Letters to the Editor: 01.28.16

Hard to Replace

San Francisco

January 20, 2016

Dear David,

I just read, online, about the passing of Russell Drumm. I am so sorry to hear this as I really loved reading his articles about the fish and fauna of the East End. His words will be hard to replace on the printed page.

CAROLINE CORY

He Had the Data

Shutesbury, Mass.

January 21, 2016

David,

We just received our Jan. 16 Star issue and saw Carissa Katz’s nice article related to Richard Hendrickson’s passing. Probably like others, we initially thought the obituary of Richard Hendrickson passing in February of 2014 was Richard G., only to realize it was his 73-year-old son!

Carol and I still have his brief note sent to us in 2007 after a phone call asking if he had the weather data for April 23, 1967. This was the date Carol’s great-uncle, former East Hampton Village Mayor Jud Banister, passed away. He had a heart attack while driving north on North Main Street in midmorning. We were curious what kind of day it was, knowing he had just recently returned from a Florida visit with East Hampton friends.

In a brief handwritten note, promised us during our phone conversation, Richard recorded the weather at his Bridgehampton station as 58 degrees daytime and 43 evening, wind west strong all day 55 m.p.h., partly cloudy, no precipitation. He included his gun-dealer business card, too.

We later matched this handwritten daily report with a copy of his monthly column describing the month of April 1967 as generally colder than normal and notably windier than normal.

Having recently returned from Florida, we speculate that Jud was heading out to his camp on Three Mile Harbor to see how it was holding up from the 55 m.p.h. wind from the west, full on to the front of his camp.

Though a seemingly mundane question and request, Richard expressed interest in it right from the beginning of our call and made clear that he had the data and was glad to get it to us. The phone call and his handwritten note remain treasured memories.

STEVE RIDEOUT

Faithful Ned

Amagansett

January 14, 2016

Dear David, 

I guess the lesson is patience. 

Your article “Faithful Ned: Buried Where He Lived” reminded me of the truly lovely occasion I attended this past October celebrating the “Faithful Negro Manservant to Capt. Jeremiah Osborn, Died Aug 8, 1817.” 

Ned died on his land near Morris Park. His headstone, nicely cleaned, is there. We, some 20 strong, sang and prayed, and may have numbered more than were there when Ned died 198 years before.

It is good to be part of a community that honors its past. It is very good to be part of a community peopled with the likes of the Guichay family, who are Ned’s hosts, Rick Whelan, who found the headstone, Russ Calemmo and Steve Russell Boerner, who shepherded his story, Zack Cohen, who acted as Ned’s agent. Larry Cantwell and Peter Van Scoyoc, who came because they were moved. The wonderful pastor Walter Thompson of Calvary Baptist, Georgette Grier-Key, whose voice Ned heard, I’m sure.

It may have taken 198 years to acknowledge but, hopefully, Ned rests in peace.

All good things, 

DIANA WALKER

How Lucky Are We?

Amagansett

January 25, 2016

Dear David,

I mean, how lucky are we in East Hampton Town to have Steven Lynch as our highway superintendent? And his crews that he manages and who are so dedicated to their jobs.

Thank you, Highway Department. Thank you, Superintendent Lynch. They could have used you in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Gratefully,

LONA RUBINSTEIN

Invaluable Assistance

Amagansett

January 25, 2016

Dear David,

I would like to thank the three gentlemen who stopped, got out of their pickup truck, and helped dislodge my car from the deep snow this morning. A slight language barrier did not prevent us from working together, and within minutes we were on our way. 

They refused repeated offers of payment for their invaluable assistance, so I will try to acknowledge their kindness with a similar act when the opportunity presents itself.  

I am fortunate to live among such kind and selfless neighbors. 

CHRISTOPHER WALSH

 

Affirmative Farming

Amagansett

January 19, 2016

Dear David,

I applaud The Star’s Jan.14 article regarding Southampton Town’s purchasing of additional restrictions on 25 acres of farmland in Bridgehampton. The article accurately highlights the issue of “preserved” farmland being taken out of agricultural production.

Farming is such a vital part of our community, and provides many economic, cultural, and environmental benefits. It is hard to imagine East Hampton without our working farms. However, if farmland continues to be taken out of production, it goes without saying that our farming industry will cease to exist.

