New Columnist Joins Smithtown Today: Eric Alexander of Vision Long Island
Smithtown Today is pleased to announce that Eric Alexander of Vision Long Island, also known as the Smart Growth Guru of Long Island, has joined the Smithtown Today team as a columnist.
Alexander’s monthly column is called Downtown View. He will share stories about Smart Growth projects around Long Island woven in with some “Eric” isms. If you are privileged enough to have him as an acquaintance or call him friend you know is a very passionate person who has an array of talents. He is a gifted musician and a cigar aficionado. However, fathering is his greatest passion by far and his ‘daddy posts’ on his Facebook page are hilarious. We are optimistic that with Downtown View Alexander will do an array of things; he will educate our readers about Smart Growth how critical it is to the future of many towns here on Long Island. He might toss in some tips on where to hear great tunes at some hip local spots and of course we will most likely hear about the light of his life, his beautiful daughter Rayne.
Smart Growth is not one specific thing as our readers will learn. People often equate it with the complete redoing of a town, like what was done in Patchogue with the help of Mayor Pontieri and his progressive concepts. However, it can be as simple as making a downtown more appeasing with benches, new lighting and flowers. It could be making a downtown more walkable or it can be creating an open space that a community can utilize in the middle of town.
Making downtown a central and important part of a community is not a new concept, it’s as old as this country itself. In the past, downtowns were where the church was, the market could be found, the post office, the public library, eateries and theaters. It was a vibrant hub of the community
About Eric Alexander:
Eric Alexander is a downtown planner and GenXr raising a family on Main Street in Northport. Eric has nearly 30 years of experience advancing varying community projects across Long Island. Specifically Eric is Director and founding member of Vision Long Island a leader in Smart Growth and mixed use development through planning efforts on the Federal, State, County levels working with municipalities to develop and implement downtown projects and bring in infrastructure funding to our region. All told his team’s efforts at Vision have resulted in catalyzing over 65 private and 70 public downtown projects and approval of 10,300 units of Transit Oriented Development across Long Island.
Eric has presented at nearly 2000 meetings in 75 communities, listened at thousands more and led planning processes in the following twenty locations: Farmingdale, Huntington, Bay Shore, Hicksville, Manorhaven, W.Babylon, Mastic, Shirley, Coram, Middle Island, Rocky Point, Shoreham, Mt. Sinai, Gordon Heights, Oyster Bay, Kings Park, Yaphank, Mastic Beach, Southampton and Lake Ronkonkoma and Farmingville.
Eric is on the Board of the Congress for the New Urbanism New York Chapter, Empire State Future, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, Suffolk Alliance of Chambers of Commerce, Long Island Business Council, LI Complete Streets Coalition, Long Island Lobby Coalition, Friends of Long Island and past Youth Advisor for the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island.
Eric and his wife Liz are raising their daughter Rayne on Main Street in Northport where their five year old is on a first name basis with many of the local merchants. When not working on downtowns or connecting to family and friends he may be playing music, sipping bourbon and/or smoking a cigar somewhere around town.
Awards & Recognition:
- “LI Tech Exec, LISA Award”, LI Software and Technology Network (LISTnet) 2015
- Cover Feature, The Corridor, 2014
- 100 Black Men of Long Island, 2014
- “Founders Day” Award, Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island, 2014
- “LI Real Estate Leadership Award”, LI Business News, 2014
- “Long Island Achievement Award” by Public Relations Professionals of Long Island, 2013
- “Person of the Year”, Northport Patch, 2012
- “Leader Who Makes a Difference” Hauppauge Industrial Association, 2011
- “Business of the Year”, Hicksville Chamber of Commerce, 2010
- “Graduate of Distinction”, Leadership Huntington in 2010
- “Sustainable Development Award”, LIPC, 2008
- “Community Planning Award”, American Planning Association NY Chapter, 2008
- “100 Most Influential Leaders”, Long Island Business News, 2005-2008
- “Businessperson of the Year”, Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce, 2005
- “40 under 40 Award”, LI Business News, 2003
- “Kairos Leadership Award”, Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, 1990.
Join Vision Long Islands Facebook page and check out their website where you can sign up for a free newsletter : www.visionlongisland.org