While it may feel to a majority of the population that the long nightmare that was the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the disease continued to rear its head this summer with a spike in infection rates and increased hospitalization numbers that could worsen this fall....
Sep 19, 2023, By Editorial Board
GOLD STAR To the Southampton School District, for recognizing its demographic make-up and creating a world language program that helps mirror it. Students who are not native English speakers are typically treated as a problem to be dealt with in many school districts. In Southampton,...
Sep 6, 2023, By Editorial Board
Governor Kathy Hochul recently spent some quality time on the South Fork. She was in Montauk on August 16 to celebrate the completion of a three-year renovation of the historic Montauk Point Lighthouse, built in 1797, and an extensive effort to bolster the threatened bluff...
Aug 29, 2023, By Editorial Board
When it comes to the East End arts scene, by all appearances it would seem that we are largely out of the woods and over the hump in terms of the COVID-19 shutdowns that wreaked havoc among our local nonprofit organizations beginning in 2020. Honestly,...
Aug 23, 2023, By Editorial Board
“It’s a small world after all” — any person who has visited Disney and its eponymous ride (apologies for the “earworm”) knows the phrase well. But sometimes the week’s headlines drive the point home. Almost 5,000 miles away from the East End, terrible wildfires are...
Aug 21, 2023, By Editorial Board
“There is a lot that needs to be worked out. The status quo is not acceptable.” That’s how East Hampton Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez summed up the status of the Maidstone Gun Club, which faces an uncertain future as the Town Board considers renewing its...
Aug 15, 2023, By Editorial Board
Citizens have a right to know who they’re dealing with, whether it be in government or private enterprise. But that’s not the case when it comes to limited liability companies, or LLCs. LLCs, for example, can own property, apply for grants, operate as landlords and...
Aug 15, 2023, By Editorial Board
Suffolk County scholastic sports officials are at odds with their governing body, Section XI, over stalled contract negotiations, which could have a ripple effect felt through the fall season and across the county’s student-athletes. The President’s Council of Suffolk County Officials voted down a potential...
Aug 7, 2023, By Editorial Board
Partisanship is an infectious disease, and it can be difficult to keep the noxious elements of national politics from spreading like a virus into local legislatures. But they’re not immune, and the Suffolk County Legislature has all the symptoms of putting politics before policy —...
Aug 1, 2023, By Editorial Board
Last week, in our Residence section, The Express News Group continued a decade-long summer tradition, identifying the “water hogs” on the South Fork over the past 12 months — the individual properties that draw the most treated water from the Suffolk County Water Authority’s system....
Aug 1, 2023, By Editorial Board
For years, East Hampton Town was exemplary when it came to making it easy for its residents to participate in local government. Its public meetings were among the first to be televised live in the region, and the town was a leader in getting links...
Jul 25, 2023, By Editorial Board
Suffolk County prides itself on being an environmentally progressive place, with a strong emphasis on water quality. But it must take ownership of a pretty sizable environmental mess it is being forced to clean up after a federal lawsuit by the Environmental Protection Agency —...
Jul 25, 2023, By Editorial Board
This is the time of year when a lot of people “from away” have their sights set on the East End. Some are looking to throw fancy parties featuring celebrities or to present overpriced happenings with just a minuscule portion of the proceeds going to...
Jul 19, 2023, By Editorial Board
Over the years, Suffolk County residents have been wise enough to understand the economics of levying taxes designed to raise revenue for worthwhile causes. When given the chance, voters have approved a variety of measures like the Community Preservation Fund, which preserves land, and now...
Jul 17, 2023, By Editorial Board
Every once in a while, Mother Nature reminds us that the majesty surrounding us is not completely benign. A day at the beach isn’t just, you know, a day at the beach — dangers abound, and a wise beachgoer approaches the beautiful stretch of sea...
Jul 11, 2023, By Editorial Board
It was only a few years ago when we had the luxury of debating whether or not global warming was reality. There were conversations about whether the Earth’s warming temperatures were just a localized trend or a sign of something worse. Today, the picture is...
Jul 4, 2023, By Editorial Board
It has been five years since a June 2018 plane crash took the lives of Ben and Bonnie Krupinski. Both are still mourned by family and friends, but also by a community that is grateful for their philanthropic generosity. The East Hampton Food Pantry is...
Jul 4, 2023, By Editorial Board
It was hard to miss the utter frustration in East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc’s response to recent prodding letters from the supervisors of Southampton and Southold towns, urging the town to “take action” to address the new onslaught of noisy air traffic headed...
Jun 27, 2023, By Editorial Board
Wainscott School District is in a pickle. How it got there is instructive for a variety of reasons. The situation suggests that the state’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to keeping school budgets reined in has a glitch that is unworkable for the smallest school districts, no matter...
Jun 26, 2023, By Editorial Board
For a quarter century, the two hospitals providing care to South Fork residents, in Southampton and Riverhead, have been on parallel paths that sometimes, in their winding, briefly intersected, though more often raced each other to get to higher ground. That race is far from...
Jun 20, 2023, By Editorial Board
The future is looking bright at East Hampton High School: On June 6, the East Hampton School Board voted to allow the installation of lights on the high school’s athletic turf field. To be more precise, the board voted to allow district resident John Edwards...
Jun 13, 2023, By Editorial Board
There is an enormous difference between caution and hysteria. Locally, the conversation about battery energy storage systems, also known as BESS, is rapidly moving in the wrong direction. Southampton Town is absolutely correct to consider a moratorium on approving such projects to allow town officials...
Jun 13, 2023, By Editorial Board
A rash of fires over the past couple of weeks should serve as a profound reminder to those preparing both residential and commercial spaces for the upcoming summer season to take precautions while gearing up for the busy months ahead. There’s no indication of any...
Jun 6, 2023, By Editorial Board
“A good coach can change a game. Great coaches can change a life.” Juni Wingfield is nothing if not quotable, and this typical pearl of wisdom from him last week speaks volumes about the impact a special group of coaches, Wingfield among them, has had...