The primary intent behind purchasing development rights on farmland was to preserve our active farms. It was unforeseen that there would be competing uses of “preserved” farmland by developers and neighbors. Once a field is taken out of agricultural production to become part of a neighboring estate, its agricultural use is likely lost forever. 

Southampton has addressed this problem through the community preservation fund purchase of additional “affirmative farming” restrictions that require, among other things, that the land be actively farmed. Purchasing these affirmative farming restrictions is an important community preservation tool that East Hampton must also implement if we want to see a viable farm industry continue for future generations. 

Respectfully submitted,

Alex Balsam

Cell Tower

Springs

January 19, 2016

Dear David:

On Dec. 8, the Springs Fire District filed a lawsuit asking the State Supreme Court to overturn the town zoning board of appeal’s revocation of the permits for the cell tower it built in its parking lot. The Z.B.A. found the Building Department wrongfully assumed the Fire Department was automatically exempt from zoning, contrary to state law, which mandates that a balancing-of-interests test be held, in each and every instance, to decide if a government entity (fire departments included) should be exempted from local zoning. The Z.B.A. also ruled the Building Department erred by issuing permits before any State Environmental Quality Review Act review was conducted.

By taking the Z.B.A. to court to gain the right to operate a tower, which violates many provisions of town code, in lieu of allowing the planning board to assert its lawful purview by conducting a balancing-of-interests test, the fire district is attempting to usurp the authority of town government and to deprive Springs citizens of their voice in a matter of great consequence to them. 

Litigating to achieve a goal is consistent with the district commissioners’ prior tactics of evading all government or public involvement. They gave no public notice of their intent to build the tower. They filed for a permit on the basis of automatic exemption despite the fact that Elite Towers, their co-applicant for the permit and now co-plaintiff (whose sole objective is to profit by renting the tower to cell carriers and who will not be operating any emergency equipment) has not claimed automatic exemption in other municipalities but has instead sought zoning approval abiding by the local authority’s normal process. They failed to file for SEQRA, which would have mandated government and community participation. And they now claim to have performed SEQRA and the balancing test, which actions the Z.B.A. dismissed as meaningless since the district has no authority to conduct these proceedings, not to mention that they did so only after the tower was built and the appeal to the Z.B.A. was filed. 

The Springs Fire District implores the court to allow the tower to be put in use lest lives are lost due to poor wireless connections in Springs. This argument is fallacious as it presumes their property is the only location for the tower and that the only technology to improve emergency communications will require a 150-foot tower in the first place. 

We will go to great lengths to help the volunteer firefighters, who risk their lives for our sakes. But by resorting to litigation and persisting in end-running town government and the community in the name of expediency, the district commissioners are obstructing the very process by which a win-win solution for improving emergency communications can be determined in accordance with state and local laws and ordinances.

Yours truly, 

JONATHAN D. COVEN

 

Stopgap Measures

Montauk

January 25, 2016

Dear Editor, 

I was very heartened to read your recent editorial excoriating the town’s (foolish, misguided, mysterious, ill-judged, puzzling) compact with the (evil, venal, incompetent, self-serving, contract-hungry, deceitful, irresponsible) Army Corps of Engineers to harden a portion of the beach in Montauk. Please pick any or all of the provided modifiers.

You have correctly identified retreat as the only rational solution for beachfront properties. This is also true for the Montauk business district, but another project is emerging that may rival the beach project for the anti-Darwin prize. It is a multimillion-dollar (one estimate is $26 million) scheme to build a sewer system that would relieve the septic problems that plague downtown Montauk.

If implemented, it will give businesses in the downtown area a legitimate incentive to kick the can of retreat further down the road. This project has already cost many tens of thousands for a feasibility study. If only that money had been used to start an exploration of where downtown Montauk could — and should — move! 

We are continually asked to be patient; these things take time. (And they do.) But when stopgap measures turn permanent, we are in trouble. 

I suggest that the town government immediately impanel a committee to explore where, when, and how options. It should be asked to think boldly, and without preconceived notions. There are some really smart people in this town who have been giving the subject a great deal of thought, and they should be brought together to coordinate their efforts and start the process.

Rapidly changing times require painful decisions, not procrastination.

