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE: Amazing Spider-Man 2 built a replica Times Square at Bethpage’s Gold Coast Studios when it filmed on LI this year (Above), while also utilizing the studio’s stages (Bottom Right). Neighboring Grumman Studios, which boasts seven stages, was also the scene for Amazing Spider-Man 2.

a swell time blowing things up on the bridge connecting Long Beach to Island Park that they decided to continue using LI as the backdrop for the thriller. While bursts of gunfire and earsplitting explosions aren’t a common occurrence, that’s not to say filming isn’t going on. TV shows and movies are constantly being filmed in Nassau and Suffolk counties, albeit right under our nose. Two studios in Bethpage— Grumman Studios and Gold Coast Studios—have become essential to the burgeoning film industry on LI. With a combined 605,000 square feet of space, the studios, which repurposed the forgotten airplane hangers inside the old Grumman aerospace and defense facility, are thriving, especially after their most recent coup, persuading Amazing SpiderMan 2—the largest ever film production in the state—to shoot at both studios for nine months. LI’s idyllic beaches, historic

mansions and quaint villages are also popular attractions for location managers, officials say. But it’s the New York State Film Production Tax Credit, which for some productions can be as high as 30 percent, that really motivates crews to film in the region, say local officials and industry experts. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano held a press conference in September to tout the industry’s success, announcing that TV and film production generated $140 million in economic benefit to the county, citing an independent report. Suffolk, which conducted its own economic impact study, estimated revenue in 2011 from film and TV to be about $316 million. Mostly everyone agrees the industry is poised for further growth. “This is an industry that pays well, generates a tremendous amount of sales tax revenue because the movie industry typically buys everything locally, they stay

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in our hotels, they eat in our restaurants,” Mangano tells the Press. “We are fast becoming Hollywood East.”

Leap of Faith

On a recent visit there are no explosions, unfortunately. Only the sound of hammer meeting steel as construction crews work inside Stage 3 of Gold Coast Studios to meet a January deadline to remove four columns inside the 40,000square foot space. Lyndsey Laverty, principal at Gold Coast Studios, is basically running a one-woman operation. She says the sequel to Amazing Spider-Man was the “best publicity she could get.” “In order to get somebody out here we have to make ourselves stand out a little bit,” she says during a tour of the studio. “We are the friendly landlord.” After Gold Coast secured approval from New York State to allow TV and film

crews to use the space in 2010, Laverty was able to convince producers of action thriller Man on a Ledge, starring Sam Worthington and Elizabeth Banks, to shoot inside the Bethpage facility. Crews built a replica of The Roosevelt Hotel inside Studio 1 and surrounded the “hotel” with a green screen that in post-production turned the studio’s gray walls into a spectacular New York City skyline. Laverty still marvels at what film companies can do to turn a hollowedout, old airplane hanger into a visual masterpiece. “To see the process they go through to make this set come to life and then to see what they make is amazing because they’re really artists,” she says. “To have it happen in Bethpage and on Long Island is amazing.” The studio’s six stages lend itself to the type of projects the entertainment industry likes to produce because of its high ceilings, thousands of feet of space and an unhindered work environment. Crews never have to deal with the congestion that comes with shooting in New York City or other densely populated cities across the country. As an added bonus, Laverty acquired the miniature Times Square set created for Amazing Spider-Man 2 and brought it to her studio for future films. She notes that one of her biggest challenges was getting people to leave Manhattan for Bethpage. But she’s been successful in attracting them to the suburbs. “People think Long Island: They think the Hamptons. Some people just don’t know,” she explains. “So once they get out here and they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s not that far,’ then it’s like, ‘Okay, we can do it here.’” Most recently, Gold Coast Studios was the site of Winter’s Tale, which is still in production, and the short-lived ABC series, Pan Am. Amazing Spider-Man 2 spent nine months there, including at Grumman Studios. Grumman Studios, famously the site of Angelina Jolie’s spy thriller, Salt, is equipped with seven stages—the largest being Stage 3 at 37,200 square feet—that were all warehouse space until the studio’s president, Parviz Farahzad, a real estate mogul, invested money into the facility, resurrecting the Grumman complex. The facility also features an enormous green screen, which resembles a X-Games style half-pipe. The complex used to be home to Long Island’s largest employer and the birthplace of the Apollo Lunar Module. “We’re bringing it back,” says Grumman Studios spokeswoman Francine Bachmann. Local officials credit the two Bethpage studios and the facility at Sands Point Preserve in Port Washington for bringing thousands of jobs to Nassau County and spurring economic growth.

In 2012, the two studios and Sands Point Preserve—where the famous “Horse’s Head” scene in The Godfather was reportedly shot—combined to have 393 shooting days and 1,945 employees on site, according to the Nassau County film industry economic and fiscal impact analysis conducted by Camoin Associates and released earlier this year. Nassau’s film industry generated $140 million and more than $800,000 in sales and hotel taxes, the report boasts. Amazing Spider-Man 2, destined for a monster performance at the box office, was a moneymaking machine for New York State and Nassau, creating 3,500 jobs and casting 11,000 extras. The

production was a boon for local hotels, as it required 2,919 hotel nights on Long Island. Crews also threw tons of money at home improvement stores and local eateries—spending a generous $16,000 alone at Bagel Boss in Hicksville. Despite their best efforts, the two Bethpage studios and others in the industry say they can’t do it alone. They give a lot of the credit to state and local officials for stepping up and extending the New York State Film Production Credit, making it easier for private industry to compete with other areas of the country. “The tax credit does drive the film business,” says Laverty, adding that North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana

also entice production companies with generous tax incentives. “I do think New York is the epitome of filmmaking so I am confident that filmmaking will keep picking up.”

