Fixing the Problem
East Hampton
October 31, 2024
Dear David:
Thank you for reporting on the County Road 39 Study. In response to your article, I submit the following:
There was a time, before the automobile, when there were no cars on the South Fork. Today, there is an infestation of vehicles. Next year, there will be more. Are we to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result?
If we think of the South Fork as an island, separated from the mainland by the Shinnecock Canal, this arrangement presents an opportunity for taking control of our traffic. Existing technologies, such as congestion pricing and real-time traffic counts from services such as Google Maps, combined with the potential for increasing rail capacity (i.e., elevated tracks along the Long Island Rail Road right of way, á la J.F.K. AirTrain and/or high speed trains to and from Shanghai airport) offer a solution:
Install electronic toll gantries on the two roads crossing the canal. Contract with services such as Google Maps and/or Apple Maps for a real-time feed on the number of vehicles moving about the roads on the South Fork and use these data to automate real-time adjustment of the toll charged at the canal. In this way, traffic on the South Fork can be controlled by increasing the cost of entry, as required. Tolls can be made to be prohibitive.
Issue bonds to design and implement a superior public transportation alternatives:
• Rail service from UpIsland stations to South Fork train stations.
• Feeder services to and from South Fork train stations to secure parking areas or other destinations (A tradesperson could leave one’s vehicle on the job site or at a secured parking area and commute to work on public transit. Day trippers could be encouraged to move about using public transit, ride-share, Citi Bike, etc.)
• Ferry services, other solutions. Innovate. Think outside the box.
We would pay the debt service of the bonds for the above with revenue from tolls and public transit fares.
Fixing the traffic problem will improve all our lives, save hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours wasted daily sitting in traffic, and make it easier for all of us to move about and do the things we want to do, without the stress of the road. Let’s reduce the traffic and fix the problem instead of implementing solutions to improve traffic flow, which solutions inevitably increase traffic and compound the problem.
DON ROBERTSON
Vital Resources
Amagansett
October 29, 2024
To the Editor,
The East Hampton Town Board is allowing the destruction of the high moraine of the Stony Hill aquifer, the source of water for every well in Springs, Amagansett, and northern East Hampton, including all the public water sent to Montauk through the Red Dirt Road pumping station.
Violating the town’s comprehensive plan, which states that the town is to buy every lot in the Stony Hill woods that it can to protect the aquifer, the town has just let three really important lots get away to private development: the vitally important Peter and Mary Stone 20-acre property, complete with kettle holes and what Chief Pharaoh said was the Montauketts’ winter village and is written about in all books about the Montaukett s, the Dick Smolian property, and the Saskas property.
It is truly astonishing that the Democrats, who used to be counted on to protect vital resources, such as water, have become the development-friendly party at all of our expense. Every voter in Springs, Amagansett, northern East Hampton, and Montauk should demand that our representatives own up for their failure to protect our water. If the town board had pursued these vital parcels aggressively, they could have bought them all, but their initial offers were ridiculously cheap and easily overtaken by private interests. We need environmentalists on the town board who are going to protect our water.
ALEXANDER PETERS
President
Amagansett-Springs Aquifer Protection
‘Despicable Me’
Amagansett
November 3, 2024
To the Editor,
Today marks 2,293 days that Bay View Avenue’s access remains obstructed. “Despicable Me” isn’t just a movie; Gru and the minions appeared for Halloween on Main Street, as Maria Dorr’s hearing continues. The highlight of the hearing might just be Irene Silverman’s cameo observation. We’ll leave it to her to share.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Let Her Be
Springs
November 4, 2024
To the Editor,
Ripples on a pond go on and on, sending waves to the sand, of this beautiful land, and the creatures that stir in that muddy water, through the seeds of their lives we’ve opened our eyes.
Mountains rise high in the sky, let them be,
Rivers flow out to the sea, let them be.
Take what you need, and leave the rest, let her be.
The fires that burn, in the dark of the night, slip through the cosmos, in these rhythmic modes, sending waves to the sand, of this beautiful land, and their secrets unfold, like a long winding road.
Mountains rise high in the sky, let them be.
Rivers flow out to the sea, let them be.
Take what you need and leave the rest, let her be.
The sun comes up and you’re seeing the colors in the canyon wall, so you stand up and you feel like you’re one with the mighty all, your body burns as your heart yearns to feel more and more, and it all stems from the seed that sowed in that muddy water.
Mountains rise high in the sky, let them be.
Rivers run out to the sea, let them be.
Take what you need and leave the rest, let her be.
