Long Island Idea Bank: Part Two

Just as we proposed in the early 90s with a "Land Bank" for the Town of Oyster Bay (Oyster Bay 2000) as a means of protecting and preserving open space and redeveloping underutilized or improperly utilized parcels for the public good thus protecting and developing one of the Town's important "assets" we now look to the Long Island Idea Bank as a way of protecting and "developing" another important Long Island asset: our immense capacity for innovation and potential for productive collaboration. In short, our brainpower and ideas.

There is no doubt that Long Island possesses and has access to some of the finest minds on the planet. We have not, to date to any great extent, been able to marshall this ability for the collective good of all the residents on Long Island. An "idea bank" while not a new idea in itself. is a necessary component in the overall structure of the "One Long Island" project we are proposing in that there needs to be a central clearinghouse of ideas (in all stages of completion) for us to draw from and contribute to. We might also call it the Long Island Idea Library.

The Long Island Idea Bank concept, as all "One Long Island" projects must be viewed in concert with all the other components of our proposal. The idea is to collaborate and coordinate, not to continue to maintain separate disjointed static organizations or to create a new "super" or "meta" bureaucracy.

More in Part Three.