If You Film It, They Will Come

“What that does is it gives production companies a real sense of certainty about what’s happening in the next couple of years so you’ll see a lot more production that is willing to come to New York,” says Michelle Isabelle-Stark, director of the Suffolk County Film Commission. The film tax-credit program, which Continued on page 34

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Continued From page 33

first began in 2004, budgets $240 million annually to attract TV and film companies to the state. The tax was recently extended to 2019. Starting in 2015 it increases the post-production credit cap to $25 million. Producers have spent more than $7 billion in New York since the program was implemented nearly a decade ago. The state estimates that the 163 projects that have applied for the program in 2013 will spend about $2.1 billion during production. It’s that multiplier effect—the money production companies spend on materials, hotels, food and other expenses—that makes the tax credit worth it, officials claim. “We had our busiest year ever in film and television production that the state supported through the film tax credit last year, 2012, and it looks like we’re going to have another record year this year,” says Kenneth Adams, president and CEO and commissioner of Empire State Development, which oversees the Governor’s Office of Motion Picture and Television Development. “What we’re seeing now is an industry response to the supportive climate,” he adds. Long Island is the second-busiest region in the state when it comes to film and TV production, Adams notes, just behind New York City. He credits LI’s close proximity to the city and studios such as Grumman and Gold Coast. “If they’re based in the city, do they want to go up to Westchester and fight the congestion and everything or come out this way?” asks Isabelle-Stark. “It’s easier for them to come out this way. There’s so much diversity. We have everything they could possibly want, from the water features they’re looking for to the houses, to the Gold Coast mansions, the small, quaint villages. There’s just a lot of variety to choose from.”

Reaping The Benefits

Local officials and industry experts are not taking anything for granted. Both Nassau and Suffolk offer Continued on page 36

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Continued From page 34

locations tours, teasing site managers by taking them to picturesque areas around Long Island. Suffolk’s Isabelle-Stark, who runs the two-day tour, gets creative. Last year, she took location managers on a “path through history”-themed tour of some of the historic places in Suffolk. She previously led a group of 20 people on an outing to Brookhaven National Laboratory, Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, Sagtikos Manor, Captree State Park and Camp Hero in Montuak—all of which she thought could be used for horror flicks. “Who else has these things?” she asks. “Nobody.” Nassau’s “film-friendly” tours visited the Garden City Hotel, the Allegria Hotel, the carousel on Museum Row, the Cradle of Aviation, and oddly enough, the Nassau County Correctional Center—which boasts four empty cells, a pharmacy, rooms for solitary confinement, a visitors room, and a chapel. “We show them the beauty of Nassau County,” Mangano says. State and local officials predict an upward trend for the Long Island TV and film industry at the same time that Hollywood continues to lose film production, according to The Guardian, which noted in a recent article that “aggressive tax breaks” from other states is contributing to a decline there. “The tourists still come but what they’re looking at is the past. It’s an illusion,” a makeup artist told the publication. Long Island by comparison continues to celebrate its past—such as critically acclaimed films The Godfather (Sonny was gruesomely killed at Mitchel Field) and Goodfellas (Atlantic Beach)—while setting its sights on the future, without of course revealing what’s on the horizon. Laverty, of Gold Coast Studios, can’t help but step back and think about how the industry impacts the local community. “When we have a movie here our entire neighborhood gets affected by it,” she smiles. “Which is great! It’s a huge impact for everyone.”

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Meet the Long Island Leaders Who Support a Free and Independent Press TO READ THEIR STORIES AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE PRESS PATRON PROGRAM, VISIT LONGISLANDPRESS.COM/PATRONS SAL FERRO President & CEO, Alure Home Improvements

“Remodeling homes on Long Island has been my passion and vocation for decades. That’s because behind every job we do, there’s a family with a story to tell and by fulfilling a family’s home remodeling dream we become part of that story. Maybe that’s why I’m a fan of the Long Island Press. They tell important stories that become part of our lives and connect Long Islanders to one another in a meaningful way.” JOHN D. CAMERON, JR., P.E.

JAMES METZGER Chairman & CEO, Whitmore Group

“THERE’S AN OLD NEWS CLIPPING FROM A 1976 ARTICLE IN THE ORIGINAL LONG ISLAND PRESS HANGING IN MY OFFICE. IT’S A PHOTO OF ME FROM MY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL DAYS IN MID-FLIGHT, BREAKING A TACKLE ON THE WAY TO SCORING FOR HALF HOLLOW HILLS. EVEN IN TODAY’S DIGITAL WORLD, THERE’S SOMETHING REMARKABLE AND COMFORTING ABOUT NEWSPAPERS THAT CHRONICLE OUR LIVES, WHICH IS WHY I’M HAPPY THAT THE PRESS NAME LIVES ON.”

