Downtown Development: Jobs Are Job No. 1

The Governor’s Conference on Sustainable Development & Collaborative Governance, held Wednesday in Melville, facilitated an important dialogue around the hot topic of downtown redevelopment.

Long Island currently has over a dozen town centers in various stages of redevelopment or revitalization, so discussion on this topic is both relevant and timely.

But for downtown development and revitalization to achieve its potency as an economic engine, consideration for jobs – What will they be? What skills will they require? Who will fill them? Where do those individuals reside? – must be front and center. Plans for developing and nurturing a 21st century workforce must be advanced alongside planning for buildings, roads and landscaping.