Letters to the Editor: 01.07.16

A Life Well Lived

Springs

January 4, 2016

To the Editor:

Our light is a little bit dimmer this week. Our friend and colleague Irving Hirschberg passed away over the Christmas holidays. Irving was an East End treasure. He was a kind and gentle man. He was a caring friend, and he was committed to his family, his fellow man, and his community. I always looked for his letters in The Star, because he wrote such good letters. He was always able to weave the local situation to the politics behind the issue and express his reasoned, well thought-out views in a non-confrontational way. 

I loved seeing him at local functions and in the library. He graced both the Amagansett and East Hampton libraries. He brought his daughters in, he brought his grandson in. He loved his libraries. He loved his car, he loved tennis, he loved his friends (and he had many), and he loved his life. With Irving, there was always a smile that accompanied his gentle aura. It radiated kindness.

Irving Hirschberg was quite a human being. His was a life well lived. 

Good night, sweet prince.

BETSY RUTH

In the Transit Zone

Montauk

December 22, 2015

To the Editor,

The Montauk Boatmen and Captains Association would like to thank Representative Rob Bishop, chairman, and Representative Lee Zeldin for allowing us to present our issues to the House Committee on Natural Resources.

We have a longstanding problem with the transit zone between Block Island and Montauk Point, and between Block Island and Point Judith, R.I. The unintentional consequences of this restriction is that New York State and the State of Rhode Island have lost over 60 percent of their historical bass fishing areas to the transit zone.

This anomaly exists only in this area because of the extended distance between Montauk Point and Block Island. The distance from Block Island to either Montauk Point or Point Judith is approximately 15 miles. We have been trying for many years to correct this problem with no success.

The impact of sportfishing on Long Island is very important to our economy, especially in Montauk. According to the 2001 survey sea grant by a branch of Cornell University, the economic impact of sportfishing is as follows:

1. At least $2 billion to our economy.

2. Over one million sportfishermen.

3. Ten thousand full or part-time jobs on Long Island.

The above are exclusive of the sale of boats and equipment for the industry.

To correct the unintended problem, we respectfully request:

1. Sportfishing for striped bass be allowed in the transit zone as soon as possible.

2. You support H.R.3070 to change the exclusive economic zone area to three miles south of Block Island and Point Judith.

The meeting’s format was very professional and respectful. Thank you for your consideration of our requests.

Respectfully,

CAPT. JOE McBRIDE

For Clean Water

Springs

December 31, 2015

To the Editor:

Preserving clean water should become a community concern as much as it is a global one. I got to be familiar with the energy which led to the ban of methoprene in Connecticut. It is pretty unbelievable that Suffolk County isn’t doing what Connecticut did and is going against East Hampton and Southampton. It directly harms crabs and lobsters and will go against the fishing industry. Let’s support our new town trustee, Tyler Armstrong, in his advocacy for clean water. 

GREG GROPPER

The Y: Many Positives

Amagansett

January 4, 2016

Dear David,

As a longtime member of the Y, I found last week’s editorial piece disturbing and unfair on a number of counts. With regard to your comments about “user groups,” I have found it impressive that the RECenter serves a cradle-to-grave membership offering swim instruction for babies, aquatic classes for arthritis sufferers, and everyone in between.

I have enjoyed and benefited from a number of fitness classes taught by enthusiastic and well-informed instructors.

Your comments about the cleanliness of the women’s locker room did not reflect the recent hiring of an energetic and thorough member of the maintenance staff who has provided a much-improved ambience in that locker room. Sofas were long ago replaced with small tables and chairs, cafe-style, encouraging members to socialize and enjoy a cup of coffee after working out.

In addition, many friendships have been made, and nurtured, at the Y. Speaking as a senior, these social relationships are to be treasured. The director, Glenn Vickers, has reached out to meet members and has listened to their input. 

