From 4inarow on Islandermania

REGARDING THE D'AMATO RUMOR: Today I got confirmation on it from a TOH Republican. Not good news!

Also, a Dem who was very positive on the LH being done just a week ago, now says he doesn't know what will happen. Not good.


I'm with you Matt, but Hempstead Village OPPOSES the project so we have to get guys like us...Wantagh, Seaford, Bellmore, East Meadow, Valley Stream, etc to march!

It's time to shout some of these people down. Ignore Wang and go after the pols & GC.

More bad news! Just got confirmation from a TOH Republican (in town hall)...D'Amato is organizing resistence to the project.

Please pas this down

SHOW UP TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!

Where have I heard this before?

If you, or someone you know, is in suicidal crisis or emotional distress please call 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Enough of this BS and nonsense.......Wang should just go to Queens.

After reading a bit of the live chat on Newsday and the summary on PB so far I'd say the all important board meeting today is not going well for the project at all.

SURE SOUNDS THAT WAY
BUT YOU KNOW HOW THINGS CAN GO WHEN THE GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED
DOOM AND GLOOM THEN YOU WAKE UP ONE DAY AND EVERYTHING GETS THE GREEN LIGHT

IT IS SURPRISINGLY QUIET HERE
I FIGURED IT WOULD BE GROUND ZERO HERE
NOT THAT I'M COMPLAINING

All I saw were LIers blogging, and seemingly not from inside the meeting with real updates of the meeting's content. :dontknow:

lighthouse ground zero! :fear:

DAN
HOW YOU DOING WITH ALL THAT RAIN DOWN THERE?
THAT PICTURE OF THE ROLLER COASTER AT 6 FLAGS SUBMERGED
THEY SAID ONE TOWN GOT 16" OF RAIN IN 48 HOURS

Not bad T, thanks for asking. It's been bad but my apt and 'hood was spared damage. The worst areas are of course the lower lying areas, especially with rivers, lakes, creeks, etc. Got pretty hairy yesterday for sure.

Anyone go there today? Any news?

I am so sick of this situation that it's taken all of the life out of me. Couldn't bring myself to go down there today/tonight, and glad I didn't. Just let me know if they make a decision.

Brooklyn or Queens or Bust. Under a different owner, I'd bet. Maybe even the NHL (Bettman would make it happen if nobody else does.)

I'm done with this Lighthouse project.

SEEMS THE "PITBULL" APPROACH IS CAUSING A BACKFIRE EFFECT


AND DEE IT WAS A NOICE TOUCH READING HOW YOU'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO TONIGHTS GAME AT YOUR "HOME" BUT YOU MADE A POINT OF CALLING IT DISGUSTING. YOU KNOW YOU COULD MAKE THE ULTIMATE STAND AND BOYCOTT GOING TO YOUR DISGUSTING HOME BUT IT ISNT THAT DISGUSTING NOW IS IT????

Tom, maybe there was too much attention to the drop dead date, too much 'show up in force', maybe too much showmanship on the part of the Islanders to the point that it felt like it's being crammed down everyone's throat. Nobody, especially politicians who hold the power respond to that, in fact as we are finding out they go to great lengths to prove they are in control when they are backed into a corner, which I feel Wang and Co has done with the TOH.

Maybe, just maybe they should have proceeded as quietly and as much under the radar as possible, greasing and smoozing the politicians as much as possible and getting a deal done behind closed doors. This huge propaganda campaign may have woken the residents and now they are getting turned off by all of this as many of us are, only they are residents and if they speak out against the project to these powerful politicans it will carry alot of influence, a lot more than any blogger article or CB writings.

I still think this will all get done, but Charles Wang has to understand it WILL be done on the politicians terms. And if he doesnt want to play the game by their rules he's not going to get squat, threats or not. It's their game, their rules, he better swallow his pride and start sucking up to them if the wants his pot of gold.

