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To many
students, Charles B. Wang is a familiar name, especially
since there is a building with his name on it that he spent
more than $50 million to build and then donated to the
university. Recently, his building was mentioned as part of
a controversy with the university. It seems that Mr. Wang
and President Shirley Strum Kenny had a disagreement, though
the details are not clear, and thus the removal of an
artifact from the Wang Center was a casualty.
It seems as if Mr. Wang has been involved in another
controversy yet again, this time with Hempstead Town in
Nassau County. As owner of Long Island's only major local
team, the New York Islanders, Charles B. Wang has decided
that he would like to refurbish Nassau Coliseum and
hopefully to make the areas lying around it busy with
housing, parks, shops, hotels, businesses and more - all of
this as a part of his Lighthouse Project. The proposed cost
of this project would be $3 billion, not using taxpayer
money, but the increased traffic and school age children has
had some Hempstead Town board members thinking twice about
whether to agree with Mr. Wang's project.
However, Mr. Wang points out that this project will generate
thousands of jobs – something Nassau County could definitely
use in this economy. Mr. Wang has publicly threatened that
if his project is not passed, that he will remove the
Islanders from Long Island, stating that he will move the
team to where “we're loved”. It seems that there are many
places where they are loved since there has been contact
from Brooklyn and Queens politicians who are willing to
facilitate a move to their boroughs should the Islanders
decide to move.
The likelihood of whether this decision will be put into
action this year is very slim and technically the Islander's
lease of the stadium does not expire until 2015. However, in
a recent New York Times article, it seems Mr. Wang
has no problem with making the team leave early.
This controversy seems like a no-brainer to me. Hempstead
Town and Nassau county should definitely agree to go ahead
with this plan, as Mr. Wang has a valid point. This project
can help revitalize the economy from the current slumping
state that it is in. Long Islanders are loyal fans of their
only team and it is almost guaranteed that there will be
tons of fans and corporations going to the new arena should
it be built, and the revitalized community surrounding it
will help to get a faster return on the $3 billion while
replacing barren parking lots and empty fields with
something worthwhile. The
concerns of Hempstead Town seems to be lost on me, and they
should not be dragging their feet with this one.
Lighthouse Project Official Site
http://www.lighthouseli.com
Video Interview with Charles Wang on the
Lighthouse Project and NY Islanders
http://islanders.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?type=fvod&id=35718
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