Obviously there are many problems to be addressed in the building, which has seen traffic and utilization not anticipated when the facility was built. Change does not come easily and the costs are high, but the Y offers this community many positives which your negative editorial fails to take into account.

SUSAN CRANDALL

RECenter Is a Lemon

Amagansett

January 1, 2016

Dear David, 

The East Hampton Town Recreation Center is a lemon, the Edsel of all rec centers. The building must be rebuilt.

Years ago, at breakfast, a few well-intended people determined to better serve the kids of East Hampton and give them a safe, productive place to hang out and even swim. These people hired an architect, determined to inspire with his design but clueless as to practical mechanical placement. The cost exceeded budget; the founders mortgaged their homes!

The building never really worked. Teenagers were more than planned for and not particularly docile. The founders, in frustration, gave the building, and its maintenance, to the Town of East Hampton. 

Taxpayers now fork over $680,000 annually so that a Y.M.C.A. will operate it. It has evolved into a private gym with an overburdened swim program. To get the building back to zero will cost $750,000.

I say build a safe, practical, new building, with attached safe housing. I say hit up every vote-hungry legislator, and local taxpayers. I will petition my $1 billionaire friend, but she’s French-American and she accuses me of getting her drunk after a dinner party. She was pulled over for “doing le zigzag” but she will help.

East Hampton Town must have a safe public training, indoor pool, and a place off the street. For our children.

All good things, 

DIANA WALKER 

Problem of Glare

Springs

January 3, 2016

Dear David,

Plenty has been said about the inappropriate Peter Cook-designed building for the Home Goods store in Wainscott. However, when you see this huge building at night, it’s even worse than in the day, because it was designed to project glare from dozens of cone shaped drop-lens interior light fixtures into the roadway. This is not only obnoxious (and they are left on all night long!), but dangerous.

Glare projected from adjacent lighting into the roadway diverts drivers’ eyes (maybe on purpose for advertising?), and drivers are not looking forward to avoid objects (and pedestrians). These fixtures need to be either shielded or a portion of the picture windows covered to obscure the glare from the bare fixtures from the roadway.

Interior lighting left on all night long does not provide security. It’s much smarter to have motion sensor-activated lighting and cameras to identify trespassers.

This same problem of glare from outdoor lighting that blinds drivers was just installed in Amagansett:

1. On the Amagansett Firehouse there are new fixtures that project light off the property into the roadway and into the night sky. The firehouse would benefit by adhering to our community standards for night lighting. It’s safer, more community-minded, and would save Amagansett taxpayers an unnecessary expense for wasted energy.

2. On the new Long Island Rail Road box there is an unshielded wall pack fixture.

3. On the PSEG utility substation there are a number of wall pack fixtures which are left on all night long. Again, motion sensor-activated lighting is smarter and less wasteful. We pay more on our home and business bills when the utility wastes energy. 

The solution is to use shielded fixtures that only direct the light toward the ground, saving energy. It’s the law for East Hampton and for New York State facilities like schools, firehouses, and utilities. Good night lighting can be achieved by following East Hampton Town guidelines at the Planning Department and from the design review board in the village. And I can provide recommendations to anyone who asks for help.

SUSAN HARDER

Look to the West

East Hampton

January 1, 2016

Dear David, 

I sit here New Year’s Day and my thoughts turn toward the demise of the East End as we know it. One counter-measure was the town board’s passing of the rental registry law. I don’t know if it will slow down the flood, but it will certainly help code enforcement deal with the carpetbaggers and bullies who extort residential rentals. I still can’t figure why people would be against the new law. My only thought is that they have something to hide, like overcrowding or running a motel in a residential neighborhood. 

I am for the law. I had several high-turnover rentals in my own neighborhood that resulted in three to five phone calls per weekend to the police or code enforcement. These landlords with something to hide probably never lived next door to a party rental and had to deal with the noise, parking, and garbage. Hurrah for the town board.

