By Seth I. Koslow
As I fight tooth and nail for every dollar, every program, every piece of support for my constituents, I can’t help but ask the question that’s on a lot of people’s minds:
What exactly does County Executive Bruce Blakeman do?
If you judge by actual results and not ribbon-cuttings or photo ops, you’ll find a pattern of broken promises, bloated pageantry, and baffling priorities that are hurting Nassau County.
Let’s start with the latest vanishing act: the NYU Langone hospital project that was supposed to rise on the campus of Nassau Community College. This wasn’t just another press conference fantasy—it was billed as a multibillion-dollar economic engine. Thousands of jobs, cutting-edge medical care, new opportunities for students. And now? Poof. Gone.
Somehow, all we are left with is silence. No transparency, no explanation, just another empty podium and a missed opportunity that could have changed lives and transformed our economy.
Just up the road from Nassau Community College, there is Blakeman’s chase for a casino – and whether you support or oppose it, you cannot help but notice that the pursuit has been a disaster. The first time it went through the Legislature, the process was so flawed that a court made Blakeman do it all over again. This second time around, Blakeman’s grand promises of jobs and tax revenues appear to be on the verge of collapsing – and if that happens, billions more in promised economic development and opportunities for union workers would evaporate with it, marking the latest failed attempt by the County to develop the Uniondale Hub.
These are not the only things that have vanished under this administration. Remember the $10 million he siphoned from federal COVID-19 recovery funds to throw himself a party? The 100th Anniversary Gala Boondoggle—banquets, golf outings, fireworks, parades. While families were still struggling to recover from a pandemic, Bruce Blakeman planned to use relief funds to toast himself in tuxedos and champagne. Yet somehow, most of those events never even happened. He couldn’t even put together a party for Nassau County.
Speaking of mismanaging of public spaces – after Blakeman rolled out the red carpet for the cricket stadium at Eisenhower Park, closing off beloved sections of the park for months, all Nassau got in return (from what we can tell so far) is a giant brown patch of dead grass, lingering questions about whether taxpayers made a dime – and once again — no accountability.
For good measure, Blakeman also left union workers high and dry. By blocking the use of project labor agreements, Blakeman squandered an opportunity to deliver critical employment opportunities that would have boosted the livelihoods of local workers. It is a slap in the face to labor at a time when we should be supporting working people, not getting shoutouts from Trump in the Rose Garden as he unveils catastrophic tariffs and pushes anti-labor policies.
Then there’s Nassau University Medical Center. Blakeman promised to save Nassau’s public hospital. Instead, he installed political cronies and deepened the crisis. NUMC, a Level 1 trauma center which houses a world-class burn center and vital drug detox facilities, is teetering. If it fails, it won’t just be a healthcare catastrophe – it’ll also be an economic earthquake. Working families will lose access to care, and thousands of jobs in the medical field could vanish overnight. Where’s the leadership? Nowhere to be found – unless you count finger-pointing as a strategy.
And let’s not forget the basics: He passed a county budget that was so out of whack it violated generally accepted accounting principles and Nassau’s fiscal monitor forced him to fix it. Nassau’s most recent capital infrastructure plan got jammed up for months because of his nonsensical refusal to fund more than $1 million in grants for first responders in Democratic districts – needlessly adding political rancor to a vital County function in doing so.
The truth is simple: This administration loves a press conference but fails at follow-through. They have a penchant for political theater, but they’re bankrupt on policy – and as legislators, we’re left cleaning up the mess while they pose for photo ops.
Nassau deserves leadership that delivers—not just headlines that disappear.
So again, I ask – as someone who is fighting to make things better for our communities:
What exactly does Bruce Blakeman do?
Legislator Seth Koslow (D-Merrick) represents the 5th District in the Nassau County Legislature.