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On Museum Question, Wanting All the Facts is Not NIMBYism
Recent published expressions that the proposed Theodore Roosevelt Museum is being held up by "naysayers" and the convenient (but wholly inaccurate) characterization of "NIMBYism" are both flawed in their conclusion and inaccurate in fact.
What the entire Oyster Bay-East Norwich community must do is to be as informed as possible about the proposal and all of its very real consequences, both positive and negative. While I and many support the concept, and are honored that our community has been viewed yet again as a potential site for the continued legacy of our favorite son (together with those already here such as Sagamore Hill National Park, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center, Youngs Memorial Cemetery where TR is buried, the ongoing restoration of the "Home Train Station of Theodore Roosevelt", the long awaited Theodore Roosevelt statue which is to be situated more prominently in welcoming folks to the downtown, and the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School), we can't let that blind us to the fact that the Hamlet of Oyster Bay is not Boston and is not Washington, D.C., with all the applicable infrastructure, means of transportation, and other improvements that would have a 100,000 square foot building blend almost seamlessly into those major U.S. cities. Where Boston and Washington, D.C. would have one of our largest buildings (our historic Post Office) and the total visitor buildings of Sagamore Hill lost in a sea of others, the proposed Museum would be more than 8 times the size of the Post Office (approx. 12,000 square feet) and nearly 10 times the size of the Sagamore Hill structures (approx. 10,000 square feet). When you add the proposed parking garage at what is believed to be another 100,000 square feet, and the "hotels and other infrastructure to be in place or be able to be developed" (as expressed in Newsday several months ago), the cumulative impact of this proposal is significant, to say the least.
The residents of Oyster Bay-East Norwich and the many surrounding communities have repeatedly spoken as a unified voice and overwhelmingly over the last several years when it comes to proposed developments- taking the reasonable and reasoned position that any proposal must be appropriate and responsible to the site in question and the community at large. This proposal, the subject of which is certainly of great pride to us and more emotional than those that preceded it, must not be viewed or treated any differently.
Change and progress are good things- but it has to be appropriate, and responsible, and reasonable. Absent any of it, it is just change for the sake of change itself, and is certainly not progress at all. As TR himself stated, "Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so." (Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1907)
