Is the Staten Island NASCAR track dream still alive?
Whatever people have to say about it, there's no doubt that NASCAR's hitting the hardest and most challenging corner it's seen in decades! And this time, there are no cars involved and no engines either. This time, it's all about connections, politics, permits, approvals and people. International Speedway Corporation (ISC)'s been trying to build a NASCAR track in Staten Island ever since it bought a 110 million land in Staten Island . In view of the fact that New York is a highly populated area, there are unused spaces in the island and NASCAR is pretty hot there, it seems like such a sound idea….AT FIRST.
After hitting so many difficult curbs along the way, now it's got to overcome YET another one…and this time, there's no denying this, it's one of the hardest corners they will have to tackle.
Steven Harness, a long-time resident of Staten Island , says that he's been keeping tab on the progress of the Staten Island NASCAR track but so far, there's nothing happening there, unless you count bird watching as ‘something'. “Nothing's happening right now because I heard that the authorities are giving the ISC some problems with their permits or something”, he said when interviewed. It's true…International Speedway Corporation has lost their permit to bring soil into the Bloomfield properly for the time being. With the permit retracted, work has stopped.
With anti-NASCAR-track people are celebrating their ‘victory' over the race track giant, many NASCAR fans are thinking otherwise. The fight has not ended. It's not ended unless ISC have decided to call it quits. As long as the NASCAR track dream remains alive in their heads, the NASCAR fans still have hope.
Admittedly, the government would not DARE to retract a permit like that unless there was a valid reason, the fans continue to believe that as long as the Staten Island NASCAR track dream is alive, the fans will continue to support the plan. by the way, the anti-NASCAR-track people outnumber the NASCAR fans in Staten Island .
It doesn't help at all that many politicians are using the NASCAR track as a political weapon – it makes life all that much tougher and challenging for the ISC folks. But as far as we know, the dream of a Staten Island NASCAR track is still alive. Even as we publish this article, ISC is fighting really hard to get their permits back.
So, perhaps we can say that the dream is…still pretty much alive.