JEFF HINES
Glaring Omission
Sag Harbor
November 4, 2024
To the Editor,
What are we — chopped liver? Jews have this expression when we feel overlooked, unheard, ignored, bypassed, devalued. In your editorial endorsement for Harris-Walz, you endorse the critical values of decency, common sense, rationality, science, truth, competence, support civil servants, teachers, poll workers, and advocate for reproductive freedoms, public broadcasting, consumer protection, clean energy, affordable health care, NATO, etc. High up on your list, you state that trans men and trans women and Muslim Americans don’t feel safe, and Puerto Rican Americans feel denigrated. Nowhere in this exhaustive list of many important issues do you acknowledge that Jewish American students don’t feel safe on their college campuses.
American Jews don’t feel safe (even in the Hamptons) when continually exposed to or targeted by an alarming increase in acts of overt antisemitic hate crimes, covert social media attacks. The Jewish community is under continual threat. This glaring omission acknowledgement overlooks the importance of spotlighting these existential antisemitic issues. Shine a light on hate.
For the record, Kamala Harris is supported by several Jewish PACs, such as jewishdems.org (Jewish Democratic Council of America) as the only candidate with a strong record of standing with Jewish Americans in our fight for safety, reproductive freedom, civil liberties, and democracy.
And, also for the record, chopped liver is a very tasty dish. While often served as a side dish, it nonetheless deserves a prominent place on the table.
RIVALYN ZWEIG
So Important
Springs
November 1, 2024
Dear David,
A personal note of appreciation for The Star’s Harris editorial this week. Nobody anywhere or any place has said it better. I wish it had instant national circulation. So important.
Thanks,
BILL HENDERSON
Fact-Check That
Montauk
November 3, 2024
Dear David,
My iPad is so old, completing some things are not simple for this lady. I tried to add to my letter last week with no good results. Here goes: Deborah Goodman, calm down, get in touch with Hillary Clinton, ask her what wine she took into the woods with her. Follow her advice.
I don’t recall ever singing praises of Donald Trump. Many times I’ve stated I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I’ve crossed the aisle to vote more than once; reason? I believe in America, our Constitution, and even the Bill of Rights. I believe all are equal.
I don’t believe that we need or should have to fundamentally change America, Barack Obama started this, shoved it in his campaign, knowing no one would notice. I did, and he lost my respect and vote.
As much as I dislike Donald Trump, I believe he will help America, get us on track to some kind of normalcy. I need to be able to eat and pay for heat. I’m tired of layering tons of clothes in the house just to be warm. Gasoline needs to come back down to two dollars and change.
The biggest lie jumping around the presidential election is Kamala Harris’s claim that Donald Trump will ban abortion nationwide. Wherever you live, state legislators elected in your own state will determine your abortion rights. That is what the Supreme Court ruled in 2022, when it overturned Roe v. Wade. Fact-check that, Ms. Goodman, also Francesca Rheannon. One question: Where are the baby’s rights? Read Proposition 1 again. I can’t find the abortion clause. It’s vague, not clear to vote on.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
Ray of Sunshine
East Hampton
October 31, 2024
Dear Mr. Editor,
Hope all is well with The Star. After all your editorials spewing conservative, right-wing hatred, I finally did see a bright ray of sunshine. Your editorial “In Defense of Gunning” in the Oct. 24 issue was a nice breath of fresh air.
JEFF PLITT
About the Election
East Hampton
November 2, 2024
To the Editor,
It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m back home from a walk around the neighborhood. As I strolled, not thinking about the election, this came to me: We will get the president that we deserve.
TOM MACKEY
White’s Montauk
Montauk
November 4, 2024
Editor,
Probably one of the saddest days of my 83 years that I have lived in Montauk was last Friday when I read the sign on the door at White’s Drug and Department Store that read “White’s is now closed.”
My grandfather W.F.E. White opened the Montauk White’s Drug Store in 1925. He wanted to be on the ground floor of Carl Fisher’s dream of making Montauk “The Miami of the North.”
The store was in the Pierson Building, which housed a movie theater and a hardware store. The building is across Montauk Highway from Montauk Tavern (now Shagwong Tavern) and Sears Market (now Herb’s Market). The Montauk store was in addition to the drug stores my grandfather owned in the affluent towns of Bronxville, Oyster Bay, Glen Cove, Rockville Centre, and East Hampton. He expanded his reach to East Hampton and eventually Montauk, where so many of his regular customers spent their summers on the South Fork.
My grandfather had earlier purchased Muchmore’s Drug Store in East Hampton (White’s Apothecary today), married Alice Fox White, who then gave birth to three children, William, Richard, and Alice, in their home on Huntting Lane. Later they moved to an old East Hampton house next to the drug store on Main Street.
The stock market crash of 1929, the ensuing depression, and a stroke changed it all for my grandfather. He lost most of his holdings, including the family home and barn (couldn’t pay $400 in taxes) next to the drugstore (where John Papas now stands).
