Letters

I’m writing this letter to, once again, bring attention to the parking issue in Sag Harbor Village.

Two years ago I had a meeting and conversation with the mayor regarding this ongoing issue, and her takeaway reply to me was, “We do not have a parking issue except for 60 days out of the year.” This is simply not true.

In light of the proposed new and beautiful project of Bay Street Theater, other recently purchased properties and also the proposed expansions to the village green spaces, it doesn’t take a smartphone to do the math; there is simply not enough parking in the village. Between Sag Harbor Cinema, Bay Street Theater, restaurants, farmers market functions, waterfront visitors, retail stores and all of the village apartments, this issue needs to be addressed and reconsidered again. We need to put into place a serious and comprehensive parking plan that can address the existing and rapidly growing demands of our (not so) little town.

I have attended too many village business meetings where too many ineffective suggestions have been tossed around, such as implementing 15-minute metered parking, where you can try to run into a store to get what you need and get back to your car in the proposed time. Then, of course, there’s the idea of having a shuttle bus to usher people in and out of town, which works wonderfully in places like the Florida Keys. But are these really solutions to the issue at hand? After having and running a store on Main Street for over 40 years, it has become harder and harder to ignore the constant complaints from my customers regarding their inability to find parking, while also knowing that my fellow workers have to park all the way on Rysam Street and beyond just in order to go to their jobs every day. It has become ridiculous.

At some point, we were informed that the Gas Ball parking lot was secured for use by the village. This seems to have fallen to the wayside and is no longer in the works? That was yet another disappointment in our long road to finding a solution to this growing problem.

This weekend I started a petition. Every single person I approached signed the letter and expressed their growing concerns and frustrations with the village’s lackluster response to our perpetual parking issues.

Addressing these issues in a “public forum” does not mean simply hosting Zoom meetings during a pandemic. This is not accessible nor optimal for many of our concerned citizens. As the weather turns nicer, a public forum with public input means hosting a meeting where everyone can attend and have their voices heard.

D. Moorhead

Owner
32 Main Street

Sag Harbor