Long Beach
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Former senator is recovering
Emergency Dept. halts visitation
Kids thank first responders
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NOVEMBER 26 - DECEMBER 2, 2020
VOl. 31 NO. 48
Virus stifled holiday plans Many said families would spend Thanksgiving apart, connect online her immediately family. Her father, whom she pulled out of a nursing home because of the There’s one thing people in spread of Covid-19, would be Long Beach said they would there, along with her mother and surely remember most about two brothers. Thanksgiving 2020 amid the But, Moore said, “We’re all coronavirus pandemic: empty happy to be alive. We’ll use Zoom chairs at the holiday table. and make a lot of Outside on a phone calls. It’s been pleasant afternoon a very difficult year.” last Saturday, resiMichael Feiner dents and visitors and his wife, Eileen, said they planned to both retired New spend Thanksgiving York City schoolwith fewer people teachers, were visitthan usual, without ing Long Beach from seeing children or Bayside, Queens. grandchildren, and Normally, Michael perhaps tuning in said, he would start for virtual visits his Thanksgiving elsewhere around d ay w i t h a r u n the country. NaNCy lEstER through Prospect Anissa Moore, a Long Beach resident Park, in Brooklyn, professor of commuand then sit down to nications at Nassau dinner with his wife, Community College and a for- daughter, son-in-law and two mer City Council president, said grandchildren. Or the Feiners she likes to spend Thanksgiving would fly cross-country to meet sur rounded by family and their other children and grandfriends. In past years, Moore children. said, her Long Beach home has This year, Eileen said, the been packed with 15 to 20 people. couple would celebrate alone. Some who didn’t come for the She said she didn’t bother buyturkey dinner would drop in ing a turkey for just the two of later for dessert. them. Instead, they would eat This year, Moore said, her gathering would be limited to Continued on page 3
By JaMEs BERNstEiN jbernstein@liherald.com
Courtesy State Sen. Todd Kaminsky
Giving back The Long Beach Martin Luther King Center on Monday distributed food and turkeys to those in need in the community. State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, far left, was among the volunteers who helped distribute food and turkeys.
City may be liable for $149 million Developer’s lawsuit dates back nearly two decades By JaMEs BERNstEiN jbernstein@liherald.com
The City of Long Beach may be on the hook for $149 million in damages in a nearly two-decadeold lawsuit filed by a developer that arose out of a dispute over the construction of oceanfront condominium towers. Five years after a state court found Long Beach liable and in default of damages to Sinclair Haber man, of Haber man & Haberman, Nassau Supreme Court Justice Jack Libert finished hearing testimony last week in the damage phase of the
city’s unsuccessful appeal, before he determines how much the city will have to pay the developer. The city was found liable in 2015 for failing to properly respond to Haberman’s lawsuit, originally filed in 2003, when he was denied a permit to build two 19-story condo buildings and a parking structure next to Seapointe Towers, at the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Shore Road. The financially strapped city is considering its options for paying, if it must, but they are few. At a recent City Council meeting, Assistant Corporation Counsel
Rich Berrios said, “We have some grounds to appeal” a decision by Libert. He was immediately challenged by Roy Lester, a former president of the Long Beach Board of Education and sometime critic of city policies. “Is that realistic, when you’ve already lost four or five times?” Lester asked, referring to several setbacks in the courts in the case. “We’re stuck with the decision, and now it’s only a question of how much we have to pay.” Berrios said he could not comment further while the case conContinued on page 3
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verything is different these days. We’d just love for things to go back to normal.