timwferguson

When YIMBY Comes to a Southampton Hamlet

Providing “affordable housing” in the midst of a price surge on the East End of Long Island, N.Y., is challenging enough—but the additional political wrinkles that come with each specific project were on display this month at a community-board meeting in the North Sea hamlet of Southampton town. It took place not far from whereContinue reading “When YIMBY Comes to a Southampton Hamlet”

Asking for Relief to Hellish Hamptons Street Traffic

The traffic snarl and its side effects on the South Fork of Long Island have been a longstanding but worsening problem. Various efforts have been mulled or tried to alleviate it, though few would revisit the fateful decision a half century ago not to build a bypass to the sole east-west highway–which is often clogged.Continue reading “Asking for Relief to Hellish Hamptons Street Traffic”

There’s No Ducking What Curbed Long Island Farms

The agricultural history of the gentrified East End of Long Island is preserved in spots today through pricey row crops and vineyards that were not part of the early 20th century action. Back then, the big harvest was potatoes and there were plenty of local dairies and duck farms. This week’s edition of Dan’s PapersContinue reading “There’s No Ducking What Curbed Long Island Farms”

Text Journalists Should Stick to Their Keyboards

I’m sorry to be seeing and hearing so many of America’s ranking journalists. And why is that? The mission of the journalist is to Find Stuff Out, and ideally convey the Stuff clearly, concisely and accurately. That’s why we bemoan the shrinkage and even closure of so many news staffs, particularly at the local level.Continue reading “Text Journalists Should Stick to Their Keyboards”

Data Factories Within Reach of the Hamptons?

Squaring New York State’s stringent green-energy law with the looming demand for power-intensive data and AI centers is going to be hard enough most places, but especially on Long Island. There, long-standing grievances against the electric utility, now known as LIPA, that date back at least as far as rejected nuclear-plant aims from the 1960sContinue reading “Data Factories Within Reach of the Hamptons?”

Moneyball 101: Reloading and Releaguing College Football

“College football” is not only more like a professional game at its higher levels these days, but it is also as much of a business story as a sports one. At the moment, the phenomenon of NIL (name-image-likeness) payments to the athletes is focusing attention on Texas Tech University. For years, Texas Tech has hadContinue reading “Moneyball 101: Reloading and Releaguing College Football”

Hamptons Living With a (Tree) Farm View

In the hypermarket that is today’s Hamptons real estate, a property bordering on an agricultural reserve has a powerful selling point. Anyone with a few million can have a McMansion, but is your vista protected from somebody else’s development? Still, there are reserves, and then there are reserves. And what I picked up from aContinue reading “Hamptons Living With a (Tree) Farm View”

Where North Fork Nuclear Almost Was

Nuclear energy was one of many development prospects on the East End of Long Island 50 years ago that are little remembered there today because they didn’t happen. This month’s print edition of the East End Beacon, a news site concentrating on environmental and land-use issues with particular interest in the island’s North Fork, featuresContinue reading “Where North Fork Nuclear Almost Was”

A Sag Harbor Preserve…For Whom?

Sometimes land preservation doesn’t do much for the public, at least visibly. That’s been the case with an old dairy-cattle spread in New York’s Sag Harbor Village called Cilli Farm. This month’s article in the local Express weekly describes the nine acres as “a tangle of brambles, invasive plants and litter”–see the photo taken yesterday.Continue reading “A Sag Harbor Preserve…For Whom?”

Rail May Yet Figure in Hamptons’ Future

While planning decisions, including sites for scarce housing, continue to be made piecemeal in “the Hamptons,” just to the west in Brookhaven town major infrastructure is in play. This week’s update on the opening of a new Long Island Rail Road station near the Long Island Expressway in what some call East Yaphank is aContinue reading “Rail May Yet Figure in Hamptons’ Future”