Jun 6, 2023, By Editorial Board
Four decades ago, as John v.H. Halsey noted in an article last week, the idea of preserving land on the East End wasn’t new: Suffolk County and the towns had started to look at doing piecemeal projects where the municipalities would ask voters to borrow...
May 30, 2023, By Editorial Board
While a massive air cargo facility being proposed in Calverton may seem too many miles away for concern for most residents of the South Fork, the mammoth size of the project and its potential impact should send shock waves across the entire East End. The...
May 29, 2023, By Editorial Board
Gold Star: Several of them, in fact, after an agreement in Albany finally will put in place long-overdue protection for historic burial sites. It’s hard to imagine that unmarked graves — whether they hold the remains of early settlers, war casualties or Native Americans —...
May 24, 2023, By Editorial Board
The East Hampton Town Board and Planning Department are doing their best to make it easier for residents to construct affordable rental apartments throughout the town — and they deserve widespread support. New legislation, in the works for months now, reduces the lot size needed...
May 16, 2023, By Editorial Board
Money won’t fix everything. But when you’re looking at a multigenerational problem — decades of leaky septic systems and other polluting sources flooding our groundwater and threatening our drinking water supply — the more money put to the task, the more effective the solutions. So...
May 16, 2023, By Editorial Board
Sag Harbor School District is in fine financial shape. On Tuesday, district residents will vote on a $48.06 million budget for the 2023-24 school year — a spending plan that has one of the lowest tax levy increases in the district in over a decade....
May 10, 2023, By Editorial Board
GeoCubes have long overstayed their welcome in East Hampton Town. At waterfront properties in Amagansett and other communities, seawalls made up of the 1-ton sandbags were installed as so-called temporary measures to protect homes threatened by encroaching seas. But it turned out that “temporary,” while...
May 10, 2023, By Editorial Board
While there are many things to argue about on the op-ed pages of this newspaper these days, it is easy to forget that we have much to celebrate on the South Fork — in particular, the number of residents who have dedicated their time and...
May 2, 2023, By Editorial Board
This editorial may sound familiar. It seems like every spring, these pages contain a dire warning about the harmful effects that synthetic fertilizers and toxic pesticides sprayed on lawns in an effort to achieve the greenest lawn on the block pose to groundwater, surface water,...
May 2, 2023, By Editorial Board
It might well turn out to be true that East Hampton Village is getting “back on track,” as Mayor Jerry Larsen said last week, after taking over control of East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance after 50 years of self-management. “Nothing is going to change in the...
May 1, 2023, By Editorial Board
It appears that Governor Kathy Hochul’s ambitious New York Housing Compact is being sent back to the sidelines while state budget negotiations try to wrap up several weeks late. Her plan, to create hundreds of thousands of new homes statewide by setting local development goals...
Apr 25, 2023, By Editorial Board
It’s time to ask the question directly: What is going on with the State Department of Environmental Conservation and its steadfast refusal to get out of bed with sand mines on the South Fork? It’s gone from confusing to baffling to aggravating, watching the DEC...
Apr 19, 2023, By Editorial Board
This weekend, April 22 and 23, many firehouses in New York State will open their doors for an event, “RecruitNY,” sponsored by the Firefighters Association of New York. For the 14th year, the two-day open house will encourage more men and women to join the...
Apr 18, 2023, By Editorial Board
Every once in a while, an issue rises from the ashes like a phoenix, and there’s hope of resolution after a long stalemate. Last week’s news that the Springs Fire District is pitching a new 150-foot-tall monopole behind the firehouse, a proposal that meets new...
Apr 18, 2023, By Editorial Board
South Fork winters blend gently into spring, so much so that it can be hard to tell the two seasons apart as they transition. Despite the sunny days and moderate afternoon temperatures in the early days of April, on four days this month, the lows...
Apr 11, 2023, By Editorial Board
There is a point when “quaint” becomes the enemy of real, necessary progress. Protecting the things that make a neighborhood unique and special is worthy work, but not when it runs head-on into efforts to keep that same neighborhood alive and healthy. It’s time to...
Apr 11, 2023, By Editorial Board
Living in a time when the ongoing effect of humankind on the Planet Earth is part of the international conversation, nearly on a daily basis, it’s hard to imagine a time when it seemed necessary to set aside an entire day for Americans to make...
Apr 4, 2023, By Editorial Board
It was, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. readily acknowledges, mostly a symbolic gesture — his trio of bills seeking to update New York State’s school funding formula and to boost the amount of foundation aid for some school districts face a nearly impossible path forward...
Apr 4, 2023, By Editorial Board
Over lunch in Southampton Village, a cordial but pointed conversation took place last week — and there is reason to be optimistic that an important message was delivered straight to Governor Kathy Hochul in Albany. To the governor’s credit, her office sent not one but...
Mar 27, 2023, By Editorial Board
It’s a long shot at this point, but there’s a proposal stuck in the gears of state government that offers a glimmer of hope for an industry facing enormous, and in some cases existential, pressures — journalism. New York’s Local Journalism Sustainability Act would provide...
Mar 27, 2023, By Editorial Board
Sunshine Week, an initiative sponsored by the News Leaders Association and the Society of Professional Journalists, took place last week. Created in 2005, it promotes government transparency and educates the public about the tools and methods they can use to shine a light in the...
Mar 22, 2023, By Editorial Board
He’s not really going anywhere — in fact, in his new role, leading the effort to conjure up the necessary donations to fund a new state-of-the-art hospital on the Stony Brook Southampton campus, Robert Chaloner is arguably going to be working even harder to cement...
Mar 21, 2023, By Editorial Board
Three years is an arbitrary marker, for sure, but it seems important to note just how long COVID-19 has been part of our everyday lives — for an alarming time, the dominant feature. It’s also important to remember that marking the third year since the...
Mar 14, 2023, By Editorial Board
Being near the water and among nature has long been a huge draw for living on the East End, whether full-time or seasonally. But, all too often, homeowners here push back wildlife and apply chemicals that pollute the bays and estuaries. Thirsty, fertilizer-addicted and pesticide-laden...
Mar 14, 2023, By Editorial Board
The fallout from the announced resignations of Springs School Principal Christine Cleary and Assistant Principal Joshua Odom — both will leave the district on June 30 — resulted in an emotional Springs Board of Education meeting late last month. Longtime, beloved educators raised issues that...
Mar 7, 2023, By Editorial Board
Last week, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said something that is not controversial. Speaking about the fact that town zoning, like most of the zoning on the South Fork, is rooted in a desire to protect the environment, he pointed out that all that land...
Feb 28, 2023, By Editorial Board
Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. doesn’t mince words when he has a message to deliver that he feels isn’t landing as it should. Stony Brook University officials might have gotten their first taste of that last week, when Thiele blasted the university as “the biggest...
Feb 21, 2023, By Editorial Board
Mayor Jerry Larsen is justifiably thrilled with the work of the East Hampton Village Foundation, a nonprofit organization created in 2021 to collect donations and to use the money for various civic projects and events. At an Express Sessions event in East Hampton Village last...
Feb 14, 2023, By Editorial Board
The ongoing, baffling and seemingly eternal legal fight over Sand Land Corporation’s bid to continue mining sand at a 50-acre site in Noyac is about a lot of things. But, with the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s inexplicable decisions along the way, it’s really about...
Feb 14, 2023, By Editorial Board
Governor Kathy Hochul is pitching ambitious but necessary proposals to phase out fossil fuel-powered heating and cooking appliances in new homes, and to eventually prohibit the replacement of oil and natural gas furnaces and boilers with anything but “green” heating equipment. These are ideas that...
Feb 8, 2023, By Editorial Board
Don’t look now, but all five East End towns are poised to have new leadership in their top posts next year. Jay Schneiderman will be term-limited out in Southampton Town in 2023, and the town supervisors in the four other towns — Yvette Aguiar in...
Feb 7, 2023, By Editorial Board
In recent months, a completely anonymous group began a high-profile smear campaign targeting the East Hampton Town Board. In a series of ads in this and other local publications, and online, “Stop the East Hampton Town Board” — that’s all we know of their identity...
Jan 31, 2023, By Editorial Board
It’s rare to see a large group of people in Sag Harbor agree on most anything, but last Tuesday, at Southampton Town Hall, more than two dozen speakers came out to support the town’s involvement in preserving the Sag Harbor home of author John Steinbeck,...
Jan 31, 2023, By Editorial Board
Remember the hole in the ozone layer? Some smug anti-environmentalists have been known to cite the concern in the 1980s as an example of how science creates terrifying scenarios from time to time that get lots of media attention, only to forget about them when...
Jan 26, 2023, By Editorial Board
The innovative Community Preservation Fund began collecting revenue to preserve land in the five East End towns in 1999. It was a very different time: DVD players were just starting to overtake VHS tapes. Napster downloads were challenging the music business. PayPal, in its original...
Jan 17, 2023, By Editorial Board
Kelp farming has exponential benefits, both environmental and economic — which is why so many heads were shaking in disbelief last month when Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed legislation that would have permitted seaweed growers to lease state-owned underwater lands. Cultivating seaweed removes carbon dioxide and...
Jan 10, 2023, By Editorial Board
Silence is powerful. In some instances, it can be more pointed, more evocative, than the most eloquent verse, or the loudest shouts. But there’s one instance when silence is devastating for one side, necessary for the other: instances of sexual abuse of children. Breaking that...
Jan 10, 2023, By Editorial Board
It’s looking more and more like the Wainscott neighbors of the Maidstone Gun Club, on East Hampton Airport property, were correct that errant bullets shot by gun enthusiasts and members of the club were escaping the confines of the shooting range and ending up in...
Jan 10, 2023, By Editorial Board
The new year is typically seen as a time of renewal. A time when we, individually or collectively, take stock of where we are and look to the coming months as an opportunity to commit — or recommit — to change, to making things, or...
Jan 4, 2023, By Editorial Board
LUMP OF COAL To the Southampton Village Board, for rushing an important decision and leaving a lot of questions in the air. The hiring on Monday of Anthony Carter as the next chief of police is provisional — he still has to pass the necessary...
Dec 14, 2022, By Editorial Board
Bureaucracy isn’t typically so responsive, and it usually takes a bit longer to correct a mistake. So it’s notable that the Internal Revenue Service late last week resolved, finally, an ongoing dispute that has hamstrung efforts to protect groundwater on the East End — and...
Dec 6, 2022, By Editorial Board
“Stargazer” will head into winter with a new lease on life, thanks to a six-figure reconstruction that will keep the iconic roadside sculpture by Linda Scott a bit safer from the elements. In the years since its installation along Route 111 in Eastport in 1991,...
Dec 6, 2022, By Editorial Board
In 2012, a pair of Manhattan-based nonprofit organizations, the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, decided to try out a new idea: With “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” already in place on the post-Thanksgiving calendar, they snagged the next day and dubbed it...
Nov 30, 2022, By Editorial Board
GOLD STAR To Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Phillips Family Cancer Center and Ellen Hermanson Breast Center, for partnering with Cancer Hope Network, which helps current cancer patients feel less alone by matching them with survivors, who also heal through the process of supporting others. Nobody...
Nov 22, 2022, By Editorial Board
In the last of three virtual conversations sponsored by The Express News Group, on Thursday, November 10, the top officials from the three East End hospitals were among the panelists looking into the future of health care in the region — and seeing bright skies....
Nov 15, 2022, By Editorial Board
On Election Night last week, hours after incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul declared victory in her reelection bid, her challenger, 1st District Congressman Lee Zeldin, took to a Manhattan stage and refused to concede, making a number of statements that were highly ironic coming from an...
Nov 15, 2022, By Editorial Board
To say that this year’s collapse and die-off of the Peconic bay scallop population is a disappointment is an understatement. Though this outcome was anticipated, it’s also devastating. So much progress has been made in the past decade on improving water quality and restocking filter-feeding...
