Long Island News Forecast (The News Conference: Real & Powerful 2023)

FMC Fast Chat takes you inside the news so you can be in the know in 30 minutes. Hosted by Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement, Fast Chat features notables in news, media, and business.

Take a listen to the Long Island local news forecast for 2023, featuring key decision makers in the hyperlocal media landscape. I'm Jaci Clement, CEO and Executive Director of the Air Media Council, and this discussion was part of FMC's annual event, The News Conference: Real and Powerful. It features Newsday editor Don Hudson, along with Diane Micheli, who is vice president and general manager of public media stations WLIW-21 and WLIW-FM, Pam Robinson, founder and publisher of huntingtonnow.com, Altice USA digital vice president Chris Vaccaro representing News 12, and Mike DeWeese, political pollster and founder and president of Strategic Planning Systems, also play a vital role in this conversation. This session is moderated by Chris Wright of Protivity Consulting. Chris is also a member of the Fair Media Council Board of Directors, and it's Chris who begins the program.

Welcome, welcome everyone. I've met some of you. I think some of us did this virtually last year, and, and I think, Diane, you and I might have sat next to each other on a panel right before we couldn't do that anymore for a few years.

Good to see you virtually.

Chris, maybe as well. I'm not sure, or you might have been virtual. And Michael, I follow your work all the time. I serve as a volunteer on the NYFA board, so occasionally there's an interesting story you're talking about that I need to react to in the moment. So it's great to be with you all. The panel this morning is really to— it's predictive perhaps, but in the moment. And, you know, our political theater has given us all some fun things to talk about as well lately. And there's sort of an ever-flowing stream of things. But the panel discussion this morning is, what are the stories or the people or the issues? And you might have people who are both stories and issues, thinking of my new congressman, for example. That are— that we should keep an eye on, right? That— and I stated the obvious one. Michael, you'll appreciate, I was at the state comptroller's inauguration, you know, the reenactment, if you will, the local reenactment was on Sunday afternoon. And Robert Zimmerman was his emcee. And there was only one George Santos joke in 3 hours.

Wow.

Right, which I was— I found that remarkably, a remarkably low number, right? But because it's such a big news story that's national and local, so. But I thought we would share that amongst each other. I will, I will say very little other than to periodically direct a question and keep an eye on what the, what the participants are sending in in the way of questions as well. But maybe Open up. I know, let's go with sort of the most local. I know, Pam, you've got huntingtonnow.com. You've been on one of these forums before.

Yes, I have.

And Huntington is now just outside the 3rd Congressional District post-redistricting, right? So, but you can still talk about it if you want.

But yes, although I found a couple of ways to reach into the Santos story, there are a couple of connections and I have another—

There's a predecessor-successor thing for sure between Steve Israel and Tom Sweeney on that. So, So, Pam, maybe, maybe your views on, from a, from that local or hyperlocal perspective on, you know, and is it a Huntington thing, or do you have it? You're welcome to speak about other things, but any stories or people or issues that you think are in the moment that we need to keep an eye on and understand as, as the year unfolds?

Yes, I think housing is the big topic this year for Long Island. It's been here for years and years. I came to Long Island in from Connecticut in 1982. And my introduction to Huntington was I rented a place in Centerport and was working nights, got home about 2 in the morning, 5 minutes later, a knock on my door, town attorney, inspector, somebody else. And it turned out I had rented what turned out to be an illegal apartment. And so I had to move. And so that was my introduction to the housing issues on Long Island. I had never heard of some of these. It's been very obvious to me that the governor is targeting Long Island. in terms of developing more affordable housing. And Huntington, which actually has a pretty robust accessory apartment law, is still resisting a lot of affordable units. Most of the housing built in the last few years has been a little pricier. So I think Huntington's gonna have to be, you know, I, I— she's talking about forcing people basically state overriding local zoning rules and code. And I think she's, you know, I think we're gonna have to accept some change, whether a lot of people like it or not. And so I think that's a big issue. Republican control of this, what was a Democratic area, is another one. We have 2 town council people up for positions. One of them decided not to run again. The one Democrat on the board isn't running again this year— after this year, rather. So we've got a lot of, a lot of changes happening. Those are my 2 favorites.

And do you see that unfolding as, you know, there's a lot of players in housing, right? There's federal housing, there's what the governor announced yesterday in this— yesterday, yesterday in the State of the State address, although she may have covered it in her inaugural address as well. And then, but then it's local and you've got in the town of Huntington, you've got multiple incorporated villages too, I would imagine.

Yes.

So do you see that there's gonna be conflict between what the feds, the state, and the local, what they wanna do and the locals will allow or vice versa? Do you see that being a—

You know, I, I think the prime area for any kind of housing is going to wind up being Huntington Station again, which previously took a lot of apartments, and actually a court ruled against town procedure because they were basically forcing a lot of apartments into one area. Uh, I still think that's an area that's where the state and county and, and town are planning sewer connections. There is a pretty good, uh, mostly Latino business district on Route 110, and I fear for them a little bit because I'm afraid that some developer will come along under this mandate from the state and, and force some of those small businesses out and build apartment buildings. So do you want apartments or do you want small businesses to thrive? And 110 in that area is really dangerous. It's already dangerous. So you wonder about the, the smart— the wisdom of putting more apartments there. I'd say about every 10 days somebody gets hit by a car on that street, on that road. Uh, it's crowded. People run across the street in the middle, you know, in the dark. And get hit by a car. So, you know, there's some real complicated infrastructure issues that go along with housing. It's not just housing.

And I wonder if, you know, if there's a business interplay here too, when you think about whether or not there is or isn't a lot of excess office space further south on 110 before you get to the Town of Babylon line, right? And whether or not—

Yeah, Melville.

