But with severe budget strictures dimming prospects for county financing of land programs that advanced little even in better days, the fiscally more robust towns in Nassau appear likely to take the lead.
It's an approach that characterises the campaign of Mr Modi, blending hi-tech savviness with a robust, town-hall style pitch.
Take me to the very heart The spiritual capital of Corsica is the robust inland town of Corte, its daunting fortress presiding over a tiny warren of cobbled alleys, with newer streets spread out below.
Last summer I described how the loan of a practical, almost absurdly robust Swedish-built town bike opened my eyes to the joys of slower cycling, and mulled whether it might be time to give up the world of Lycra and high-speed, sweaty commutes.
The CEO had cut his journalistic teeth on the Mercury, rising from general manager to publisher and eventually moving corporate offices to the modest but robust California town.
Braddock, a once-robust steel town near Pittsburgh, is now a town of 2,677 citizens, earning an average income of $18,000.
The potent MultiAir, which is also offered in the zippy Fiat 500 Abarth, makes 160 horsepower, with 184 pound-feet of torque, and it helps the rather large Dart feel robust both around town and on the highway.
And if you can't take a reporter to lunch, at least pause and reflect on the fact that while New York remains that rare, robust daily newspaper town, that's nothing compared to the choices available in the city a century ago.
Its dominant carmakers created a one-industry town; their robust demand for blue-collar workers at good wages stunted the supply of workers with other sorts of skills.
Before the measure passed, the owner of a $100,000 home in a town with robust businesses and million-dollar houses might be charged a school property tax as little as $300; for that, the town could collect enough to spend $9,000 for a child's education.
Yet according to Walter Pohl the regions directly occupied by Alboin suffered less devastation and had a relatively robust survival rate for towns, whereas the occupation of territory by autonomous military bands interested mainly in raiding and looting had a more severe impact, with the bishoprics in such places rarely surviving.
