Editorials

If you have been in a car almost anywhere in East Hampton during the past several weeks — and especially if you have been out and about on a bicycle — you will have noticed the abundance of signs that have blossomed on the roadside.

Primaries are good for local democracy in that they get voters thinking about government well before the general election.

We are represented abroad by a president who regularly engages in schoolyard taunts of the sort that would earn a third grader a trip to the principal’s office.

The first of two electronic billboards along Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays was made operational in time for Memorial Day weekend. Green-lighted by the Shinnecock Indian Nation, they were described in the tribal trustees’ news blitz as a source of much-needed economic development. They may turn out to be more of a miscalculation than an asset.

At least eight million tons of plastic end up in the marine environment each year, according to researchers. No part of the ocean is immune; contamination reaches even the deepest submarine trenches. 

Wind power is coming, and the waters south and east of Long Island are slated to be the site of more electricity-generating offshore turbines as time moves on. Climate change and energy independence are the big drivers of the move to renewable power. Particulate pollution and the almost unimaginable horror of a potential nuclear plant accident make the East Coast a leading candidate for investment in the new efficient technology. 

Above all else, the East End grumbles about traffic on Memorial Day weekend. Routine errands are run in haste during the previous workweek or put off until Tuesday. If one does venture out, it’s as if on a polar expedition, with circling to find a spot like parking-lot polka. The traffic control officers do their best to keep things moving. Fender-benders abound. Tempers rise. “Who are these people?” we ask. “Where can they be going?” These questions may never be answered.

More seriously, motor vehicles remain one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases.

The senseless destruction of the Maidstone Park ball field last week caused outrage and disbelief. But it also should serve as a reminder of how important organized youth baseball and softball are in this community, and the admirable commitment of the adult coaches who make it all possible.

Alarmingly, the White House appears intent on creating conditions for armed conflict in the Mideast by escalating a confrontation with Iran.

In the annals of jaw-dropping East Hampton political miscalculation, the bugging of the town trustees office is a new low.

Why should some residents hate summer here? We think this is a shame, and that it is the responsibility of the East Hampton Town Board and political challengers to consider a recalibration.

Albany could make New York’s roads safer with one simple measure: reinstating rules that allowed people who are not in the United States legally to apply for driver’s licenses.