Sincerely,

JANET Van SICKLE

Affordable Housing

Amagansett

January 25, 2016

Dear David,

Richard Rosenthal’s “Guestwords” “Doin’ the Nimby Trot” deserves attention from everyone in town. Housing for working people in East Hampton — not only the poor, but better-paid workers still unable to afford our screaming rents — must be a much higher priority than it has been so far. The Windmill Village proposal for Steven Hand’s Path would have had a substantial impact. The East Hampton Democratic Committee voted unanimously to endorse it, and members were disappointed when lack of East Hampton Town Board support compelled its withdrawal. 

Committee members, including our “new leaders,” have aggressively promoted public housing on that site ever since. Members have also endorsed the town board’s support for a 40-unit mixed-income project planned for Amagansett by the town’s Housing Authority, and the board’s 12-unit manor house project now going forward as a model for multiple new sites under study. 

As Mr. Rosenthal rightly notes, East Hampton has always had to rely on Democrats for affordable housing; we were the original progenitors of the program and responsible for every project since. We welcomed Supervisor Cantwell’s indications at this year’s opening town board meeting that housing for working people would be a priority of the next two years. We were gratified to hear him say that affordable housing must include all hamlets and that Wainscott’s refusal to accommodate must be changed from a “no” to a “how.” We will hold the board to those commitments. 

Sincerely yours,

JEANNE FRANKL

Seniors Have Ruined It

Montauk

January 21, 2016

David,

As I was driving past St. Michael’s Housing in Amagansett last week I remembered the decade-long controversy over the building of the 40 affordable housing apartments for seniors. Many locals voiced concerns regarding increased traffic congestion, noise pollution, tainted groundwater, and loss of property values. Pure bunk, I thought at the time.

Much to my chagrin, it appears that many of the locals’ fears have become reality. According to recent police reports, there have been numerous automobile accidents involving the BMWs, Audis, and ’Vettes driven by seniors as they attempted to merge with weekend eastbound traffic on Montauk Highway during the summer months. Many of the seniors have admitted to abandoning driving caution due to their eagerness to get to Montauk to partake of the early bird drink specials offered to seniors by the Surf Lodge and Sloppy Tuna.

In addition, irate neighbors have called the East Hampton Police Department on numerous occasions to complain about the raucous and very loud block parties that are held on summer weekends. The neighbors report that bonfires are lit and boom boxes are employed to play doo-wop and Motown music. Apparently, “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins, “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas, and “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye are great favorites. On one occasion, a responding police officer was accosted by an obviously inebriated female senior who screamed, “You should respect your elders, you weenie‚” as she stomped on his instep with her four-inch pump.

The Suffolk Anti-Gang Unit has been investigating the area for the past year. According to undercover informants, two gangs — the Canes and the Scoots — have been waging a turf war over the sale of untaxed cigarettes and the distribution of locally distilled moonshine. The informants report that the Canes got their name from their ritual of tapping out secret codes with their cane tips, while the Scoots are known for intimidating residents by doing scooter wheelies in the parking lot. To date there have been no arrests, and very few residents are believed to be involved in the gang wars.

According to local realtors, property values have indeed plummeted by 50 percent in the past two years, and very few people were able to rent their houses in the summer. The realtors believe that the word is out in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey: Stay out of ’Gansett; the seniors have ruined it.

Perhaps the only good result of this noble experiment in affordable housing is that the sanctity of the Amagansett School has been preserved. Due to student age restrictions, it will not be necessary to build an addition to the school, and the faculty size will remain as is. For the future, property taxes will remain low — just as they will in Wainscott.

Cheers,

BRIAN POPE

Simply Too Much Glare Springs

January 24, 2016

Dear David,

This is in response to a new L.E.D. streetlight that was just installed on Race Lane just north of the railroad tracks. Please check it out, as it is blinding to drivers approaching the intersection. 

Sometimes when new technologies emerge, we don’t find out until afterward that there are major consequences. Such was the case when asbestos was touted as a “perfect insulation” over previous inventions. Of course, we found out after tons of asbestos had been installed in homes, schools, and businesses that asbestos is very dangerous. If we practiced the precautionary principle “First, do no harm,” new technologies would be evaluated before being put into practice.

Last spring I attended a blue-light symposium that was held in response to the new L.E.D. technology. L.E.D.s areeing touted as energy-saving, but there is research emerging that is demonstrating serious consequences of using L.E.D.s, because they are high in blue-light waves. Blue-light waves, especially at night, dramatically affect human and animal circadian rhythms, affecting sleep and melatonin production, which are needed for optimal health. 