KIRK KORDELESKI, President & CEO, Bethpage Federal Credit Union

“WHEN THE LONG ISLAND PRESS LAUNCHED BACK IN 2003, I HAD MY RESERVATIONS. I HAD FOND MEMORIES OF THE ORIGINAL PRESS WHEN IT WAS A DAILY AND WASN’T SURE IT COULD EVER MEET MY EXPECTATIONS. TEN YEARS LATER, I DON’T THINK I’VE MISSED AN ISSUE. A FREE AND INDEPENDENT PRESS IS SO CRITICAL TO LONG ISLAND, WHICH IS WHY I’M HAPPY TO SUPPORT THE LONG ISLAND PRESS. BUT MORE THAN ANYTHING, I’M A FAN.”

MICHAEL POSILLICO Executive VP Strategic Business Development, Posillico, Inc.

“My family has been doing business on Long Island for generations. Today Posillico, Inc. is committed to the revitalization of our most environmentally compromised areas of this island we call home. We support the Long Island Press because of their positive editorial influence on environmental matters and believe that independent watchdog journalism is critical to maintaining good governance.”

PUTTING THE COMMUNITY FIRST IS WHAT MAKES BETHPAGE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION A SPECIAL PLACE TO DO BUSINESS WITH. AT BETHPAGE WE RECOGNIZE THAT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT INDICATORS OF A HEALTHY COMMUNITY IS THE VITALITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF ITS LOCAL MEDIA. EACH OF US HAS A ROLE TO PLAY ON THIS BEAUTIFUL ISLAND WE CALL HOME AND WE KNOW THE STAFF AT THE LONG ISLAND PRESS ENJOYS THEIR ROLE AS MUCH AS WE DO.

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CHARLES VIGLIOTTI President and CEO, Long Island Compost

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KEVIN LAW President and CEO, Long Island Association

“I have the greatest job in the world because I get to proudly promote what Long Island has to offer to people all around the state and speak on behalf of our business community. In this role, I also recognize that a strong and independent press is vital to the health of our region. It’s why the Long Island Association is proud to support Long Island’s diverse and vibrant media community.”

I have always had a love and fascination with cars, so doing business in a place with a deeply rooted car culture like Long Island is a dream come true. Along the way I’ve also had the opportunity to meet and help thousands of Long Island families. There are so many things to love about this Island and personally I include the Long Island Press among them. It’s authentic, straightforward and cool. As a car guy, these are traits I can appreciate.

I GREW UP ON LONG ISLAND AND RAISED MY FAMILY HERE. I CANNOT IMAGINE LIVING ANYWHERE ELSE. THROUGHOUT MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE, I HAVE BEEN A PART OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT. FOR ME, MAKING PEOPLES’ LIVES BETTER BY GIVING THEM A VOICE IN THE WORKPLACE THROUGH THEIR UNION IS A CALLING, A SACRED RESPONSIBILITY. I KNOW THAT A FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA IS A VITAL BUILDING BLOCK OF OUR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. WITHOUT IT, NEITHER OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM NOR OUR LABOR MOVEMENT WILL THRIVE. THE LONG ISLAND PRESS HAS EMERGED AS A SIGNIFICANT VOICE ABOUT CULTURE, POLITICS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND EVENTS ON LONG ISLAND. I LOOK FORWARD TO ITS PERSPECTIVES, AND I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO SUPPORT IT.

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JOHN R. DURSO President, Local 338, RWDSU/UFCW and President, Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

“Those that know me know how passionate I am about life and all that makes it interesting, fun and worthwhile. Being blessed with a wonderful family, great friends and a profession I love, I have the opportunity to not only protect our natural environment in my daily work but also enjoy its beauty on a regular basis. My favorite place is the beach especially when I’m surfing. All this would not be possible without living on Long Island. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. It’s why I support the things that make our Island great and I count the Long Island Press among them”.

DR. ROBERT SCOTT President, Adelphi University “ADELPHI UNIVERSITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN COMMITTED TO NURTURING THE MINDS OF LONG ISLAND’S YOUTH, OUR MOST PRECIOUS COMMODITY. WE VIEW OUR SUPPORT OF THE LONG ISLAND PRESS AND ALL INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM AS PART OF THAT PLEDGE, AS NO REGION OR NATION CAN EXIST WITHOUT A THRIVING FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA.”

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By Spencer Rumsey srumsey@longislandpress.com

In this official White House portrait, the First Lady gazes serenely at the camera, no trace of the self-doubt that had once compelled her to describe herself in an essay contest as having “a square face and eyes so unfortunately far apart that it takes three weeks to have a pair of glasses made with a bridge wide enough to fit over my nose.”