You'll see what we saw in Farmingdale and Mineola and other places where they've built up a lot of apartments around the train stations. Huntington, The challenge is that the train station is already densely packed around, right?

Exactly. But Millville, there is a plan to try to build on the former corporate center. Right now some people are resisting it as a safety issue. The fire department's saying they can't handle anymore. When I talk about infrastructure, I mean our fire departments too, which are primarily volunteer. Can we continue as if it's the 1950s and handle growth? I don't know. I, yeah, I think that's a real serious issue that we have to consider, our infrastructure. Does not support growth. So what are we going to do?

Thank you. Diane, what's, what's going on in the— from your vantage point?

Who, what, where?

What should we keep an eye on?

Well, I just want to— I'll talk— I want to answer that. But I do want to point out something that you said earlier when you talked about the importance of local journalism and you talked about the George Santos story. There's no better example Right. About the importance of local journalism than the news— small newspaper, the local journalists who broke that story long before the election. And unfortunately, it wasn't picked up in the way that it was after the election. So to me, that really signals the importance of local journalism. And I agree that housing is a huge issue on Long Island. I think something that people don't think about a lot— it is in the news now and then— is food insecurity. There's a lot of people using our food pantries. WLIW-FM, which is our NPR radio station, which covers most of all of Suffolk County— people don't realize, you know, they think, oh, the Hamptons, it's rich. There's a lot of food insecurity out there. The food bank is over, you know, constantly needing help with, you know, food and donations to serve them so many people more and more all the time. That's one of the big issues, I think. I think what we saw in the last year with the Proud Boys marching through parts of Long Island and hate as a part of our communities is something that, you know, is concerning and is something that people, you know, care about and, you know, are fearful of. And I also would say, going with the housing, income inequality, and how do we, you know, sustain our communities, keep people, young people on Long Island, which we've always talked about, the brain drain. with jobs and good places to live. And income inequality plays into that as well, because people have to make enough money to be able to live on Long Island. I'll never forget my son one time, and he's grown now, but when he was younger and he was in high school, and he said— he started, you know, started to become aware of the world, and he said, do you think I'll ever be able to afford to live on Long Island and buy a house when I grow up? and have a family, you know, and I think that that's a big concern. So, and public media, you know, we don't cover, you know, we— WLIW, I oversee WLIW, both our PBS television station and our NPR radio station on Long Island. We don't cover, you know, the breaking fire or the breaking crime, but we do cover issues. And those are some of the big issues that we're looking at. And there's just one other one that I want to point out in Suffolk County, which is the Shinnecock Nation.

Mm-hmm.

And that is, you know, there's a lot of things going on with the Shinnecock Nation, you know, talking about building a casino, trying to sustain themselves economically now that they have a different status, possibly building a hotel. All things that, you know, they have the right to do, are needed for their community, but obviously raise concerns for other parts of the community about traffic. Traffic, which we were just talking about. You know, when you build, you know, new housing or new developments, then there are all other issues that come along with that. But also, you know, the Shinnecock Nation and the sustainability of that community as well is a big issue. I think that it doesn't get a lot of coverage.

And that— there's a tie-in, I think, to the— thank you for that. There's a tie-in to the Shinnecock Nation also to cannabis.

Yes.

Cannabis sales becoming legal in the current year too, because they are able to sell on reservation. The issue was always that anybody who bought on reservation could have been arrested the minute they left. And now that that's not the case, there's a— there's probably a tie-in, you would imagine, a tie-in there too.

Yeah, there is. They are, they are, um, they are creating that business on the, uh, Shinnecock Nation. I don't know where it stands in terms of opening, but it is something that they are doing.

And you raise another point, and I'm not I'm taking notes here, whether it was when you discussed either food insecurity or income inequality. But when you think about the North and South Forks, you probably need to distinguish between the summer people and the year-round residents. That's a pre-pandemic concept.

Yes.

My father lives in the North Fork, and it used to be that maybe a 10th of the homes were full-time occupied, and now it's 3 quarters. In fact, in the town of Southold, it resulted in a complete change of government in the last election.

Yeah, absolutely.

People moved out there, registered to vote, voted, and did something that hadn't happened in 100 years. So anyway, I think there's a— you raise a number of good points. I'm going to keep track of this as we go through it and then maybe ask everybody to react to each other's points when we get there. So in no particular order other than the way my screen is organized, Brady Bunch style here. Mike, how about your thoughts on that? You go by Mike. It's not Michael, right?

Whichever.

It doesn't matter.

Well, it's very hard to look forward to 2023 and imagine a more entertaining year politically than 2022. You know, 2022 was a pretty interesting and entertaining year politically, both locally, nationally, and on the state level. So, but looking forward to 2023, we do have some really marquee races to look at. Obviously, the Suffolk County executive race will be the marquee race, probably on Long Island. At this point, Dave Colon seems to— the Democratic nominee seems to be getting up a head of steam, raising a lot of money, coalescing support. The Republicans have yet to name a candidate or coalesce behind one. I think they're all hoping and begging Lee Zeldin to run. So we'll see, you know, then we'll see what Falls out. Both legislatures are county legislatures are up for election. Suffolk shockingly has agreed to maps. Bipartisan commission actually voted 7-0 to agree to a set of maps. Shockingly cooperative for Suffolk County. Nassau has yet to agree on a set of maps. So the county legislature races, you know, will certainly be interesting. You know, and then we— you've got the whole red tide thing, you know. 2 years ago in the odd year, the local races in 2021, there was a huge red tide that, you know, swept Republicans to victory in most places. Pam's neck of the woods, Huntington, Ed Smith and town councils, all the Republicans won there.

All of Nassau County.

