Sag Harbor’s Re-Emergence, in One Address

This weekend’s New York Times real-estate section has a nicely turned encapsulation of changes in the village of Sag Harbor, N.Y., over the last four decades. It’s told through the ownership of one of the formerly modest homes from the “UnHamptons” village’s industrial past–houses that now sell or rent for a fortune in Sag Harbor’sContinue reading “Sag Harbor’s Re-Emergence, in One Address”

Political Upheaval on the Southampton Shores

Amid the national “blue wave” at the polls Tuesday, engaged Southampton Town Democrats scored another triumph, most notably in sweeping five trustee seats, traditionally a Republican redoubt in much of New York’s Long Island. Town trustees manage the various (and many) waterfronts, including both salt and fresh-water ponds (aka lakes). They are distinct from theContinue reading “Political Upheaval on the Southampton Shores”

Hamptons Builders Face Less Room for Outsizing

Today’s Newsday catches up with East Hampton township’s reductions in just how large houses there can be built. This issue has gathered on the East End of Long Island, N.Y., in recent years as “mansionization” is blamed for changing the characters of neighborhoods–both visually and demographically–and for quickening the rise in land and thus homeContinue reading “Hamptons Builders Face Less Room for Outsizing”

Is Southampton Using Permits to Weed Out Commerce?

It’s common among preservationists on the East End of Long Island, N.Y., to regard the town of Southampton as lax in its allowance of development and other commercial concerns. There’s some basis* for that, especially in contrast to the town of East Hampton, but just as much reason to see dilatoriness in getting projects approvedContinue reading “Is Southampton Using Permits to Weed Out Commerce?”

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”

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?”

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”