Busting Out All Over: What We Can Expect (Out Of Life) As Our Communities Continue To Grow.

I can remember a time when there was hardly any traffic here on Long Island and my family still had (some) potato farms as neighbors. In fact, the only traffic you ever hit was once you got into the boroughs or the city, and even that wasn’t as bad as it is today. By the time I was out of college, the Southern State was literally a parking lot and even worse, during rush hour was the LIE and BQE. And, recently driving around Columbus Circle in The City was more like playing Russian roulette than ever before.

And, according to experts this isn’t the end of it or the worst of it. In fact, if their presumptions and predictions are correct Long Islanders may be spending much more time commuting than they do now by the year 2030.

In fact, experts suggest that by 2030 every major infrastructure system within our city will “boast” being more than a century old and pushed to it’s limits. At least that’s what New York Mayor Bloomberg expects. He also announced that we could expect to increase our population by about a million more residents by that time, adding significantly to the already heavily populated boroughs with a population of 8.2 billion people. There will also be and additional 750,000 new jobs, meaning that Long Islanders may be required to travel into The City in record numbers, putting an even greater strain on it’s already congested corridors.

The mayor cautions that many New York Residents “take for granted” the transit system that get them to and fro on a daily basis. He further notes that the infrastructure’s millions of elements must operate flawlessly, every second, every day, every year, for everyone to survive.

And, he suggests that, that may be a lot to ask, especially considering the age of some of these operating systems such as the subways, whose construction goes back to the early 1900s.

The beginning of the Long Island Railroad in fact, pre-dates the subways, with the current system beginning along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in 1832.

Also, according to Mayor Bloomberg, as we anticipate an increase in population, accompanies by an aging infrastructure, we can also expect the air, water, and land to be pushed to new and potentially perilous limits. And, in order to prevent the possibility of an environmental catastrophe, Mayor Bloomberg created he new Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, to address the challenges facing the growing city.

It remains however unfortunate however for Long Islanders who must commute into The Big Apple (and surrounding boroughs) on a daily basis, as there’s no office set up to address the anxiety and frustration associated with that tiring trek and the stress of life and work in an environment that’s overcrowded and bursting at the seams.