No Supervision
Springs
September 30, 2024
To the Editor,
I heard there was going to be a live marine-species exhibit at the largest-clam contest last Sunday at the Life-Saving Station in Amagansett, so I went to check it out. What I saw was appalling. They put some baby fish, some looking quite tropical, along with some oysters and clams in a tiny box about the size of a sink. There was no supervision, and they allowed the kids to put their hands in and chase the fish, cornering them, picking them up, and squeezing them before returning them back to the water. I could see the fish were stressed out, breathing hard, not moving, and lying on their sides. I thought to myself, “By the end of the day these fish will all be dead,” and if any were still hanging on to life I wondered if the person in charge would even bother to put them back in their natural habitat.
I’m all in for killing fish if you’re going to eat them, but when you torture and kill to amuse yourself, that’s shameful action.
Imagine how the kids and their parents would feel if some intelligent alien from another planet came here to Earth and took them to their planet, stuck them in in a small bin, and did that to them.
Let’s stop thinking we are above nature; we are not.
We being the most intelligent, technically advanced species on earth should know better and should teach our children that to torture and kill for no good reason is disrespectful and shameful.
Please respect nature and remember, we are all part of it.
JEFF HINES
An Idiot to Try
East Hampton
September 29, 2024
Dear David,
Last week’s letters from Jonathan Wallace and Fred Kolouch criticizing our work force projects were disappointing at best. Obviously my “puppies and rainbow” approach, as Jonathan called it (cute phrase, by the way) didn’t work, since they missed the entire point of this project.
So, let’s be factual and not poetic.
Fact one. With home prices starting at well above $1 million and home rentals at $75,000 a year, 95 percent of all workers/residents in East Hampton cannot afford to live here.
Fact two. The town is overwhelmed with demand, as demonstrated by 453 applicants for the 50 units at the Point at Gardner’s Green and 17 lots in Cantwell Court offered to 170 people on the 2017 still-active waiting list.
Fact three. There is no other town-sponsored project on the near (five years) horizon for those hundreds of local families desperately seeking housing.
Fact four. In the 40 years of the affordable-housing initiative not a single private venture has been sponsored to help address any aspect of this problem.
So, we stepped up and bought 350 Pantigo and plan to build up to 48 one to three-bedroom units for sale to local businesses. They will be sold to large concerns like Southampton Hospital and Riverhead Lumber and small ones like Hampton Coffee, Joni’s, Sausages Pizza. Even Project Most wants some.
These units will be sold at prices well below comparable housing. They will remain affordable by limiting annual price increases to 5 percent in perpetuity. They will be regulated by the town to ensure only workers from the firms buying are residents. The cost of rentals can be no more than 130 percent of the local fair market rental rate.
So, will we house workers from doctors and teachers to dishwashers and cooks? Yes. Will they be protected from avaricious employers? Yes. More important, any employer who tries to take advantage of a worker would be an idiot to even try it. Right now, workers have the upper hand. They are prized, like precious jewels. What employer in his right mind would go to the trouble of buying a unit, finding a top-flight chef to occupy, and then driving him out, only to see him scooped up by the competition with the same arrangement but handled fairly?
You may know some employers who are that dumb, but the ones we know are far from it. They understand this is a heaven-sent chance to secure housing at a price they can afford in an area that is 95-percent unaffordable. As for those I even suspect of gaming the system, with over 100 requests for only 48 units, I don’t need nor want them.
What I do need is a basic appreciation of the unprecedented crises we face here for housing across the board. We are trying to address a specific sliver. The town is trying its best. I suggest anyone who thinks seriously about the issue gets behind us all to help us make some progress before what little of this community that is still left disappears.
KIRBY MARCANTONIO
General Partner
Whalebone Workforce Housing
Make Things Worse
East Hampton
September 26, 2024
To the Editor:
No, Jeff Bragman, your idea will not work. You keep writing that the fast, easy fix for the intersection of Two Holes of Water Road and Stephen Hand’s Path and Long Lane would be to add two more stop signs so that all approaches must stop. Unfortunately, that would make things worse. When all four lanes of cars would be at the stop signs, who goes first? Who goes next? There’s no way to determine who got there first. It would be a mess. It would cause accidents.
Every approach has two lanes, some have a created third for turners. You can go straight, you can turn right, you can turn left. There are 12 choices in total. Some drivers do not signal. Actually, a better answer would be a traffic light, coordinated with the one on Route 114.
JANE ADELMAN
He Smashes Things
Springs
September 28, 2024
To the Editor,
Just read of the latest attack on Sag Harbor by Mr. Potter (“Big Deal in the Works in Sag Harbor,” Sept. 26).
