Speed Deterrent
East Hampton Village
March 24, 2024
Dear David,
I read with great enthusiasm both your editorial “Bumpy Business” and the bigger story, “Humps, Bumps, and Speed Signs in East Hampton Village,” as they coincide exactly with a renewed priority of the Ladies Village Improvement Society and particularly its Nature Trail Committee. Where a hump or a bump — or any sort of speed deterrent — is really needed is on David’s Lane near the duck pond. This scenic and sensitive area overflows with families, cyclists, children of all ages, mothers with prams, and, of course, ducks and other treasures.
The care and preservation of East Hampton’s natural spaces is fundamental to the mission of the L.V.I.S. and now that our once-quiet side streets have become summer thoroughfares, it is imperative to address this issue at the most precious of village spaces, the Nature Trail.
It was with pleasure I read that David’s Lane will be repaved, probably by Memorial Day, and it needs it; but I fear that without some sort of speed restraint, the only result will be more thoughtless careening down our lovely Lane. We have commandeered a letter-writing campaign of David’s Lane residents to the mayor and with that, coupled with the importance placed on this issue by The Star, we are very hopeful for a positive result. Thanks.
DIANNE BENSON
A Better Montauk
Montauk
March 27, 2024
Dear David,
Over the last six years I have suffered several bone and joint infirmities. So much so that I must consider myself at least temporarily handicapped.
At the Montauk Post Office Monday, while emptying my post office box, a letter dropped on the floor. As I was positioning myself to pick it up, a young lady rushed over to help. Thanks.
My box had two yellow cards. That meant there were two packages at the counter for me. They turned out to be too heavy and bulky for me to carry. The counter employees offered to help. While waiting for the packages, I sat on a low ledge. I was then told that the packages would be delivered. Great news, and thanks, but I couldn’t get up! One of the employees, Alison, came around to help me up. My packages were received at home early that afternoon by Ron!
I then went to the Montauk I.G.A. The relined parking spaces are angled to prevent backing the car into the space, which would assist in loading groceries. That meant that I had to carry six bags to the trunk and back.
The best solution would be to reline the entire lot. Since the Highway Department did not listen to the management of the I.G.A. previously, I don’t expect them to now correct their mistake.
A partial solution would be to replace the two angled handicap spaces with those at a right angle.
For a better Montauk,
DAN BRIGANTI
Can’t Make Calls
East Hampton
March 30, 2024
To the Editor,
I read with some interest about the Camp Blue Bay cell tower activation. You did not mention the largest carrier, Verizon, and I don’t think they are active. You also don’t mention that the tower is a year late and that we need three or four more towers just to cover Springs. This is a public-safety issue and there have been many incidents that I am aware of where people couldn’t call for help in the Springs area. For instance, I have a friend who fell in the Springs park and was unable to reach anyone to help her.
I know there is a Nimby faction and a “we were fine with pay phones” group, but I believe strongly that this needs to become a major issue again. I am not sure how or why it was dropped, but, in my opinion, we should be marching on Town Hall to get all parts of the town covered properly. The board is very big on studies and I know that there has been a report issued on this problem and I still can’t make calls 30 percent of the time in Springs.
NEIL KRAFT
Solution? Dying
East Hampton
March 30, 2024
To the Editor,
Reading Bruce Damark’s and Pam Willoughby’s letters to The Star on the plight of senior housing in East Hampton has to touch people in a way that gets them off their couches and into the offices of our local government. What is difficult to understand is that there are only 120 senior housing apartments in the town and the only time someone gets an apartment is when someone living there dies.
So, if you are a senior [resident] in need of housing the two solutions relate to dying. Either someone else or you.
There is a historical perspective that is difficult to swallow that we, as Americans, have systematically avoided. We don’t recognize and appreciate the contributions of previous generations. We think that we built the streets and bridges and fought the wars and created our institutions. It’s a mind-boggling perspective that some, actually many non-Americans, would call subhuman.
The fact that it is irrefutable and repeated thousands of times doesn’t mitigate, in any way, the problem. Whether by design or circumstances we have a problem that needs to be solved and can, to some degree, be solved.
While it is easy to rail about the philosophical degeneracy of our political and religious worlds, with regard to seniors, it does little to change the situation.
Since the rental market has exploded and will never return to normal, we can’t look for the private sector to produce a lot of housing. The cost of land and construction is prohibitive and requires massive government subsidies for new housing stock.
The town, however, owns large swaths of land and has the capacity to access substantial amounts of fund at low interest rates. It also has the ability to change zoning to accommodate more units per acre than the town code now permits. It also has a smart and conscious planning force that, if given its freedom, could solve a large part of the problem. What is missing is the political will.
Every senior knows that when you look at Social Security, Medicare, and housing, the government is a reluctant participant in the process. Meaning that they rarely have the necessary tools and staffing to make the system efficient.
There are approximately 3,500 seniors above the age of 60 living full time in East Hampton. There are more than 130 seniors on the waiting lists for apartments. There are no new apartments under construction. Government exists to recognize and resolve problems. Otherwise it has minimal function. The thing about seniors is that they are all eventually going to die. A horrible solution to a serious problem.
