Left a Void
East Hampton
October 24, 2022
To the Editor,
It is with great sadness that the board of commissioners and staff of the East Hampton Housing Authority received the news of the passing of our friend and fellow commissioner, Dr. Joseph O’Connell. Doctor Joe served as a commissioner for five years and was instrumental in marshaling public support for community housing. In particular, Joe played a critical role in garnering public support for the housing project in Amagansett. At the suggestion of Doctor Joe, that project is now known as Gansett Meadow.
Serving as a commissioner with Joe was both an honor and a challenge. He challenged us in the most persuasive way to incorporate the values of transparency, trust, accountability, caring, and commitment in all our decisions. We are thankful for his outstanding leadership, friendship, guidance, and wisdom. His passing has left a void in our community that will not be easily filled.
CATHERINE M. CASEY
Executive Director
East Hampton Housing Authority
Thank You for Sharing
East Hampton
October 26, 2022
Dear David,
If it takes a village to raise a child, then aren’t we lucky to live in East Hampton! We recently took our English as a new language students on a series of walking field trips to discover the significant impact the Village of East Hampton has had throughout the development and history of our nation. Our local historians did not disappoint.
At Gardiner Mill Cottage, we looked at historical paintings of Colonial life in East Hampton and had an art history lesson from Terry Wallace. Stacy Myers, from the East Hampton Historical Society, guided us through Colonial times at the Mulford Farm and Clinton Academy and into the westward expansion of the United States at the Nimmo Moran Studio. Andrea Meyer and the knowledgeable staff at the East Hampton Library showed us ancient maps and relics of the whaling heydays of Long Island.
Mayor Jerry Larsen and Deputy Mayor Chris Minardi took time out of their busy schedules to meet with classes to talk about their roles in our local government. The East Hampton Village Hall staff welcomed us for a tour of the offices, previously occupied by Lyman Beecher (father of Harriet Beecher Stowe).
As I’m sure you’ll agree, the best local tours are given by the incomparable Town Crier, Hugh King. He did not disappoint, as he thrilled us with several visits, telling us the tales of our town throughout the development of our country in his own compelling and theatrical way.
Thank you to all for sharing your vast knowledge and enthusiasm with our students and giving them this wonderful connection with the past, present, and future of East Hampton. More significantly, for making our students truly feel that they are an integral part of our community.
Sincerely,
ALEXANDRA MCCOURT
CARA NELSON
A True Partner
Sag Harbor
October 25, 2022
To the Editor:
On behalf of ourselves and the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons, we want to publicly thank Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater, its executive director, Tracy Mitchell, and the entire staff. Our congregation rented the theater for our High Holy Days this fall and we could not have had a better experience. To a person, everyone we met was expert in their field, kind, generous, and extraordinarily helpful. Each and every one of them went the extra mile to make sure everything worked the way we needed it to, and to make each of our congregants feel welcome and comfortable.
We’ve always been impressed by Bay Street’s productions; having seen the limits of the physical space, we’re now astonished at the magic they make day in and day out, and so grateful they worked their magic for us. They turned a theater into a holy space.
Most importantly, we were thrilled to discover a true partner in the work of elevating the lives of East End residents. Bay Street’s mission as a community institution is more than just words — it’s a lived commitment by their leadership and employees. May they go from strength to strength.
With gratitude,
RABBI JAN UHRBACH
STACY MENZER
President
The Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons
Care to Our Earth
East Hampton
October 31, 2022
Dear David,
I want to thank you and Gail Pellett for the wonderful “Guestwords” last week, “Hope vs. Despair.” It is more than heartening to learn about the work of ChangeHampton and how much even the small changes individuals make, for example, growing patches of native plants in their own yards that can create a “pollinator pathway” and begin to heal our Earth.
I am also grateful, David, for your other stark reminders in the paper of losses in the environment we are experiencing here in the Hamptons, losses that may otherwise go unnoticed.
We human beings are charged with being stewards of the Earth by the One who created it and placed us here — a very easy-to-read part of the Bible in Genesis 2. The truth is that any measure people take toward giving tender care to our Earth and its creatures is how we will ultimately heal ourselves — physically and spiritually.
