As with so much happening in Sag Harbor these days, last week’s abrupt news — that the Water Street Shops property, once envisioned as a permanent new home, wrapped in... more
The two biggest obstacles to providing affordable housing on the South Fork are cost and public opposition. But there are some affordable housing opportunities that don’t require taxpayer money and meet only mild resistance. The Village of North Haven has identified one such opportunity and is poised to pick this low-hanging fruit. The Village Board is considering “family” accessory housing, a plan that would enable homeowners to build accessory dwelling units specifically for relatives and live-in nurses and home health aides. The units could be either attached to a main house or located in a garage, pool house or other ...
31 May 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 funds to purchase the development rights on farmland. The idea was to keep the land in the farmers’ hands, and the soil actively in production, but allow them to exchange some of the intrinsic value in developing the lots. That would offset rising tax bills for land that suddenly was soaring in value, and to ...
30 May 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 environmental and quality of life tolls — not only on the undeveloped acreage surrounding the old Grumman air plant, but in increased air and truck traffic throughout Long Island — should elicit concern among residents on both forks and a desire to pay close attention to the planning and approval process to ensure the least ...
29 May 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 — had no such protection until the moment Governor Kathy Hochul earned her star by adding her signature to the legislation. State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. gets a star, too, for doggedly pursuing a measure he has said is about “justice and healing,” particularly among Indigenous people. And big stars for the Shinnecock Graves Protection ...
24 May 2023 by Editorial Board
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 ...
16 May 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 the Suffolk County Legislature shouldn’t hesitate to add one-eighth of a cent to the county’s sales tax, with all of the proceeds earmarked for clean water projects. The legislature has to act first, and then it’s up to the county’s voters to endorse the idea in November. And both should act with haste. As noted ...
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. That success has been obscured by the debate over Proposition 2, which asks voters to approve the purchase of five lots on Marsden Street for $9.425 million — $6 million in a bond, with the remaining $3.425 million already available to use in a facilities capital reserve account. Traditionally, this kind of proposition would be ...
10 May 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 energy toward making meaningful and profound changes in the lives of our friends and neighbors. Founded in 2016, the South Fork Bakery has offered meaningful employment opportunities to those with special needs on the East End — the bakery’s cookies and bars are baked, packaged, marketed, and sold by over a dozen neurodiverse adults with ...
2 May 2023 by Staff Writer
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, insects and birds. Insecticides and fertilizers can wreak havoc on a yard’s local ecosystems, but, collectively, also become part of the stormwater runoff that ends up in our waterways, creating toxic algae blooms that jeopardize fish and wildlife — and can also be toxic to humans and their pets. But as the recent days began ...
by Editorial Board
There are salient arguments to be made both for and against the proposed Marsden Street land acquisition by the Sag Harbor School District. But that debate is turning quarrelsome — and nobody benefits. It has to stop. Focus on the facts. Numbers, especially, can be manipulated. In a news article this week, we parse the numbers carefully — it’s meant to provide a road map for the conversation moving forward to the May 16 vote on the proposed bond issue to purchase the land. Any defensible position will be rooted in the facts. It also has been disappointing to see ...
25 Apr 2023 by Editorial Board