Our traditional lightbulbs are in the 1,800-2,300 Kelvin range. L.E.D.s are as high as 6000K. They can be adjusted down to 2,700K, and that would be better for night vision, health, and safety (since blue light interferes with adaptation; think about the “purplish” headlights and how hard it is for our eyes to re-adapt after passing them). 

Even though East Hampton Village changed the maximum for Kelvin to 3,000, 3,000 Kelvin should still not be used for light fixtures at night, including streetlights. There is simply too much glare as well as a garish glow, including additional skyglow.

Besides the higher blue content, L.E.D.s have very sharp points of light that interfere with vision and safety. L.E.D. streetlights can be specified lower, to 2,700K, and that’s what the village should do if it is going to use them. Lower Kelvin fixtures cost about the same. The village could save more money by removing streetlights where they are not providing a public safety benefit. 

The lighting manufacturers are highly touting their L.E.D. fixtures because they make a lot of money from them as they are expensive, and they can make them sound like a good idea. But then again, so was asbestos.

SUSAN HARDER

‘Northern’ Italian?

East Hampton

January 21, 2016

To the Editor:

In her restaurant review of Cappelletti in Noyac in your last issue, your restaurant critic refers at one point to the restaurant as “a Northern Italian-style restaurant.” We have just been led through a parade of mostly Southern Italian dishes and this seemed disorienting, unless she was referring to Noyac — surely in the northern half of this country, though it’s nevertheless on the South Fork — rather than the food.

A quick bit of web research brought up these facts, if anything found on the web can be considered a fact with real confidence: Cannoli originated in Palermo and the surrounding areas. They date to the time when Sicily was controlled by the Arabs. Historically, the pastries were made for the Carnevale, the festival season that occurs immediately before Lent.

Eggplant parmesan (parmigiana di melanzane in Italian) is one of the classic preparations of Southern Italy.

I think she may have been misled by the Bolognese sauce, which has of course become ubiquitous (and usually is improperly made with a tomato base, so really only the name has become common), and while tiramisu may (or may not) have come from Treviso, which is certainly in the north, it was an invention of the 1960s and quickly also became ubiquitous. It is simply not a classic dish of any region. 

Neither hardly classifies the vigorous food at Cappelletti as being “Northern” Italian. I may well be splitting hairs here, but when reading a review by an expert in her field it is jarring to come across this sort of thing.

And on a much weightier note, probably not suitably placed here: I will deeply miss Russell Drumm’s columns in The Star.

Cordially, 

FRED KOLO

Liberal Democracies

East Quogue

January 18, 2016 Dear David,

One reason I subscribe to The Star is that I immediately open to the commentary and letters section. I particularly enjoy the letters submitted by Richard Higer and Neil Hausig and their skillful articulations of many views I share with them. They and a few others I’ve noted are excellent contributors, attempting to enhance our critical thinking skills, and I thank them. 

However, this letter is not meant to heap praise but, rather, this: I am really beginning to lose patience with those idiots who, like Ted Cruz, are forever demonizing liberals as if we are here on hell’s behalf, and treasonous at that! This is what results when people are ignorant of history. Has it been forgotten that it was the liberal democracies that defeated the Nazis in World War II, and not conservative democracies? It was the liberal democracies that defeated the Fascists of Mussolini’s Italy, not conservative democracies. And again, it was the liberal democracies that defeated militarist-imperialist Japan, not — well, you get the picture.

Almost. It must not be forgotten that it was the conservatives and their corporate and banking interests that helped Hitler obtain power in Germany; that it was the conservatives and their corporations that assisted Mussolini’s march on Rome, and that it was the conservative, nationalist-imperialist corporate and banking industries that propelled Japan’s attempt to subjugate East Asia and beyond for its so-called “co-prosperity sphere.”

So the next time you read or hear someone battering and condemning “those liberals,” you might come to their defense and say, “Hey, buddy, step off. You don’t know your history.” 

I like to follow up with a blank map of the world and ask them to show me where they live. Ever watch Jay Leno’s Jaywalkers? They were hilarious and pathetic. Sadly pathetic. Scary pathetic.

Truly,

LANCE COREY

I Stand for Cruz

Amagansett

January 24, 2016

To the Editor:

Looking at the news and searching the candidates’ records, I find there is one candidate who needs serious reconsideration. When Trump can announce, as he did this week, that his “people” are the most loyal, and says, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” it shows we have a real problem. 

What in his life has caused him to begin attacking, insulting, and name-calling every conservative who disagrees with him? He shows a definite lack of class and judgment. Is that what we want when our president negotiates with foreign leaders? At what point did he lose his self-proclaimed liberal New York ways? When or what caused him to proclaim he was a Republican? Can we afford yet another narcissist in the White House? 

I stand behind a proven constitutional conservative with a long record of fighting all the way to the Supreme Court, and winning, for the American people. Ted Cruz is not only a man with high moral and academic standards; he knows and honors the rule of law. This is what I’m looking for in our next president. I stand for Cruz this election.

LYNDA A.W. EDWARDS

Misdirected Anger

East Hampton

January 24, 2016

To the Editor:

On a personal level we all go through the process of adjusting to those things that irritate and disturb us but that we are unable to control, manipulate, or change. Life is often about how we deal with things that are beyond our control. The tools to deal with the problem are learned from our first conscious moments and are a never-ending process until life ends. Learning to channel and diffuse anger is one of the essential qualities for functioning well in the world. Individually, when we fail at this process we are medicated or confined or worse. As a nation, it is a far more complicated and painful process.

Collective anger is often clear and straightforward. Jews with Germans, Armenians with Turks, Native Americans with white settlers. All three groups were exposed to genocide. Their anger is obvious and logical. What is more complicated is the anger that motivated the Germans, Turks, and American colonists to behave as they did. Was there legitimate reason for their anger and were their victims the cause, or was it a case of transference that victimized these people and provided some cathartic relief? The concept of transference as a means of anger relief is a fairly normal process. Getting pissed off at work and beating your wife or kids is hardly unusual.

Scapegoating someone other than the perpetrator of one’s anger is way easier than going to the real source, which is probably unreachable. It provides relief but no solution and lasts for a short time. But it allows for some of the most grotesque behavior without conscience or guilt. Fabricating a story dispenses with the reality of our behavior and gives it a rational basis in our now twisted reality. On an individual basis such behavior would necessitate a verdict of prison or death, but on a national level it necessitates only a revision of history.

In the case of America’s angry-white-male population, there is no solution. Asking the perpetrators to rebuild or reinvent their economic past is impossible. So, they may look to government, Mexicans, Muslims, Planned Parenthood, etc., to vent their anger, pointlessly. Any way we write the story, Corporate America, with much political assistance, is at the root of the a problem. And Corporate America controls our political system and will not willingly give back what it took away.

Our political discourse is a textbook on psychopathology. Elevating anger and channeling it toward disconnected groups. Making it impersonal, illogical, and senseless. The anger is fueled by a set of beliefs that have little basis in reality. Our economic renaissance had perhaps a 50-year window before it began to shut down. We operate under the illusion that things were good or better forever and that it wasn’t by some strange quirks of good fortune that working-class people prospered. A reality-based perspective would allow us to understand that all of the gains that we made came from a huge struggle to achieve them and will require a similar effort to get them back.

Politicians who feed into the anger without ideas and programs to solve the problem are common criminals at best. Electing anyone who doesn’t bring something exceptional to the table makes no sense. Clinton, Bush, Rubio, Trump, and Cruz are all adherents of the status quo or blame-the-gods mentality. Some bring more than others to the table, but collectively they bring nothing. Only Sanders makes a case for real transformative changes that may ultimately resolve the anger.

When anger is misdirected, as it currently is, it becomes a form of suicide. Digging ourselves deeper into a hole where the sand begins to fill our mouths and nostrils and we disappear screaming that the immigrants are coming to drive us into poverty. Going down the tubes and never having a clue about what’s going on around us.

NEIL HAUSIG

Silent Mr. Moose

Southold 

January 15, 2016

Dear Editor,

Blueberry Ridge, Me., was so amazingly white, with blare from the brightest white moon that made the snow glitter. Lights, like a five-foot fridge, surrounded an odd animal that I called silent Mr. Moose. 

A gigantic creature with curved antlers, unlike its deer cousins, out on the loose — the scene on my midnight walk. An adventure to see, eyes of him so big, bulgy, and dark. 

I ran back to the spot where my Eldorado, sprinkled with freezing snow, was parked. My first sight of the remarkable huge head of an old moose — took years to see. I wondered where he came from to meet me, with his long ears sticking up, stretched out. I didn’t wait for him to take the first dashing jaunt.

ANITA FAGAN