Nov 9, 2022, By Editorial Board
As the region talks about new ways to address the growing affordable housing crisis, quietly, in the background, one organization is doing something about it, one house at a time. Habitat for Humanity held a “wall raise” ceremony last week on Thomas Avenue in East...
Nov 8, 2022, By Editorial Board
For Congress Both of the candidates for the 1st Congressional District seat, seeking to succeed Republican U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, who is not seeking reelection due to his gubernatorial bid, are seasoned public servants with years of experience under their belts. Republican Nick LaLota, a...
Nov 1, 2022, By Editorial Board
November 8 is a red-letter day for the South Fork in particular, a day that will help decide the future. It’s a rare “before and after” moment where the simple act of casting a ballot can bring real change in the world around us, not...
Nov 1, 2022, By Editorial Board
There is perhaps no sitting lawmaker who has done more to safeguard the traditional way of life and community character of the East End while making every effort to improve the lives of its residents than incumbent New York State 1st District Assemblyman Fred W....
Oct 26, 2022, By Editorial Board
The race for New York State’s 1st Senate District, which includes the five East End towns plus parts of Brookhaven, is between an Republican incumbent seeking his second term in Albany and a young Democrat who hopes to be elected for the first time. The...
Oct 26, 2022, By Editorial Board
Since he took over the 1st District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives at the beginning of 2015, we have gotten to know Lee Zeldin very well indeed — and it makes an endorsement for Kathy Hochul for governor that much easier. Hochul was...
Oct 25, 2022, By Editorial Board
Neighbors joining forces to try to block a planned development in their neighborhood has been a fairly common occurrence on the South Fork for years. Once the development is abandoned — or approved, in an unfortunately high number of cases — the members of those...
Oct 19, 2022, By Editorial Board
It’s sobering to hear the results of the inaugural LGBTQ+ Health Needs Assessment Survey conducted by Stony Brook Medicine: More than 60 percent of respondents who identify as LGBTQ+ show signs of chronic depression, nearly half have anxiety or mental health issues, and a third...
Oct 18, 2022, By Editorial Board
Tackling the South Fork’s housing crisis calls for bold, immediate action before the problem spirals out of control. Unfortunately, government response is, more often than not, lackluster. When building projects come along to provide affordable housing, governing bodies and land use boards demand fewer units...
Oct 12, 2022, By Editorial Board
In 20 years, the health care infrastructure on the East End has moved beyond a potential crisis point, with individual hospitals struggling to survive, to finding strength in both numbers and relationships with larger systems. The latest evolution, though, is the most exciting: Technology is...
Oct 11, 2022, By Editorial Board
As demonstrated by the successful efforts to reverse the decline of Shinnecock Bay, shellfish are key to maintaining and improving water quality of the East End’s bays. Clams, scallops and oysters, all filter feeders, are not only essential for controlling algae but also are vital...
Oct 5, 2022, By Editorial Board
One of the greatest pleasures of living on the East End is access to the abundance of fresh produce and locally sourced food available to the masses in the summer months and harvest season. But the season always feels short, and as the days get...
Oct 5, 2022, By Editorial Board
Two recent developments in East Hampton Town help demonstrate an alarming trend in recent years: Local laws and other regulations can seemingly be ignored by businesses that are willing to pay any corresponding fines as the cost of doing business. The first occurred in Wainscott...
Sep 28, 2022, By Editorial Board
And Say, ‘Ahhh!’ Geography, it seems, makes the East End grand, but it also makes it isolated. In an interconnected world, that means heading more and more in the direction of virtual contact for services. That includes health care. Instead of being a pure negative,...
Sep 27, 2022, By Editorial Board
Dunce Cap -- To Southampton Town officials for their on again/off again cone and flashing light program in Hampton Bays and other areas. The so-called traffic calming measures can’t possibly calm motorists who make good time one day, only to find the blinking lights programs...
Sep 21, 2022, By Editorial Board
For 50 years, Roe v. Wade was the law of the land and it assured women in the United States the right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. But that precedent was overturned in June with Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s...
Sep 14, 2022, By Editorial Board
Once environmental damage is done, it is exceedingly difficult to undo — but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try, or that our efforts won’t succeed beyond expectations. Case in point, the rebound of the hard clam population in Shinnecock Bay. It is amazing what’s...
Sep 12, 2022, By Editorial Board
There’s more at play than a simple change in demographics when it comes to the latest struggling East End football program, this time at Hampton Bays High School, which, for the first time in 47 years, will not field a varsity football team this fall....
Sep 6, 2022, By Editorial Board
“Platinum Bull” serves as a shining symbol for East Hampton Village government, in part because of how the 16-foot-long stainless steel sculpture got there in the first place. Because a bull always strides purposefully where it wants to go, and that can look confident and...
Sep 6, 2022, By Editorial Board
It was a longtime South Fork resident, the late Joseph Heller, who said it best in his novel “Catch-22”: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” In Hampton Bays, as red-faced town officials scrambled to stamp out the brush fire, a lot...
Aug 30, 2022, By Editorial Board
What makes a place special? Not an entire community, but an actual place — a location, a street address? What makes it historic? We designate historical markers to battlefields, but also to places where less bloody events took place, or where important people were born....
Aug 23, 2022, By Editorial Board
A story from East Hampton Village last week highlighted an issue that could well be percolating beneath the service in many communities, as local volunteer ambulance corps seek a delicate balance of morale and necessary moves to provide reliable emergency care. A member of the...
Aug 16, 2022, By Editorial Board
Electronic bicycles, or e-bikes, seem to be everywhere all of a sudden. The bikes, with electric motors that can propel them at speeds up to 30 mph, have taken off, so to speak, this summer on the East End, with adults hoping to avoid the...
Aug 9, 2022, By Editorial Board
At least for the moment, we’re not going to run out of water in the aquifers below our feet: According to the Suffolk County Water Authority, there is an estimated 65 trillion to 120 trillion gallons of water in Long Island’s natural underground reservoirs. In...
Aug 9, 2022, By Editorial Board
Often, great things come from modest beginnings. What started out 20 years ago as a small advisory board to the East Hampton Town Board blossomed over the decades to become the preeminent voice for the East End’s Latino community. The Organización Latino Americana, or OLA,...
Aug 2, 2022, By Editorial Board
There are, of course, so many things to be concerned about these days — a pair of viruses, war in Ukraine, an uneven U.S. economy, democracy under threat, climate change — but a steadily burning brush fire is quietly wiping out community journalism, and attention...
Aug 2, 2022, By Editorial Board
In early July, it was revealed that the after-school enrichment program Project MOST, an East Hampton-based nonprofit that primarily serves students from the Springs and East Hampton school districts, is about to grow. It will not only take ownership of its longtime home at the...
Jul 27, 2022, By Editorial Board
Sharks have been all over the news lately, and for good reason: “Shark Bites Human” stories grab attention, and the headlines make for good summer fodder on the evening news. But let’s stop to reflect and remember that sharks aren’t out to get us. In...
Jul 27, 2022, By Editorial Board
Residents, lawmakers, business owners and the leaders of a multitude of nonprofits on the South Fork have been talking for years about ways to solve the housing crisis. While it’s been on the forefront of everyone’s minds and agendas, sadly, it seems, very little has...
Jul 20, 2022, By Editorial Board
Like the proverbial tree falling in a forest and the question of whether it makes a sound if nothing is around to hear it, a philosophical question arises regarding the Long Pond Greenbelt: Is a hearing still a hearing if nobody is listening? PSEG Long...
Jul 19, 2022, By Editorial Board
DUNCE CAP: To Sag Harbor Mayor Jim Larocca, for reshuffling the regulatory boards in the village — and leaving out two key voices in the mix. Larocca may have had the best intentions, ensuring that board seat vacancies are staggered and bringing some veterans, like...
Jul 13, 2022, By Editorial Board
South Fork communities have a tendency toward parochialism, worrying mostly about matters within their own borders, but this is a moment for every town and village official, and even every hamlet resident, to pay close attention to a proposal in Sag Harbor Village. It should...
Jul 5, 2022, By Editorial Board
The overturning of Roe v. Wade, which has established federal protection of basic abortion rights for women for a half century, was no less a bombshell even though everyone saw it coming. For anti-abortion activists, it’s a moment many of them prayed and protested for,...
Jun 28, 2022, By Editorial Board
On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in the port city of Galveston, Texas, to share news of the Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all enslaved people were free. While the news was welcomed by many, it arrived a bit late — a full two and...
Jun 22, 2022, By Editorial Board
Making progress is better than getting nothing done, and it’s important to keep that in mind, but the conclusion is inescapable: Our lawmakers’ response to gun violence — massacres — is woefully inadequate. The National Rifle Association learned after the 1999 Columbine High School shooting...
Jun 15, 2022, By Editorial Board
The election of two out of five trustee seats in East Hampton Village does not carry with it the power to overturn the majority, which is led by Mayor Jerry Larsen, but is important nonetheless as village government continues to evolve under the current leadership,...
Jun 14, 2022, By Editorial Board
Back to the drawing board is probably not a bad move for Guild Hall. After unveiling ambitious renovation plans for the 91-year-old arts and cultural institution in February, Guild Hall’s administration and board chair recently announced they would take a step back from a portion...
Jun 8, 2022, By Editorial Board
The Shinnecock Graves Protection Warrior Society has made tremendous strides in the past few years in protecting ancient burial sites in Shinnecock Hills and repatriating the remains of Shinnecock ancestors from museums, universities and the private collections of archaeologists. But the group’s work is far...
Jun 7, 2022, By Editorial Board
Just as proving a negative is a philosophical challenge, it’s very hard to say what the world would be like had a key player never made an entrance. George Bailey got a taste of it in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” thanks to angels, but the...
Jun 7, 2022, By Editorial Board
In the face of another senseless, tragic act of gun violence in America, we’ll share the only words that truly matter, the words that speak volumes and cry for action. Nevaeh Bravo, 10 Jackie Cazares, 10 Makenna Lee Elrod, 10 Jose Flores Jr., 10 Eliahna...
Jun 2, 2022, By Editorial Board
It’s almost quaint to remember, a decade ago, the standing complaint within the Republican Party that the Democrats were relying too much on “judicial activism” to enact policy. Complaints about so-called activist judges became part of the standard rhetoric, and it continues to this day:...
May 26, 2022, By Editorial Board
This week, May 15 to 21, is National Emergency Medical Services Week, and this year’s theme is “EMS: Rising to the Challenge.” It’s a moment to recognize the selfless contributions of so many men and women in our community, and to offer some well-earned thanks...
May 17, 2022, By Editorial Board
One of the biggest hang-ups homeowners have with the existing affordable accessory apartments law in Southampton Town is that only live-in homeowners can qualify for an accessory apartment. This disqualifies many homeowners — and explains why the program is so underused. As both Southampton and...
May 17, 2022, By Editorial Board
It won’t be on the ballot next week, as the various school districts on the South Fork seek approval for 2022-23 budgets and to fill school board seats. Nevertheless, those budgets all speak volumes about the issue. School consolidation. It’s time — long past time,...
May 11, 2022, By Editorial Board
Newspaper conventions are not for readers, by design, but they can do wonders for news organizations. Over the weekend, the New York Press Association, the nation’s largest such organization, representing more than 800 newspapers published in the state, held its annual gathering in person for...
May 4, 2022, By Editorial Board
There is a map included in the draft version of East Hampton Town’s recently unveiled Coastal Assessment and Resiliency Plan that should be placed on a banner and towed behind a plane flying over the South Fork’s beaches this summer — it’s that important. It...
May 4, 2022, By Editorial Board
A search of the archives of The Southampton Press doesn’t turn up many results for Rose Walton, a former Remsenburg resident and an LGBTQ pioneer who died earlier this month at her home in Sunset Beach, Florida, with her wife, Marjorie Sherwin, and niece Robin...
Apr 28, 2022, By Editorial Board
An obstacle facing officials in the five East End towns as they begin a campaign to encourage support for a new Community Housing Fund, which would use a transfer tax to pay for affordable housing measures, is the perception that towns will try to simply...
Apr 27, 2022, By Editorial Board
As Southampton and East Hampton towns, and Sag Harbor Village, embark on efforts to finally address the growing affordable housing crisis, it’s important to take note of the story of Steve Thorsen, told at a recent Express Sessions discussion of the topic in East Hampton,...
Apr 19, 2022, By Editorial Board
There are times when success can be harder to observe than failure. Think of your car. When something is wrong, alarm bells go off, sometimes literally, and there is plenty of drama to let you know there’s a problem, whether it’s billows of smoke or...
Apr 19, 2022, By Editorial Board
A pilot program being run by Suffolk County Transit that provides on-demand bus service shows a promising future for the county bus system on the East End. It’s an innovative approach to meet the needs of area residents by recognizing that the eastern half of...
Apr 13, 2022, By Editorial Board
Two years ago, the world came to a literal and screeching halt with the arrival of COVID-19. In spring 2020, businesses and organizations both large and small shut down as people around the world rethought their strategies, adjusting to remote and online methods of working....
Apr 13, 2022, By Editorial Board
Climate change is devastating, and its worst impacts are looming, as this newspaper’s “Rising Tide” series of articles in the Residence section is dutifully documenting. But it’s not the only crisis on the horizon: There’s another, and, similarly, we’re creating it ourselves. Over the decades,...
Apr 12, 2022, By Editorial Board
Last month, plans were unveiled for much needed improvements at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor. Designed by landscape architect Ed Hollander and drafted by the school district’s architectural firm, H2M, the plans recently were unveiled at a meeting of the Sag Harbor School Board after...
Apr 12, 2022, By Editorial Board
From the start, the debate over the future of East Hampton Airport is full of doomsday scenarios and calls for extreme measures from both sides. Yet the correct path for the East Hampton Town Board was always the middle of the road — certainly not...
Mar 22, 2022, By Editorial Board
Springs School officials announced last week that the district will offer a full-day prekindergarten program for students, thanks in part to a state grant for $420,000. This will accommodate a class of over 40 children in its early childhood education program, which will be run...
Feb 8, 2022, By Editorial Board
People sometimes obsess about “legacies” when they near the end of a long career, usually fruitlessly, because a person’s legacy is actually written every day, over years, in how well they did their job. Still, take a moment to appreciate the victory that East Hampton...
Feb 1, 2022, By Editorial Board
Last week’s vote by the East Hampton Town Board, approving a plan to temporarily close East Hampton Airport at the end of February, then open it three days later as a town-owned private facility, offers the rarest of things in municipal government: a chance to...
Jan 25, 2022, By Editorial Board
On Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board announced that it would formally add the Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust property on Route 114, adjacent to 8.5 acres of land the town has already earmarked for affordable housing, to a proposed zoning overlay district allowing for...
Jan 19, 2022, By Editorial Board
A dunce cap to the East Hampton Town Board, for dumping $4.2 million of Community Preservation Fund revenues into a dubious purchase. Just three building lots, totaling less than 2 acres, will be preserved — at an ultimate cost of $6.8 million, with Buckskill neighbors...
Dec 1, 2021, By Editorial Board
One in five Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trauma and stress can cause fleeting mental health issues — or an ongoing disorder. The best thing to do to prevent a manageable...
Nov 10, 2021, By Editorial Board
We Mark Our Ballot East Hampton Town residents will weigh in this week on who should lead the town through momentous change and continued challenges. The supervisor’s seat is up at the same time as two council seats. This comes as the town continues to...
Oct 29, 2021, By Editorial Board
The year was 1920. World War I had ended, Prohibition had started (no doubt with bootleggers hard at work in these parts), the country was struggling to control a deadly flu pandemic — and on September 25, 1920, East Hampton Village was incorporated. Given that...
Sep 28, 2021, By Editorial Board
Starting this week, East Hampton Town officials will begin one of the most important conversations in the town’s recent history: the future of East Hampton Airport. It’s an opportunity — in fact, the opportunity — for all sides to be heard, and just as importantly...
Sep 9, 2021, By Editorial Board
There’s a line between “getting things done” and needless haste, and it sometimes can be very difficult to identify, and usually only much, much later. East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen should keep that in mind and understand that calls for caution and careful contemplation...
Aug 31, 2021, By Editorial Board
Nobody disagrees that a new tower to improve cellular service, and emergency radio communications, in Springs and parts of Northwest Woods is not just a necessity, it’s long overdue. With that in mind, East Hampton Town officials have the right idea with a plan for...
Jul 20, 2021, By Editorial Board
Every summer, the villages and hamlets of the East End become inundated as our main streets transform into hotbeds of high-end activity: fancy cars, expensive dining options and premium shopping experiences. As a result, those of us who live and work here on a year-round...
Jul 7, 2021, By Editorial Board
It is a controversial strategy that deserves vigorous debate, beach nourishment, but the East Hampton Town Board deserves credit for opting to dump 4,000 tons of sand at Ditch Plains this week, hoping to make it more accommodating for the heart of the summer season,...
Jun 22, 2021, By Editorial Board
A Joyful Noise Let’s be honest: The pandemic has been hard on everyone, but for the young people in our midst, maneuvering through the past year of isolation has been, in many respects, downright brutal. No high school sports, no proms and graduations to look...
Jun 15, 2021, By Editorial Board
If the recent fight over access to Truck Beach seems somehow a legal battle uniquely of this place and time, consider a case exactly 200 years old, and more than 3,000 miles away. Blundell v. Catterall, to be specific, in which Mr. Catterall was sued,...
Jun 15, 2021, By Editorial Board
When a village used to very few changes gets a new administration with energy, friction is inevitable. That’s the nature of inertia: After years of remaining at rest, and getting used to it, East Hampton Village is now solidly in motion. That can be a...
Jun 1, 2021, By Editorial Board
Springs School has long been the heart of an East Hampton hamlet where families and residents rally around the school district. Springs is a community that has maintained a year-round population, with grandparents and parents in the district who once were students on School Street...
May 18, 2021, By Editorial Board
Dunce cap — To the Sag Harbor Village Board for over the past two administrations failing to seize the opportunity to aggressively pursue a long-term lease from National Grid to continue to use what is commonly referred to as the Gas Ball property as a...
Apr 13, 2021, By Editorial Board
King Solomon makes a cameo as East Hampton Town, and so many residents in the region, debate the future of East Hampton Airport. His legendary skills at settling a seemingly intractable dispute would come in handy as the Town Board considers, this fall, a new...
Apr 1, 2021, By Editorial Board
Sometimes it’s easier to tell a huge story with a small one. Scott Bluedorn is just another 34-year-old lifelong resident of East Hampton who is, quite possibly, going to lose the game of musical chairs so many working families are facing on the South Fork....
Mar 23, 2021, By Editorial Board
The Republican Party in East Hampton Town, generally, is in trouble. Its issues echo in the national party’s obsession with harebrained conspiracy theories and overtly divisive rhetoric, a populism that has new life after it helped win the White House in 2016 for a lone,...
Mar 16, 2021, By Editorial Board
Periodically, we hand out “Gold Stars and Dunce Caps” in this space. This time of year, it seems more appropriate to make them “Candy Canes and Lumps of Coal”: CANDY CANE: To Heart of the Hamptons, the Southampton Village-based charity, for diving ahead with the...
Dec 10, 2020, By Editorial Board
Aristotle once said politics and teaching were “noble professions.” That might still be true for teachers, but he wouldn’t recognize the most basic political campaign these days, and he’d struggle to find nobility in it. That’s true at the national level, but it’s sadly trickling...
Sep 22, 2020, By Editorial Board
It must be noted: In both Southampton and East Hampton villages this year, the voters (and local newspapers) have a wealth of candidates to choose from — and the quality of those candidates is truly exceptional. Rare is the local election when it can be...
Sep 10, 2020, By Editorial Board
Confirmation, if it was necessary, came last week at a Virtual Sessions event sponsored by the Express News Group: The South Fork is in the midst of a transformation. It might have been coming regardless, but the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the natural pace of...
Aug 11, 2020, By Editorial Board
There is no sugar-coating it: The Class of 2020 got ripped off. There was no prom, no senior skip day, none of the anticipation and celebration of a traditional graduation ceremony. But something splendid happened. In every school district, teachers, administrators and support staff came...
Jun 30, 2020, By Editorial Board
The fluid nature of the state’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic and, in particular, to school districts being allowed to host graduation ceremonies for departing seniors has left many district officials reeling this week, as they try to determine whether they can change course quickly...
Jun 9, 2020, By Editorial Board
This week, the Express News Group will take a step long discussed but never implemented until now: Anonymous commenting — in fact, commenting of all types — is being eliminated from 27east.com. A small portion of our readership will scream, “Censorship!” (people really do need...
Jun 9, 2020, By Editorial Board
Last week’s Zoom-driven Press Sessions conversation, which focused on the changing nature of small-town business districts in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, offered a great deal of insight, from both business owners and local officials. But perhaps the most important note came toward the...
May 26, 2020, By Editorial Board
Residents across New York State will vote on school budgets and in school board elections over the next two weeks, with mail-in ballots due in district clerk offices by June 9. While we have generally advocated for strong support of public education — which involves...
May 26, 2020, By Editorial Board
Memorial Day weekend is a line of demarcation for the South Fork, a moment to stop and take stock before diving headfirst into the summer. Needless to say, this is a holiday weekend like no other, and we wanted to take a moment to share...
May 21, 2020, By Editorial Board
We need to get back to work. It’s a phrase that’s been on everyone’s lips lately. With each passing day, and each lost dollar, people’s resolve is tested. When will this long, lonely nightmare be over? When will things get back to normal? When will...
May 12, 2020, By Editorial Board
The voyage down from the peak of the novel coronavirus pandemic’s impact locally is not an end in itself. Even with the height of optimism, we have months to worry about a flare-up should social distancing and other aggressive measure be relaxed too swiftly. Impatience...
May 2, 2020, By Editorial Board
The narrative from the city tabloids and some national, and even international, publications has been clear: The Hamptons is ablaze with class warfare, and COVID-19 has fanned the flames. Without question, there have been a few instances, and some grousing. Most of it was based...
Apr 30, 2020, By Editorial Board
For our own safety, and as an essential strategy in defeating the COVID-19 outbreak, the American economy has been locked down tight. After so many weeks of self-quarantine and social distancing, unemployment checks and shuttered businesses, the grumbling has begun. Just how long are we...
Apr 23, 2020, By Editorial Board
This week, the Express News Group features a guest editorial by Judy Patrick, vice president for editorial development for the New York Press Association, which includes more than 800 community newspapers and news sources in New York State. From afar, the COVID-19 pandemic is generating...
Apr 16, 2020, By Editorial Board
By now, you’ve heard your fill about social distancing, symptoms to watch out for, using videoconferencing to stay in touch with friends and family, how to keep your kids busy, the best cleaning products to use, 20 seconds of hand washing … Here’s a message...
Apr 1, 2020, By Editorial Board
Who would have thought the whole world could turn upside down in just a few weeks? The rate of change has been staggering, leaving people on the East End, on Long Island, across the country and around the world staggering to keep up with a...
Mar 24, 2020, By Editorial Board
The use of the definite article in at least one local context ground to a halt late last month when East Hampton Town highway workers removed two “Welcome to the Springs” signs on Springs-Fireplace Road that had greeted drivers for almost three decades. After a...
Mar 3, 2020, By Editorial Board
Success Story As Black History Month comes to a close, February delivered a devastating blow with the death of B. Smith, whose pioneering role as an African American entrepreneur cannot be overstated. Barbara Elaine Smith’s business empire came from modest roots, fed by a passion...
Feb 25, 2020, By Editorial Board
“Parasite” runs two hours and 12 minutes. If you wanted to see the Oscar-winning film, if a matinée happened to be playing at the East Hampton Cinema this weekend, and if you happened to secure a parking spot in the Reutershan lot, you’d still be...
Feb 11, 2020, By Editorial Board
Last week’s Press Sessions discussion focusing on the East Hampton Airport and its future was a start of a conversation that needs to dig much, much deeper. The fact that the debate wasn’t altogether acrimonious was a good start. The fact that it was a...
Feb 4, 2020, By Editorial Board
Let’s start with a basic point: Medicine is a science. Certainly, there are disagreements within the medical community over its practice from time to time. But it’s generally a good rule of thumb to give credence to doctors and medical researchers when it comes to...
Jan 21, 2020, By Editorial Board
“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” was the message of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961, less than three years before his assassination in November 1963. And, although they are probably much...
Jan 21, 2020, By Editorial Board
When it comes to child care and providing safe — and, ideally, enriching — activities for their children, working parents on the East End often hit a wall. School districts are far more generous with vacation time than most private employers, which leaves many parents...
Jan 21, 2020, By Editorial Board
This Friday, January 17, the East Hampton Village Board will appoint a mayor to serve until a regularly scheduled election can be held in June — the previous mayor, Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., having decided to step down at the end of last year, before...
Jan 9, 2020, By Editorial Board
Back in October, President Donald Trump retweeted a quote from Robert Jeffress Jr., an American Southern Baptist pastor and a frequent contributor to Fox News Channel, from one of his regular appearances there: “If the Democrats are successful in removing the president from office, I’m...
Dec 19, 2019, By Editorial Board
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to consider marine animal strandings, like that of a minke whale at Northwest Creek on November 21, as a form of communication. After all, whales and dolphins speak to one another in their own respective languages, and...
Dec 2, 2019, By Editorial Board
Once upon a time, shopkeepers in East Hampton Village all knew your name and your shirt size, the way you liked your hair cut, and who your family members were — and asked after them. The stores were open year-round, and most wares and services...
Nov 22, 2019, By Editorial Board
It’s just a little too easy to pile on to local government for what many consider to be over-regulation. What better sport than to poke fun at official sourpusses who get their kicks from throwing a wet blanket over live music and outdoor store displays?...
Nov 18, 2019, By Editorial Board
This has been an odd and, sadly, uneven race for East Hampton Town supervisor and the two council seats now held by Peter Van Scoyoc, Sylvia Overby and David Lys, three Democrats on an entirely Democratic Town Board. For several reasons, there will be not...
Oct 25, 2019, By Editorial Board
Old FriendsIt’s a shame when noble, established trees come crashing down in storms like the recent nor’easters. In East Hampton Village, a small handful of trees recently blew over or were damaged to the point of being structurally unsound, and they had to be cut...
Oct 22, 2019, By Editorial Board
Rally For IndependentsAs if we needed another reason to take the profit motive out of health care: Allow us to introduce pharmacy benefits managers.As noted in a story last week, PBMs, as they are called, actually were introduced decades ago as a way to negotiate...
Oct 21, 2019, By Editorial Board
Festive Times You wouldn’t know the season was supposed to be over in Montauk last weekend, when thousands of visitors and locals swarmed the green to check out pumpkin painting and bounce castles, bratwurst and mugs of chowder, live music and local brews, plus a...
Oct 14, 2019, By Editorial Board
Sail On, Sail On, SailorAt a certain level you really have to hand it to him. Here’s a 21-year-old pining for a new life. So, naturally, he travels 2,500 miles to Montauk, hops on a sailboat he purchased one day earlier on eBay, and rounds...
Oct 7, 2019, By Editorial Board
In The Same RoomClimate change was on just about everyone’s radar last week, especially with the news that the oceans are warming so much, and so quickly, that seafood supplies are threatened, extreme weather patterns are intensifying, and coastal communities are in serious danger.Not surprisingly,...
Sep 30, 2019, By Editorial Board
As Greta Thunberg and David Hogg would testify, the degree of adult hostility leveled at teenagers who care about the world they inhabit can sometimes be astonishing. Even while adopting a condescending “Don’t worry your pretty little head” attitude, a very significant number of powerful...
Sep 23, 2019, By Editorial Board
Pull The PlugThey’ve had their shining moment since Memorial Day. Now it’s time to shut them down.Those statuesque yellow signs lining Montauk’s Main Street — the 10-foot ones depicting a downward-pointing arrow, and a stick figure perambulating purposefully — were intended to serve a purpose...
Sep 13, 2019, By Editorial Board
And some have insisted that the Gann Road shellfish hatchery project will be vetted by the Planning Board, and Planning Department, in that their review and comments will be solicited by the town. That’s not the same thing, though, as filing a formal application, and...
Aug 26, 2019, By Editorial Board
A tip of the sun bonnet to East Hampton Village, the Chamber of Commerce and the organizers of the Artists vs. Writers Game for injecting so much life into Herrick Park on Saturday.The chamber has pronounced its first Summer Festival, which was held at the...
Aug 19, 2019, By Editorial Board
Rose, orange, blue, gray, black, red and purple. Cumulus, uncinus, cirrus, mares’ tails. Swirls, curls, puffs and wisps.Every fair evening in Montauk in summer, sunset-watchers line up along the now-wide beach next to the west jetty at Montauk Harbor. Their silhouettes might vary in height...
Aug 12, 2019, By Editorial Board
A school bus was parked in front of Kirk Park last Thursday morning at about 7 as parents dropped off children bound for a field trip to Citi Field. As is usual on a pleasant day in Montauk, there would have been walkers circling Fort...
Jun 10, 2019, By Editorial Board
This is the time of year when retail stores and restaurants throw open the doors of “Hamptons outposts”—seasonal replications of what’s already on tap in New York City—on the South Fork. They join the tiny handful that are already here, year-round.These merchants and restaurateurs—or, more...
May 31, 2019, By Editorial Board
East Hampton Town East Hampton Town residents will weigh in this week on who should lead the town through momentous change and continued challenges. The supervisor’s seat is up at the same time as two council seats. This comes as the town continues to debate...
Apr 23, 2013, By Editorial Board
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