NO KIDDING NICK

HAVING A COUPLE OF THOUSAND ISLANDER FANS CALLING YOU EVERY NAME IN THE BOOK
HAVING A COUPLE OF THOUSAND PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO VOTING CONNECTION WITH THE TOH OR NASSAU COUNTY SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER
CAUSE WHEN ITS ALL SAID AND DONE IF WANGSWORLD IS EMPTY ALL THEY'LL CARE ABOUT IS HEY THE ISLANDERS ARE STILL HERE


YEP IT WAS A WISE MOVE TO SAY THE LEAST
NOW YOU HAVE THE TOH DOING EVERYTHING BY THE BOOK
AND THE LONGER IT TAKES THE BETTER
AND WHEN THE POOP GETS FLUNG BACK AT WANG
EVERYONE CRIES FOUL
TOO BAD SOO SAD

I saw that too.

Disgusting? It's hallowed ground for those of us who remember the real hockey that was played there and it's still our home, the Barn, once known as Fort Neverlose. Disgusting? Never. How about aged or quaint or storied?

Whaaaat? You dont work faster, harder and with more purpose when someone tells you 'You Suck'?

:lol:

NO THEY WORK LIKE THE ISLANDERS
TURN A DEAF EAR AND DO WHAT THEY WILL

Here's the problem.

Arrogance. Why can't Wang and all the LH supporters simply ANSWER the TOH questions instead of pointing to the 6,500 DGEIS?
They CL:AIM that they answered their questions before. Not really. When those answers are NOT sufficient nor acceptable you need to SPELL them out AND be ready to answer them when challenged in a public forum.

Couldn't they bullet point specifics from that DGEIS?

You do not point at a body of work and say, the proof is in there. You work and bend with politicians and never piss them off. As I've belly ached over the last few months, there's plenty of blame to go around but our stubborn ignorant owner has brought this on himself.
At a time when we should be celebrating the brickwork being pieced together for a rebuild in all facets, we're lamenting the same old recurring stability issues we've encountered for the last 2 decades.

Go ahead Wang, play hardball and shake your head. You want it your way.
Go to Burger King. Then please come back and scale down the project and by all means, PLEASE agree to NOT sell off any portions of the LH build before completion and cash in while leaving everyone else in the fallout, including us fans.
That is a real concern that gets very little airplay and I'm glad the TOH addressed that yesterday with these crooked developers.


:angrier:

I'm surprised Dee! Personally, I could care less if the Islanders EVER renovated the building or anything else in the parking lot. I still think the barn is the best place to watch a game. Small seats? I don't care. Not enough beer guys in my section? Sucks, but I'll live. Crowded concourses? Definitely, but hey I still managed to come meet up with NYIC which is ALWAYS on the OPPOSITE side of where my seats are :blink: . Crowded bathrooms? Yep. I try to only go once during the game if at all.

All the renovations, upgrades, construction--is all for the jaded fan who doesn't really care about the Islanders, just wants a shiny toy to take his kids too, the prima donna players who otherwise HATE the idea of coming to LI, and most of all for Wangster who wants to see a return on his mega-investment.

All I want is the Islanders to rise from the ashes! Put a great product on ice and the fans (and whiny prima donna players) will come! (and dont' forget to change the uniforms back :yea: )

Wow, I really think this may not get done and the Isles could be out of here.

First time I've really thought that in this process.

Wang was pretty unprepared yesterday in terms of addressing specifics on traffic (we'll use more buses!) and those rents on those apartments that they're trying to pass off as student housing were pretty costly for students, not to mention he didn't really have an answer to how this project would effect the local businesses in the area.

I want this project to pass, only because I don't want to lose the Isles, but yesterday seemed like a major step backward.

From BD...take it for what it's worth:
I don’t know if it was something in the air or the stars aligning a certain way this first day or autumn. To Isles fans, Fall is how they are feeling from reading Newsday’s skewed take on the proceedings yesterday at the Lighthouse Hearing. Newsday coverage of the Lighthouse Project and the Town of Hempstead is one of the most sloppy, inconsistent, just plain wrong, if not amateurish I have ever seen in a newspaper besides the NY Post.

Then later I read Christopher Botta’s blog on AOL Fanhouse, and have to say, love the guy, but not quite agreeing with his blog either. The blogs and many fans feedback ranged from anger, frustration, panic, to defeat, to…now a MOVING VAN? However, his strong point is that this hearing is putting Charles Wang date of “certainty” on October 3rd in jeopardy. But it is Charles Wang himself who is downplaying October 3rd recently.

