Letters

The stop lights that were set up at Halsey Neck Lane and Hill Street this Monday made Hill Street look different. They made Hill Street not look like Hill Street.

A detour: In the early 1700s, Hill Street was called the Queen’s Highway (Queen Anne); in the mid-1700s, the King’s Highway (the King Georges). But after the success of the rebellion of the colonies against monarchical rule, there was no more “highway” association with Hill Street — it was called the Road to Shinnecock, and, after that, the Hill Street (a reference to the first hill, where the movie theater is, and the second hill, between Moses Lane and Halsey Street, and the third hill, the hill to Shinnecock Territory).

Both sides of Hill Street were lined with farmhouses, and beyond those farmhouses were fields and farmland, owned on each side of Hill Street by brothers, sons, uncles of the same family, all the descendants of the original settlers of Southampton Village.

That is, there was no distinction between those who lived on the north side of Hill Street and on south side, because Hill Street looked like the streets south of it, and Hill Street looked like the streets north of it.

To speak practically: if the streets north and south of Hill Street have stop signs, put stop signs on Hill Street. If the streets north and south of Hill Street have a given speed limit, Hill Street should be given the same speed limit.

Hill Street should look like every other street in Southampton Village so as to not cut our village in half.

And if this talk about Hill Street does not address the traffic issues of the roads off Hill Street (Moses Lane, Lee Avenue, Halsey Neck Lane, Captain’s Neck Lane, First Neck Lane, Bishops Lane, etc.), lower the speed limit throughout the village to 20 mph, and if that speed limit is hard to enforce, put in speed bumps consistently throughout the village.

Because, the fact is, Southampton Village is now very peacefully and joyfully, and in a village-like way, filled with people who want to walk, bike, run, push baby carriages, etc. — and there is no reason that anyone in Southampton Village needs to get anywhere else the village in such a rush (landscape trucks, the SUVs of billionaires, me on my way to do errands, weekenders heading to our beaches — you name us) that a 20 mph speed limit would be an impediment to the achievement of our goals.

Hill Street should look like and drive like other village street. No stop lights. Period.

And let County Road 39 look like County Road 39 and the properties on either side of it.

Ann Pyne

Southampton