A quick programming note, and an overdue explanation. As some of you may know, I recently joined the Institute for Research on Public Policy to work on an exciting new project. It's a bit of a departure from my work on transportation and housing policy, but it's not my first such pivot. Since it's a long, deep dive project, my public writing will be limited for the foreseeable future. I will, however, continue to write pieces here occasionally, mostly during my travels. I will aim for a short post every couple of weeks and some more detailed pieces every month or two. I have several in the queue that I think you'll like. For now, an explanation of my weird fixation on Long Island.
If you're not interested in my overly long personal journey and digression on hockey, but are interested in things Canadians (particularly Ontarians) can learn from Long Island, jump to the section “Get to the point, Steve!”
What's with the Islanders thing?
If you know me from Twitter, but not in real life, you've probably noticed the occasional out of left field reference to Long Island. If you've been following me long enough, you might even recall that I used to Tweet far too much about the New York Islanders. I'm sure that all seems extremely random for someone who's never lived in the New York metro area. It comes up often enough when I meet online friends IRL, so clearly some of you are curious.
I've been meaning to write a long post about Long Island since I started this little writing project. Now is as good a time as any, I guess.
There are a lot of directions I could go with this post. I'll start with hockey.
People are always confused when I tell them I’m an Islanders fan. It seems totally irrational. Someone ten years older than me could plausibly be a dynasty era holdover. Bossy! Potvin! Trottier! I was four years old when Mike Bossy retired, so I didn’t know the glory days. In fact, they’ve been terrible for most of my life. So, what gives?
Sports fandom is usually quite simple. Most people cheer for the home team. I was an army brat, so there really wasn’t a logical home team. My hometown is Canada. There was no automatic team for me to cheer for from birth. We moved to Eastern Ontario when I was ten, so I became a Canadiens fan for awhile. It was good timing. I got to see Patrick Roy lead the Montreal Canadiens to an improbable Stanley Cup win in 1992-93, the only time a team I've cheered for has won a championship. That year also planted the seeds for my future Islanders fandom.
History is written by the victors. We all know about the guys who won the Stanley Cup that year. The story that really captured my imagination was about the losers. More specifically, the team that the Canadians beat in the Prince of Wales Conference (now Eastern Conference) finals.
On paper, the New York Islanders had no business being in the conference finals. The glory days of the 1980s were long behind them. The organization was drifting. They were a few years out from one of the most disastrous periods of management and ownership in the history of professional sports. This was the last gasp of a once great franchise before entering a very dark period.
The 1992-93 Islanders had two things going for them. The first, was future Hall of Fame center Pierre Turgeon. Turgeon wasn't the biggest star on earth. He wasn't a Lemieux, Gretzky, or even Yzerman. But he was very good. That's what Dale Hunter was thinking when he took a run at Turgeon in the first round as he celebrated a goal. With Turgeon in the press box, the Islanders only had one thing left going for them: legendary coach Al Arbour.
Al Arbour was the last vestige of the glory days. He'd coached the team to four straight Stanley Cups. I tend to think coaching is a bit overrated, but the depleted New York Islanders team was getting ready to face off against the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. On paper, it should have been a four game massacre. And, yet.
No one thought the Islanders had a chance to win the series. No one, except Al Arbour. Before the series began, he sat his players down.
He looked around the room and asked Pat Flatley: “Can you tie one shift against Mario Lemieux? Just tie it, we don’t need you to win anything.”
“Yeah, I can tie one shift, sure,” Flatley said.
Arbour turned to Ray Ferraro.
“Can you tie one shift?”
“Of course,” Ferraro answered.
Arbour repeated the bit with the rest of the locker room. “There you go, first period’s done. Now for the second period...”
He repeated the exercise. When he finished, Arbour looked around the room.
“If that’s our philosophy, it’ll come down to Game 7,” he said. “And we only have to win one shift.”
Sure enough, they went on to win the series in overtime of Game 7. They won that one shift. It was arguably the biggest upset in the history of hockey. Childhood Steve can probably thank them for that Canadiens Stanley Cup win.
That was filed away in the back of my brain for years. I can't help but cheer for an underdog story. I became less and less engaged with hockey in adulthood. I watched it, but after years of disillusionment with my childhood team, I didn't have strong feelings. I vividly remember one time as an undergrad sitting around with a good friend, who recently passed away. Talking heads on TSN were roasting the New York Islanders organization, which had been a complete dumpster fire for years. They'd recently named the backup goalie general manager. I kind of thought they were being unfair. I thought of that years later, as I stepped in the old Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
This is where hockey merged with my North American travels.
Hello, Long Island!
Long Island isn't the first place most Canadians think to visit in the New York metro area. The western portion of Long Island, Nassau County, is thought of as a bedroom community for New York. Unless you can afford to vacation further east in the Hamptons, the only time you're likely to step foot on (but not in) Long Island is if you're visiting Brooklyn, which is part of the physical landmass of Long Island, but not the political jurisdiction (it's one of New York City's five boroughs).
I became a frequent visitor by chance. As an undergrad, I happened to make a good friend from Long Island who was studying in Canada. His parents have a place in Nassau County that he often housesits during winter. He suggested I come to New York to catch a couple of hockey games. Why not?
This coincided with a weird phase where I'd almost entirely stopped watching hockey, other than to watch the twilight years of some of my favourite childhood players. My favourite forward as a kid was Chris Drury, a jack of all trades centerman who happened to be playing out his remaining days as captain of the New York Rangers. He'd embraced a limited role as a faceoff specialist and penalty killer, despite coming over on a giant contract. I've always been fond of skilled players who embrace the defensive side of the game.
So there we were in Madison Square Gardens. This was only my second or third time in New York, certainly the first time I was there for fun. The game was fantastic.
Rangers/Bruins. Even game, went to a shootout. Several rounds in, still tied. Then it happened. Chris Drury stepped onto the ice. I was probably the only guy in the building excited about this development. But my enthusiasm was infectious. All of a sudden the building lit up, and he scored to win the game! Couldn't have scripted it better.
Nothing was going to beat this. Or so I thought. The next day, we drove out to Nassau Veteran's Memorial Coliseum. Imagine a concrete building loosely inspired by the Roman Coliseum in the middle of a suburban parking lot. It doesn't automatically inspire awe. The interior, even less so. That is, unless you're a hockey nostalgic.
The old Coliseum seemed like a scaled up version of a junior hockey rink. It didn't have any of the modern arena frills. It was cold and loud. Instead of video montages and pump-up music, we got organ music and an applause meter. The organists and the fans were the soundtrack of the building. I fell in love with it immediately.
The thing that really got me was the fans. This was a pretty low-stakes game. Islanders/Thrashers. No one here was in the playoff race. You wouldn't know it from the fans. It was a fun game. The kind of high scoring affair that wasn't common in that era. I think it was about 5-2. The fans were absolutely nuts. Who were these lunatics, cheering on this hopeless team?
You really had to be hardcore to be an Islanders fan in that era. The roster had been systematically dismantled by a riverboat gambler of a general manager, ownership turmoil resulted in the organization being bought by a conman who massively exaggerated his personal wealth in order to secure financing for the team (he remains incarcerated to this day), and the new owner knew absolutely nothing about hockey (he famously pontificated about hiring a sumo wrestler to play goalie, but instead offered a disastrous long term contract to Rick DiPietro, whose career was cut short by injuries). There wasn't much reason to stick with these guys. Yet, some did. They’re my kind of people.
I'd been to a few hockey games before then. I'd never been in a building with fans who were that universally engaged. It was infectious. I've gone to a few games a year ever since. It’s a big part of what got me interested in exploring North American cities. There’s so much to learn from the New York metro area - not just the City.
Get to the point, Steve!
Alright, so I've explained why I spend time on Long Island. I still haven't made the case for why you should care about it. Here goes.
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that it comes back to urbanism. Or, I suppose, suburbanism.
A popular Canadian columnist wrote a piece last year arguing that Canada is a “suburban, car-commuting nation.” I wrote about it here. In short, he has a point. Around 2/3rds of Canadians live in suburban communities. While I’ve spent most of my time over the past few years arguing for better cities, making better suburbs is probably an even more important task in Canada.
Frankly, Canada’s suburbs could use a lot of work. We don’t have many of the kind of commuter suburbs you see in the New York metro area. Admittedly, New York is an exception on the continent. But with the investments we’re making in commuter rail, the New York metro area could be a preview of Southern Ontario’s future.
The suburbs of New York are far more connected by rail to the City than most North American suburbs. Whether it's Long Island, western Connecticut, or northern New Jersey, the suburbs of New York City are build around commuter rail. The vast majority of people own cars, and use them to get around their towns. But they can get into the city without getting stuck in traffic by wandering to their local train station. You can get dropped off at Mineola Station in the morning, and be at Penn Station in 35-40 minutes. On the way back home you can walk across the street to Recovery Room and get a beer while waiting for your partner to pick you up. If you want access to a big city labour market and amenities but want some room to stretch your legs without enduring commuter hell, you can't do any better than Long Island.
I’m not a big suburban guy, but even I find myself thinking that if we had something like Garden City in the GTA, I might well live there. It’s the kind of suburb we can and should build.

Canada doesn’t have anything like Long Island. Not yet, anyways. Canada's suburban areas largely emerged in the post-war, car-first planning era. We have some traditional streetcar suburbs, like my neighbourhood in East Toronto. But we don't really have commuter train suburbs. What we do have is commuter train stations that serve communities orbiting Toronto. The station tend to be isolated from the communities, floating in oceans of parking. Moreover, they tend to have fairly limited schedules. For now.
Arguably the most exciting thing happening in Canada from an urbanist perspective right now is the GO train buildout in the GTA. Once we get to two-way all-day service levels, it will be much easier to live the Long Island type commuter lifestyle here.
Take Guelph, for example. Guelph had all of the ingredients to be a Nassau County type commuter town. The GO station is in the center of town, surrounded by amenities within walking distance. Unfortunately, limited scheduling means it's not a practical means for daily commuters. Once two-way all-day trains are available on a frequent basis, it will be an incredible place to live for people who need to work in Toronto but want a smaller city feel.
Of course, most GO stations aren't quite so conveniently situated. They rely more on park and rides to funnel people into the trains. But those parking lots are valuable space that could be used to help address Southern Ontario's dire housing shortage, and to provide other amenities. Part of the challenge is a lack of imagination. We can re-think these stations by looking to places like Nassau County to see what works.
I'm optimistic about the future of the GTA suburbs. It'll take some time, but I think we'll get there. Spending time on Long Island makes me optimistic, because I see that there is demand for the commuter rail lifestyle.
Take Farmingdale, for example. They've got a cute, walkable mainstreet with new condos a short walk to the train station. It's a lovely little community. Could Brampton's Innovation District look like that some day? I don't see any reason why not. Downtown Brampton has a walkable, if underused core. So do several communities in the GTA. There’s no reason we have transit-oriented suburbs here!
Every place is different. But we can get some clues from looking at places that have already been there. If you want to get excited about the GO buildout, look no further than Nassau County.
Despite the fact that Nassau County is fairly oriented around commuter rail, it sports were not - until recently. Remember I mentioned the old Coliseum? That's because the team has a new building. One of the big flaws of the Coliseum was that there weren't really any public transportation options. It's part of why during the team's darkest days attendance was sparse. You couldn't even down a few beers to paper over your disappointment without risking a DUI. The new building at Belmont Park has an Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stop (and another nearby with shuttle service to the games). Islanders games were famous for parking lot tailgate parties because there weren't any walkable amenities around. Now fans show up largely by train and can tailgate outside if they choose, taking advantage of the food trucks, vendors, fire pits, and so forth. Or they can just walk inside to numerous bars and restaurants. The old parking lot tailgates were fun. But I don't think anyone would really want to go back to it, if we're being honest.
Now, I'll admit. I'm a bit of a commuter train romantic. But it's not just aesthetic, or even my own lifestyle preferences. Or, the environmental and safety benefits of reducing car dependency. It also gives people opportunities to socialize, and mix with people they might not otherwise be likely to meet. It's hard to build community when we're all stuck in cars alone.
The beauty of commuter rail, unlike a subway or a streetcar, is that people are on the train for awhile. They almost have no choice but to socialize. I think it's especially important for older folks. Let me give you a recent example.
A few weeks ago when I was on Long Island we decided to pop over to New Jersey for an afternoon Devils game. LIRR to Penn Station, New Jersey Transit train to Newark. Easy.
The train was busy that morning. Turned out there was a college basketball game at the Garden. There were at least five groups of people chatting in our train car. Three of the groups near us were older men. They were all having a great time speculating about the game, chatting about whatever. There was a pair of guys who were probably in their 70s having a coffee across from us, having a grand old time. I couldn't help but think that if it weren't for the train, none of these people would’ve been going to Manhattan for a basketball game. If the the train didn't exist, some of them might not have left the house that day. It's kind of sad to think of them sitting at home watching the game alone. It's hard to have functioning communities without incidental social interactions like these. I'm not saying car dependency is responsible for the deep current of alienation running through large swaths of America. But it sure doesn't help.
Back to optimism. The GTA is going to have a lot more commuter rail options down the line. I look forward to more people having the chance to not only get to work without traffic hell, but also to have more options to get around the region. I want to be those old guys on the train when I’m 70! More mobility options are an unalloyed good. Especially when they bring people together, even for a moment.
So that’s the Long Island thing. I hope in a few decades I’ll be saying the same thing about the 905. I’m optimistic I will.