If he doesn’t get his way he just smashes things.
Read this again, as a reminder of his latest: “In 2022, Southampton Town made an offer to purchase 2 Main Street as an extension of the abutting John Steinbeck Park using money from its community preservation fund. The offer was rejected.”
Not parkland for the community. He’d rather sell two prominent buildings as a package to be developed mega-style. ‘Cause that’s how he rolls!
DANIEL FRIEDMAN
The Better Candidate
Springs
September 30, 2024
Dear Editor,
At the Democratic National Convention this past summer, Michelle Obama implored people to do something with regard to the upcoming election. In that vein, I am writing in support of John Avlon to be our next congressman for the First Congressional District. He is hands down the better candidate -– smart, with a wealth of historical knowledge to offer, a pragmatic and extremely common-sense approach to the demanding problems that our country faces, and a desire and ability to work in a bipartisan manner. And that is just the beginning. Please do your research by checking out where he stands on the issues. I am hopeful that Kamala Harris will prevail as our next president, and she will absolutely need a majority in Congress to enact her agenda. Were Trump to win, we absolutely need a Democratic majority to safeguard our democracy as he tries to tear it apart. Republican Congressman Nick LaLota supports Trump wholeheartedly and backed the Supreme Court ruling eliminating Roe v. Wade protections. First and foremost, go out and vote. Early voting begins Oct. 26 and Election Day is Nov. 5. It is my fervent hope that John Avlon will be your choice.
NANCY KARLEBACH
An Ounce of Sanity
Springs
September 30, 2024
To the Editor,
Trump is a political arsonist, spewing hatred and lies, setting rhetorical fires that burn bright in his wake. Since the presidential debate, where Trump bellowed, “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump and Vance are still doubling down, repeating the disgusting lies at public appearances and telling new ones, like “migrants will walk into your kitchen and cut your throat.”
Add to this the Republican mantra that climate change is a hoax, and that overturning Roe v. Wade was a “step in the right direction,” at least according to our congressional representative, Nick LaLota, and anyone with an ounce of sanity and compassion has seen more than enough.
John Avlon, Democratic candidate running for C.D. 1, recognizes that bold solutions are needed to combat climate change, and believes that women deserve to make their own decisions about their reproductive health care. And unlike Nick LaLota, John Avlon will not bend the knee to the aspirational hater in chief.
Sincerely,
CAROL DEISTLER
Open Sesame
East Hampton Village
September 29, 2024
To the Editor,
Well, I’m pretty sure I do subscribe to The East Hampton Star as a copy arrives in my old-timey mailbox every Thursday, but I’m no longer really certain even of that as I cannot access the so-called digital version as it scolds me for having already read 10 articles, which is unlikely in any case that early in the game, and tells me I must sign in. I summon the box, which helps out by showing my email, but if I ever had a password for The Star I have no idea what it is. The helpful box suggests that I can enter a password of my choosing and then changes the password to that choice. Or so it says, because I still cannot access anything further and it still says I need a password. Well, it just asked me to change it if I wished and misled me to believe the changed version would be my “open sesame.”
A further attempt to be helpful really just puts things into another similar loop, but this time advising that I call The Star. Well, I’ve done that before and learned that all one gets is somebody there bragging about how many calls they receive, and asking one to wait until someone answers. In my own experience, this is another invitation to just tie up their phone lines. I will say they may be learning from a master as I find that one will have a similar experience anywhere you want to visit on the web. But the problem will be solved on Thursday with a short walk to my mailbox and the rest of the web can go back to examining its own belly button. But don’t fall for that either as it doesn’t have one!
FRED KOLOUCH
Purrrfect
Montauk
September 26, 2024
Dear David,
The recent New York Post bombshell expose of the Mar-a-Lago club’s restaurant is sure to have a dramatic impact on the November election. According to the article, the restaurant has been serving cats and dogs to its unknowing patrons since 1995 when the club opened. Numerous former chefs and buyers for the restaurant have confirmed that two menu items, Chicken Florentine and the Tomahawk Pork Chop, actually were parts of former family pets. The chicken dish was made with breasts of a Persian kitten, and the Tomahawk Pork Chop was actually carved from a medium-size Rottweiler puppy.
According to anonymous sources, the pet switches were on the orders of Donald Trump, who wanted to confirm his belief that wealthy people were just as stupid as poor people. The program got off to a turbulent start when arguments took place over whether pure breeds or mixed breeds should be used. In the end it was decided to use pure breeds because they would be better fed (Purina Cat Chow and the Farmer’s Dog) and healthier than mixed breeds (family table leftovers) owned by poorer folk.
Most of the cats and dogs were seized by members of Trump’s Animal Crew, ex-cons and rapists who specialized in burglaries and home invasions. The animals were then euthanized in a special hidden room in Mar-a-Lago and served the next day. Very few of the patrons who ate the dishes ever complained that the food was a little “off.” Those who did complain were told by the maitre d’ that their palates were not quite sophisticated enough to appreciate the exceptional quality of the meat. Most of the patrons who ate the Chicken Florentine stated that it was “purrfect” and some of the eaters of the Tomahawk Pork Chop licked the faces of their partners and wiggled their backsides after leaving their tables.
It remains to be seen if this report will energize “cat ladies” and A.S.P.C.A. supporters to vote in greater numbers in the presidential election in November.
Cheers,
BRIAN POPE
Justice Is Blind
East Hampton
September 30, 2024
To the Editor,
Perhaps justice in these United States is blind. So it strikes me that even in the liberal Northeast, such Democratic crooks as former Senator Menendez and Mayor Adams are prosecuted along with Republican felons Trump and Santos.
That justice pursues all, minorities and those who trade on whiteness alike, is something we can feel good about.
TOM MACKEY
Hundreds of Thousands
Montauk
September 30, 2024
Dear David,
Attorney General Merrick Garland, best friends with Joe Biden and a Donald Trump hater, indicted three Iranians last week for hacking Donald Trump’s campaign. I guess an election is upon us. Now, it’s time to do your job. Garland stated, “The American people and the American people alone will decide the outcome of our country’s elections.”
Yet on the same day his Department of Justice sued the State of Alabama to stop it removing 3,251 noncitizens from its voter registration rolls. Allowing foreigners to vote destroys Garland’s stated aim of sovereignty for the American people.
Kamala Harris, the so-called border czar, cannot evade responsibility for the irreparable damage on her watch, after 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens entered the country. This includes hundreds of thousands of criminals and terrorists.
Do your homework, please. Think hard. Vote for what’s good for the country not because a woman is running. Not that you hate Trump, the arrogant man, but because you want a pay raise, less taxes, and less government regulations. Wouldn’t it be nice to pay less for groceries, put fuel in your car at around $2? Kamala wants to give you money to purchase a home. Where is she getting this money from? Could it be a huge raise in taxes? There’s no other way. A tax raise is so-o-o in our future.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
Project 2025
Montauk
September 28, 2024
To the Editor,
I recently read in the letters section from someone who signs off on their letters “In God and country.” In the letter, the last paragraph states, “F.Y.I. Donald Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. His name is not connected to it.” Project 2025 is more than 900 pages long and Donald Trump’s name is mentioned over 300 times in the first 320 pages, but I take solace in hearing from trusted letter writers that he is not connected to it.
MIKE SKARIMBAS
Touching Loyalty
Amagansett
September 30, 2024
To the Editor:
In last week’s letter, Larry and Curly refer to me as a “peripatetic blatherer.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “peripatetic” means “traveling from place to place, in particular working or based in various places for relatively short periods.” Since I now leave the area as rarely as possible, I’m not sure that’s a particularly good adjective for me these days. But hey.
Speaking of blather as we were, Curly, bringing an illegal bullhorn to his counterprotests in rather futile efforts to drown us out, once chanted, “Turn Gaza back into a sandlot.” A moment later, after one of his rapidly dwindling group of supporters apparently remonstrated with him, he said, “Okay, don’t turn Gaza back into a sandlot.” The last time we saw them, months ago, Larry and Curly were again alone. My theory is that Curly’s appalling rhetoric alienated people who thought they were coming out merely to support Israel, and not maximal violence in Gaza. Given Curly’s lack of a filter, Larry’s loyalty to him is rather touching.
Enough. In my responses to the dynamic duo, I have posed a series of questions, about their connections to MAGA, the behavior of people trolling critics of Israel, the fact that not all Jewish people (myself included) support their morality and worldview nor characterize as antisemitic the things they do. I have asked Larry about the apparent disconnect between his career as a judge and his unabashed support for Curly. No responses, just more rhetoric. Now they are hovering on the edge of calling me an antisemite, a tactic which Walt Kelly colorfully characterized as “the least refuse of a squirrel.” Mine is the proud Judaism of Maimonides, Spinoza, Mendelssohn, and Einstein. What do you guys stand for?
For democracy, compassion, and tolerance in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE