Even though the effort to help this struggling community started as early as 2003, I began following the Wyandanch Rising development after reading a recent Newsday article that praised New York State and Gov. Andrew Cuomo for awarding Long Island over $100 million USD in development funds to revitalize communities like Wyandanch (Wyandanch Rising received $6 million, the most among all municipal projects on Long Island).
I remember growing up in the early 2000's in West Babylon, a town less than 5 miles away, with all my friends telling me how afraid they were to go to Wyandanch because of what a "bad neighborhood" it was. Granted, Wyandanch has higher instances of violent crime (6.90 cases per 1,000 residents) than the New York State average (4.03 cases per 1,000 residents), but I never thought any thing of it.
The development project hopes to turn the area around the Wyandanch Long Island Railroad station into a vibrant and sustainable mixed use town center. In highlighting its sustainable features, it was selected in 2010 by The U.S. Green Building Council as one of the 10 development projects to showcase the new LEED Neighborhood Development Standard.
The Town of Babylon has undergone a rigorous planning process that involved a number of community members beginning in 2003, when Sustainable Long Island facilitated their community-based planning event that attracted over 500 homeowners, renters, business and property owners, civic groups, planners, architects, and government officials. In my opinion, the Town of Babylon has done an excellent job in making the planning process as transparent and inclusive as possible by always inviting the community to take part in every step of the process.
Below, I prepared a short presentation that summarizes key elements of the plan and provided a demographic analysis of the immediate surroundings of the project site in order to identify areas of importance.
Resources for Further Reading:
Wyandanch Rising homepage
New Urban Network overview of Wyandanch Rising Plan
Tri-State Transportation Campaign overview/criticisms of Plan
*Please note the open date is not definite as of yet.
I remember growing up in the early 2000's in West Babylon, a town less than 5 miles away, with all my friends telling me how afraid they were to go to Wyandanch because of what a "bad neighborhood" it was. Granted, Wyandanch has higher instances of violent crime (6.90 cases per 1,000 residents) than the New York State average (4.03 cases per 1,000 residents), but I never thought any thing of it.
The development project hopes to turn the area around the Wyandanch Long Island Railroad station into a vibrant and sustainable mixed use town center. In highlighting its sustainable features, it was selected in 2010 by The U.S. Green Building Council as one of the 10 development projects to showcase the new LEED Neighborhood Development Standard.
The Town of Babylon has undergone a rigorous planning process that involved a number of community members beginning in 2003, when Sustainable Long Island facilitated their community-based planning event that attracted over 500 homeowners, renters, business and property owners, civic groups, planners, architects, and government officials. In my opinion, the Town of Babylon has done an excellent job in making the planning process as transparent and inclusive as possible by always inviting the community to take part in every step of the process.
Below, I prepared a short presentation that summarizes key elements of the plan and provided a demographic analysis of the immediate surroundings of the project site in order to identify areas of importance.
Resources for Further Reading:
Wyandanch Rising homepage
New Urban Network overview of Wyandanch Rising Plan
Tri-State Transportation Campaign overview/criticisms of Plan
*Please note the open date is not definite as of yet.
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