________ Franklin square/elmont _______
your HEALTH body / mind / fitness
and February 23, 2023
with a focus on:
HEA RT HEALTH
HERALD Your Health Heart Health Inside
Vol. 25 No. 9
love in the air at the Coral House
Mental health services for vets
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FEBRUARY 23 - MARCH 1, 2023
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Senior housing redevelopment sparks outrage By ANA BoRRUTo aborruto@liherald.com
Courtesy Town of Hempstead
All you need is love Students at Grace Lutheran School in Franklin Square made Valentine’s Day cards for local veterans. More photos, page 9.
A plan by the Town of Hempstead to modernize Dogwood Terrace — an affordable senior housing complex in Franklin Square — is quickly gaining opposition from neighbors, who are calling it a “monstrosity.” Town officials announced at the beginning of the month that the 104-unit complex, at 1178 Martha Place, would receive a much-needed upg rade, but neighboring homeowners are voicing objections as they are learning more details about the redevelopment project. The Town of Hempstead Housing Authority has proposed
expanding the low-cost housing development from two to four stories, while retaining the 104 units to accommodate town residents who are 55 and older. The existing two-story complex sits at a dead-end on Martha Place, behind the Stop & Shop on Franklin Avenue. Dick Petersen, a longtime resident of Emma Place in Franklin Square, who lives close to the apartment complex, said if the town moves ahead with the project, it would be a “monstrosity” in the neighborhood. “It’s like putting a size 12 shoe on a size 6 foot — it just doesn’t fit,” Petersen said. “We moved out here to get away from Continued on page 14
‘Discriminatory’ maps approved by Town of Hempstead By ANA BoRRUTo aborruto@liherald.com
They were angry, expressing those feelings as shame on the Hempstead Town Board. They are the group that has attended meeting after meeting, hoping to get some voice into how town board district lines would be redrawn, only to end up disappointed. It was an unsurprising end, but one that resulted in boos. “That’s nice, ladies and gentlemen,” Town Supervisor Don Clavin said, with unmistakable sarcasm. “That’s very polite of you.” They had pushed for what
they considered to be better representation on the town board — providing more opportunities for Hempstead’s growing minority populations to serve in elected positions through the creation of majority-minority districts. If they had passed, districts would be created where ethnic minorities were, in fact, the voting majority. But none of them came to pass. Most surprisingly, with the help of Deputy Town Supervisor Dorothy Goosby — who notably challenged what she called Hempstead’s discriminatory atlarge voting system in 1988 — who remained silent throughout the redistricting process, only to
W
e are reinventing the same revisionist, segregationist history that has kept so many people behind.
MidA MEREdAY Baldwin resident
finally vote yes to the new map. “In this moment in time, we are reinventing the same revisionist, segregationist history that has kept so many people behind,” said Mida Mereday of
Baldwin. “Our voices have not been heard all this time — it’s not going to be anything different.” Since the beginning of the Hempstead redistricting discussions, the concerns raised by opponents to the initial towndrawn maps has not changed: District lines should be redrawn to have a more balanced demo-
graphic representation. But under the guidance of the Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders law firm as well as re d i s t r i c t i n g e x p e r t S e a n Trende, the Town Board released a redistricting map proposal last month they said took into account public comments as well as the views of the redistricting Continued on page 4