Thomas F. Liotti, Westbury Village Justice
Much has been written about our beloved three-term Governor since his untimely death on New Year’s Day at the unripened age of 82. A sadness over his passing has gripped New York and much of the nation much as it was felt at the demises of F.D.R. and J.F.K.. Mario uplifted the Italian community, the nation and the world with progressive ideas, integrity, unrivaled intellect, courage and eloquence. He was in essence a profound father figure to all; a model public servant.
There is a mild connection to Westbury, not written about but which I offer to my readers as a reminder of our nexus to Mario. He was of course from Queens. As a young man growing up the Long Island Expressway was planned and being built. At the same time Robert Moses planned to run Northern State Parkway next to it through Old Westbury. The wealthy landowners in Old Westbury would not hear of it so the Parkway was diverted five miles to the south through Westbury. The Parkway was two lanes going east and two lanes going west. It had seven bridges over it in Westbury alone.
As Long Island was settled over the next 30years, traffic became heavily congested between the Wantagh and Meadowbrook Parkway interchanges. New YorkState then developed a plan to expand the Parkway at that location to three lanes in either direction. The plan also included the elimination of six of the seven bridges and other expansive intrusions into the Village of Westbury and Carle Place communities. The Mayor in our Village at the time, Ernest Strada, began to organize against the expansion. With the aid of legal counsel and members throughout the community, he brought suit to stop the expansion; a bold and decisive move which pitted Westbury and Carle Place against the State bureaucracy and Governor Mario Cuomo.
At the time of the expansion I represented Hicks Nurseries as their counsel. The Hicks family had settled here in the late 1840s. When the Parkway was first built, the Hicks Family deeded over a portion of their land at the back of the nursery in return for a right of way for a private bridge over the Parkway to Asbury Avenue. The State planned to take down that bridge and five others leaving only the Post Avenue bridge.
The village brought legal action against the state under the Environmental Quality Review Act and halted the construction. The state then began to negotiate with the village to scale back the construction; repair damage caused by the expansion; beautifying the Parkway and rebuilding the bridges at the cost of $91 million dollars.
Mario Cuomo, known as the Henry Clay or “Great Compromiser” in Queens, came to Westbury to sign the agreement. At the time this was touted as a huge victory for the Village and its Mayor. In retrospect it was also a victory for Mario Cuomo who no doubt believed that “humility is the better part of valor.”