My grandfather’s physical and financial setbacks forced my dad to drop out of Dartmouth and my Uncle William out of Wharton School of Business and get their pharmacist graduate degrees from Columbia University to save and operate the East Hampton and Montauk stores. Uncle Bill got the East Hampton store because he was the elder brother.
My dad, who lived a spartan life in the converted real estate offices above the drug store, struggled to keep the Montauk store afloat during the 1930s only to have the Hurricane of 1938 blow out the west and front walls of the store. My mom, Ruth Schauer White, came out from Port Washington to help dad put the store back together. The two of them had met the previous summer when she came to Montauk to visit her aunt, Ma Honey, who owned the hardware store with her husband, Pa Honey. Mom and Dad married in 1939. Pretty soon, Mom was the head salesperson, bookkeeper, homemaker, Cub Scout den mother, alto member of the Community Church Choir, treasurer of Montauk Community Church. Dad: the head pill-roller and the boss.
The store was open 7 days a week year round — in the summer from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., in the winter from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and all other hours when folks would knock on the apartment door asking for an emergency prescription.
In February of 1941 my mom and dad’s world was rocked when the addition to their family was a screaming, curly red-haired boy who was born and named after his father. Other than the first four days of my life in Southampton Hospital, Montauk has been my home. My brother, Robert, was added to the clan in 1948.
Growing up over the drug store was fantastic for a young lad. The store was a luncheonette, an old-fashioned soda fountain and a store that also sold candy and comic books along with cosmetics, clothing, magazines, toys, Sperry Top Siders, Keds sneakers, T-shirts, sweatshirts, swimsuits, beach balls, Hodgman canvas air mattresses, baseball bats, baseballs, cameras, film, winter hats, mittens, cigarettes, cigars, pipes, tobacco, and all other drug store sundries. My close friend Jimmy Hewitt used to say that I never had any real friends, just other Montauk schoolkids who wanted access to the “goodies” of the drug store when they came to play with me.
Later, as I got older, there were the daily chores: pasting the “scripts” in the “scripts” log books, sweeping the floor, throwing out the garbage and restocking the shelves. And on Saturdays the dreaded putting together of the early sections of The Sunday New York Times. In the 1940s and early 1950s White’s Drug Store was the only place in Montauk to get a newspaper: The New York Timers, The Herald Tribune, The Daily (and Sunday) News, The Daily (and Sunday) Mirror and The Journal- American. On Sundays hundreds of people would line up on the sidewalk to get the Sunday papers.
The essence of my dad’s management style can be summed up in one of my favorite stories about him. One day a fellow came into the store asking where he could buy some men’s white briefs. My dad asked if he could wait until the next day when they would be available in the store and the man agreed that he would come back. My dad then called his friend Abe Brown, who had a clothing store in Greenport. Abe would then put a selection of men’s white briefs on the Greenport-to-East Hampton bus to the attention of my Uncle Bill. When the bus arrived in East Hampton, Uncle Bill would fetch the package and would call my dad who would send my mom to pick up the briefs in Uncle Bill’s store. From that day on White’s sold men’s white briefs. That story could be repeated many times for many different products over the next many years.
Then in 1953, my dad, who realized that his two boys were not going to follow in the family tradition of becoming pharmacists, sold the business and leased the store to Al and Jen Rattiner; Al was a pharmacist from New Jersey. Apparently, and unbeknownst to me, I was part of the deal, as I was on the job during the Rattiners’ first summer. The argument as to who really owned White’s — Dan Rattiner (Al and Jen’s son and the Dan of Dan’s Papers) or me — was settled after a few days when I was released (fired?) to go on to a most lucrative career as a lifeguard and cabana boy at the Montauk Surf Club, the last member of the White family to be involved in the drug store.
Al and Jen carried on the spirit and tradition of a country drug store. Al and Jen waited on customers every day and became a part of the Montauk community. Al was even a member of the Montauk Fire Department. They continued to maintain the phrase common in Montauk “You can probably get it in White’s,” whatever “it” was. Feeling the old store was way too small for the thousands of items of merchandise, Al and Jen then built the present large building in 1967 and changed the name to White’s Drug and Department Store.
Al and Jen eventually sold the business to Paul Shertz who, after a few years, transferred the lease to Frank Zwelsky. When Frank died the ownership of the business went to Deryn Trott.
Al and Jen’s children, Dan and his sister, Nancy, eventually inherited the building, which they sold in early 2024 for a rumored $3 million, to someone little known here in Montauk. So the store and community business that could be celebrating its 100th birthday in 2025 will now face an uncertain future. And so will my Montauk with Gosman’s and White’s consigned to the history books.
Curious but very sad, I am,
DICK WHITE JR.