Sincerely,
REV. CANDACE WHITMAN
Surrounded by Plastic
East Hampton Village
October 31, 2022
To the Editor,
You and I, we are surrounded by plastic. Soda water, frozen veggies, baby lettuces, potato chips, they’re all packaged in plastic. Even leggings are made from plastic. Plastics will outlive us. They take 500-plus years to break down into ever smaller microplastics and nano-plastics. They live, right now, atop Mt. Everest and in the deepest ocean’s Mariana Trench, and in human placentas.
Plastics are made from natural gas and oil and their very production is harmful to our planet, to us. “Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it. Endangered wildlife like Hawaiian monk seals and Pacific loggerhead sea turtles are among nearly 700 species that eat and get caught in plastic litter,” states BiologicalDiversity.org.
Unless something changes, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. We can all make changes. I’ve started by carrying my reusable water bottle. (If I can remember my phone, I can remember my water bottle.)
For more ideas, get “10 Reusable Solutions” at BeyondPlastics.org, and visit “Scary Plastic” at 18 Sherrill Road in East Hampton Village through Sunday. The “Scary Plastic” diorama is made with a tiny fraction of the plastic in my home.
With my regards,
GLORIA MAROTI FRAZEE
Matter of Safety
Wainscott
October 26, 2022
To the Editor:
A year ago, we moved to Wainscott as full-time residents. We love it here. Unfortunately, as pedestrians, it is unsafe to walk from our street along Wainscott Northwest Road to the commercial center of Wainscott.
We have young children and often consider walking with them to the post office, Goldberg’s, Levain, or the fish store, but it is simply too dangerous. Trucks and other traffic cutting through from Industrial Road and Montauk Highway are too large and drive too fast.
The current situation on Wainscott Northwest Road (no sidewalk and not even a shoulder) is a life-threatening accident waiting to happen. There have been too many deaths in the area this year already due to unsafe road conditions. The town must add a sidewalk to Wainscott Northwest Road. It is an urgent matter of public safety.
EMILY and NICK SAMUELS
Damage Will Be Done
East Hampton Village
October 21, 2022
To the Editor,
Now that the unwanted brewpub on Toilsome Lane will most likely resubmit its application, for what is considered to be an illegal drinking establishment located next to a dangerous blind curve on the well-traveled Toilsome Lane, to the design review board (see “Challenge to Toilsome Brewery Is Tossed,” The Star, Oct. 20), the board should review their moral responsibility to our community and the distraught neighbors of the proposed tavern.
“Theoretically, the primary purpose of zoning is to segregate uses that are thought to be incompatible and provide stability to property values. In practice, zoning is also used as a permitting system to prevent new development from harming existing residents or businesses.” — Wikipedia
Keeping the above in mind, I hope, pray, and wish that the design review board will realize what catastrophic damage will be done to the residents on Toilsome and Gingerbread Lanes and to our neighborhood, as well as the entire Village of East Hampton, if they should ignore all the negative pleas against Mill Hill Realty that the board has received over the past 14 months from the distressed and outraged residents and decide to approve the beer hall.
The board’s only ethical determination would be a unanimous “no” to the application.
MICHAEL AARON
Legal Action
Amagansett
October 31, 2022
To the Editor,
If you follow our town’s Building Department notes, July 7, 2020, a letter was sent to First Coastal. The notes were “required removal of geo-cubes or legal action . . . 30 days to remove or legal action.”
Why is this a joke? First Coastal already was given $50,000 from the Town of East Hampton to do work in 2019. The company owner, Aram Terchunian, is the town’s liaison to the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Plan, a consultant, the man who brought us Dirt Bag Beach, and, this year was placed on the Montauk Beach Preservation Committee.
No wonder the town board allows this company and owner to violate rights willfully, knowingly, daily, continuously. No (beach) balls.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Just Four Things
Amagansett
October 31, 2022
Dear Editor,
As Election Day fast approaches, I have just four things to ask:
1. Please get out and vote. You can’t complain if you don’t take part in the process.
2. Please can everybody, especially the candidates, accept the results even if your person didn’t win?
3. When it is over can we all pledge to work together for the good of the country and its people and actually get things done?
