Editorials

So-called spot zoning is illegal in New York State, which made a recent East Hampton Town Planning Board decision to recommend just that a head-scratcher.

The death of Devesh Samtani, an 18-year-old summer visitor who had been struck by a car while walking on the side of the road in Amagansett at night last month, was an avoidable tragedy.

Ranking states in terms of corruption is difficult, but if it were possible New York certainly could claim a top position.

This is one of those years when nature has looked with favor on the East End, providing us with a beach plum harvest for the ages.

The United States was never going to win in Afghanistan.

One warning sign is that the present town board is not to be trusted when it comes to recreational or environmentally significant areas.

In what could be the first of sweeping relaxation of zoning laws, the East Hampton Village Board last week made it easier for the owners of large properties to get more of what they apparently wanted.

Do we believe that East Hampton could handle another decade of similar growth?

Ongoing conversations about East Hampton Airport could muddle public opinion, leaving a path for the board to avoid having to make the tough decision at all.

Certainly Covid-19 vaccines are near-miraculous, but they are no magic force field for everyone.

Questioning the value of offshore wind based on maintenance issues with the first United States project is a stretch.

Governor Cuomo should have been ousted from the Executive Mansion a year ago.

If there was any doubt before that Andrew M. Cuomo should no longer be governor of New York, a scathing report this week from the state attorney general’s independent investigation into his pattern of serial sexual harassment of women should have erased it entirely.

Landscapers’ trucks are everywhere — and getting bigger.

Beach amenities services would appear to require a permit from the town or villages. However, with so many miles of shoreline and limited awareness among caterers and others, the rules are routinely ignored.

Cellphone service is not all that bad around here — in February.

A fire last week that destroyed a family’s Springs house was notable in two respects — its cause and the conditions in which firefighters responded.

Juneteenth, the new national holiday marking the end of slavery as an institution in the United States, came and went in East Hampton Town and Village with only slight notice.

As the arguments against dramatically changing or even closing East Hampton Airport are whittled away, a last resort is emerging, that there are too many wealthy people here for that to happen.

A third Covid-19 surge is now expected as a the stronger Delta variant reaches the unvaccinated portion of the United States population.

East Hampton Village residents may want to begin keeping an eye on Newtown Lane and Railroad Avenue, where a large-scale luxury townhouse complex could one day soon replace the brick building where Mary’s Marvelous is.

Retail sales of recreational marijuana, or pot or, as the growing industry prefers it, cannabis, are not quite there yet on the East End, but got closer last week with a split vote of the Riverhead Town Board.

Let’s say something positive about leaf blowers for a change, shall we?

There was a time not that long ago when closing the airport was not something mentioned in public; now it is among the options.

What has happened to Montauk is a shame.

It is an indication of Trumpism’s tragic grip on the Republican Party that Lee Zeldin could be considered the presumptive nominee in a bid for governor of the State of New York.

Contrary to assumption, East Hampton Airport is not nearly as economically important as it was said to be in the past.

East Hampton will never build its way out of its housing crisis.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s primary, East Hampton Town Democratic Committee-backed candidates benefited from a sizable campaign finance loophole.

Many here on the East End might not have known it at the time, but Tuesday’s late-day rain was a reminder that hurricane season is well upon us.