May Day 5K
East Hampton
May 4, 2025
Dear David,
I am once again overwhelmed by the generosity and spirit of our community! I just came from the May Day 5K at Main Beach, which I help organize on behalf of the Old Montauk Athletic Club. Proceeds from this race are donated to the Tyler Project in Montauk, which helps support youth in mental health crises.
You may recall that this race was the brain child of Dylan Cashin and Ryleigh O'Donnell, who worked with Mayor Jerry Larsen and Bradford Billet of the East Hampton Village Foundation post-Covid, as a way to give back to the mental health community for the support that it needed during and after the pandemic. Over the past three years, we have donated over $45,000 to the Tyler Project and the Family Service League.
This year with Ryleigh and Dylan having graduated from high school, Lucy Knight and Vanessa Paradiso, high school freshmen, have taken over. While they had some big shoes to fill, they were more than up to the task, and it is because of them that we received so many generous sponsorships and donations again this year.
I want to personally thank both Mayor Larsen and Mr. Billet for all of the support from the village and the village foundation -- without them the race simply would not happen. The crew at Main Beach -- Ed Budd, Donnie McGovern, Drew Smith, and James Amaden -- were also instrumental, as was Sgt. Richard Sperber and his team of traffic control officers who kept all 761 runners and walkers safe. All of the volunteers who showed up (too many to mention) and, last but certainly not least, all of the runners, walkers, and the one roller-blader who showed up and spent their Sunday morning in support of the community.
This is why we live here!
JENN FOWKES
Shocked to See
East Hampton
May 5, 2025
Dear David,
Condolences to you and your family on the death of your mother. Her legacy endures through you and your siblings, her grandchildren, and the pages of The East Hampton Star.
Now to a practical matter: Have you strolled down Main Street in East Hampton recently? I did on Sunday and was shocked to see a lurid, unsightly, cartoonish bench parked in front of Dylan's Candy Bar. Eyesore is not descriptive enough to convey to you the hideous nature of this tasteless addition to the fabric of the village.
How is it possible that a merchant in the Village of East Hampton is not permitted to have a striped awning on a storefront but a multicolored, molded plastic bench is condoned? I fear that we may be heading down a slippery slope.
Sincerely,
ELIZABETH DIBBLE MILNE
Helen Kept Fighting
Chico, Calif.
May 5, 2025
Dear David,
I'm sorry to hear Helen passed away. I always knew she would live a long life -- how could someone that fierce not? I admired her and enjoyed working for her (and you). She was a demanding boss but always fair. I felt valued and respected, and when my work pleased her, it meant something.
My favorite memory of Helen: One of those Wednesday morning last-minute copy-editing sessions out back. Your mother comes in carrying a rival publication, one of those glossy lifestyle things that were popping up even in 1999. With a most sour look, she holds up the cover, a splash of bronzed blond female. "So. So. Pulchritudinous!" she says with her inimitable condescension.
I chuckled with so much affection right then. How many battle-hardened news editors would even have such an outre, yet apropos, word at their disposal? (By the way, though it sounds like it might refer to prominent features of the female anatomy -- and I'm certain Helen intended it that way -- the dictionary tells me it only means "beautiful.")
If it had only been about working for you and Helen, at a newspaper that let its writers write to a high literary standard (a rarity), I might have spent my whole life at The Star. The problem, David, was East Hampton. An impossible place for me, for reasons that were (and still are) entirely my own. Beyond that, though, I realized even 25 years ago that the things gone wrong with the world were not turning around. Our current political catastrophe has borne out my conclusions. One has to save oneself before hoping to save what's left of a world gone as mad as this.
Helen, though, kept fighting week after week for decades. East Hampton would be much the worse off now if she hadn't. Helen Rattray was one of a kind and her legacy is indelible. I will remember her with deep respect and fondness.
JEFFREY OBSER
Argue in Court?
Wainscott
May 5, 2025
Dear David:
An article about the proposal to amend the town code to allow the town to exempt itself from local zoning review ("Hearing Put on Hold," April 10) reports that suit has been filed against the zoning board of appeals and the town, which argues that "8 to 10 months to schedule a hearing cannot be deemed reasonable, especially when applications take up to a year to be deemed complete."