4. And, please, remove all the damn signs that are a blight on our landscape.
Sincerely,
FIONA BENNETT
Stealing Signs
Montauk
October 31, 2022
To the Editor:
Dear Montauk Republicans, please, stop stealing the Democratic candidate signs. This has been an issue here for several elections. We Democrats do not take down your signs no matter how much we disagree with a Republican candidate. Can you please grow up and leave our signs alone?
Get a life!
A Montauk Democrat,
ELIZABETH WILLOUGHBY
Bearing No Relation
East Hampton
October 31, 2022
Dear David,
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign. When you’re driving around there are plenty of them: The Zeldin sign, the Hochul sign. I will state at the outset that I support the latter candidate fully, but, as a lifelong professional in the communications business, I am so disappointed in the graphic choices of Governor Hochul’s signage. Seriously, at first glance, which poster leaps out at you with clarity of message, as well as clarity of information? Let’s analyze:
Zeldin: White background, clean, bright, pops out of the green grass behind it, simple, clear typography in red and blue; the colors related directly to the subject of candidacy for a position in American politics, elevating the position of governor of New York State to national importance. (Which it is.) Two words, easily and quickly readable: Zeldin and governor, even when speeding by in a car, as the communication placement is, after all, roadside. No extraneous language, just “Zeldin. Governor,” the most and only important two words of the message.
Hochul: Blue background, a cool color that blends into the cool, green grass, the strange yellowish color for much of the copy, representing New York State, but bearing no relation to the national political colors, red, white, and blue. Several inches of perimeter space wasted within the given signage size by the rule line within the boarder. Inclusion of the candidate for lieutenant governor, Delgado, why? If we’re voting for Hochul, he comes with the package. More wasted space by inclusion of identifiers “governor” and “lieutenant governor.” If at this point we don’t know who Kathy Hochul is — need I say more? And finally, more valuable communication space taken up by a little yellow blob that represents New York State, which if you look at too closely you’ll crash. And to top it off, more tiny lettering admonishing us to get to the polls by Nov. 8. (Would be hard to get there later; they’ll be closed.)
It is painful to see the signs of erosion in our democracy, isn’t it?
BARBARA THOMAS
Elections Are Secure
Amagansett
October 26, 2022
Dear David:
Nov. 8, 2022, is a very important Election Day. As a vice president of the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork, I’d like to reassure voters that Suffolk County elections are secure and reliable. I have known both Republican and Democratic Commissioners of the Suffolk County Board of Elections for years and find them reliable, knowledgeable, and dedicated to the free and fair elections in our democracy.
The election process is administered by a bipartisan team of election workers. Workers representing both major parties oversee ballot counting, a common practice nationwide to provide checks and balances in the election process. Election administrators, board employees, and poll workers have to be residents of our county. The people who run our elections are not strangers. They are members of our communities: neighbors, friends, and family.
Every step of our election process is monitored and secured, from the voter registration process to the post-election audit.
The voter registration process in New York State ensures that only those meeting state eligibility requirements are able to vote, and it helps keep track of who has cast a ballot.
Registered voters can vote early in person, on Election Day in person, or by absentee ballot. All ballots must be returned by mail or in person. Ballots are submitted to election machines that have been pre-approved by the State board of Elections. Each piece of election equipment is tested before being used on Election Day and all voting machines are barred from connecting to the internet. Finally, all county boards of elections must conduct post-election audits to further verify results.
Whichever way you choose to vote this year, remember, democracy is not a spectator sport.
Regards,
BARBARA MCCLANCY
Vice President
League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork
Catalyst for Change
Springs
October 28, 2022
Dear David,
I’m not sure if I’m more impressed by the work of Jaine Mehring’s Build.In.Kind/East Hampton, or just grateful that she is doing it. I liken the current weakness of our town zoning code to the wheel’s hub, with the myriad problems emanating being the spokes.
Perfectly suitable small houses used to be our resale market in East Hampton, affordable properties for the local community. Now they are reduced to rubble, filling our landfills as the property is cleared completely, wildlife habitats destroyed. Water is wasted to irrigate endless carpets of lawn, native planting and pollinator decline never considered. Oversize second homes rise, consuming massive amounts of energy to heat and cool them, with the noise from the equipment impacting adjacent homeowners.
Development, often fueled by spec builders from UpIsland and beyond, arriving daily from 50, 60 miles away, or more, clogging our roads, taxing our infrastructure, extracting from our community rather than contributing to it. Our history, our sense of place, our beloved hometown, reduced to its lowest common denominator: a commodity.
Changing this unfortunate mind-set behind many of our town’s problems is a difficult hurdle. But modifying a town zoning code to protect what we hold sacred needn’t be. Build.In.Kind/East Hampton is our catalyst for change and has given us the blueprint for action: it begins with engaging our town board to modify the zoning code. We, the people need to act on it, together, as one community and ask our town board to do exactly that.
Sincerely,
IRWIN T. LEVY
Step Toward Relief
Springs
October 28, 2022
Dear David,
I spoke recently with a woman who grew up here and has three children in the local schools. She and her husband both work hard at needed professions in the community. They are being evicted from their small apartment.
The going rate for a year-round rental starts at $4,000 a month, or $48,000 for a year — if you can find one. Using a standard of one-third of income for housing, this couple would need to earn $144,000 a year. Devoting a third of pre-tax income to housing makes for a very tight budget for a family with children. But this is irrelevant for many hard-working local families, whose joint family income might be in the $100,000 range.
This Election Day take an important step toward some relief of the housing crisis. Vote “Yes” on Proposition 3, to create the Community Housing Fund. It will have no impact on property taxes and will help many families survive in our town.
Thank you,
JOB POTTER
For Prop 3
East Hampton
October 21, 2022
Dear David,
I appreciate reading The Star’s support for Proposition 3 on the November ballot. (Voters must turn their ballots over to vote on the propositions.) A “Yes” vote on Proposition 3 will help make a continuing sense of community here possible. Without a community housing opportunities fund, I’m afraid we are destined to continue down the road to becoming an exclusive bedroom community for the wealthy.
With the community housing opportunities fund we can together find many creative and effective ways to provide local housing opportunities — for the regular people who make this town run and give it its character.
The fund will be supported by a one-half-of-1- percent real estate transfer tax, paid by the buyer on higher-end real estate transactions. The money generated (approximately $6 million per year) will be controlled exclusively by our elected town board.
If you love East Hampton, you must vote “Yes” on Proposition 3 on or by Election Day.
Sincerely,
RANDALL PARSONS
Take a Step Back
Montauk
October 28, 2022
To the Editor,
On its face, Proposition 3, the funding of an affordable housing initiative, dubbed the Community Housing Plan, is a worthy cause a majority of residents can support. But the community housing plan tax, funded via a .5 percent purchaser-paid tax upon the purchase of real property, when combined with the 2 percent Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund tax, bumps the total taxes paid to East Hampton Town on a property purchase to 2.5 percent, pretty much in line with your standard single-side real estate broker’s fee. So what are the residents getting in return for the town picking up a broker’s fee on every transaction? Clearly, there is a need for affordable housing in East Hampton. But, before we tack on another tax, we need to take a step back.
First, it is long past time to review, overhaul, and possibly phase out portions of the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund, which has revenues of about $30 million per year. While the community preservation fund has made plenty of valuable acquisitions since its voter-approved referendum in 1998, its oversight constraints resulted in a huge swing and miss for the community on the once in a generation, no, once in a lifetime opportunity to purchase the four oceanfront Ditch Plain lots. If $30 million per year can’t be utilized for the most important and environmentally sensitive waterfront properties of a lifetime, then perhaps its usefulness has run its course. What better way to phase out a hefty 2 percent property purchase tax then to utilize a portion of it for the community housing plan?
Suggestion Number 1: No new community housing fund tax — Apportion 1.5 percent to the community preservation and .5 percent to the community housing fund.
Second, why are we funding affordable housing through a tax that burdens the most of those next-generation residents in the pursuit of home ownership? Sure, this plan has exemptions for first-time homebuyers, but the current exemption is at a $1.2 million purchase price and $175,000 combined income. In my law practice, that threshold has been surpassed, and clients rendered ineligible, on just about every transaction I’ve closed in 2021 and 2022.
Suggestion Number 2: All graduates of East Hampton High School and/or all resident first-time homebuyers should be completely exempt from the community preservation and the community housing fund taxes.
Suggestion Number 2.5: Keep the next-generation residents completely exempt by applying the community housing fund tax to $5 million and up purchases at 2.5 percent, or 3 percent, tax. Perhaps implement an escalating scale where the tax increases as the property values increase, as has been implemented for the “mansion tax” in New York City.
Three: The community housing plan tax up for voter referendum on this year’s ballot is truly putting the cart before the horse. The community housing plan is not yet a plan. It is a cart full of ideas ranging from buying land to creating housing for employees and providing housing counseling. Other ideas include funding for town-led projects for rent or resale and funding for rehabbing existing structures. The community housing plan also calls for 50 percent loans for purchases up to $1 million, making the town a lender to those who couldn’t otherwise qualify on their own and therefore probably shouldn’t be borrowing in the first place. Additionally, we know very little about the management of this fund. What is the management and oversight structure? Which initiatives will be prioritized? The town is asking us to approve another tax, the management of which has not yet been developed.
The community housing plan, while a well-purposed idea, should not be built on the backs of the next generation. There is plenty of revenue on hand to fund this initiative from the often misguided community preservation fund. It can also easily be funded by second-home owners by starting at $5 million and up and using an escalating tax scale. Let’s hit the brakes on implementing another property tax in perpetuity until these ideas have been fully vetted and a legitimate plan has been fully developed.
Suggestion Number 4: Vote “No” on Proposition 3.
CHRISTOPHER CARILLO
Your Guy
Montauk
October 26, 2022
David:
Signed a bill banning abortion for rape, incest, or danger to life of mother; supports a bill titled “Life Begins at Conception”; would vote for legislation to “protect life, from conception to natural death”; would defund Planned Parenthood; has said, “Dobbs (which reversed Roe v. Wade) was a victory for life, for family”; has said, “New York needs a ‘pro-life’ health commissioner”; as a New York State senator, voted “No” on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage; as a United States congressman, voted “No” on a bill titled “Right to Contraception Act,” and finally, after the Jan. 6 insurrection riot, voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Proclaims “I ardently support Donald Trump.”
If you are okay with the foregoing, then Lee Zeldin is your guy. Otherwise, please be sure to vote.
MARTIN LONDON
One-Party Control
Great Neck
October 28, 2022
Dear Editor:
Listening to Gov. Kathy Hochul at the debate, I would have thought that Donald Trump was the Republican Party candidate for governor. No wonder Hochul followed the Rose Garden campaign strategy. She preferred hiding behind tens of millions of dollars in television campaign commercials rather than face the challenger, G.O.P. gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, face to face in a series of debates.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart- Cousins and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will maintain Democratic majority control of the State Legislature. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Attorney General Letitia James are safe for another term. One-party Democratic Party control of state government is an open invitation to waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption in Albany. It is the best reason to elect Lee Zeldin governor.
Sincerely,
LARRY PENNER
Where Was Lee?
Amagansett
October 24, 2022
Dear Editor:
I think it would be so very amusing, if it weren’t so pathetic, as I watch Lee Zeldin’s political ads, as he is running for governor of New York as he berates the crime in New York City and thinks he can do better. The same Lee Zeldin who saw, I believe, thousands of people from all over the country on Jan. 6 attack the Capitol in Washington, who with guns and weapons caused the death and injury to some of our Washington Capitol Police and injury to citizens.
Lee Zeldin, who I believe supported Donald Trump and did nothing it seems to stop the insurrection in Washington on Jan. 6, which I believe was an attempted coup by the Republican Party and Donald Trump to take over our democracy so that Donald boy could become a dictator. They did nothing.
The hero Republican politicians were Liz Cheney, Vice President Pence, and others who don’t support Donald Trump’s policies. Where was Lee Zeldin’s voice?
