Editorials

The brawl over the black paint job at Rowdy Hall reminded us this week how aesthetic taste isn't just totally subjective, but shifts with the passing of years.

For many of us, the holidays can be a time of shortened tempers, sadness, or feeling like not getting out of bed. But there are ways to brighten up the days, if only a little.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s veto of a bill that would have jump-started an overdue effort to right a wrong done to the Montaukett people was disappointing and part of a long string of similar rejections coming from successive New York governors.

The mission of any chamber of commerce is to promote and strengthen local business, but how can the chamber here do that at a time when locally owned businesses are fewer and farther between?

With lots of Thanksgiving cooking about to take over kitchens, it is a good time to take another look at gas stoves, for health reasons and for the environment.

It is time to ask whether the daily responsibilities of town board members may serve to maintain the status quo and prevent adequate forward thinking.

Builders seem driven by an investment mind-set, one that dismisses any sense of continuity and community scale in favor of more bedrooms, more square footage, and more amenities. Now a cross-section of East Hampton residents is demanding new limits.

We are always pleased to see women in greater roles in government, and Tuesday night’s results on the East End bode well for where the country may be headed.

Ann Welker for County Legislature has been a strong advocate for the environment. For county executive, Ed Romaine should be a steady hand.

David Filer can help guide Town Justice Court over the next four years as the community continues to change. For town trustee, two new faces in particular, Celia Josephson and Patrice Dalton, deserve election.

Kathee Burke-Gonzalez will probably cruise into the supervisor’s office, David Lys will most likely hold onto his spot on the town board, and Tom Flight is the standout among the other candidates. But to provide constructive dissent, the G.O.P. must step up its game.

Amid a fuss about whether or not a certain restaurant should be allowed to paint its facade the way it wants, one key idea may be overshadowed: the essential role the members of a community’s appointed boards play in maintaining a sense of place at a time of great development pressure.

Though county government can seem at a distance from the needs of the South Fork, we depend on it for a range of services, from environmental protection to keeping harbor inlets navigable.

Israel is in an impossible position following the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7.

When reviewing requests to bend the rules, the zoning board of appeals and planning board are at a crossroads pitting verbal assurances against long-term effects.

Members of the East Hampton Town Board have been doing the right thing by holding discussions about the design of a new senior citizens center. It is important that they are as public as can be about what the center will offer.

East Hampton can begin to see what the C.P.F. water quality money can go to, and that it could very well make a difference.

There is a sense that a new initiative to reset the scale of building in East Hampton Town is on the right track.

Amid celebratory statements in East Hampton Town Hall about a plan to put sand on the downtown Montauk beach, a stark reality remained: Nothing other than talk has been done to actually address coastal retreat.

All is not right. Dredging for bay scallops has mostly become not worth it, oyster populations can’t sustain themselves without human help, and skimmer clams have all but disappeared.

Supporters of a controversial plan to clear brush on town-owned land along Old Montauk Highway in Montauk have cited the plight of the monarch butterfly as among the plan's justifications.

East Hampton Town’s regulatory apparatus is not able to keep up with the staggering pace of development.

The Villages of Sag Harbor and North Haven suffer from terrible traffic, much of it originating near Long Wharf. Adding a hundred or more people stepping off a cruise ship would make the chaos unsustainable.

The East Hampton Library deserves a vote of confidence on Saturday.

Considering what the English colonists who founded East Hampton in the mid-1600s did to the land’s original inhabitants, it is a remarkable act of grace that the Montaukett Chief Robert Pharaoh agreed to be the grand marshal for the town’s 375th anniversary parade on Sept. 23.

While seasonal flu, as opposed to Covid-19, has yet to make a strong showing this year, now is a good time to make a plan to get the vaccine. The updated and highly advised Covid-19 shot is available, too.

It looks as if the goats will be coming to Montauk. This is despite concerns from neighbors of the semipublic Benson Reserve, among others, about a 10-year land-clearing plan that the East Hampton Town Board appears to support.

For art historians and preservation-minded residents and friends looking to save at least a portion of the James Brooks and Charlotte Park house and studios in Springs, there is a ray of hope.

The volume of traffic on the East End is a constant topic of conversation, especially if anything can be done to tame our roadways. For starters, we believe the immediate goal is not making the situation worse.

A new monument honoring the freedom-seekers who landed in search of water in Montauk in 1839 is important in recognizing Long Island’s role in a critical moment in American history.