NEIL HAUSIG
Thumb Their Nose
Noyac
March 31, 2024
Dear Editor,
Only closure of East Hampton’s toxic airport will halt the takeover of the town by out-of-state private aircraft owners and operators.
Those operators care not one whit about our communities. For commuter operators, the objective is profit; for aircraft owners, it’s convenience. They’re unconcerned about the impact of their flights on residents, that’s the town’s responsibility. They claim the “right” — day or night — to pollute our environment, to further endanger our health, and to continually imperil safety in our homes from repeated, often reckless, low-altitude flights. Once the daily dousing of toxic aviation fuel emissions and intolerable noise has rendered an area undesirable, pilots vary routes and direct their polluting flights over another formerly peaceful neighborhood.
Many visiting aircraft owners and operators and others masquerading as locally based pilots or flight instructors thumb their noses at restrictions and suggested voluntary curfews. When challenged by residents or the town, the aviation cabal’s immediate response is not dialogue, but litigation, usually accompanied by acerbic rants delivered by out-of-state spokespersons, often peppered with inaccuracies or doomsday claims of disasters that will befall the town should aircraft be denied access.
Seemingly unlimited proceeds from private aviation coffers are funneled through the legal system, as aviation plaintiffs respond to challenges nationwide from overwhelmed communities questioning open access and other excesses of private aviation. When a lawsuit pits the well-being of a community against unfettered airport access to private aviation, justice seldom settles with the majority — we, the embattled residents. Profit over people has become the norm.
The East Hampton Town Board must summon the courage to protect what matters most: residents’ quality of life and limiting proven dangers to our health, safety, and the environment, by closing the toxic monstrosity in our midst — East Hampton Airport.
Thank you,
PATRICIA CURRIE
Bravo to Steve
Springs
April 1, 2024
Dear David,
“Graciousness” means courteous, thoughtful, and generous.
The word applies to Steve, the owner of Straightline Roofing.
We contracted his company to put a new roof on our house 20 years ago.
Last week, due to exceptionally heavy rains, there was a single leak that dripped near an important electric outlet. We called Straightline and spoke with Sarah, who alerted Steve about the problem. To our delight, Steve came over the same day to fix the leak.
After inspecting the problem, he left to get a special tool and a ladder. He did so without hesitation or complaint. He came back quickly, climbed up onto the roof, and fixed the leak. And he refused payment!
Bravo to Steve from Straightline Roofing for keeping the spirit of community alive and reigniting the pride and professionalism so often absent in new tradespeople working here. Beyond the great job, it is Steve’s approach to business and people that makes him special — and such an asset to our community.
Thank you, Steve, for the good work and the good will.
Sincerely,
PATRICIA FEIWEL
DONALD SUSSIS
Six Figures
Amagansett
March 27, 2024
To the Editor,
The School Board of Amagansett looks to cut four special-education teachers, one of which is the only teacher in the actual special-education class. Don’t worry, it was already decided.
Discrimination against the most vulnerable students. Education, the reason a child is allegedly in school — though the board is more concerned about extracurricular activities. Those can’t be cut. Should have been the first cuts. Actually, not to be mean: If the pandemic hadn’t happened, my children would be the only ones attending kindergarten.
The school board is more adept at having a response to intervention (R.T.I.). They mentioned it multiple times. This is a school’s way of delaying services for children who may need special-education services. This is a tactic done before a child is even evaluated for services they may actually need. A child is to have the least restrictive environment, but let us delay and not find the answer to needs, and put a heavier burden on our educators you are keeping.
We have multiple teachers who have roles that no one can explain. What are they doing here for six figures a year?
People who are teaching the most vulnerable students are getting shown the door. Not to mention we are paying an M.I.A. principal and a former superintendent who we as a school may have been funding, for his vanity project, since 2019.
I hope you join me in voting no on the Amagansett School Board budget that would be piercing the cap to a whooping 7.7 percent. (Don’t worry. When’s the last time a budget didn’t pass?) I’m failing to see the educational value. But, hey, we’ll still have extracurricular activities. To the alleged blue-ribbon school now and forever with an asterisk.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Gift to the Village
Noyac
March 31, 2024
Dear David,
A few weeks ago, one of your brilliant readers suggested planting hedges in front of Hedges Inn to thwart errant cars from crashing into its historic porch and to beautify the heart of East Hampton Village with a serenity-type garden, welcoming those entering the village.
Lo and behold, as I took my morning walk Sunday, it appears one of your readers laid a 15-inch green-spire euonymus hedge in front of the Hedges Inn, awaiting its planting, with a paltry cost of only $14.98, as a gift to the village. I applaud his loving intention.
Beautiful.
FRANK VESPE
Not April Fool’s
North Haven
April 1, 2024
Dear David,
Consider this: As the huge container ship Dali became disabled, and about to hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, what could the crew do? The democracy of the United States is like that bridge. Strong, but also fragile if attacked in a certain way.
A ship of fools and self-serving political hacks is deliberately trying to destroy our democracy — right now, in their own certain and most dangerous way.