Legislative candidates, yes. You know, so, and I said at the time, you know, these things usually are yearly events. They usually don't go for more than a year. But then we went into 2022 and the red tide was still there, you know, on Long Island. And somewhat, somewhat surprisingly, because the rest of the country didn't get the expected red wave and Long Island did.

Mm-hmm.

And honestly, since November, I've done so many interviews where people have asked me, well, why was Long Island the outlier? Why did, you know, Long Island get the red wave and the rest of the country didn't? And I said, you're misreading it. I said, Long Island was not an outlier. The message of this election was that the vast number of voters voted against extremism. Now, most of the country was voting against Republican extremism, MAGA extremism, if you will, nationally. But locally, people cared far more about statewide issues and they were voting against the extremism, the progressive extremism of Albany. I said, no, yes. And so this wasn't— Long Island wasn't an outlier. They voted against extremism. They just took it out on the progressive agenda. And that being the case, something I think is going to be, I think, really interesting. And Pam sort of set the tone here, I guess, with housing. But this could become a real political football because the governor took a run at home rule. Last year, budgetarily, the outcry in the suburbs was so tremendous that she had to pull it back. But most political observers, especially here on Long Island, thought she would take another run at home rule. And sure enough, in her proposal, she is. She's going to say, well, okay, maybe there'll be an appeal process that if the town zoning board doesn't, doesn't approve a certain project, then appeal project on this on a state level that will override the local zoning, and that is going again against home rule. I think again there will be a big outcry on this because, I mean, nobody disagrees that we don't need more affordable housing. But taking that decision-making away from the local governments is going— people move to the suburbs for a reason. They move to the suburbs to have a different kind of quality of life than the city. And this is going to become a huge political battle if she, if she pushes this forward. And, and, and constitutionally, not that Albany always follows what's legal and constitutional, but you'd have to change the state constitution because home rule is assured in the state constitution. So they would have to actually— she would have to really change the charter of the constitution to try to push this forward. Not again that Albany always listens to that, but, but then— and that's just really some of the stories. There's a lot of stories, obviously. You know, the obvious one, the ongoing gift that keeps giving, George Santos. You know, I did more press hits on George Santos in the last 2 weeks than I can count. In fact, last Thursday, they called me for an interview and I said, so what's the topic? And they said, oh, the speaker battle. I said, oh, thank goodness I don't have to talk about George Santos again.

Every C-SPAN camera found George Santos. Even during that.

Yeah, but I don't know how many people were watching, but if you were watching C-SPAN, which obviously had an open camera while there was no speaker chosen, or even if you're watching CNN or some of the other channels, the Long Island delegation were right in the middle of this. In fact, if it weren't for Andrew Garbarino, we probably still wouldn't have a speaker. Garberino is the one who delayed the adjournment vote, then walked over. You could see it on the camera. Then he walks over to Matt Gaetz and first he has a heated conversation with McCarthy for not adjourning. Then he walks over to Gaetz and then he points Gaetz over to McCarthy and basically says, if he's got your support, go tell him. And you go and see he does it, you know. So the Long Island delegation had a really, you know, historical Part to play in this.

So, Mike, do you think— you mentioned district lines— does that become its own story?

I had—

I'm working in Uniondale this week, and I decided for some reason to head over to the town of Hempstead redistricting meeting last Monday night where they were talking about those district lines. And I think there, it was pretty obvious from the speakers that they're planning on litigating the fact that, you know, the town of Hempstead is about 52% white and 47.5% then non, and yet somehow the lineup of districts is not 3 and 3.

Ah, gerrymandering.

So, um, do you think that becomes a story?

Yes, I do. Yeah, I do. It falls on a county level and the town level. Uh, I, I think this is— Nassau is going to be a hotbed of redistricting fighting. And the interesting thing about it is that You know, the timeline's been moved up. You know, if you remember that the, the, the state— the statewide primaries, all the primaries in New York used to be in September. And then the federal— there's a federal suit that said, no, you gotta, you gotta have the federal ones in June. And then eventually they moved them all to June. And what that means is petitions have to hit the street in March, which means the lines have to be set in March. So we might have another situation like we had last year where you have separate primaries if these lines aren't set. You know, you might have a situation like we had last year where you had, you know, one primary in June for most of the races, and then we had to have a later primary in August because of the special Senate primaries.

Yeah, and it's, it's always interesting, you know, the counties, they redistrict all 18 in Suffolk, all 19 districts in Nassau, and the town had its 3— it's 6 being redistricted, but you only elect 3 every year, right? So you'll have that odd circumstance where I, where I live, I believe the shape didn't change at all. I live in the one area that was drawn the way a child would just draw a square until they got to enough voters, right? The others were oddly shaped, but you would have people representing people who didn't elect them for 2 years at least, right? With the way they do, they do half a class at a time. So I'm wondering, that may just be for the wonks, but you could see it becoming a story if it results in litigation.

Yeah, the staggered terms are a holdover from at-large seats.

Right.

They really, you know, once you, once you go to a district's award district, you really should hold them all at the same time. But yeah.

But North Hempstead and Hempstead both do 3 and 3 every 4 years.

So yeah, great.

Well, thank you. I'm gonna move to Don. I know you've got a panoramic— is that a real background in the new building, or are you— you've got a good Zoom template?

Oh no, no, this is the building.

Cool, nice to see it. Yeah, I was telling the earlier, uh, the earlier panelists, uh, I was a payroll clerk at Newsday when I was one summer in college, so quite familiar with, with the sounds and smells of 235 Pine Lawn Road because the printing shop was in the next building. So, but, uh, Don, what do you think is, uh, is, is, is there to— for people to keep an eye on, uh, stories, people, or issues?

