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Pandemic Primer August 14, 2020

Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic and its evolving aftermath are reshaping the world around us, and myriad Long Island forces – large and small, corporate and nonprofit, industrial and academic – have risen to the challenge. Innovate Long Island presents Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus as a real-time journal of this region’s resourceful response to the greatest global challenge since World War II. Stay healthy, dear readers.     New York winning, but coronavirus hangs tough…

Newsletters August 14, 2020

No. 523: Veteran ‘Ventures,’ pandemic page-turners and throwing shots with the real Doc Holliday

  Engines of innovation: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, as we race to the end of another sticky summer workweek and throttle down for another well-earned weekend. Low key: It’s Aug. 14 out there, and honestly, the pickings are very slim – the best we could do is the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of the Fatherland in Abkhazia, which is, like, not even a real country. It’s also National Financial Awareness Day, which…

Newsletters August 12, 2020

No. 522: Storming back on Long Island, with elephants, Diamond Jim and some deep-brain neurostimulation

  Right where you left us: Here we are, dear readers – about a week past due, it’s long-awaited Newsletter No. 522, back on track after the surprising and frustrating disruption that was Tropical Storm Isaias. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 12, on Long Island and around the world, and the children shall lead: Today marks the U.N.’s annual International Youth Day. Jan Brady Syndrome: Some youth have it a little harder than others, and so we…

Opinion August 11, 2020

In Big Tech crusade, please remember the little guy

By PETER STEIN // The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the restaurant industry. While many are still operating for pickup and delivery, they have shorter hours and far fewer employees. The effects of restaurant hardships go far below the surface, threatening small, independent farmers and suppliers who depend on restaurants for their livelihoods. That’s why my business took a hit. Fortunately, in large part because of free and low-cost digital business tools, many in the food…

Voices July 24, 2020

Understanding executive orders (at least, trying to)

By MICHAEL H. SAHN // Federal and state governments have issued numerous emergency executive orders to cope with COVID-19. Simply keeping track of these orders is a full-time job; compliance poses unique challenges for individuals, businesses, industries, not-for-profit institutions, even local governments. Not all the orders have been consistent, or coherent. In many instances, contradictory orders have created confusion, discontent and, ultimately, a failure to achieve much of anything. In some cases, in some jurisdictions,…

Coronavirus July 16, 2020

Citing scofflaws, state resets restaurant restrictions

By GREGORY ZELLER // You want fries with that? You better, if you plan to order a beer. A menu of new pandemic-flavored rules handed down from Albany on Thursday sucks some of the flavor from New York’s celebrated pandemic recovery, with all statewide bars and restaurants – including those enjoying Phase Four privileges, such as eateries on Long Island – now limited to serving alcohol only to patrons who order food and dine on…

Newsletters July 15, 2020

No. 516: On margarine, Boeing and The Rosetta Stone – and playing the odds at Jones Beach

  Hot days, cold stretch: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as COVID-19 rages across the land – though not in New York, where we’ve earned a reprieve – and we steam into the second half of this latest sultry summer workweek. It’s July 15 out there – a tough one for the selfish, with it being National Give Something Away Day and all. No accounting for tastes: It’s also National Gummi Worm Day (that’s a…

Tourism July 13, 2020

As staycations soar, Jones Beach gets its game on

By GREGORY ZELLER // Let the games begin at Jones Beach State Park, where the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has officially completed a multimillion-dollar overhaul of the park’s outdoor West Games Area – the latest milestone in a nine-year, nine-digit upgrade of the historic beachfront. With concession stands at state parks officially reopening this week (under strict pandemic-induced guidelines), Jones Beach visitors have plenty of new options to work…

Newsletters July 10, 2020

No. 515: In which COVID takes off, Telstar blasts off and Applied DNA spins off

  The sweeter the reward: You’ve done it again, intrepid reader, and coming off a long holiday weekend to boot – another workweek conquered, another weekend earned, Phase Four and all. Yes, it’s Friday out there, July 10 to be exact, a day so sweet you may need to floss twice: It’s National Kitten Day, National Pick Blueberries Day and National Piña Colada Day, all at once. Lose some: It’s also Independence Day in the…

Newsletters July 8, 2020

No. 514: Adelphi evolves, Roswell crashes and da Gama sails again – plus Phase Four, with attitude

  Hot stuff: Hello again, dear readers, and welcome to your favorite regularly scheduled review of the Long Island innovation economy, back on the beat on this eighth day of July. It’s Wednesday, it’s summer and it’s pretty muggy out there – but keep those masks on, please and thank you, as we work together to keep COVID-19 at bay. Press start: Some say they’re the scourge of childhood, locking entire generations indoors and establishing…

Coronavirus July 6, 2020

Phase Four arrives on LI, with bombs bursting in air

By GREGORY ZELLER // Strap yourselves in, Long Island, but keep strapping on those facemasks. And batten the hatches for some political fallout, too – Phase Four has arrived, with fireworks. Governor Andrew Cuomo, one of President Donald Trump’s more vocal critics, pulled no punches in Monday’s daily briefing, in which the governor announced strong COVID-19 numbers across the state, confirmed that indoor dining in New York City is on hold indefinitely and essentially accused…

Newsletters June 19, 2020

No. 511: On pensions, papas and Juneteenth – and the economics of racial equality

  The solstice with the mostest: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and not just any Friday but the eve of the Summer of 2020, in which things can only get better. It’s June 19 out there and a busy day on Planet Earth, including Labour Day in Trinidad and Tobago, Never Again Day in Uruguay (marking the 1764 birth of native freedom fighter José Artigas) and the Day of the Independent Hungary. Now MAGA-free: Here…

Economic Development June 18, 2020

Report links LI pandemic recovery to racial equality

By GREGORY ZELLER // A new socioeconomic study ties Long Island’s post-pandemic economic recovery inexorably to race. Sensing an “unprecedented opportunity” in the confluence of the global COVID-19 pandemic and America’s resurgent interest in racial equality, the Long Island Regional Planning Council and the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency on Thursday released “Upskilled: Preparing the Long Island Workforce for the Future.” The comprehensive study – prepared by James Lima Planning + Development, a New York…

Transportation June 11, 2020

At LGA, important new arrivals coming at jet speed

By GREGORY ZELLER // Trumpeted as “the biggest milestone to date” in the aerodrome’s $8 billion overhaul, LaGuardia Airport has officially opened the new Arrivals and Departures Hall inside its sprawling Terminal B. The multiyear overhaul – which first appeared on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s radar in 2015, taxied into position as a $4 billion facelift and ascended steadily in scope and price – has quickly checked off some impressive boxes: The new Terminal B officially…

Newsletters June 10, 2020

No. 508: Boomgaarden rocks, Judy Garland sings, industrial forces go home and gougers get theirs

  Big day: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and not just any Wednesday but the day Long Island engages Phase 2 in Albany’s official reopening playbook – an important step for those still following the social-distancing rules (including you, we hope). That means it’s June 10 out there – Army Day in Jordan, Navy Day in Italy and, here in the States, National Iced Tea Day, defending the nation from thirst. Well, that’s new: Today…