To see the future, all one has to do is look to the west. You see, our problems don’t come from the east, north, or south, they come from the west. Take a close look at Southampton Town. Whatever problems they are having will soon be on our doorstep. Southampton started their rental registry many years ago to attempt to combat the same problems we have here. Take a close look at the building and condo craze brought on by Throne-Holst and her cronies. Is this what we want East Hampton to look like? County Road 39? Our biggest buildings along Montauk Highway are dwarfed by Southampton’s. Is this our future? You bet it is.

Your article on “Shuttered Shops” should be of no surprise. Hal Zwick is 100-percent correct when he said that we’ve done it to ourselves. By accommodating the rich and famous along with the corporate giants from the west, we have pushed out the very fabric of our community: the local shop owner. The only shops I go to on a regular basis are Village Hardware and the I.G.A. I’m not in the market for a $300 sweater or a $500 blazer. 

Most of your readers won’t know this, but there was a time in good old East Hampton when there were six new-car dealerships, three appliance stores (TVs, dishwashers, stoves, etc.), five clothing stores (for the working slob), and three luncheonettes (operated by three brothers). They’re all gone now. Keep your eyes to the west. 

Yours to command, 

JEFFREY PLITT 

No and No and Add No

Springs

December 30, 2015

Dear David,

It seems we have a town board that decides what’s best for the community. No help with Montauk’s beach erosion. I’m not an engineer, but someone must be correct — the community begged to stop the work, to see if there was another answer. No. And no to Dolphin Drive parking, and add no to the thousands that signed a petition not to have a rental registry. Truck Beach is next, and remember, this supervisor and town board were voted in. You wanted them, you got them.

I don’t rent, and I’m sick and tired of being told I don’t understand the law. Maybe if you really understood that code enforcers should follow the existing law, many problems could be avoided. If I ever decide to rent, why should I pay a penny to the town? I don’t care that other towns have a rental registry, I care that when someone calls code that XYZ has illegal renters, it should be taken care of. Imagine I just called and gave you an address. You now know where they are.

BEA DERRICO

Burdens Remain

Montauk

January 4, 2016

To the Editor, 

In “our” best interest our leaders have done it again. The knee-jerk reaction to any problem is to fine, fee, tax, and legislate. Create more paperwork, information-gathering, and regulation, in the interest of making our lives better. On the bright side, the coffers of the town will grow. Who knows where it will be spent, but we the people have childlike trust in the men and women we elect to serve us, even when time after time we are disappointed.

Local homeowners, I’m sure, will be happy to pay the $100 to register their rental to the town, pay to bring their places into compliance, file paperwork, be on the watch list, and perhaps have their taxes go up. I get the sneaky feeling that having part of one’s home rented will call for a reclassification of the property and justify a property tax increase — or at least a yearly fee. All for our own good. After all, this guarantees that quality people rent our homes, apartments, or rooms, and cause no trouble to the neighbors. Whew, what a relief!

Tell me again, how does that work? How do papers and money change a person’s character? Wouldn’t it be wiser to attract the kind of renters who would appreciate our town and behave in our neighborhoods? Wouldn’t looking at the nightclubs that operate here and enforcing the parking and occupancy regulations already on the books be more effective? Perhaps stopping serving alcoholic beverages after 2 a.m. would help?

Property owners own their property. They are the ones most affected by renters who are disrespectful of property and are noisy and destructive. They try their best to choose good tenants. It doesn’t always work, but this is the nature of being a tourist-economy town. The good news is that the tourist leaves. The burdens imposed on the homeowner by the rental registry remain.

Instead of treating the homeowners as the problem, why not enlist them to help solve another problem our government has not been able to fix. I’m referring to affordable year-round housing for those who live and work in our town. Let’s think about how we can give incentive to homeowners to rent their rooms, apartments, houses they don’t occupy any longer, to year-round tenants. Why not give them a property-tax break? We could reduce the number of low-income rentals that need to be built, and save the taxpayers money! We would have fewer problem tourists, exchanging them for people who love this town. 

