Unofficial redlining is *still* going on in Suffolk County today-Newsday ran an expose on this a couple of years ago. We need to implement programs to break up the segregation that occurs to this day in places like the Town of Islip, where you have a large minority majority population in the north-Brentwood, and where I grew up, Central Islip-and then a very white south shore. Bay Shore is an example of how to progressively address this over time and build a high-equity diverse community. The most obvious solution is to expand housing opportunities but also looking at how school district funding is undertaken. With overt racism at least *generally* socially unacceptable, school districts and their perceived quality drives these decisions. While consolidating school districts might not be viable due to local opposition, it's at least something that should be discussed.

Beyond that, there's also a discussion to be had about how Suffolk County is approximately a third minority, and is not reflected in the local police department or in many of the town and county services. Unfortunately there's not a lot one can do about this on the state level, but it's something we've been talking about as part of the Islip Dems for several years.