Well, I think going back to Pam, Pam started it off on the, on the right note with housing. That's going to be a huge issue for us, especially with the announcements yesterday from Hochul. The biggest— some of the biggest things for us is going to be pocketbook issues across the board. Food insecurity also too, that was mentioned earlier as well too. Now we'll continue to focus on all of our key topics, which is we'll continue to push really hard on investigations. We have a couple of projects, big hits that are coming up here real soon that I think our readers will that will resonate with our readers. We'll continue to cover health. We're finding now anytime we do COVID stories, you know, there was that COVID fatigue for a minute or two, but now, you know, as we sporadically do these stories as they develop, we find that people are really going like, okay, all right, yeah, there's, there's the latest news here, especially with this new variant. So we're staying on top of that. Of course, education is key for us. K through 12 gets a lot of traction for us, more so than colleges. And then of course, transportation still is huge for us, roads, infrastructure. And anything that's happening with the Long Island Railroad. We're going to put a bigger emphasis on covering the environment this year. I ended up losing one of my environmental reporters because I moved him over to investigations, so I'm trying to shore up in, in that particular area because of all our water quality issues, as you very well know, here on Long Island. So we're going to push really hard on that. We're going to push really hard also too on real estate. And, uh, you know, and the other things like preps, we're going to try to continue to, to own that as well too, our preps coverage in food and entertainment. Uh, we've hired another, uh, Feed Me reporter, uh, and we're doing a whole lot more video as well too, as you guys very well know. And, um, we're getting ready to launch our Newsday TV as well too. So those are, those are some of the key things that, uh, that we're up to right now actually in those topics.

And Newsday TV being streamed on the, on the Newsday app, or it'll be If you're able to say, or—

Yeah, yeah, there and elsewhere as well too. And it'll be free too, Chris. Great.

I, I do— I was a Newsday carrier. I remember delivering in the afternoon and the dynamics entirely changed. I still subscribe, the paper still hits the curb in the morning, but by the time it arrives, I've read it all online.

Yeah, I hear you. Me too, actually.

You're getting the money anyway because you can't get the app without, without subscribing. It works out well. Great. Uh, Chris, how about from a News 12 LT's perspective?

Uh, I hate to call it the death of small business, but the impact of the economy continuing to shutter, you know, our places that we've ate at, that we've shopped at for 60, 70 years, that continues to be a story. You know, places that you've all frequented, places that we loved and grew up with, they're gone. And it's, it's a two— it's a three-part story. It's, it's the impact of the economy, on our region. It's the death of small business, or maybe the evolution of small business. And then it's what do we do with that brick-and-mortar location? It becomes sort of a real estate story and a local government story of what they're doing to fill those spots. And so we're trying to follow those. And every time we post something— King Cullen closing, the Good Steer in Lake Grove closing, the several diners— I mean, diners, I feel like, took the biggest hit. There's dozens that just died in the last 18 months. What are we doing with those properties? What are we going to fill them with? And that's a story because I don't think anybody really knows. And even in the village that I live in, I'll talk to the mayor just in conversation, like, what do we do with this thing? They have a vision of what they'd like for their village, but they don't yet know how to fill it because people aren't racing to build another business in that spot because they can't afford it because they're unsure if, are we in a recession? Are we not?

Mm-hmm.

Where are they gonna be able to fund this? When my wife and kids and I are driving by and we see, oh, that restaurant's new, like, all right, great, good luck. Let's go there, we'll eat there next week. So the idea of just what can the news business do to support these local businesses that start up? How are we covering the ones that are dying and why are they dying based on economical, you know, faults to, you know, is it government? Is it COVID? Is it public health issues? I mean, there's a lot of issues for it, obviously, very multilayered story. I don't think that's stopping. So that's a huge thing that we're going to continue to look at in 2023 and probably beyond. I also think cannabis and these recreational distilleries is really fascinating. You know, where will they pop up? Which towns are going to have the approval to do it? We just covered something in Connecticut. Obviously News 12 is across the tri-state, so it's not just Long Island, but we're looking at the individual distilleries that are popping up, the impact of the local economies. in all of our regions. We have 7 regions across the tri-state. That's huge for us. Every time we post it, I think people on one hand go, oh, that's interesting. I'd like to go use that and try that. Or people go, oh my God, I can't believe this is popping up. Keep this away from my community.

See?

So there's always both perspectives to cover and to share. And so that's another one. Also, there, you know, you mentioned Shinnecock. A different angle related to Native Americans, the state and how they're going to create these guidelines for school districts that have Native American logos and names and likenesses in their community. And I'm interested to see how that plays out. I mean, obviously something like in East Islip with the Redmen is very front and center. There's other ones like Massapequa and the Chiefs, and that's a very, very local story. I mean, obviously it'll grow across the entire state, but people are so passionate about their community and how it's depicted with their monikers and their slogans and their slogans, logos and slogans. And so That's an unknown right now of what those guidelines are going to be from the state, and how that's going to impact state aid for those school districts. So we have to see that. We got to monitor that and tell those stories. And, you know, the perspective of both sides, obviously, what it means to Native Americans and those impacted on how it looks and feels, and what are the people in the communities thinking, and inside that community, the administration versus the school board versus the taxpayers. So many layers of stories, as you all know. And News 12 is evolving as well in terms of its storytelling. So we've about 18 months ago launched something called News 12 New York, which is our streaming network on OTT platforms. We're on about 15 different distribution partners and platforms accessible through Roku, Amazon, Apple, and, and a dozen others. Um, we are now investing in that, and what does that mean to grow our audience beyond linear and beyond television? Obviously growing beyond digital and social as well. This is a separate audience. This is a different way of consumption that many, many people from a younger demographic especially, or I hate to use the term cord cutters, are gravitating towards these other platforms to get their news. And so we're on those platforms. It's now how do we build that network more? We call it an 8th channel, and it's actually in my business unit in digital because it is digital, but we have MMJ is going out covering different regions that we normally wouldn't. We have long-form programming that's being developed. We're developing a primetime schedule and slate of different content for the evening. Um, you know, and so how we're building that 8th channel or, you know, portion of our network is arguably the biggest growth area for News 12 going forward, because it's a massive audience that is out there that we need to get, that we need to let them know, hey, we're here as well. Um, and there's also, you know, I love looking at it like this. There's a lot of people who may— I hate to say this, but they may not know what News 12 is. And so we need to let them know, hey, this is a local news network in the tri-state, not just Long Island. And, you know, you can be entertained and informed and engaged as well. And that could be a younger person. It could be somebody who moved here and wasn't quite familiar with us. It could be somebody who just never had cable. You know, there's— there are people like that that exist. So, um, big challenges, but very big growth areas that we're excited about. And it's been a busy 11 days so far in this, in this year, as we're just really treating it, you know, with a sort of full-court press.