Some money would be rolled back into tax relief for homeowners but those details are for the town budget experts to work out. Think! There has to be something along these lines that can be worked out. It would be a win for all of us. Keep the money and the freedom in the hands of the people, where it belongs.

DOREEN MILLER

Nature’s Own Ways

Montauk

January 4, 2016

To the Editor: 

If a surgeon operated on you and botched the job, how would you react? Would you hire him again? Or would you question his methods?

Modern societies have botched the stewardship of nature. Instead of protecting nature, we have taken from her. Pursuing our own needs, we have cut down great forests, blasted mountains, and drilled into the land. The damage has been monumental.

In the process, technical experts have attempted to control nature. For example, engineers have erected artificial walls to try to stop rivers from flooding. After many of their efforts have failed, they have been noticing that nature has her own ways of dealing with floods, as when she absorbs water in adjacent marshes and wetlands.

But an appreciation of nature’s own ways has been slow to catch on. In our town, officials have allowed engineers to build huge artificial structures to combat beach erosion, ignoring the ocean’s self-restorative powers. 

Humans have inflicted enormous death and suffering on nonhuman animals. Activities that have been particularly harmful to wildlife include hunting, the elimination of animal habitats through real estate development, and the use of pesticides and pollutants. Viewing the massive harm to wildlife, an impartial observer might conclude that humans have forfeited their right to have anything more to do with the animals. But every state government and most municipalities have established agencies or committees that presume to have expertise in this area. 

One species of wildlife has drawn special attention: deer. Unlike many other species, deer populations have recently grown in several geographical areas. In response, many officials and residents blame deer abundance for problems that humans have caused. Humans have fragmented forests and poisoned streams and waters to the extent that many birds and other animals have disappeared, but officials point their fingers at deer. The damage caused by deer is comparatively minuscule, but they are blamed. What’s more, many people want to solve the “deer problem” through massive killing. 

Can we try a humbler, less invasive approach? Might we explore the extent to which deer populations can achieve stable, balanced states on their own? 

Many people will be uncomfortable with any approach that reduces human control. They will say that because deer lack natural predators, deer populationswill simply grow. But researchers have found that predation plays a relatively minor role in deer population size; food sources are more important. In any case, a deer population’s ability to reach a steady state deserves exploration. 

We need to get past the idea that we can solve every problem through our own interventions and learn more about nature’s capacity to find her own balance.

BILL CRAIN

Dream of the Warmth

Southold 

January 2, 2016

Dear Editor, 

It could be worse, the winter curse.

Barren, darkened trees, foreboding snow, nowhere to go. The East End sleeps. 

There have been warmer days for January. You can hear a peep, or the crow with the Florida sound. You might have to pack, and strive with hope for the warmth southbound. You warm up with fiery tales and memories.

We’ve been spoiled this year! The snow hasn’t come, and so far no boat sails.

You can’t use your car when that ice falls from the sky. You’re stuck in the house, nothing at all ajar. I just smile, when I dream of the warmth — that’s my glamorous style.

ANITA FAGAN

Move to the Sidelines

East Hampton

January 3, 2016

To the Editor:

One of the most extraordinary statistics of our Middle East adventures is that we dropped more bombs on Iraq between the two Iraq wars (a period of non-combat) than we did in all of World War II. Bombing has become the acceptable tool for achieving peace and democracy in troubled areas of the world.

The sociopolitical problem of the Middle East and ISIS has again elevated bombing to the center stage. All of the Republican candidates, as well as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are big bombers. When unsure about what to do, or when faced with a task that seems too overwhelming — bomb. Bombing is a great tool for killing and terrorizing people and making holes. It never solves problems.

The psychology of the bombers is another story. It was often seen as an issue of male inadequacy. White Christian males (O. is half-white) who never went to war, never had a street fight, and are sexually challenged are our biggest bombing proponents. Hillary exemplifies that some women also enjoy a good bloodbath. “Bombing for democracy” has the ring of a slightly deranged Christmas carol.