Jackie O L.I.’s First Lady 42

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ost people today might associate Jackie Kennedy Onassis with Cape Cod or Rhode Island, or sadly, Dallas, but Long Island had a lasting influence over the course of her life, beginning with her birth in Southampton in 1929. For one thing, it’s here she got her first brush with fame. Granted, she was only 2 years old. But as the East Hampton Star proclaimed, it was an auspicious beginning: “Future debutante hosts second birthday bash.” When she did “come out” in 1947, nationally syndicated gossip columnist Cholly Knickerbocker called her “the No. 1 deb of the year…a regal brunette who has classic features and the daintiness of Dresden porcelain.” Beneath the surface was a different picture. It was at her family’s and her grandparents’ East Hampton estates where she spent her most formative summers, developing her horse-riding skills, honing her lifelong love of literature and culture, and learning to depend on herself as her parents’ loveless marriage went up in flames. By 1937 the marital bond of Janet Lee and John Vernou Bouvier III had come unglued but the divorce didn’t become official until 1940. Jackie’s presence on the East End began to wax and wane like the phases of the moon once her mother had married Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr. and moved her and her younger sister Lee to his family’s estate in Newport, R.I. Mother Janet associated Long Island with her despicable ex and the less time her daughters spent in the Hamptons, the better. Jackie’s position in our country’s cultural pantheon has also fluctuated with the changing times. On that tragic November day in 1963, she was America’s widow. But later, as time had passed, she seemed to prefer the comfort of shadows, not the glare of the limelight. It’s understandable, therefore, how four young guys from Huntington out for the weekend at their friend’s parents’ place in the Hamptons could keep their cool when they found themselves unexpectedly sharing the stage, so to speak, with the former First Lady in 1978. They had been walking back from the beach when a beat-up old Chrysler roared by. “Look!” said one of them, who recognized the driver slouched over the wheel. “It’s Mick Jagger!” Sure enough, this Rolling Stone was going to a Bastille Day party at George Plimpton’s summer home in Wainscott. It so happened that these fellows were staying right next door.

“We were invited because we were neighbors,” recalls their host, Scott O. Savitt, now a Long Island promoter. “It was hot, man!” Among the celebrities assembled that night were Shirley MacLaine, Kurt Vonnegut, Dick Cavett, Buck Henry and Chevy Chase. But standing on the big sweeping lawn, gazing off into the distance, was once the most popular woman in America, if not the world. “I look across the way and I see Jackie Kennedy!” recalls Bill Walsh, today a book marketer in New York. Later in the evening he spotted Norman Mailer thumb-wrestling with one of Bobby Kennedy’s boys, and, to top it off, Caroline Kennedy came up to him and asked him if he had a match. “We ended up chatting about the weather,” he insists with a straight face. “The whole time I’m going to myself: ‘This is Caroline Kennedy and there’s Jackie!’ But I’m acting very blasé about the whole thing.” As were his pals. But this foursome lost their composure the moment Jagger joined them on the lawn to share the joint they were smoking. “As soon as Jagger walks away, my friend takes the joint and saves it,” Walsh recalls. “And he says, ‘I’ll never wash my hands again!’ For us, Jagger was really the star, and, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s Jackie Kennedy.’” Perhaps Jackie O, as she would become dubbed in the supermarket tabloids, had become such a pop icon on the American scene that she could almost be taken for granted.

Two Jacks, One Jackie

But Jackie had as much right to be there as anyone, let alone a bunch of 20-year-old party crashers. Her Long Island roots went far back. The Lees, Jackie’s mother’s family, owned Avery Place, on Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton. That’s where Janet Lee perfected her horse-riding skills and passed them along to her daughter early on. Newspaper accounts of the time lavished praise on young Jackie’s equestrian accomplishments as she racked up one blue ribbon after another. The Bouviers, on her father’s side, had bought a clapboard-and-shingle house called Wildmoor on Apaquogue Road in 1910 before acquiring the much more opulent Lasata estate in 1925 off Further Lane, its name supposedly meaning “place of peace” in Algonquin. Indeed walking along the shore in the Hamptons had a lasting effect on her, as she wrote in a poem when she was 10 years old: “When I go down by the sandy shore,/I can think of nothing I want more/Than to live by the booming blue sea/As the seagulls flutter round about me.” It was a habit she maintained on Cape Cod once she

“The whole time I’m going to myself: ‘This is Caroline Kennedy and there’s Jackie!’ But I’m acting very blasé about the whole thing.” —Bill Walsh, today a New York book marketer recounting his close encounter with the former First Lady and her daughter in East Hampton

became part of the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass. She had met John F. Kennedy in 1951 when the Congressman was “three weeks shy of his thirty-fourth birthday” and she “was not yet twenty two,” writes Donald Spoto in his Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life. But she knew then that he “would have a profound, perhaps disturbing” effect on her and, she also admitted later, that “here was a man who did not want to marry.” In that sense, Kennedy was not unlike her raconteur father, “Black Jack” Bouvier, who had gotten that sobriquet because he nourished his tan in the beaches of the Hamptons and in the solarium room at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, where he stashed his liquor and squired his mistresses. He didn’t approve of his future son-in-law’s politics (Bouvier was a staunch Republican), but when they finally all met at a Manhattan restaurant in February 1953, both Jacks got along great, as Spoto writes, because the two men “shared the same passions for women, politics and sports.” Perhaps because Black Jack used to tell his daughter that “all men are rats,” Jackie was prepared in advance for her husband’s adultery. After they’d been married 10 years, Kennedy himself told his friend Chiquita Astor, recounts Sarah Bradford in her book, America’s Queen, that he’d never been in love, “but I’ve been very interested once or twice.” But Jackie didn’t expect it from him, her biographers say. Though 12 years separated their ages, their similar backgrounds Continued on page 44

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Continued From page 43

made them compatible, as Spoto put it, because “they had each endured a lonely and difficult childhood with emotionally distant mothers and philandering fathers.” And both found solace walking along the beach.

