Destination Great Neck Wants To Create '1 Vision For The Peninsula'

GREAT NECK, NY — On Oct. 25, around 175 residents of the Great Neck peninsula packed an event venue to discuss their hometown. Hosted by community nonprofit Destination Great Neck, the event organizers wanted to know what the residents of the nine villages that make up greater Great Neck envisioned for the area's future.

Janet Nina Esagoff is a Great Neck attorney who founded Destination Great Neck in 2021, after the peninsula's only major supermarket closed. She first created a Facebook group, then added a website, and then created a registered nonprofit that uses volunteers to connect business owners and local politicians, hoping to, she told Patch, "restore the brand of Great Neck."

"It's a movement that's starting to resonate with people here," she said.

"We want to create one vision for the peninsula. We have top schools, we are close to the city, we have diversity," Esagoff explained, adding that because the peninsula is divided between so many municipalities, it's been challenging to have everyone work together to revitalize the downtown business districts.

"There's been a decline [in the business district] for 10, 20 years," Esagoff said. "The movie theater closed, it's not walkable."

Residents who attended last week's meeting also expressed wanting more of a retail mix, Esagoff said, and their desire for a more unified beautification of the downtown area.

"[Residents] want an anchor store, entertainment, somewhere for kids to go, a supermarket," she said.

The organization is working with local council members as well as experts in urban planning, and hosts several events throughout the years like a Gatsby Fest that will take return in June 2023.

"We are a unique, diverse, high-quality town of immigrants. We appreciate hard work and the finer things in life," Esagoff reflected.

"I like to say, the best people live in Great Neck."