I won't speculate about whether the litigation will succeed, but it seems to me that the argument being made by counsel echoes the "exemption justification" found in the town attorney's memorandum that the proposed amendment "allow[s] for the timely development of these [town] projects, which may otherwise face delays. . . ."
How will the town argue in court that delays faced by private developers are reasonable, when the town is seeking to amend the town code in order to avoid those same delays? Or will the town argue that delays to the town are distinguishable from delays imposed on private developers, when both delays are in the service of the same zoning code that has served the town so well for 40 years? More to the point, should town projects, which may have environmental impacts equal to those of any private project, avoid delays merely because they are town projects?
One final point: The town attorney's memorandum also argues that "adopting a local law which exempts the town from the Zoning Code is not novel. In fact, municipalities throughout the state have adopted similar legislation."
I'm not persuaded that the experiences of other municipalities have any bearing here in East Hampton. In February 2024, the Town of Brookhaven dissolved its planning board, transferred all planning functions to its town board, and announced, "The action was taken to streamline applications, save time, save money and eliminate the 'red tape' commonly associated with the process of obtaining a community-supported planning approval." (See, Greater Patchogue, "Brookhaven town dissolves its planning board to eliminate 'red tape' " Feb. 29, 2024.)
This is not to suggest that our town board is about to dissolve the planning board, but exempting the town from the zoning code merely to satisfy some falsely perceived need for expedited treatment of so-called "Community Resources," merely because it's being done elsewhere in the state -- and nearby, at that -- might start us down that very unattractive road.
Sincerely,
SAMUEL KRAMER
Jaine Knows Stuff
Amagansett
May 2, 2025
To the Editor:
Jaine Mehring is my hero. Anyone can rant like me, but Jaine knows stuff. When she accepted an appointment to the zoning board of appeals, I had a sinking feeling. Though the town board typically neutralizes critics by attacking, marginalizing, and excluding them, it sometimes simply absorbs into town government those who are very knowledgeable, without being aggressive. The victims think they can make a difference, but they can't, because the entire structure is too rotten. Jeremy Samuelson was a case study. In either case, a critical voice is silenced.
Now the word is that developers' lawyers are asking Jaine to recuse herself on the grounds she is biased against plans for mansions, swimming pools, and the razing of dunes. Ha! Given the two body blows delivered to the Z.B.A. in the last few years, the first by Q, the billionaire hobbyist filing eight lawsuits as covering fire for the Duryea's expansion, and the second a knockout delivered by the town itself, I am not even sure the Z.B.A. still matters.
Town voters would greatly benefit from Jaine's being vocal and on the outside again. Or if she runs for supervisor.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Muddled Ramble
Springs
May 4, 2025
To the Editor,
How thoughtful that some of our local Democratic stalwarts took time out from their myriad other interferences in our lives to let us Republicans know what we're doing wrong. Jonathan Wallace, who as far as I know still has his law license despite his latest stunt -- getting tossed out of the room by the judge at a Maidstone Gun Club hearing -- blames me and Manny Vilar for the current plight of the local Republican Party. If Mr. Wallace were a Republican, his recent outrage would have received lots of attention. On the other hand, if he were a Republican, he wouldn't behave as he does.
More important, the editorial page of The Star, in a muddled and incoherent ramble about authoritarianism and abuse of power and other alleged but unproven misdeeds, lays the blame on, who else, President Trump. Long on slander against Trump and the brilliant Stephen Miller, and absolutely devoid of facts or particulars, the editorial blasts Trump for calling out Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker, who openly urged violence against the president. The editorial fails to mention that one of the actions recommended by the Chicago Blimp was to punch the president in the face. Sounds pretty violent to me.
Of course neither Manny nor I nor President Trump is responsible for the current state of affairs in East Hampton. I have not been chairman or even active in the party for several years, and Manny is not responsible for the overwhelming numerical advantage the Democrats have.
