Letters

As a Sag Harbor native in my late 30s, I’ve seen the East End fully transform into the Hamptons — and it’s not a pretty picture.

A village resident, I’m constantly reminded of how I don’t make enough money to live here, and, frankly, I’m habitually not given much incentive to stay. I need the people (and that includes the people who are in positions of power, who have a say in how our village looks, behaves and is addressed, and the non-native people who visit here or bought second homes here because they wanted to “get away”) to start giving a s--- about keeping the people who are from here, here.

That means stop pandering to wealthy, private equity-backed real estate developers, who are able to easily dictate how things go here. It’s wrong, and it’s ultimately destroying all the things that I love about my hometown.

The East End is being changed into something it really isn’t meant to be. These roads aren’t meant to accommodate all these people. These homes aren’t meant to be knocked down to be replaced with giant ones that sit vacant for eight months out of the year, while people can barely afford to pay their $2,000-a-month rent for a studio apartment and are struggling, paycheck to paycheck.

People come here because it’s beautiful and it’s not like the other places from whence they came. If this trend of development and kowtowing to the wealthy (which, let’s face it, is a microcosm for what’s happening on a national and global level presently), we will lose our integrity as a village, as a hamlet, town, county, state and so on.

And then we’ll be just like every other place.

Remember: “You came here from there because you didn’t like it there, and now you want to change here to be like there? You are welcome here — only don’t try to make here like there. If you want to make here like there, you shouldn’t have left there in the first place.”

I urge all of you, natives and visitors alike, to remember to let your conscience be your guide. Do the right thing, instead of the “right now” thing.

Emily Toy

Sag Harbor