No Thanks. We’ll Bring Our Own

One of the reasons many people go to East Hampton Village’s ocean beaches is precisely because they are not — underscore not — like those maintained by the Town of East Hampton, where a degree of slovenliness and barely maintained, cement-bunker-like facilities are unfortunately the norm. Now, village officials have been looking at allowing food vendors at Georgica and Two Mile Hollow. This is a terrible idea and should go no further.

For the most part, the village runs a really tight ship where the ocean beaches are concerned and recently pledged additional early morning trash pickups to make sure the sand and surrounding parking areas are spick-and-span at whatever time of day beachgoers arrive. The village was a leader in banning fires built right on the sand, requiring that they be contained in metal wash basins or the like, and the result has been a return to pristine conditions, where, until the ban, black flecks of charcoal had marred the white sand.

People pay for the privilege of spreading their towels and opening their beach chairs on the village’s white sands; $375 nonresident parking permits sell out in the blink of an eye when they become available each spring. Food vending, with all the paper waste and sticky drizzle it can produce, threatens the beaches’ desirability. Consider, too, that for parents of small children, food-free beaches can be a blessing: no whining about buying ice cream or other treats usually reserved for after dinner. For the hungry, there is always Main Beach, which has the charming, old-fashioned Chowder Bowl for all the fried food and sweets one might want.

One of the reasons cited at a recent village board meeting for allowing food vending at Two Mile Hollow in particular is that the parking lot there is often less than full. If getting more people to use this particular beach is the goal, there are other options, ones that would not increase litter and trash. One notion might be selling some nonresident permits valid only at Two Mile Hollow. Another might be granting taxpayers from the fire protection districts that contract with the village for emergency services a limited number of free parking passes on a lottery basis. Or the village could leave well enough alone — which is probably the best course, at least for now.