Has anyone actually been to a hearing before. A zoning hearing no less? Someone once told me the tale of how the Town Board hammered two guys for over 45 minutes when all they wanted to do is landscape around their Auto body shop. Listen, I don’t think the hearing went that great from a Lighthouse point-of-view. But, the air is getting mighty thick with all sorts of takes. Let’s try to make sense of it . . .

Look, I am as concerned as an Islanders fan as anyone else on the longterm health of the team, the business and believe in the Lighthouse Project. I get that many, including former Isles employees who fought the fight for 20 some odd years during some VERY rough and tumble times, are going to be concerned about yesterday. Nick Giglia, Dee Karl, Doug Davidson, and many others all had strong takes and concerns on the goings on.

The Lighthouse House Project Is From Mars, And The Town of Hempstead Is From Venus

To me, yesterday’s hearing feel I was getting was polar opposition moving away from the center than towards it. That the Town of Hempstead made a big production of taking the Lighthouse to task at the hearing, even if they also looked like horses asses while doing it. As we read in last night’s blog, there are completely two different takes stemming from the proceedings. There is a large expanse between both perceptions, and that to me was also concerning.

I publicly warned what it might lead to if the ToH continues to play hardball. Evidently, they seem quite clear on that. For this morning at the Baldwin train station was none other than Mark Bonilla and the matriarch of the Town of Hempstead itself, Kate Murray.

So I spoke to Mark Bonilla first, telling him my concerns over the Lighthouse Project/ToH post meeting. Bonilla was very positive about the project.

“Listen, we just need to make sure of things. Don’t worry, this is going to happen. But it is our job to ask those questions and check certain things.”
Interesting take on the record, having identified myself as a NY Islanders blogger.

Murray & Me:

The Big Kahuna waiting for me at the top of the LIRR stairs where we had about a 10 minute conversation, after identifying myself.

Her first words out of her mouth floored me: “Listen, don’t worry, the Lighthouse Project is going to happen.”

Whhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!??!?!?!? I then talked to her about some feedback I got from many fans, bloggers and some of the text I was reading on the subject this morning. I mentioned the “dire straits” of what we were reading, hearing and seeing.

“It’s not dire at all. the meeting was usual for hearings like that. That is how those meetings go. That’s interesting that Isles fans walked away that it was contentious and they were disheartened, but this is how these types of hearings go. The Project is fine. Take heart.”

Now, we can all wonder where the truth is to all this. Is it the undisguised panic on one end? Is it the calm reassurance of the other? Or is it the thinly disguised contempt for Charles Wang from one source who called him a bully earlier this year? Or is it “Ass-to-Mouth” who cited yesterday that the Town Board has serious concerns and did not like the answers? Or is it Nick Giglia’s sharp take on that the Board didn’t seem to listen, or simply didn’t want to?

Or is it really somewhere in-between? Is it beneath the veneer of the political shellac which is being liberally applied by both parties, as Christopher Botta (or as his friends call him…Chris), Nick, myself and many others try to somehow plow through all of this, all coming up with different feels and takes?

Those are the most re-assuring words you can hear. Like I said, it's going to be on TOH's terms not Wang's, and the sooner the LILighthouse group understands that the quicker this will happen.

Honestly, I'm in favor of the Lighthouse, but I think it is a little too large, and I think Murray feels the same way.

More concessions are going to be made before TOH approves it, not necessarily a bad thing.

it's disgusting because it's filthy.
I don't know why the board of health hasn't stepped in.

Two seasons ago I took pictures of many of the violations.
I held onto them because they told me not to publish them.

Penn station is disgusting too.
But I go there if I have to take a train.
If I have to go to the coliseum to see the Islanders play, then I will live with the filth and bring hand sanitizer with me.

