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…
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. From Studio 6-A, it’s “The Tonight Show,” with…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
We deserve a medal this time: Welcome to Friday, friends, as we limp to the finish line of this exhausting week of quasi-quarantines, social upheaval and, of course, relentless socioeconomic progress. Yes, innovation continues – just ask Adelphi and these SBU neurobiologists and the 2020 NSPC Health Science Competition, which drew a record number of Long Island high school competitors. If current events have you feeling anxious, you’re not alone. Fortunately, the drumbeat of…
That’s a wrap: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, as our abbreviated WFH workweek comes to an end and a muggy, late-spring weekend begins, with Long Island now enjoying its Phase 1 reopening. No, the pub isn’t open. Yes, you should still wear a mask. One Morgo: Before we dive in, a cap-tip for old friend Jim Morgo, the former Suffolk County economic-development guru who reached out following Tuesday’s newsletter, which noted that Molloy College…
Place your bets: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as Long Island eagerly anticipates its Phase 1 reopening (not just yet) and we patiently muscle through another WFH workweek (marking, like, 850 in a row, though we may have lost count). For those keeping score, with Nassau and Suffolk about to eclipse 30 trace cases per 1,000 residents and regional COVID-19 hospital deaths dropping fast, the good money is on Phase 1 baby steps for…
Almost there: Another work-from-home workweek ends, another stuck-at-home weekend begins – welcome to May 15, dear readers, exactly two-thirds through The Spring That Time Forgot. Of course, it’s a very different Friday in other parts of New York State, which are set to initiate reopening protocols today. Alas, as of Thursday, Long Island remained a couple of metrics short. Better shared: Speaking of sheltering in place, the UN’s International Day of Families and America’s…
That’s, like, half-a-thousand: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and a special edition of your Innovate Long Island newsletter. It’s May 13 out there, midpoint of another busy workweek, and this is our official 500th newsletter. Reaching this milestone years after losing Publisher John Kominicki – entrepreneurial founder, tireless promotor, driving engine – was highly unlikely. Doing it without you would have been literally impossible. So thank you, newsletter subscribers and website visitors, inventors and investors,…