That's the problem. The Democrats. You'd think the absolutely staggering levels of fraud, corruption, incompetence, taxpayer-funded lawfare, and outright theft and treason uncovered by Elon and his band of merry Musketeers would give at least some of our staunchly Democratic friends and acquaintances reason to have second thoughts. Our former Congressman Lee Zeldin, now Environmental Protection Agency administrator, discovered maybe the most blatant crime. In his waning days in office, Sleepy Joe gave $2 billion of taxpayer money to Stacey Abrams, the election denier. Why? Because, with absolutely no record of environmental activism, she started a fund dealing with environmental issues. Previously, the fund had exactly $100 on hand. That's right, she now has $2,000,000,100. Possibly the greatest grift of all time.
Many of my Democratic friends are reasonably intelligent. Yet they were willfully blind to the obvious failings of the decrepit, corrupt, incoherent, and creepy zombie who stumbled around the White House the last four years, kept somewhat awake by a God-knows-what combination of potions and medications Sadly, even the astonishing levels of crime and malfeasance revealed by the DOGE, and the admissions by the media of how much they lied about Sleepy Joe's decrepitude, have not mattered. Worse, Democrats now demonstrate on behalf of Hamas supporters who attack Jews even on college campuses, with little or no backlash from their fellow Democrats.
Democrats are now in a position where they have to defend open borders, 15 million or more illegals, gang-bangers, human traffickers, child rapists, murderers, slave traffickers, tons of fentanyl and spies and terrorists. They were not just "allowed in" but urged to come, clothed, fed, escorted to planes and trains, given welfare, credit cards, expensive hotel rooms, phones. Border police were even made to change diapers for them. How do the Democrats deal with their history? They march around like drunken college students, cursing and screaming and vandalizing, attacking DOGE and the whistleblowers instead of the miserable wretches in the bureaucracies who stole and misspent literally trillions of taxpayer dollars. But then, lots of that money went into Democratic and Democratic-aligned coffers, didn't it?
Mr. Wallace's letter notes how disappointed he is in the current Democratic town leadership. He ought to focus more on the national level. When A.O.C. and Bernie the Bolshevik, and Joe's cackling companion, Kamala, are your front-runners, you're in trouble. On the other hand, given their record and the issues they have to defend, with more coming out almost daily, who'd want to lead such a party?
Sincerely,
REG CORNELIA
--
The allegation that Stacey Abrams or any organization she headed received $2 billion from the federal government has been debunked. Ed.
'We Have Plans'
Amagansett
May 4, 2025
To the Editor,
Last year we never got to understand what the Amagansett School Board had planned for the house it owns. Kevin Warren told the community, "We have plans." He would leave the board before anything came to fruition.
I wonder if the board was going to try and potentially rent the home out? They had previously done so, as outlined in Star archives, in 1997. Unfortunately, the board was allegedly allowing a discount to a friend. A noble cause perhaps. But not what was best for their constituents.
The school board should be collecting fair market value by way of rent from the individual who occupies it currently, as well as ask that individual to vacate the home in the summer. What would a South of the Highway home on the lanes in Amagansett fetch as a rental in the summer? We can all speculate.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Honor His Oath
East Hampton
May 3, 2025
To the Editor:
While Representative LaLota has promised no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, the reality is more complex. The budget resolution he supported aligns with President Trump's commitment to large tax cuts for the wealthy, which are projected to require nearly $900 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade to offset the cost. These cuts threaten vital health coverage for millions of vulnerable East End residents, including seniors, children, the disabled, and low-income families.
Moreover, Trump's tax policies, including proposals to exempt Social Security benefits from taxation, would accelerate insolvency of these programs and shift the burden onto future generations, risking significant benefit reductions. While lower taxes are often touted as economic relief, the removal of the SALT deduction has already harmed many middle-class homeowners in our community.
I remain hopeful that Representative LaLota will honor his oath of office by carefully weighing these impacts and voting to protect the essential programs his constituents depend on.
Sincerely,
ANDREW VAN PRAAG
Brave
Springs
May 1, 2025
David,
Excellent and brave editorial, May 1, "When Information Becomes Treason." Clear and forceful, and much needed in these perilous times.
REV. ROBERT STUART
Why You Write
East Hampton
May 5, 2025
To the Editor,
I write regarding your sterling editorials from May 1. In the last paragraph of "When Information Becomes Treason" you explain why you write of such things.
No explanations needed. We, your loyal subscribers, appreciate your grace, insight, and courage. Charge on!
TOM MACKEY