SO ITS JUST SHOCK VALUE :fear: :fright:

ITS DIRTY SOMETIMES NOTHING A HAND SANITIZER CANT CURE
EVERYTHING UNDERSTOOD IF YOU SPENT ANY AMOUNT OF TIME IN THE BARN

BUT "DISGUSTING" HAS ITS OWN VISION
AND IF YOU HAD PICTURES WHY HAVENT THEY BEEN SHOWN
IF "THEY" TOLD YOU NOT TO PUBLISH THEM :dontknow:
WHAT ELSE HAVE "THEY" TOLD THEIR LITTLE ARMY "WHAT TO DO?"

ITS EITHER REAL MEDIA OR MAKE BELIEVE
CANT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

It's time to bring brooms and some cloths. Perhaps we can all have a day and clean up the Coliseum since the "workers" are too busy selling cold hot dogs and pretzels without any salt.

:yea:

I mean this post to lighten up the mood here. It's become stressful coming to this website. We used to be friends but now we're always bickering and fighting. We wouldn't have this problem if the powers to be would put a legit team on the ice.

AMEN BROTHER

hey tom.
do me and you a favor and take me off your RSS feed.
I obviously piss the living daylights out of you, so why don't you save yourself (and me) the agravation and just don't read my writing.

NO AGGRAVATION HERE
I'M JUST ANOTHER HIT ON THE SITE COUNTER
JUST ONE QUESTION WHATS AN RSS FEED?
I KNOW WHAT IT COULD MEAN BUT I DONT THINK ITS THE TECHNICAL DEFINITION

Well it looks like we could all use some $8 Coliseum beer.... :yea:

:rofl:

Andy, I just noticed line in your signature.
sorry for laughing.

Looking forward to the pretzel twist tonight ... :drool:

So is this not gonna happen or what?

BTW: SEE YOU ALL TONIGHT!! CAN'T WAIT!!

This is what happens when your now-unemployed Dad starts clicking on all of your Adsense links all the time:
- You lose all your earned money
- You lose all you ads (and are banned for the future)
- Your PageRank drops and you stop showing up in searches (used to be 4th under Islanders Blogs!)

So I've just been trying to figure it out. It's disheartening, but I'll keep it going still...

Sorry, back to LH...

Great news! Is this on his site b/c I didn't see it.

Newsday's take has been skewed for quite a while, virtually everything reported by Eden Laikin has been wrong or in favor of the TOH and completely misleading after Wang sat down with them and gave exclusive interviews which he never had to do.

Meanwhile Baumbach goes all the way to KC and puts down the club every chance he can ad nasuem on attendance despite fourteen games at 15,000 plus last season and Mark Herrmann's are the Isles worth it crap he would never write about his employers favorite team.

With friends like these we need no enemies. KC got a thousand less for Rangers-Detroit at Msg Monday, all announced attendance, not real.

Months ago you got Mr Botta telling everyone it's the most important day with each and every meeting or event now either he or AOL has headline writers amping up the hysteria with misleading headlines about moving vans?

The TOH should be hard on the developers and ask the tough question but they were not respectful to people who are willing to spend a lot of money to renovate Nassau and TOH property which they would have to pay for themselves without Wang-Rechler.

And where was Tom Suozzi who everyone pro LH have given a big fat pass to while he has given the New York Islanders nothing but delays and a proclamation to show for eight years? Wang has a deadline because of his lack of action.

Big time dog show. Why spend all this money on experts/reports and do a EIS for millions if no one in the TOH is going to bother reading it or at least have a clue what was in it after they approved it?

Not sure what will happen when but a vote has to happen and will sooner or later. I'm shocked Murray asked for a standing vote among audience because it did not help those against the project.

Bottom line Nassau-TOH can always pay for a new Coliseum, it's their building, not Wangs if they don't like his plan and they are obligated to maintain it for our hockey team.

Crooked developers?

This from the same TOH that demands local hirings from Wang-Rechler for construction but hired a Westchester firm for the environmental review and then the TOH supervisor Kate Murray herself had daddy on the payroll?

That alone should have gotten her removed from office begging the question who's the real crook because she wants third party control from the developers for a lease that runs 99 years and will outlast everyone after Wang-Rechler do all the financing and construction?

When is Murray and Suozzi going to give whoever owns our team anything besides excuses. Newark, NYC gave a ton to those teams for them to own their own facilities.

Do you run the Twitter page with the same title?