Are we citizen voters capable of waking up and doing the right thing to save it? We see some of this madness right here at home.
The letters graciously printed in The Star often display ugly lies and vile accusations, with no basis but hatred. Thanks to the editor, David Rattray, we have a clear view of this unfortunate segment of the community. These people will certainly vote, but they are obviously beyond logical, factual, productive, or civil discourse.
It is good to notice their useless and destructive cacophony, but it’s better to talk to other more reasonable folks who might understand the critical importance of voting thoughtfully.
Let’s not waste our time and breath on the fools. This is not an April fool’s joke!
ANTHONY CORON
Why Don’t You
North Haven
March 27, 2024
To the Editor,
We are members of a group, East End Jews for Israel, who stand up for Israel every Sunday at the wharf in Sag Harbor opposite a group which calls itself East End for Peace. Two of their members have written to The Star (March 21, page B8) to protest that they are “regularly harassed and interrupted with hostility” by members of our group. To that, we must plead partially guilty but not of harassment. Some of us have tried to engage members of this peace entourage in a meaningful dialogue concerning the validity and viability of the messages that they plaster over their signs. But they are apparently too spiritual to engage in any conversation with any of our members who wish to learn the basis of their positions or to hear our viewpoint on the issues of the day. Their response has simply been to chant on in a mindless sort of dirge reminiscent of the best practices of a cult.
So, we would like to alert the public readership to questions we would like the peace group to respond to in connection with their one-note passion to end the war in Gaza, that has as its primary objective the rooting out of the terrorist organization Hamas:
1. Why don’t any of the signs you carry mention the rise in antisemitism in this country?
2. Why don’t you protest the killing, rape, and burning of babies — all Jews — carried out by Hamas as part of its terrorist onslaught into Israel on Oct. 7?
3. Do you recognize Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas? If so, what limitations do you place against that right?
4. What is your position on Hamas’s policy urging destruction of the State of Israel?
5. What is your position on Hamas’s refusal to release the hostages? Doesn’t that, at a minimum, permit the war to continue unabated?
6. What is your position regarding the unique position that your viewpoint places Israel in — that historically no country that has been attacked militarily, by its enemy, has, as part of its military response, been called upon to protect the rights and safety of the enemy-citizens? Witness Dresden at the end of World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to finally force Japan to surrender and save the lives of tens of thousands of American soldiers?
7. What is your position on Hamas’s use of civilians as body shields or of hospitals and other civilian buildings as military outposts?
8. While you protest Israel’s military actions where is your visible and public concern for the massacre of the Uyghurs in China, the murder and massacre of civilians in Africa by the National Organization for the Liberation of Uganda, the slaughter of Kurds, and, most recently, the Russian war against Ukraine? Where on your signs and in your chants is mention made of these atrocities?
9. So why Israel? So why Gaza? What have any of you done to protect the State of Israel, borne of the atrocities of the Holocaust, from the glow of antisemitism that is sweeping the world? Where is your outcry and concern?
10. And, finally, to at least those of your ragtag group who identify as Jews, we have one last observation. One’s Jewishness, in our view, can’t be measured solely by devotion to the songs of our prophets; on a most basic level, when Jews are being threatened, once again, here and around the world, for being Jews, we think that the importance of the continued existence of Israel and the safety of its people is of paramount importance not only to those living there but for Jews everywhere.
DAVID SAXE
MITCHELL AGOOS
East End Jews for Israel
Will Seek Revenge
Montauk
March 28, 2024
Dear David,
How many more Palestinian civilian men, women, and children have to be murdered by Netanyahu before he is indicted as a war criminal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague? He has already killed over 30,000 civilians who were unable to gain access to Hamas tunnels.
The U.S.A. has always supported Israel as an outpost of democracy and an enemy of genocide since its birth in 1948. Under Netanyahu, neither policy is respected regarding his treatment of Palestinians — either in Gaza or in the West Bank.
The one most certain result of Netanyahu’s leadership is the creation of another generation of terrorists who will seek revenge for the killings of their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers.
Many thanks for Senator Charles Schumer having the guts to finally say what should have been said many months ago.
Sincerely,
BRIAN POPE
Hawking Bibles
East Hampton
April 1, 2024
To the Editor,
What is wrong with hawking Bibles on the heels of hawking sneakers?
In the Middle Ages, indulgences were sold to curry favor with God and if Trump is your god you know where to send your money.
TOM MACKEY
Weaponized Justice
Montauk
April 1, 2024
Dear David,
I’m sure by now citizens realize (even Trump-haters) that we have a two-tiered system of justice in America, where Joe Biden and his allies can get away with whatever they want and weaponized justice tries to see to it that Donald Trump dies in prison, for made-up crimes.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that Colorado lacked the power to ban Trump from the ballot. I’m sure other Trump-haters will continue to try to remove him.
Biden is circumventing the Constitution, even when the Supreme Court said he did not have the power to forgive student loans, he’s been on a rampage of finding ways to forgive billions of dollars on student loans.
Rest in peace, Detective Jonathan Diller. Pitiful that the president, being less than 40 miles away, couldn’t show respect. He was too busy being a star.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO