I’ve been waiting for the New York Post, which this month ballyhooed a coverage push into Long Island, to seize on a land-use story that captures its aggrieved-middle-class shtick. It’s the Shinnecock tribe’s rush to build a “travel plaza” (for starters) on its 79-acre adjunct site in a wooded part of the Hampton Bays hamlet, just west of the locally-renowned boating canal named for these earliest settlers. Construction of the giant gas station (officially recognized “Indian” peoples can sell without tax) along the Sunrise Highway is taking place in defiance of local zoning and abutting a neighborhood of homes that sell for less than the multimillions commanded on the east side of the canal–the true “Hamptons.” The Shinnecock have long eyed their so-called Westwoods holding for development; they say a bay-facing resort hotel will follow the fuel and convenience retail, and the neighbors further fear that once-quashed casino plans there will be resurrected. This is now a full-fledged political crisis in Southampton town, which includes the hamlet. The town council voted 3-2 just before the Christmas holidays to sue the tribe to stop the project, as the article below from the Southampton Press ably explains. The Press and the East Hampton Star, flagship weeklies on Long Island’s South Fork, are left-of-center editorially and support the tribe–thus contributing to a regional media vacuum that the conservative Post seeks to fill. The Hampton Bays homeowners complain that the town’s government, which is majority Democrat, neglected their concerns until the state of New York, which has its own beef with the Shinnecock, forced the issue. The hamlet has a longstanding grievance over being a “stepchild” to the richer nearby precincts. The only Republican on the town board has supported the residents, while the two most liberal members opposed the lawsuit against the tribe. So, in a twist, the GOP member is the most pointedly anti-development. Shinnecock leaders, meanwhile, brusquely won’t give an inch, asserting their own historical grievances. Underlying the pushback they face is an argument that Westwoods, which lies a few miles from the formal Shinnecock reservation in the town, is actually owned (in fee simple) by the tribe but is not part of its independent “nation.” Got all that? Maybe soon it’ll be distilled under a blaring headline in the Post. –Dec. 29, 2024
UPDATE 1/3/25: The Biden Interior Dept., in a letter released yesterday, sided with the tribe over its claim to territorial jurisdiction over Westwoods.
Tim W. Ferguson 