But the problem in the Middle East — the focus on ISIS instead of the other 600 million people who live there — is beyond the capability of the U.S. and its allies. Different countries with different cultures, without strong leaders and institutions, scream out for direction and economic support, but are not all the same. It is a complex issue that getting rid of ISIS will do little to resolve. Searching for a model and a long-term plan (there is no other possible plan) doesn’t require inventing the wheel. In fact, it’s staring us in the face if we turn our vision southward.

South and Central America provide most of the answers we need for developing a Middle East model. The U.S. was more involved in Latin America than in the Middle East, kind of like colonialism. Our economic and political interests (before the collapse of communism) overwhelmed the region. We changed dictators and laws at our whim. Orchestrated wars, created oppressive trade deals, and allowed U.S. corporations to enslave and debase large sections of the populace. Latin America floundered under brutal dictatorships, lack of development, and American self-interest until we decided to give the region a break.

In its simplest yet most accurate analysis, the growth and development in Latin America began when the U.S. lost interest in the region and let it deal with its own issues. 

The solution is not rocket science and it isn’t expensive. Obama almost got it and then he was overwhelmed by the demand for an immediate solution. (That America suffers from attention deficit disorder and is incapable of dealing with more than a sound bite dooms our Middle East policy to failure.) So he increased the bombing and sent in some Special Forces. The bombing calculus has Russia, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, and us dropping bombs all over the region.

Since we are incapable of devising a real long-term Middle East policy, we have little choice but to move to the sidelines and allow the countries to resolve their problems. More arms and more bombs don’t provide a real, lasting solution. Killing people doesn’t make friends. The process will be long and arduous, but it would serve us well to be viewed as supporting a process of self-determination. Leave democracy, our thirst for oil, and our military on the outside, and be there when they need us and ask for our help. Pretending that we know what we are doing is good for no one and not only reinforces our image as the Mad Bombers but brings into question whether the bombing makes us mad or the madness makes us bomb.

NEIL HAUSIG

Topics of Interest

East Hampton

December 29, 2015

Dear Editor,

In a recent letter I pontificated that there are so many interesting and important topics of political interest around that it makes it difficult to pick some out to comment on.

Reading today’s New York Times, one sees that Iraqi armed forces have retaken the city of Ramadi, routing the infamous ISIL group, and that other successes are in the offing in those battles in Iraq. So Obama’s much maligned strategy in Syria and Iraq and Libya is working, and the approval of his handling of the war against terrorism will rise as a result.

Then we read that latest news about nontruthful Trump, as fact-finding has overwhelmed the guy with his blatant lies. I fault the media for repeating each lie over and over again when the occasion arises and giving the candidate’s version of the lie. A lie is a lie. Wrong facts are wrong facts, period, end of discussion. The media should not give Mr. Trump any platform to deny what are videotaped statements and horrific falsehoods. If he made statements saying wages were too high, as he did on two occasions, and now denies he said it — well, that is his problem. The media need only report that he said it and it wasn’t true, and keep repeating that until he recants and his followers get the idea. 

Another topic of general interest is CNN’s reporting that Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the word “sexism.” He thinks Bill Clinton’s womanizing is sexism. It certainly is not a good thing, but it is not sexism. It is sexually wrong and unacceptable, but not sexist! Trump telling a female reporter that she wouldn’t have her job if she wasn’t good-looking, or that Megyn Kelly can’t ask good questions while she has her period, or that Carly Fiorina can’t be president because she isn’t better looking, are all horribly sexist and put-downs of women, and show his total ignorance of what sexism is. His statement about how great is his daughter’s body and that if she wasn’t his daughter he would date her, is an important negative statement about the man, not his explanation. He says it, he has to live with it!

If the media does what I just said they should, Trump’s adherents will eventually drop off as they admit his perfidious candidacy.

RICHARD P. HIGER