I'll start with the good. In the last 5-10 years, there have been new apartments and condos such as The Horizon, Maple Tower, The Legacy, and one along Maple Ave just east of Post whose name escapes me at the moment. But we're talking at least 100 new units, though I do not know just how many of them are occupied.
There's also some units above The Space at Westbury theater. And a brand new building where the old Krupp meat market used to be (next to Alfredo's). That was completed last fall, but for some reason has sat empty all this time. Not sure what is going on here, but its not a good sign.
Not sure why they taped up the windows like a hurricane is coming??
So of course we've had new places open on Post Ave in the last 8 years, Nana's, Juice Box Cafe, Harmony Fusion, His & Her's, Essence of a Dog, Jay Lim studio, independent pharmacy, and Punta Cana Grill. And of course The Space at Westbury theater, which still seems to lack the activity we were promised when it opened. The bar/lounge was supposed to be open 365, but they only seem to open on show nights & Thursdays. Some weeks there's shows, but sometimes weeks go by without one. Certainly less activity than similar theaters in Huntington, Patchogue, and even Riverhead. Wouldn't be surprised if they aren't doing very well.
The Space a beautiful building, but dark most nights
New places are still opening, such as some smoothie place and a Turkish food place in the old pharmacy spot. So with all this new stuff, you'd think there would be more activity on Post Ave, especially at night. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case. Once the sun goes down, it's rather deserted. It's kinda depressing walking through town at 9pm on a Saturday night and being pretty much alone.
They want to target millenials, but it does not seem like it is working.
Farmingdale seems to be doing much better with their revitalization effort, as well as Mineola. Both are by trains, but so is Westbury. Westbury also has the advantage of not having a grade crossing in the center of town, so no train horns.
I'm abit frustrated I guess, seeing the same problems get worse while other towns like Farmingdale see more improvment. I know that strip along Secatougue used to be pretty run down, and there was lots of loitering, but when I was there last week I could not believe how nice it was!
Post Avenue has so much potential, yet despite all this effort, it's still dead after 6pm. Today, this Friday at 7:30...where is everybody?
Of course I think we all know the Elephant in the Room, the illegal immigrant problem. It seems to be a like big "ball & chain" holding Westbury back. The biggest mistake in Post Ave's master plan was the piazza/park area on the NE corner of Post & Maple. It used to be Harry's gas station, but closed. This has turned out to be a big hangout area, they loiter here all day and night, drink, urinate, and throw trash everywhere.
There's cameras there, the village knows about it, but seems to have just given up doing anything about it. They know me very well over there in Village Hall for complaining about this. That whole block should have been redeveloped into something similar to the Farmingdale building next to the train station, with a Starbucks. That would have attracted better more positive activity.
Now I don't want to be too hard on the Village, they do work hard for their residents, and try to address issues. The resources and help to battle these problems are hard to come by. We are not treated well by surrounding governments (look Nassau tried to put a casino here). Even the LIRR could provide better service but chooses not too (Cold Spring Harbor gets more trains on weekends, while Westbury has more passengers at those times). Then there's the accidental skipped stop, which actually happened twice this year, one of the extra Ronkonkoma trains that scheduled to stop here didn't.
And they also forgot to send us buses on both Saturdays where the Main Line was shut down due to Ellison bridge work.
And our schools, which are already struggling, are singled out with other poorer districts with the burden of educating children that entered the country illegally.
Westbury school district changing immigrant student policy | Newsday
So we are kinda beat up. It is not fair. I know I'm the only one here these days writing about Westbury. Few care. But for those of us who call this town home, we deserve better. We should not be forgotten.
The same positive changes in Mineola and Farmingdale should not be passing us by.
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