Great. Thanks, Chris. And I know on the business front, it's interesting that it used to be if you took Route 110 north to south, you'd hit a diner every other traffic light. And, you know, now one— there's one in 7-Eleven. The one's a 7-Eleven in Farmingdale. There's another one in Farmingdale. I forget what it is. And inexplicably, there's one That's empty across the street from the Waldorf-Astoria where you'd think you'd be able to make a diner. They just tore it down. Oh, they tore it down? All right. Yeah, just a week ago.

Yeah, yeah, empty for years.

One of the things I saw in some of the coverage, I think it was mostly in, in Newsday, on some of the restaurants closing was not so much that it was economically unviable, but it was sort of the family was just tired. The lease was up and they were, yeah, they were done with it. Maybe I wonder if there's a post-pandemic You know, we got through it. They stood it up. They kept it open. They served the public at the curbside, and they are just—is it also a—is there a demographic angle to that? Do you think that's going to evolve? Anyone's views on that in terms of—is it was it economic? I suppose if you make enough money, you'd keep it open. Or was it like the the deli in Plainview that did stay open because they just arranged for the the workers to take it over, but the family just was. Tired.

So I, I just read a story about the, the restaurant that has been rated the best restaurant in the world closing. And the re— and I read the article, and the reasons that it was closing was not for economic reasons, although that's a part of it during the pandemic, hard to sustain. But a lot of it was the things that you're talking about, the, the lifestyle that running a restaurant requires is something that people are rethinking now after the pandemic, where we're all, we're all rethinking like our lives, right? We all hear the stories about the work-life balance, and you know what's— we have a different lens on what's important to us and how we want to spend our time. And that, I think, is one of— might be one of the reasons. I don't know, because I'm not in that business, but I thought that that perspective And looking at the quality of life for the workers and the hours and everything that's required, and how the pandemic has sort of shifted the way that people look at their lives and how they want to spend their time, was the real reason that that particular restaurant decided they were gonna close, even though they have been rated the best in the world. And it, it's not in this country. So that's, uh, that's in Copenhagen.

That's another story that we have to all follow as well.

Yeah.

I hate even saying post-pandemic, but we are post-pandemic. It's the workforce and workplace mindset and the generational gap that has risen, the rights of workers, the work from home versus in office. That is a story. You can localize it because every business has different policies and principles, 2 days here, 3 days there. It's interesting because there's no perfect answer. You know, we just saw Disney say they're going 4 days a week in office. You know, Bob Iger is making the change. There's a local angle since he's from Oceanside. Yeah, it's interesting that— that you're right. It's not just the economy, but it's just the mindset and people's personalities have adjusted and what they like and desire.

So. Yeah, a big problem here is workforce. I mean, most of the— I mean, you know, I know a lot of restaurant owners, particularly down here in the Bayport-Saville area.

Yeah.

Um, and they— every one of them says the same thing. They can't get workers. They can't get people to work. A lot of them have had to cut back their hours and schedules strictly because they can't get people to work. Our local pizza parlor, um, always was open till 11 o'clock. Uh, they're closing at 9 now, and it's strictly because they can't get workers. They cannot get work. And of course, that again, getting back to Pam's opening, gets back to workforce housing, you know, having Yeah, out on the East End with—

in the Hamptons, that's a huge issue. I mean, there were business owners putting ads in newspapers asking if people had housing that they could, you know, use for their workers. The trade parade, the traffic, you know, all of these things that play into whether or not somebody's gonna spend 2 hours on, you know, or 3 hours commuting, you know, because they can't afford to live near their work. And is it worth it for them to do that? And saying no, and then there not being enough workers. So it's— all of these things that we're talking about are interrelated and have a huge impact on Long Island.

And Diane, some of those are not necessarily the highest paid workers either. And we had a question come in. It was a follow-up to you, but again, open to everyone. The question stated that Long Island Cares, which we all know is doing work in Hampton Bays, they've got a relationship with the Shinnecock Nation.

Yes.

But is there, is there something else that needs to be done North and South Fork East End to deal with the food insecurity that likely, likely is more workforce affected than you would imagine some are people affected? But is there anything, are there stories there to be done?

Yeah, absolutely. I think the more that we as the media can, you know, do stories and cover that issue and bring it to the forefront, the more that people, you know, turn out to help because they know about it. Because it is something that, you know, I know about it, lots of people know about it. It's something that's in the news, but it's, it's also something that there's a wall there somehow. And so we have to try to help break through that wall to be able to tell those stories so that it resonates with people and they turn out and they care and they do care and they do something about it. They donate, they volunteer, they, you know, give money, they give food, you know, they lend a helping hand to their neighbor, whatever it is. But the more that we can cover that story, I think the more help that organizations like Long Island Cares will get. Um, and it's absolutely needed. I think that people, whenever they hear about it and you talk about it, they're surprised that a place like Long Island or the Hamptons has this issue. It's not something like— because we all drive around on Long Island and we're not walking around, it's not like when you go to New York City and you see it, right? You see, you see it on the streets of New York. You see it, you know, when you walk by You know, a food kitchen. You don't see it in the same way on Long Island, and I think that that is something that if we could show it in a way that was respectful, that that would be helpful because you don't— it's not in your face in the same way. So we have to do a better job of reporting on that story and bringing it to a human level that people can't turn away and say, oh, that's not me, that doesn't matter.

