Election 2013: Quality of Life
Consider if you will what East Hamptoners are saying about the state of things circa 2103. Looking over this week’s crop of letters to the editor and reading accounts of recent Democratic Party “listen-ins,” we are struck by an overarching theme: The town seems out of control and no one in authority appears to be doing anything about it.
Since about the beginning of the year, The Star has had a series of editorials noting some of the topics candidates for town office in November should be talking about. These have included planning for sea-level rise, repairing ineffective town departments, restoring even-handed rules of law, and leveling with voters about chronic budget underfunding. To that list, we now add quality of life.
The subjects may be familiar, but that does not mean that the concerns of ordinary people — or even party activists — can be dismissed. According to an apparent majority of those speaking out, there is plenty worth complaining about. Take, for example, noise in general, noisy leaf blowers, illegally overcrowded houses, the expansion of nighttime watering holes, traffic, the airport, Montauk’s going to hell in a handbasket, and even the cost of doughnuts. With a few of next week’s letters to the editor already in hand, we can safely say the theme continues.
Larry Cantwell, the presumptive next town supervisor, and the other members of the next board will have their work cut out for them after years of neglect. If they need a to-do list, our letters pages could suffice. The sooner the candidates start really talking about how to set things to right, what it will cost, and how to restore law and order and peace and quiet, the easier the task will be