Fateful November

In October 1963, after losing her infant son Patrick, who was born prematurely in August and survived less than 40 hours, Jackie had decided to join her sister on a two-week luxury cruise in the Mediterranean with Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis aboard his 303-foot-long yacht. Jackie said she found him “an alive and vital person who had come from nowhere.” (They would marry in 1968.) At the time, his reputation in America was less gracious and more spurious, with his “dubious” dealings with European governments and American shipping companies creating the impression that he was something of a pirate, as Spoto writes. The trip helped fuel a backlash among Congressional Republicans that she’d gone too far. So, feeling some remorse, she readily agreed to accompany her husband on his upcoming trip to Texas—her “first political appearance since 1960,” according to the author. On Nov. 22, an open black Lincoln limousine took the First Lady and President Kennedy through the crowded streets of Dallas with Texas Gov. John Connally and his wife Nellie in the front seat and the Kennedys in the rear. Then the bullets struck. Jackie turned to look at her husband. “I could see a piece of his skull and I remember it was flesh-colored,” she told the Warren Commission in 1964. “I remember thinking he just looked as if he had a slight headache.” As the motorcade raced from the

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On a far less fateful day than one that would come later the First Lady smiles at her newly elected husband as they ride in a presidential motorcade. (Abbie Rowe/ National Park Service)

“I remember thinking he just looked as if he had a slight headache.” —Jacqueline Kennedy, recounting the 1963 assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in her testimony to the Warren Commission a year later

plaza to the hospital, she crawled onto the trunk of the limo to fetch the bone before a Secret Service agent shoved her back inside. “They have killed my husband!” she screamed. “I have his brains in my hand!” He was gone, dead at 46. Yet Jackie endured. And until her death in 1994, she lived as both a public figure and a private presence—a complex person whose seminal contribution to American culture and politics is still not fully appreciated, long after the refrains of “Camelot” have receded into silence, long after the tears shed by a grieving nation in 1963 have dried, and long after all the “celebrity sightings” over the years—whether by a hazy group of guys smoking pot in the Hamptons or a pack of paparazzi hounding her down Fifth Avenue—have faded from view.

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A R T + So u l

LIRR Massacre Film Resurrects Horror, Hope & Familiar Questions

By Spencer Rumsey srumsey@longislandpress.com

n Dec. 7, 1993 a crowded Long Island Rail Road train left Penn Station at rush hour. As countless Long Islanders can still recall, a tragedy unfolded between New Hyde Park and Merillon Avenue. Four passengers left their lives onboard and 21 others were wounded, two fatally, when a deranged gunman named Colin Ferguson got up from his seat and came down the aisle. He fired two clips of 15 bullets each, and was about to load another when three men jumped him and pinned him to the ground. All the horror of the shooting, the pain of the aftermath and the outrage of the infuriating trial are brought back vividly to life in Charlie Minn’s powerful new documentary The Long Island Railroad Massacre: 20 Years Later, which opens in select theatres on Nov. 15. The random and the routine normally in people’s lives were suddenly caught in the deadly crosshairs of a deliberate act of violence perpetrated by a very sick man. Some riders just happened to catch the 5:33 p.m. that fateful day, while others rode it regularly. But in that one horrible moment they were all united in a fight for their lives. The film spares the most gruesome sights of the carnage but its images of the newspapers lying bloodspattered and torn on the aisle floor tell the story poignantly enough to leave a lasting impression. The project took Minn more than a year as he

Documentary filmmaker Charlie Minn, below, was in high school in New Hyde Park when the fatal shooting occurred. In a scene from the film, right, a police detective points out where the passengers on the LIRR train were seated on their fateful ride.

tracked down the victims, their families, a prosecutor and one of the defense attorneys to recount what happened and how they have adapted since then. It’s a moving testament to the human spirit. These days, Carolyn McCarthy is a Congresswoman now in her eighth term representing Nassau’s 4th District. Twenty years ago she was expecting her husband Dennis and son Kevin to put up the Christmas tree before she got home from work. She knew they rode the train home together. But when she pulled into the driveway, the tree hadn’t been touched. Her husband had died in the massacre; her son was critically wounded.

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As her son tells the camera: “I thought I was going to die right there.” Yet he survived and had to learn how to walk again. “You never get closure,” exclaims McCarthy. “But you have to go forward in some way.” Of the wounded victims, Robert Giugliano’s experience is truly compelling. He saw a woman killed right in front of him, her blood spilling onto his clothes. He was shot in the arm and the chest. At the trial, Giugliano confronted Ferguson, who was allowed to defend himself after dismissing his legal defenders because they wanted him to claim insanity. Restrained by court guards after leaving the witness stand, Giugliano yelled at Ferguson that he wished he could have five minutes alone with him.

WATCH

As recounted by the new documentary film, Colin Ferguson, right, who was arrested immediately after the shooting spree and taken into custody, was able to defend himself in court. He is now serving more than 315 years in prison upstate.

Giugliano was filled with righteous rage, but now, 20 years later, Dec. 7 has a mellower meaning for him: It’s his granddaughter’s birthday.