You mentioned respect, the respectful part of it, right? I think that's the challenge.

Yeah.

You know, I know, for example, my parish in Wantagh is the neighbor to an Episcopal parish in Seaford that's closed but landmarked and therefore ours, right? And so we run a mission center out of there that's diapers and baby food for mothers with children on Sunday afternoons. And it's every Sunday, every— people line up and it's all gone. On the North Fork, since this was a North Fork question that came in, I think every house of worship on the, you know, on the North Fork, for example, has what they'll call it a blessing box or something. It looks like a cabinet on a post, and you put food in and take it out, and they're all full every day in the beginning and empty at night. And the large Presbyterian church in Mattituck, which is enormous, and it's— I think it's almost 300 years old. It's a very historic building. They actually will let people stay over. They do a food program, but it's in the basement back door, so people aren't embarrassed, and you don't—

Right.

They serve tens, if not 100 people every week. And I think the challenge, in my view, again, as a non-press person, but as somebody— my dad actually volunteers with some of that out there. So I'm aware of it. I would imagine the hard part would be covering it without the confidentiality or embarrassing people. Maybe that— I don't know. You all can— maybe you can all reflect on how one approaches some of these issues where they're potentially potentially, uh, mental health issues I could see being another one, right? But how are they— how do we approach that? Uh, yeah, make the point without—

yeah, yeah, we've done quite a few stories on that recently too. No, I was just going to say we've done quite a few with, uh, young folks in particular. Uh, Bart Jones has been doing a really good job on following that issue. It's just, it's a shortage. It's a huge issue out there right now. But I mean, go ahead, go ahead, continue.

No, no, no. Yeah, no, absolutely. I agree. It, it's very challenging. You know, you want to tell the story in a way that, you know, is true to the story, the facts, but also true to the people that, you know, it's affecting. And it is an issue to do it in— for some, to get somebody to talk about something that, you know, is very challenging, whether it's because they're embarrassed or they don't want someone to know, or they have mental— there are mental health issues, or there are all kinds of issues that are tied up in all of these things. It doesn't matter. You know, everything is sort of interrelated. But I think as journalists, that's our job. You know, our job is to try to tell the truth, tell the stories factually, and be respectful of people that are sharing their stories with us. And, you know, being true to And respectful and, you know, honor the stories that people are sharing with others to help themselves and to help all of us.

Great.

Any— Don, you were developing a thought that I didn't want to— if you want to play that out, and if not, maybe Pam and Chris, who cover the news. And I know, Mike, you're probably asked about it, but not necessarily on the scene with a microphone as a reporter. So, but any, any more views on really how one approaches a delicate story without, you know, achieving the objective without doing some harm?

Or—

I think Newsday's been doing a really good job here by doing it through the therapists. Yeah, they can tell the story and have done a very, very good job telling the story, you know. So I think going to the therapist, you know, they can talk about patient X without You know, without violating any kind of, you know, privacy issues and whatever. And I think that reading their story and also what the horror shows that they're going through with the insurance companies and whatever else, which is limiting the access to mental health, I think that that's the way to go. And I think they've been doing a very good job at that.

Thanks. I appreciate that. BART has stayed on top of that, and it'll be an issue we'll continue to follow. You know, because we've done a lot, we did a lot with adults early on, but, you know, getting to, to the younger, younger kids, you know, and the school districts are actually spending some of that federal money as well too on that as well. But they, they too have had problems finding, finding people to help their kids.

Yeah, the school districts through BOCES have set up a thing in Commack where they can get mental health services for their for their kids. So I think it's a number of districts— Huntington, South Huntington, Commack, of course— and, and it's funded by, uh, and staffed, I believe, by Northwell. So that was a step forward.

That's true.

I haven't gotten back to it yet to do— see, because they just opened it this year, I believe. So I haven't gotten back to see what kind of stories they're doing. And I'm doing a story on, on, uh, this week actually with Huntington Hospital talking about mental health challenges. But there's not a lot of services locally, you know. There's just not. They're not here. And the kids with the drug problems get shipped to South Oaks, you know, and I don't honestly don't know what happens to the kids who's maybe schizophrenic or just depressed because their grades are bad because of the pandemic, whatever the, whatever the reason or problem is. I don't know. It's, it's hard. I find it very hard to penetrate that story myself.

That's true, Pam. That's worth a follow. I think we wrote about the one out in Comac a while back, so it's worth certainly a follow-up for us as well.

I'll be happy to aggregate from you, my friend.

You know, that, that's something the aggregation of— and I found, you know, at the beginning of the conversation, we talked about the importance of local journalism. And I found for us, one of the ways that, you know, we've been able to cover the news and to really support local journalism across Long Island is through partnerships and partnering with other local news organizations.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Big, small, anything in between, um, so that we can all do more and better and lift each other up and bring more news to the forefront because we work together. Yes, we're competitive, of course, but in a friendly, healthy way, I hope, that allows us all to work together so that we can bring more news and information to the public. We work with a small newspaper group out in Suffolk County called the Express News Group, which is made up of lots of little newspapers and then a lot of other local journalists who, you know, come together once a week to do a news and public affairs show about what's in the news that week across Long Island. We work with Newsday as well on that. Some of your reporters have been on that show. So I think, you know, working together and aggregating you know, our resources and news is one way to really support local journalism that I think is important and effective.

