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, the newest green space in Sag Harbor Village. The park’s steady transformation, at the direction of landscape architect Ed Hollander, will be largely complete, and a new public space officially will become part of the fabric of Sag Harbor.
Mayor Jim Larocca noted last week, at an Express Sessions event in Sag Harbor focused on the village’s public spaces, that the village’s modern economy is based on “tourism, recreation and the arts” and added that each “argues for turning the village back toward the waterfront as a scenic attraction.” With Steinbeck Park, the focus this summer should rightfully be on the waterfront to a greater degree than ever.
How the park is used remains a matter to be resolved. Because Southampton Town’s Community Preservation Fund was used to purchase and preserve the land, the park’s usage has some limitations. Most are reasonable, but for a public park with so much utility, including a waterfront grass amphitheater, it could be counterproductive to limit uses that could help raise money for local charities and pay for some programming. Larocca said the matter is under discussion; it’s a small matter but one that needs a clear answer as the activities in the park ramp up.
Larocca will cut the ribbon on the park, but he will then turn over its management to a new mayor, since he is not running for reelection. It has long been Larocca’s vision to expand the park by acquiring two more properties, 2 Main Street and the Water Street Shops building, further “opening up the waterfront.”
It’s a compelling, tempting narrative, offset by two nagging issues that will not fall in line. First, the two properties have been acquired recently, and it appears that any asking price will be beyond what the CPF can pay — especially since they were bought at the height of the pandemic’s real estate boom — and perhaps, coming on the heels of the $11.2 million spent to preserve the John Steinbeck homestead nearby, more than the town might be willing to allocate to a single village.
Second, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that purchasing and preserving the two commercial sites would eliminate a dozen retail storefronts and four offices in a downtown that remains a viable shopping and entertainment destination. An expansion of Steinbeck Park would, in this case, harm functioning spaces that, though unlovely, are a healthy part of the business district.
It will be up to the next mayor, in consultation with the Village Board and after ongoing talks with Southampton Town, to decide whether to continue to pursue the CPF purchase of one or both commercial sites — and, beyond that, what to allow its current or new owners to do with the properties looking out on Steinbeck Park. As the ribbon is cut, and the park gets regular use, we may discover that the park, by uniting the downtown and the waterfront in a brand new way, is perfect exactly the way it is now.