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Then-Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta had told the media at the time that “the person who committed this crime is an animal.” Minn agrees with that sentiment today. “To me an animal is not racially specific,” explains Minn, who’s Korean-American. “It’s someone who’s not a human being.” In hindsight, the question of Ferguson’s guilt seems more clear-cut than his level of competence, which allowed him to put the survivors back on the stand so he could face them once again. “I can’t say I’m an expert with the judicial process,” Minn tells the Press, “but he shouldn’t have been allowed to represent himself in court. To put the victims through that is ridiculous.” Ferguson had spent two weeks in California so he could qualify for a gun permit. The killer also anted up another $1.50 when the conductor told him he had an off-peak ticket. “He knew exactly what he was doing,” says Minn. And as Nassau Det. Brian Parpan points out in the film, Ferguson had left a note in his Brooklyn apartment with the heading: “The reason for this…” In court Ferguson claimed he was dozing on the train and that someone else had actually shot the riders. Minn and his co-producers Aaron Michael Thomas and Ken Molestina attempted to contact Ferguson but to no avail. He is currently serving a sentence of 315 years and eight months to life in prison at the Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone, NY, south of the St. Lawrence River. After a recent screening held for the victims at the Shelter Rock Library, Minn is sanguine about not including Ferguson in the documentary since they thought the final cut was better without the convict commenting from his cell. “They signed off on it,” Minn says, “which meant a lot to me. That was very important because if I didn’t have their approval, it would be hard for me to

Original Programming Organic Cooking • Business • Seniors • Youth • Entertainment continue with any passion.” Minn doesn’t intend this film to be a polemic. “I didn’t really want to make this film known as a political statement,” he says. But he has immense respect for Rep. McCarthy. “To me, Carolyn’s a hero to fight the NRA for 17 years,” Minn says, “and she’s hardly gotten anything passed, yet she trudges along like a good soldier because she sees her husband and her son in her vision.” He holds out little hope for gun control. “I think we should get rid of all guns,” he says, “but I realize it’s too late— they’re too far and wide.” He does think, however, that it’s time people take a hard look at the big picture. “Who are we as a country?” he asks rhetorically. “Are we a symbol of violence or a symbol of peace?” Born in Boston, Minn grew up in Manhasset Hills and was attending Herricks High School in New Hyde Park when the shooting occurred. He’s been obsessed with the tragedy ever since, he says, and in part that’s what has driven his line of inquiry: portraying the impact of these kinds of violent crimes through the eyes of their victims. “Everyone has their own way of dealing with tragedy,” he explains. “Some completely shut themselves off from the world, and then you have people like Carolyn McCarthy who…are very outspoken about it.” Minn was a chemistry major at Boston University but got his

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Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, seen here in the film, took her pain from the LIRR tragedy and made it political by becoming an advocate for gun control.

Continued From page 49

communications degree at SUNY Brockport. He’s done some acting but prefers being on the other side of the camera. His documentary work includes a trilogy on Juarez, Mexico, the so-called “Murder Capital of the World” (also a title of one of his films). This hard-luck city is just across the bridge from El Paso, Texas, which Minn calls his second home when he’s not in New York. The drugrelated violence in Mexico, much of it fueled by weapons from the USA, got his attention. “Over 12,000 people have been slaughtered in Juarez since 2008,” he says. “This is one of the saddest stories in the world today people are not talking about.”

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The goal of his work, he says, is to spark the conversation, provide consolation and “honor the victims—never forget the victims. “My other true crime films are not solved,” says Minn. “This one is solved.” “The Long Island Railroad Massacre: 20 Years Later” opens Friday, Nov. 15, at Merrick Cinemas on Long Island and the Regal E-walk Cinemas in Manhattan and the Hawthorne Theater in New Jersey. Either the director or a victim of the tragedy will be present at all the screenings on opening weekend in Merrick to take questions from the audience, Minn says. For more information go to www.lirrmassacre.com.

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/// THE FREQUENT FLYER Breezing through pre-checked airport security with his carry-on luggage, skipping ahead of the line as his United Airways flight from San Francisco to New York boards and settling into his economy-class seat, Bill Carmody makes flying look easy. That’s because the CEO of Trepoint marketing agency is a member of the million-mile club, traveling about 100,000 miles annually, flying once weekly to meet with clients nationwide—sometimes worldwide. “I have essentially circled the world four times,” says the 40-year-old married father of two from Port Washington. It’s not always as glamorous as it sounds to earthbound travelers. He once sat on the tarmac for 11 hours in Chicago without food on a flight that got cancelled. But he did once land his family in business class on his kids’ first flight, too. “They’ve really gamified the entire flying experience and the game is to see how many miles you can acquire in a given year,” he says, touting the “emotional benefits” of the rewards program. But he understands that infrequent flyers may be miffed to see him skip ahead. “If you’re traveling two, three times a year, an hour out of your life is relatively not that big a deal,” he says. “If you have to fly once a week, it would just be overwhelming.”

Fresh off of a partial federal government shutdown that forced dozens of his air traffic controllers to work without being paid for 16 days, Mark Guiod calmly leads his managers over a shift change by the dim light of 31 computer monitors. “Let’s have a good shift,” he tells them, resisting the urge to throw on a pair of headphones, take a seat at one of the radar screens and start talking to pilots of one of the thousands of flights overseen by the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control [TRACON] on Stewart Avenue in Westbury. The facility provides approach service for the region’s three major airports—John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and LaGuardia Airport—in addition to dozens of smaller ones, including Long Island MacArthur Airport and Republic Airport. It handled 1.7 million flights last year, with controllers often radioing a dozen flights simultaneously. “People have this image of air traffic controllers hunched over a desk with a cup of coffee, two packs of cigarettes and sweating bullets,” he says in his office seated beside two model airplanes. “Nobody gets on a flight and says, ‘Boy, I hope the air traffic controller is having a good day today.’”

FOUR Corners

/// THE AIR TRAFFIC MANAGER

Of all the customer service jobs in the world, dealing --with stressed-out By Timothy Bolger tbolger@longislandpress.com airline passengers rushing to catch their flights easily ranks among the toughest. “Customer service can be very difficult at times, especially when dealing with things… that are beyond our control,” says Sandy Clavin of Holtsville, essentially the top ticket agent for Southwest Airlines at Long Island MacArthur Airport. “Customers sometimes think we can make weather disappear or make planes appear.” Clavin started as a ticket agent in ’99, when Southwest began offering service at LIMA, and now manages a crew of agents— she’s the one agents call over when transactions go south. Inconsolable customers aside, Clavin loves working /// THE PILOT for an airline that flies kids around for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and makes a big deal for seniors flying For 50-year-old Brian Hooks of Bayport, a co-pilot of DC-9 twin-engine jetliners for the first time. “Southwest Airlines for American Airlines—he was Captain Hooks before switching airlines this is obviously a fun place to work, but year—nothing beats flying the friendly skies on a clear, sunny day. Especially we do work very hard,” she says. if the alternative is sitting on a runway waiting for the weather to improve. And being based in LIMA makes for “You arrive early and everyone’s happy,” says the second-generation jet pilot. a more close-knit atmosphere than “It’s satisfying to get somebody where they’re going… You’re able to reunite working at a big city airport. “It has people. That’s about as good as it can get.” Thanksgiving Eve, historically the that small-town feel even though we biggest air travel day of the year, he gets to do just that for scores of loved are considered a New York airport,” ones—though he also witnesses plenty of emotional moments with returning she says. “You get that family feel here veterans or adopted children the rest of the year. While he’s glad to see because we are smaller… I wouldn’t ridership has rebounded since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, he’s not sure why choose anything else.” passengers clap upon landing on some flights and not others. “As far as I can see, it’s random,” he says with a view from the cockpit. “It may be more of family vacation travelers that don’t travel too frequently. Everybody’s always happy to get home or to a vacation. I don’t think the business guys are happy /// THE CUSTOMER when we fly them from LaGuardia to Chicago.”

One Common Thread

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SERVICE SUPERVISOR

Our Recommendations for the Month

CHRIS’ PICK BOB DYLAN COMPLETE ALBUM COLLECTION VOL. ONE (LEGACY RECORDINGS AND COLUMBIA RECORDS) Imagine waking up one morning to discover every single Bob Dylan album ever recorded sitting there, waiting for you, at the foot of your bed. Which would you rock out to first? His 1962 self-titled debut? A lil’ Freewheelin’ action, perhaps? Some Blonde on Blonde? Containing every full-length studio and live release in Dylan’s official Columbia Records cannon, including two discs of non-album singles, B-sides and assorted other rarities—spanning more than 50 years—this is the mother lode, my dear friends, the must-have, definitive set. This beast drops as a CD box set and limited-number edition harmonica-shaped USB Nov. 5 and sets the table for Vol. Two, slated for release next year. That monster will include the entire Bootleg Series! This is a real-life “Bob Dylan’s Dream”-come true. (Leopard-skin pill-box hat not included, unfortunately.)

TOMOTHY’S PICK KEURIG MY K-CUP REUSABLE COFFEE FILTER Like many caffeine junkies, Keurig’s singleserve coffee machines eventually found their way into my heart. Shopping for K-Cups became routine. It seemed there was an endless supply of roasts from around the globe to try. But, at some point, the cost began to add up and the selection was exhausted. And short of replacing the Keurig with a traditional coffeemaker, there’s no way to leave the K-Cup club once a member. That’s where the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter came in. The options are limitless once again. Found some must-try, freshground beans to brew at home? No need to break out the old coffee machine and make a whole pot, just fill up the reusable K-Cup, hit brew and slurp down some wake-up juice. Amazing this simple device is not more widely known.

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SPENCER’S PICK RICHTERS APPLE CIDER No apple cider I’ve ever had quenches my thirst like Richters. It’s the perfect blend of sweetness and tartness with just the right proportion of liquid so that every sip has a crisp hint of autumn. The apple groves are up on a rolling hillside off Pulaski Road in Northport and the mill is in a barn to the side. When my sons were very little, I used to drive up there to enjoy the view of eastern Suffolk while they napped in their car seats and I munched on a fresh-picked Macoun and washed it down with a swig of cool cider. Now that’s bliss you can taste.

RASHED’S PICK NETFLIX ORIGINALS Those with an unhealthy television obsession like myself undoubtedly know about the gains Netflix has made since bursting upon the scene several years ago. Netflix no longer relies on just deals with TV and movie studios to populate its streaming service. It is now investing in its own original content, the most notable being Emmy-nominated House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey as Rep. Francis Underwood, a conniving lawmaker with a thirst for power. Netflix quickly found success with another original, too, Orange is the New Black, chronicling the life of a married-womanto-be whose past relationship with her drug-dealing girlfriend got her a 15-month prison sentence. Sucks for her, but great news for the rest of us. We feel like we’re locked in the slammer with her, trying to lift her spirits along the way. Like the rest of Netflix Originals’ lineup, this dramedy is worth binging on.

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I’m meant

Where I want to be. You want to make an impact. An impact on your family, your community, even your world. You want more than a career, you want a purpose. You want a life filled with meaning. At Hofstra University, we understand what pride and purpose is all about. It’s about finding an academic area that excites you, challenges you, and fulfills you. It’s about studying with leading faculty in small classes where you really get to know your colleagues. It’s about amazing internship experiences and campus opportunities that give you an edge when it is time to start that career. And it’s about living and learning on a campus that never stops moving, changing, and working for you. A campus so beautiful it’s a nationally recognized arboretum but only miles from the most exciting city in the world…New York.