I agree.

Yeah. So, Don, you triggered a question and I had written it down thinking I was going to bring it up anyway, in case it didn't. You mentioned federal money being spent on those programs. I'm not going to admit why this is the state of my life, but for some reason I had C-SPAN on in the background while I was getting some work done at home between Christmas and New Year's. And I saw the Senate add in an amendment that passed, so it's part of the omnibus bill because the House passed their law, that state and local municipalities that have unused COVID money will now be able to keep it and use it for other things. I think it was targeted for infrastructure or another. I wonder, clearly with 100 and, you know, with, with 126 school districts on Long Island with all that money, as well as 10 towns in Suffolk, 3 towns and 2 cities in Nassau and both counties as well as the villages, whether that becomes a— and Pam, to your very beginning point, whether that's the source of the infrastructure funding that can maybe be used to deal with some of these things, quote unquote, without raising taxes because they have the money. And I think Newsday did the reporting on how much unspent COVID money there was at the school districts. That's what triggered it.

Yeah.

And so I'm, I'm wondering if that's a story to watch. I think I heard that correctly. I They repeated it and it passed. It was one of the few amendments that passed. And it made the Senate— it made the omnibus budget bill. And I'm wondering— and, you know, Mike, you know, Nassau County put aside— the legislature put aside all the COVID money in a special fund that the county executive couldn't use. But that's by legislative statute. And there's a different county executive. They may be more inclined to let him use it. But, you know, that number itself was $300 or $400 million, right? So I'm wondering if there's a story there as that works its way through the system that might make it— make all these other stories interesting.

I think that's an excellent— I think that's an excellent story.

It's the money to do this. As long as I heard it correctly, again, I watched it, I said, wait a second, let me play that back. And, um, I didn't catch the parameters, but broadly, the speechifying in the 2 minutes of debate that the amendment got, it was to use it for infrastructure. And other approved uses.

That is interesting. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to check back with our DC reporters on that.

I wasn't trying to make news, but I—

No, no, no, no, no, because I wasn't aware of that one. That had slipped through.

It was the middle of the day. I was reading a book and the TV was on. It was one of those things, but it did make the bill. And I do know that at a few events, our senior senator mentioned that You know, New York got back more than it paid in for the first time in 100 years. And I think some of it is that. I think some of what supported that statement at the LIA in a couple of inaugurations was that the money can stay now.

Oh, that is, you know, you know, one of the things too, Chris, I wonder, we want to know when we're trying to track right now is what did the MTA do with all of its money?

Well, and they may be one of those— I don't know if state agencies were counted in that amendment. They may be one of the entities that's allowed to keep it.

Right. I want to know if they have any yet.

But they, they, as you know, right? Yeah. And, and when can I start going straight to Grand Central?

Yeah, absolutely. Right. We're actually working on—

My goodness.

Done in 2022.

We're working on another, another one of those today, actually.

So this is a broad question.

What's the date?

Oh yeah, I thought they said— did they say it? They just said not— they said when it's not going to be, right? They didn't put a date in the sand.

Right. Yeah.

I take the Babylon Line anyway. It wouldn't be convenient. I'd still have to change at Jamaica. So, um, is everyone— I mean, Don, you're back at work. Uh, this is sort of a question that came from the outside. Are, are all of you who— now, Pam, you probably home-officed it, and Mike as well, but are those of you with offices back in? Is the journalistic engine back in the office? Is it? Hybrid. Um, what's that? Maybe, Don, you can answer. I know the obvious— I've got photo proof that people behind you showing up.

So yeah, but we're still voluntary. Okay, so we have— that worked out, right? Brave, brave members of the staff showing up.

Actually, the irony for me is that all throughout COVID, I went into the office And September of last year— not last year, the year before— I lost my office in Sayville, okay, due to the mental health crisis, believe it or not, because the major tenant in the building, uh, was, uh, a mental health specialist, and they were so busy that they needed to take over. They bought the building and then they took over my space. They optioned your space. We need to take over your space because we're so— we're just— we're just so busy. So ironically, I set up the home office after COVID, and I lost my office space due to the mental health crisis.

But you had all the examples that people gave you of the right desk to buy and the right— so at least you benefited from the cumulative knowledge.

True enough.

Yeah. How about Diana? Are you in an office? It looks like you're in an office setting.

We are very hybrid. You know, we have multiple facilities. I'll just kind of tick through them real quickly. Our New Jersey facility, which is a— runs a daily news show, is mostly back in the office, in the field, but still some hybrid. Our New York facility is very much volunteer, but more people going in than not. But, you know, every time a bunch of people go in, someone gets COVID. So, you know, there's a lot of COVID going around again. So it's sort of, you know, but it's volunteer. Our Plainview facility is used now and then, but not open on a daily basis. No one is really going there all the time. But our radio station out in Southampton has been open and running with people in it every single day since the beginning of the pandemic. But it's a very small staff. And so it's pretty much sometimes one person in there at a time, sometimes 2. So it's very limited. The space is big enough. for people to be there and be on the air live and do their work. So it kind of runs the gamut, and it's really just kind of whatever works depending on your circumstance. There's a lot of flexibility, thankfully. And but people like when they get back together, you know, in, in a safe environment. People have said that, you know, the few times that we've gotten together as, you know, a team, that they've enjoyed that. But nobody wants to do it. Like Bob Iger wants them to do it 4 days a week.

