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January
23, 2008
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NEWSDAY.com
Patchogue
revitalization seen
as model for other
LI downtowns
BY REID J. EPSTEINA
A walk down
Patchogue's Main
Street reveals a
handful of empty
storefronts, just
like in other Long
Island downtowns
that were hurt when
the big-box stores
arrived.
But the village also
boasts a blues and
barbecue joint and a
soon-to-open sushi
restaurant that
promises live jazz.
New downtown
housing, including a
development
earmarked for
artists, also is in
the works.
It's the sort of
development praised
-- and encouraged
for other Long
Island communities
-- in the Long
Island Index annual
report, produced by
a Garden City-based
nonprofit group, the
Rauch Foundation,
which was released
Wednesday.
Downtown Patchogue
is anchored by the
Patchogue Theatre
for the Performing
Arts, a refurbished
structure that was
nearly left for dead
just over a decade
ago.
The restaurants,
music venues and
niche stores that
have opened along
Main Street are the
result of
Patchogue's effort
to get
younger -- faster --
in recent years,
officials said.
Blocks from the
theater sits the
Copper Beech Village
affordable housing
development, which
Mayor Paul Pontieri
touts as the
community's latest
step toward
revitalizing itself.
"We need to put
people on Main
Street to support
the stores and to
support the
theater," Pontieri
said. "The only way
we're going to stay
younger in this
community is through
affordable housing."
The Index cites
Patchogue as "an
increasingly livable
center for culture,
shopping and
entertainment" and
compares it
favorably to
communities like
Mountain View,
Calif., home of
Google Inc. It calls
Patchogue a downtown
"undergoing a
dynamic
revitalization
process" and lauds
its political and
business leadership.
"Providing homes in
convenient proximity
to the downtown
attracts those
seeking the
lifestyle offered by
a newly thriving
cultural center and
... creates patrons
for the local
economy, further
fueling Patchogue's
revival," the report
states.
Like scores of
similar communities
across Long Island,
Patchogue saw its
downtown decline in
the 1970s and 1980s
as retail
establishments fled
Main Street.
Abie
Siegel stuck it out
through the bad
years. His store,
Blum's, has sold
women's swimwear on
Main Street since
1968.
"We had a lot of
empty stores," said
Siegel, 77. "We had
a lot of vagrants on
the street and
homeless. Now most
of the stores are
being filled up,
being kept better."
Pontieri, the mayor
since 2004 and a
Patchogue native,
said stores like
Blum's saved the
downtown from total
demise.
"We didn't die," he
said. "We were just
on life support."
The combination of
reinvestment in the
downtown theater
--Patchogue's
village board bought
the then-abandoned
theater in 1997 and
spent $5 million on
renovations -- and
recent encouragement
by the village and
Suffolk County of
high-density,
affordable housing
within walking
distance of the
village center has
sparked a boomlet.
The most recent
evidence of
Patchogue's
renaissance comes in
plans on Pontieri's
desk for an
eight-story hotel on
the corner of Main
Street and Ocean
Avenue. The mayor
said the proposal,
for a Hilton-style
hotel, is likely to
go before the
village's planning
board in the next
month.
While high-density
affordable housing
projects typically
draw their share of
community
opposition, Pontieri
and village trustees
have ushered through
two such
developments: the
year-old, 80-unit
Copper Beech complex
and a 41-unit
artists' colony,
which passed the
village's zoning
board last week and
is likely to be
approved by the
village board on
Monday.
The developments,
both within walking
distance of Main
Street, bring the
critical mass of
foot traffic
necessary to support
restaurants and new
stores, according to
Long Island Index
director Ann Golob.

Eric Rifkin, who
opened the Bobbique
restaurant and blues
club on Main Street
in June 2006, said
the theater and new
housing bring in
customers both
before and after the
shows.
"There's people that
have been going to
this theater for a
while," he said.
"But they didn't
stay downtown
because there was
nothing here."
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Mayor
Paul V. Pontieri. Jr.

Deputy Mayor
Stephen McGiff

Trustee
Lori Devlin

Trustee
Jack Krieger

Trustee
Gerry Crean

Trustee
Bill Hilton

Trustee
Joseph Dean
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