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Fall Open House November 16 @ 9 a.m. hofstra.edu/fallopen

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Hot Plate

Farm To Table L.I. Farms, Restaurants Unite

By Rashed Mian rmian@longislandpress.com

Jedediah Hawkins Inn may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad and its original owner may have spent his glory days as a gunrunner, but these unsubstantiated claims that date back 150 years aren’t the only reasons visitors flock here by the hundreds every weekend. Of course, Civil War legends are great conversation starters, especially when they occur in between gulps of cold beer inside the inn’s 1920s-era speakeasy. But this charming restaurant and inn, tucked away in the heart of North Fork wine country, with its Italianateinspired architecture—accentuated by green hues bursting from the facade and high-arching ceilings towering above the sprawling land that surrounds it—is bustling back to life just as a new food trend erupts across Long Island. Jedediah Hawkins Inn, built in Jamesport in 1863, is among a growing list of farm-to-table restaurants using locally grown products to add a gush of flavor to their dishes, while also paying homage to those spending Roots Bistro Gourmand in West Islip considers local farmers their “family.” They use locally grown vegetables and modern cooking techinques to bring dishes to life.

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Richard Kanowsky, executive chef of Jedediah Hawkins Inn, relishes in using local ingredients.

countless hours producing the food that inspires the finished product. The inn’s executive chef, Richard Kanowsky, couldn’t be happier. “Around here I go to a farm and [the vegetables] are still warm from the sun,” says Kanowsky, who at 33 years old has already lived in at least 18 states and worked every job imaginable inside a restaurant. “You start to get to know the farmers,” he adds, sitting inside the Inn’s dimly lit speakeasy on a recent morning. “I mean it’s cool, I’m passionate about cooking, they’re passionate about growing. It’s not like I’m calling somebody at 11 o’clock [and placing an order]. I’m going, and this guy is covered in mud and he’s just like, ‘Here’s 20 pounds of tomatoes I just picked off the vine.’” It’s that bond between chef and farmer that Kanowsky is most excited about. And having a farm down the Continued on page 62

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Market Bistro opened in Jericho two years ago and its farm-to-table menu has become an instant hit.

Continued From page 60

block for him to pick up fresh tomatoes from is nice, too. Kanowsky often finds himself making frequent pit stops on his drive into work for vegetables and other ingredients for the week. There are plenty of times he’ll leave home at 7:30 a.m. and won’t arrive at the restaurant until sometime after noon. There’s a good chance that whatever he selects from the vine that morning will end up on a customer’s plate just a few hours later. “The taste and the quality is completely different,” he says, adding that there’s a notable difference cooking “something off a vine that was picked 20 minutes ago perfectly ripe or if you got something that was picked three weeks ago a month under-ripe.” Restaurants such as Jedediah Hawkins Inn are fortunate to be just miles away from some of the best farms on the East End, but some progressivethinking business minds inspired by this buy-local philosophy are not afraid to set up shop in Nassau County where local farms are fewer. Adam Acerra, one of three partners at Market Bistro in Jericho, sought to bring the burgeoning farm-to-table ideology to Nassau after noticing its meteoric rise in Manhattan. He opened his restaurant two years ago, and is encouraged by the response. “People are taking to it, they love it,” he says outside Market Bistro, a rustic, industrial-themed eatery that uses a giant blackboard to display menu items and features bottled-up produce on shelves adjacent to a wide-open wooden bar. Acerra is proud of the relationships he’s built with local farms—many that Market Bistro lists on its website. “It makes it more fun,” he says of working alongside these farmers. The menu is adjusted seasonally depending on what’s sprouting out of the ground. Market Bistro’s current fall

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menu is replete with dishes that include red cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and apples from North Fork farms. Local fluke and oysters from nearby Sexton Island are currently on the menu. “We’re not going to Washington for oysters,” Acerra says. Diners at Roots Bistro Gourmand in West Islip encounter a similar experience, with a bit of a modern twist. Thirty-year-old owner and chef James Orlandi opened the “bistronomic”—short for bistro gastronomic— restaurant with a partner about a year and a half ago. The staff blends the old way of doing things with contemporary techniques to give eaters a one-of-akind experience. “I think they’ve just been held at a standard of what a restaurant should be here and we’re trying to step out of the box and give them something that they would expect in the city, or more importantly, at some of the top restaurants in the world, really,” he says, over the phone. “Basically anything that hits the table here has come from raw ingredients which we have broken down,” Orlandi adds. “Nothing is frozen or packaged.” Orlandi’s menu, which evolves depending on the season, includes lamb with a puff pastry top and lobster with sweet corn puree—both with some Long Island pizzazz. The farm-to-table trend, say these restaurant owners and chefs, will only continue to grow as Long Islanders become increasingly aware of the origin of the food they’re enjoying. A large number of restaurants— North Fork Table & Inn in Southold, Peppercorn Café in East Patchogue, The Fifth Season in Port Jefferson, Noah’s in Greenport, and many others—buy their produce from local farmers. “Without farms,” says Acerra of Market Bistro, “you have no food.” He has a point.

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the Original

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