We're in person in the consulting and accounting business. Most of the firms are sort of— our name for it is in person with a purpose. Not don't just show up because we're taking attendance, but let's— it's leadership's job to create reasons for people to be in the same room in an office. And that's, you know, and that's— it's all the interaction. And, you know, if you're promoting people who have to lead meetings and none of them has ever been in a room in person, probably creating a career inhibition, right? So yeah, how do you read a room if you've never been in one?

Yeah, and I agree with Bob Iger's thinking in terms of, you know, especially having grown up in news environments where, you know, it's very collaborative, there's a lot of yelling across the newsroom, and, you know, I miss that, and there is a lot to be said for that. But I think people's mindsets have shifted to what you're talking about. You know, there really has to be a strong purpose. for people to come together. And sometimes in a news environment, that is the purpose. But for us, it's sort of what you said. It's, you know, on a, on a, on a reasonable, as-needed basis and what makes people comfortable and works.

So is it more Fletch or All the President's Men in the newsroom?

It depends on the newsroom. I've been in both.

Okay, we've been back since March of 2022, 5 days a week, fully in the office.

Oh, wow.

You know, listen, I have 3 little kids, 8, 5, and 3. I'd like to see them more during the day, but, you know, the interaction that we have here, the ability to go right outside and work with my people right in the pods out here, it's— it is valuable. At first, you know, you have the sour I'm not going to be as productive. I'm going to be driving for X amount of minutes or hours a day. You know, I fill that time now too, whether it's calls, whether it's different ways of productivity, mental health. For me, mental health is listening to Howard Stern. But, uh, the, the idea of—

Yeah.

The idea of being here is, um, refreshing, if you think about it as refreshing. The other thing is we just moved in in September. to brand new news facilities as well in Bethpage. The News 12 had been in Woodbury for 35, 36 years. That building actually just got leveled, uh, a couple weeks ago. It no longer exists. I think there's one brick left that we have here. Uh, and so Bethpage facilities are beautiful, modern, you know, state of the art. And that is enticing to want to go and be part of. And also there's a large corporate structure here with other Altice, you know, people. There's just whatever, 10,000 different employees across the company, but there's a ton of business folks here, sales folks, And that helps several of us who have those types of meetings, and you feel like you're part of something even bigger, you know. And I've always felt that if you're at Newsday or News 12 or any organization that you're part of, feel like something's bigger than you. Well, I have the luxury of saying News 12 is bigger than me, Altice is bigger than me, and we get to be around all of that. So, you know, it's a different boost mentally, I think, when you're walking in the doors. And I hope other people feel that way. I'm sure there are people that say, I could do the same job at home.

Yeah.

But they're not. They're doing it here. The thing that drives me nuts is if there's a handful of people here and there's a couple of us out— we have, again, as I've said, multiple stations across the tri-state, so not everybody can be in person. But if I have 6 or 7 people here, they're all on Zoom and they're in the same building, it drives me nuts. But sometimes it's inevitable and it just— it's easier. So.

Yeah, it's a new experience to walk down the hall with your laptop and actually join somebody on a call in person.

Yes.

It creates all sorts of— you have to remember to mute all the devices or the echo will blast, will blow eardrums up immediately. Like, yeah, people, you know. But, and Pam, I assume you've been sort of a roving from-home reporter. Uh, you haven't, like Mike now, gotten yourself an office to go the other way too?

No, I'm, I'm at home. I've been home for a long time. I miss newsrooms a lot. I love the whole energy of a newsroom. I really miss it in that sense. But I also, I do feel like I'm more productive. I can roll out of bed, and hit my laptop immediately. And the problem with that is then I'm stuck for the rest of the day. I don't, I don't go out, you know, unless there's like a really compelling reason. I'm just stuck attached to my computer. So it's not a— it's not probably not mentally very healthy way to operate. But I mean, it is— I, I like some of the working, you know, working from home. But I do miss the news. I, I've never worked anywhere. I've worked a couple of other kinds of jobs. The newsrooms— newsrooms are the best. Absolutely. The craziness, the camaraderie, the energy. You hear a lot that nobody ever actually tells you. You hear what's going on. I miss that kind of conversation.

Yeah.

I'm going to age myself. One thing I bet you don't miss about the old newsrooms was when I first broke in in the '70s was that cloud of smoke.

Oh, yeah.

Cigarette butts on the floor. Because everybody was still on typewriters, you know, the typewriters. It was noisy and smoky when I first came in.

I learned how to change the paper on the wire machines in a newsroom, you know. And I also was there one time when a guy accidentally set a fire in the wastebasket.

I've seen that one too.

And those, those large units in the ceiling did not take the smoke out no matter what you did. They did not do it.

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Well, we're coming close to time. So I just— a parting shot question for anyone who'd like to share. What is it that the Fair Media Council can do to sort of— we've talked about a lot of issues and stories that you'll be covering and watching. Is there anything the FMC can do to help you with that or help, you know, expose, highlight, or otherwise focus?

I love the fact that you guys get us together.

That's what I was about to say.

Really valuable conversation.

Right.

And I know, no, no, none of us had a lot of time to keep having a lot of meetings, but they're really— I really enjoy it. It makes me think about a lot of things.

Yes, I agree totally.

I also love that Jaci and her organization do a really good job of bringing in young— the younger— young people, young people who are aspiring to be journalists and really mentoring them and finding ways for them to learn about this wonderful business that we're in. And, and, you know, it's not just a business, it's a calling. And, and, you know, I think that that's extraordinarily valuable and important. And I really appreciate that tremendously. And these kinds of discussions and the newsletters and the podcasts and all the things that, you know, the Fair Media Council has, you know, been doing in the last few years to expand its reach has been great.

The Fair Media Council is a 501 nonprofit organization advocating for quality news and working to create a media-savvy society. For more information about the Fair Media Council and upcoming Fast Chat shows, check out fairmediacouncil.org.

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