Dictator-wannabe Trump did nothing to stop the thousands who invaded the Capitol, and they wanted to hang Mike Pence because he wouldn’t stop counting the electoral ballots. I heard them and watched them: “Hang Mike Pence!” Later, Donald Trump told the insurrection people, “We love you.” Where was Lee Zeldin’s voice? Did he love them also?
What would have happened to America if those people had hanged Mike Pence, as they ranted on? It has been reported that the same invaders actually defecated and urinated and then carried the excrement all over the Capitol building and it had to be cleaned up the next day by other government employees. Where was Lee Zeldin’s voice opposing such disgustingness?
Lee Zeldin also, it has been reported, voted against certification of Arizona and Pennsylvania’s electoral votes for the 2020 election. Lee Zeldin also, it has been reported, misled the voters on his military career. Lee Zeldin was rejected from the Independence Party line in November’s election because his campaign had submitted over 11,000 signatures, photocopies, and now is at the center of a criminal investigation.
Lee Zeldin, the “tough on crime” candidate, didn’t bother to show up to vote on three important bills in Congress supporting police. Lee Zeldin voted to not support Joe Biden’s election victory, perhaps supporting Donald Trump’s lie that the election was rigged. Lee Zeldin, who in December 2020, joined 124 of his Republican colleagues in filing an amicus brief encouraging the Supreme Court to nullify Joe Biden’s win in four states.
In 2020 Lee Zeldin joined House Republicans calling on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and now claims he won’t strip rights of women if he becomes governor of New York. Does he really believe we the voters are that stupid? A recent poll, as reported on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” show, indicated that crime has increased 89 percent in the United States since Trump became president — and Lee Zeldin is the tough on crime candidate?
On Nov. 8, I am voting for Kathy Hochul for governor because I think Lee Zeldin is indeed dangerous for New York.
Sincerely yours,
ELAINE JONES
Chairwoman
East Hampton Independence Party
Choice of Religion
East Hampton
October 24, 2022
Dear David:
Supporters of our constitutional democracy would have Mike Pence awarded a laurel wreath for thwarting Mr. Trump’s attempted coup. Let’s hold off on the laurel wreath. Mr. Pence has just opined that the government may constitutionally force Americans’ choice of religion. So, before we give him the laurel wreath, let’s send him back to law school and reread the Constitution, at least the First Amendment.
Last week, after being baited by a far-right radio host, Mr. Pence opined that the First Amendment offered no protection against people being forced to have other people’s faith forced upon them. Mr. Pence posited that “the radical left believes that the freedom of religion is the freedom from religion.” He continued, positing that the freedom from religion was “nothing the American founders ever thought of or generations of Americans fought to defend.”
The First Amendment’s language on religion has two parts. Pence appeared to be familiar with the first: “Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise of religion.” But there’s a second part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” In other words, the Constitution gives people both freedom of and freedom from religion.
America’s founders opposed the government forcing religious beliefs upon the citizenry, not surprising in light of the religious oppression from which so many of the first colonists fled. Thomas Jefferson wrote in part that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship . . . but that all men shall be free to profess, and . . . to maintain . . . their opinions in matters of religion.”
And a couple of generations ago, hundreds of thousands of American troops fought and died to defeat an authoritarian despot who saw his life’s work to be the extermination of the Jewish religion. So, Mr. Pence’s view of history could not be more distorted — or dangerous.
In this vein, Mr. Pence embraces the establishment of a Christian America and proudly opined that the Trump-Pence pro-religious appointments to the Supreme Court are in sync with that view. Now, Mr. Pence urges voters to arm Congress with pro-Christian majorities to fulfill his vision of a Christian America.
It is hard to wrap one’s head around the dangers Americans face from the far-right fringe of the Republican Party. But there is none more ominous than the establishment of a nation that affords no freedom whatsoever to citizens to worship the religion of their choice.
Sincerely,
BRUCE COLBATH
Guess She Forgot
Wainscott
October 29, 2022
Dear David,
Reading that The Star endorses Kathy Hochul for governor indicated that you apparently did hear her comment that she didn’t understand why locking up criminals is so important. Duh! She refuses to fix criminal justice laws. She claims that judges cannot be trusted to determine that a defendant is too dangerous to release, despite being provided with the probation investigation results.
She has a district attorney who blatantly refuses to prosecute crimes, even violent sexual crimes against women. She needs more data, despite the recent statistics on rising crime. She was present when Governor Cuomo instituted the disastrous nursing home scandal, that cost thousands of lives, and the cover-up. In May, she pledged to investigate that; I guess she forgot. Her M.T.A. sending unarmed security guards into the subways — wait until one gets stabbed or killed.
The Buffalo Bills $850 million in taxpayer funds to build a new stadium, where her husband has a concessions interest; the chip factory in Syracuse with $52 billion in tax subsidies: Check the donor lists to see who gets the benefits. Let’s not forget the taxpayer paying double for the Covid test kits. Duh? Add in energy policies that send utility bills soaring, highest in the nation’s taxes, failing schools, and crushing business regulations.
Wake up and smell the roses. Just because she is a Democrat doesn’t warrant more of the same. So, it is evident by your endorsement, you accept that this in-your-face corruption is good for us? She should follow her own advice on the campaign trail: “Get outta town.”
ARTHUR J. FRENCH
In the Trash Can
East Hampton
October 31, 2022
Dear Mr. Editor,
I just wanted to give a positive note to one of your writers, Christopher Gangemi; I am a bird person and spend time watching the birds at my feeder, also while out on the high seas I will watch for them. His articles are informing as well as interesting. This brings me to his quote of, “no match for real human ignorance.” We are coming up on a very important election, much more important than your usual writers and editorial staff may realize, of which, by the way, I sometimes wonder if their I.Q.s match the temperature in the room. The letter writers and staff are still beating up the Republicans, when their own track record is in the trash can.
Let’s take a look. Are there any Democrats that have ever had a real job in our government, I mean a job where you have to produce or you don’t eat? So to list a few accomplishments of your party: going into winter with fuel oil approaching $7 a gallon, gasoline approaching $6 a gallon again, selling oil from our Strategic Oil Reserve to China, approximately 25 days of diesel fuel left for American commerce, groceries up anywhere from 20 to 50 percent, 4.5 million people coming over the border to points unknown (except for the 48 souls who ended up on Martha’s Vineyard and were immediately relocated elsewhere). Biden focuses on commercial airline “junk fees,” and Hochul focuses on catalytic converter theft. Really! You get my point. So if you’re happy with all those points, vote Democratic; if those points upset or aggravate you, then it’s Republican or Conservative.
As far as all the propositions go, my vote is no to all. I am against any further expansion, development, traffic, no parking spaces, and all the rest of the nonsense that goes with more people and less space. All those propositions will do nothing but promote traffic, congestion, and dense housing. Our current infrastructure really can’t handle any more traffic, and, people, just read your own paper, take a ride around 7 p.m. in the evening to check out all the side streets in and around the village; you would think it’s Fourth of July weekend. If you really want a treat, check out the County Road 39 traffic quagmire headed east. If you build it, they will come, as always.
Best regards.
Yours to command,
JEFFREY PLITT
Radical Faction
Springs
October 31, 2022
To the Editor,
Nationally and statewide, a radical extremist faction in the Democratic Party that has identified itself as the Democratic Socialist for years has supported and pushed for a pro-criminal agenda. In New York State, Democrats have enacted laws that favor criminals and place our lives in danger.
Democrats influenced by the radical Democratic Socialists of America have engaged in a decades-long, anti-police agenda that vilified police and encouraged violence to the point that assaults and violence against police officers were commonplace. In 2014 Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley shot and killed Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, two on-duty New York City Police Department officers, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Nationwide In 2021, the number of police officers killed by gun deaths increased by nearly 20 percent. In New York City, the police CompStat report shows serious violent crime is up 30.45 percent since. Yet astonishingly, Kathy Hochul states, “I don’t know why that’s so important to you,” in her debate with Lee Zeldin.
Locally, radical extremist Bridget Fleming last year made these statements on law enforcement:
Bridget Fleming stated, “There is no question of widespread inequity and racial injustice in government systems, throughout government, and law enforcement.” Violent Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots: “Very real and justified. And the outrage and the frustration that has been demonstrated in response to that brutal murder and the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and many others are genuine and justified. So, I’m happy for the movement.”
Defunding the police: Bridget Fleming has called for considering the reallocation of police funding to other priorities, such as social services
There has to be a change, and this election is our last best opportunity. If you value a safe community, please vote for: Lee Zeldin, governor; Alison Esposito, lt. governor; Michael Henry, attorney general; Paul Rodriguez, comptroller; Anthony Palumbo, senator; Peter Ganley, Assembly; Nick Lalota, Congress.
MANNY VILAR
Chairman
East Hampton Republican Committee
On the Bandwagon
Montauk
October 31, 2022
Dear David,
Many Democrats have accused Republicans of inciting violence, many accusations, even though the investigation has just begun and there is no concrete proof that the suspect DePape was motivated by politics in his violence against Pelosi.
It only took hours for the Democrats to jump on the bandwagon parroting each other with, “This is the same as the Jan. 6th insurrection.” They just couldn’t wait for any kind of investigation.
He was not a MAGA member; he did not support the insurrection of Jan 6; he was never a Republican.
David DePape was a known nudist activist who his ex-girlfriend says was a progressive and mentally ill.
As many writers to the editor throughout many years, has also couldn’t wait to start typing just can’t wait for truths to come out, never wait for investigations, just love to prove their sloppy lies.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
The Real Criminals
East Hampton
October 31, 2022
David,
There has been an insane television ambush of commercials on violent crime in United States cities. While this is somewhat true, it never mentions Covid, the economic uncertainty, and the political turmoil that is rife with violence anger and hatred. Guns are always kept outside the conversation.
According to Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a renowned author and scholar of extremism and radicalization, the U.S. is now viewed as a backsliding (declining) democracy heading toward increased violence and political chaos. She states that the U.S. began this descent about a year ago and if it remains unchecked could take as long as eight to ten years to return to being a functioning democracy.
It’s true that our criminal justice system is mediocre. Our prisons are crammed full of people, and our courts are often a display of pathetic partisan buffoonery. So, criminology is not about political parties (radicalization aside) or weak politicians, but a national issue that is complicated and connected to just about everything else. It is real but we are always full of shit when we pretend to deal with it.
However, the most violent and virulent crimes are about economic and political violence. When our politicians violate our electoral system and make up stories to justify their actions or when they pretend that a violent attack on the Capitol wasn’t really violent despite the videos, they tell us that violence in all its myriad criminal forms is really okay.
In the last weeks certain Republican politicians have laid out a plan of extreme political and economic violence against a large segment of the population. The plan, once they get control of Congress, is to force the government to shut down and extract huge reductions in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. (See Kevin McCarthy and about 50 others.) What they do with the money is irrelevant, tax cuts for the wealthy? This concept is 100 times more violent and nasty than shooting up a church or a bank or a school. It is a deviant act that will damage the lives of millions of people who will slowly expire under the process.
For example, a senior citizen lives on Social Security income, $2,000 monthly, Pays $800 for rent, $100 for utilities, telephone, cable, $50 for getting around, and $50 for clothes and sundries, leaving $1,000, or $33 a day, to live on. Take away 10 percent, and it’s $30 a day. If you have a car, it’s $25 after gas and insurance. Any out-of-pocket health care, medicine, etc., and maybe it’s $15 or $20 a day.
When you live on the edge, the slightest little push and you are over it. The question posed by Kevin McCarthy and his party is, why are these people alive and why are we paying for them?
Violent crime isn’t always a bullet in the head. It’s not about some dark-skinned guy with a ski mask and a gun. Ninety percent of the real violent criminals in the U.S. are white guys in suits with little elephant buttons on their lapels.
In an interview with Bob Woodward, Trump acknowledged being informed of the seriousness of Covid before the pandemic exploded, yet he downplayed the problem and led the country into a massive disaster. When asked if he might have done something wrong he said “No.”
If we blew up the Republican caucus, we’d cut the crime rate in half.
Lee Zeldin has a 13-point plan to control violent crime. Nothing about guns or possible causes of crime, nothing to stop crime. Zeldin, as always, full of shit.
NEIL HAUSIG