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?”
Category Archives: Newsfeed
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?”
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”
Where Police Work Can Pay in NY
These periodic pay reports from NY’s Empire Center (which I help support) are of more than nosy appeal. They chart the upper end of what public employees can stand to make in total compensation, which is a sometimes shocking reminder of how packages negotiated with compliant local officials can put taxpayers at risk. In communitiesContinue reading “Where Police Work Can Pay in NY”
More Productive = Less Political
I was encouraged to find an article stressing the importance of U.S. labor productivity in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, produced by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. (The CFR’s agenda includes national competitiveness.) The piece, produced by a former member of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers and a formerContinue reading “More Productive = Less Political”
Tangled Politics of Tribal Construction in Southampton
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,Continue reading “Tangled Politics of Tribal Construction in Southampton”
Tim W. Ferguson 