For Alex Feleppa of East Hampton, all roads did not lead back home. Rather, it was a path he and his wife had to deliberately create, starting with a promise they made to themselves in writing.
Sort of.
Using his hand, while taking a walk at Indian Wells Beach on a freezing January day in 2012, he etched "Operation 2012: Escape N.Y.C." into the sand.
"That was kind of it, the moment when the switch flipped," Mr. Feleppa, who grew up in Amagansett, recalled this week. "We didn't know where we were moving on to, but we were committed to the adventure of figuring it out."
He and his wife, Krissy Feleppa, had been living in Astoria for several years, but four months after that beach outing, they closed on a fixer-upper in East Hampton. It beat out prospects in the Hudson Valley and in Long Beach, just east of New York City, and they did much of the necessary work themselves. Fast-forward to 2021, and the Feleppas and their two young daughters, Fay and Jolie, are settled in — active in their community, working and playing hard, and enjoying life.
"An important part is sort of taking the time to re-evaluate your situation every once in a while," said Mr. Feleppa, 44. "We change and grow and evolve, and we may feel differently later on. Right now, I'm really thrilled, really happy, to be here."
As it turns out, the get-outta-town narrative, explored in last week's East Hampton Star by several prominent community members who recently moved away, is far from the only story there is to tell.
Mr. Feleppa's move inspired his brother, Gian Carlo, and his family to soon follow him from the city back to the South Fork. Noah Zingarelli, who grew up in Springs, found solace in the hamlet's natural beauty after a family tragedy led him back home. Naomi Worth, another Springs native, returned with her son when it became clear that life as a single mother in Virginia was going to be too challenging. And Rebecca Underdown wasn't lonely or bored in California, but when the pandemic hit and she got Covid-19, she felt drawn back to East Hampton, where she is surrounded by loved ones and the thriving cultural scene that she always enjoyed.
"I have some friends who have bought homes here and are making it work for their lifestyle, and I have friends who have left. I see both," Ms. Underdown said this week. "I would say you can plant your roots anywhere you want — but what's your desire, and what do you value?"
A 2000 graduate of East Hampton High School, she had an acupuncture practice in San Diego for many years. Having returned in March of 2020, she now works in real estate for Saunders and Associates and teaches kundalini yoga at the Body Shop.
"I'm so happy to be back. Is it different? Yes, it's different from when I grew up," Ms. Underdown said. "Things have changed, but there is still so much that is beautiful — the beaches and the towns — it's truly, in my eyes, the most beautiful place ever."
The cost of living does not make it easy. "I work a lot in order to live here. That's kind of my statement," she said. "I do it because I love it, period."
One thing she doesn't love, though, is the social divide between longtime residents and more recent arrivals, which she said was exacerbated during the height of the pandemic. Her philosophy is more inclusive. "I was raised to minimize the divide between locals and people visiting, and I continue to do so on a personal level, and it's important to me," Ms. Underdown said.
Ms. Worth happened to be in Springs visiting her family when the pandemic arrived. She had been teaching and working on her Ph.D. in religious studies at the University of Virginia, but classes abruptly shifted online. Then she got pregnant, and she didn't want to place her son in child care when he was only a few months old. "I was faced with the prospect of renting my own apartment, working, and paying for child care in Charlottesville. I moved back here because it was cheaper," she said.
She also lived in India for 19 months on a Fulbright fellowship. Now, she's doing a remote internship teaching nonviolent communication to politicians on Capitol Hill in order to "create connections in our divided country." On Harbor Boulevard, where she lives with her family, there are so many kids that there's a community play group every Monday.
Ms. Worth knows if she wants to stay local she'll need to find a good job, perhaps teaching social studies at the Ross School or East Hampton High School. "I teach at the University of Virginia, one of the best schools in the country, but you still have to have a New York State teaching license" to work in public schools here, she said.
On the magnitude of change here over the years, "I think the only thing that is the same is the feeling you get when you dunk your head under the ocean in August, which is the most amazing thing I can think of."
For Mr. Zingarelli, family and nature were also extremely important. They helped soothe his soul after his daughter, Mia Bella, died of a rare illness in 2014 at the age of 7. He had been living in Massachusetts, near the acclaimed children's hospital that treated his daughter. He returned to Springs the following year — just in time to help his mother, who had started to have health problems.
"I had been wanting to come back to New York for a while, especially the East End. I really do love it here — there's something about Springs," said Mr. Zingarelli, a 1993 graduate of East Hampton High School. "It was bittersweet in some ways because of everything I had just gone through, but it was very comforting to come home as well. It was very restorative and was an opportunity to quiet down and get some much-needed down time."
Mr. Zingarelli remarried in September. His wife, Alex Burst, who had been a seasonal resident in her youth, has family a mile down the road. "We talk about moving to other places, but we both love it so much," he said.
Of course, Springs has changed, but he said it's still possible to tap into that small-town community feeling that made so many people fall in love with this place.
"I understand why people want to leave and try something new — I feel like I'm between both camps," he said. "I love it here and can see myself here forever if that's a possibility. I'm not too sure. There's kind of a question mark over our housing situation. If we didn't have the place that we're in now, if we needed to move, I don't know if we'd be able to stay here."
But for now, though, "I really love walking through the woods out here. I love going to Gerard Drive, watching the moon rise when there's a full moon," Mr. Zingarelli said. "I'm a big fan of sunsets, too."
