On Thursday, May 25 — just in time for Memorial Day weekend, and thus the start of “the season” — the ribbon will be cut on John Steinbeck Waterfront Park,... more
A glimpse back in time to the 19th century would reveal, in most of the East End’s hamlets and villages, small general stores, often containing a local post office, where people living in the neighborhood could purchase groceries and necessary supplies — and, later on, gasoline for a growing number of automobiles. Over the years, many of those general stores disappeared, making way for larger business districts and developments, especially as the South Fork grew into a flourishing tourist destination. Big-box stores eventually arrived, challenging even those downtown shopping destinations. But it was those general stores, mixed with a thriving ...
23 Apr 2025 by Editorial Board
And, in the same vein, Sag Harbor Village’s holiday weekend “Keep It Local” shopping event was a success, and it’s a model that should be repeated more frequently in the village — and in every other village and hamlet shopping district on the South Fork. It was the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce that undertook the very simple campaign to encourage people not just to walk the streets of Sag Harbor but to cross the threshold and actually spend some money. Because the village has no issue with foot traffic these days, but its merchants are struggling. That’s the theme ...
by Editorial Board
Democracy is under attack, and calling out the shifty, shady ways political parties are taking choice away from voters is essential. It’s very much an issue at the national level, for so many reasons. Not least of which, the House of Representatives — with the full support of Republicans, including 1st District U.S. Representative Nick LaLota — approved a measure last week called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act, which would make it much harder for any American to register to vote. Seeking to weed out ballots cast by noncitizens — something that happens so rarely ...
16 Apr 2025 by Editorial Board
Gladys Barnes, an early resident of the historically Black SANS communities — the Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest and Ninevah Beach subdivisions in Sag Harbor — made a monumental impact during her 96 years on Earth. When she died last month at her home in Ninevah, Sag Harbor mourned a towering figure in the local cultural and arts scene and one of the people who forged the bonds that make a community a vibrant, welcoming place. Barnes and others lost in recent years have left a legacy in Sag Harbor that is deeply appreciated by those who will continue to enjoy ...
by Editorial Board
If you poll most Americans of all political stripes, you’d find a general agreement that there’s likely waste and fraud in the massive amount of federal spending, and that identifying and eliminating it would be a worthwhile task. What’s happening, though, in the first 100 days of the second Donald Trump administration is drawing criticism, and it’s because the cuts are being made with a chainsaw — Elon Musk’s symbolism, not ours — instead of a scalpel. Surgery was needed, but the intervention appears far worse than the ailment the nation came in with. One piece of evidence to support ...
9 Apr 2025 by Editorial Board
A note of appreciation to Southampton Town’s highway superintendent, Charlie McArdle, for refusing to leave things alone. At this point, it’s become policy at Suffolk County that they don’t have a solution to the chronic traffic problems on the South Fork. Veteran Chief Engineer Bill Hillman, who has always been candid while paying attention to the South Fork’s needs in his county post, summed it up late last year upon his retirement, when he had no reason to be diplomatic: “You as the community need to tell us what you want us to do. … Simple, real simple. So the ...
by Editorial Board
Southampton Town officials, it must be said, are very much on point when it comes to affordable housing. It’s not just lip service: The town is doing its level best to begin to address the ongoing crisis that is making it harder for the town’s workforce to stay here, and more difficult for the town’s business community to fill positions. It became problematic a few years ago, but today it’s probably the biggest issue Town Hall faces. And it appears that all hands are on deck. The town’s voters also have done their part, approving a new Community Housing Fund ...
2 Apr 2025 by Editorial Board
Observed in mid-March, Sunshine Week is a vital annual reminder of the importance of open government and the public’s right to know — and the critical role of local media outlets like The Express News Group in helping to disseminate that information to the public. New York State joined the nationwide initiative this year, from March 16 to 22 — as it does every year — in an effort to emphasize transparency and accountability in all levels of government. The New York News Publishers Association continues to work toward those goals, focusing on them not only during Sunshine Week but ...
26 Mar 2025 by Editorial Board
For those who aren’t paying attention — and, honestly, that’s not an acceptable way to live right now — we have not yet hit 60 days of the Donald Trump presidency, and the obsession with deportation is already not just toeing a constitutional line, it’s leapt fully across, into deeply troubling territory. There is the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who was arrested by federal authorities and detained at a facility in Louisiana. He is a green card holder, which means he is a permanent resident of the United States, according to federal law. He is ...
19 Mar 2025 by Editorial Board
For decades, the water quality at Havens Beach, Sag Harbor Village’s lone bathing beach, has been questionable at best, with stormwater runoff from the 2-square-mile village, largely filtering through a drainage ditch leading directly into the bay. In such a beautiful village, it’s a decidedly less-than-idyllic spot. Stormwater runoff is often cited as one of the major sources of dangerous bacteria levels in our bays, and the impact of stormwater runoff at Havens Beach has been an issue that administrations in Sag Harbor Village have been discussing for well over 30 years, with no real resolution. Two weeks ago, Dr. ...
by Editorial Board
