By David Rattray on Friday, February 19, 2010

The New York State governor gets into the office late and leaves early, puts friends in key posts, and uses campaign donations to pay for dinner at Le Cirque. What's the problem?

Governor Paterson's public relations team lost no time in preparing a rebuttal, sending out a combative missive at 1:20 in the morning, well before most Times readers had even cracked their copies. 

Peter E. Kauffmann, the guv's director of communications put it this way: "The New York Times – in trying to deliver a spectacular expose about the Paterson Administration that would somehow meet the expectations of weeks of over-hyped media intrigue – has instead produced a gossip-laden, subjective, and poorly-sourced narrative."

The defense recounts trying to sell The Times their own v ... Read More »

By David Rattray on Monday, February 15, 2010

New York is offering cash rebates for old appliances through Sunday, Feb. 21.

Read More »

By David Rattray on Monday, January 25, 2010

    An interesting set of comments has been posted about Leigh Goodstein's story on a subdivision plan for the old Joshua Bennett Edwards place on Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett.  The objections, and they are strong ones, are to the property owner's statement that the main house on the 10-acre lot could be demolished. Captain Josh, as he was known, was from one of East Hampton's earliest and more prominent families, and local residents, myself included, count him among their ancestors. He was my great-great grandfather on my father's side, the father of Everett J. Edwards, with whom he took the last adult right whale captured from a shore-launched boat. Captain Josh led a long and interesting life, and I have planned to write a book about him and his times.

  The following comes from three members of the Edwards family and pretty much sums up how many p ... Read More »

By David Rattray on Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The following came in too late for this week's issue, but it worth nothing. The local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group organized by and for surfers and their friends, has announced a beach clean-up at Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett for Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. Vehicle parking is for town residents only, though bikes can be locked up there are free anytime by anyone, no matter where they live.

A feel-good celebration of all the junk picked up by the volunteers will be at the Stephen Talkhouse on Main Street in Amagansett following the clean-up from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. for participants 21 and older. Barefoot Wine and Bubbly will be providing the drinks, as part of its Barefoot Beach Rescue Project. Details

Volunteers can sign up with pclairep@earthlink.net < ... Read More »

By David Rattray on Sunday, May 24, 2009

A visitor checks out some of Maripol's 1980s clubland Polaroids


This makes Melet's shop seem a lot less crowded than it was Saturday night.



Paul Sevigny spun records in the gallery space. It was just about the only decent music I have heard out here at an opening in years.

By David Rattray on Friday, May 22, 2009

At the Hermès pop-up store on Main Street smartly dressed young men are handing out horse balloons to mark the shop's opening day. There is a guy wearing a horse head standing out front and greeting passers-by with, "Good day."

By David Rattray on Wednesday, May 13, 2009

    Being hard-pressed for time this week, I was not able to turn the copious notes that I took during the Garden Club of East Hampton's forum on sustainable communities Saturday into a story for the paper. I had been invited to speak by the organizer, but when more knowledgeable guests were added, I was demoted to court reporter. This meant that I was able to listen, rather than fret about what I was going to say, which was okay by me.

    Linda James, who put together the nearly ... Read More »

By David Rattray on Thursday, April 30, 2009

From the more bad news department: Suffolk County has the distinction of being tied for the worst ozone level in New York State. This is according to the American Lung Association's "State of the Air Report," released Tuesday. You can download the complete report here. Pages 43 to 45 have the data for New York counties.

Out on at the whip end of Long Island, we tend to think of our air quality as fairly good, though in summer coming off Montauk, you can see a haze to the west, particularly when the wind is light and from the west. What's in it is a good question. For the county as a whole, the Environmental Protection Agency finds most other major pollutants within standards. It does confirm that the ozone levels were above what it considers safe, but that was at its only Suffolk monitoring station, in Holtsville.

Ozone c ... Read More »

By David Rattray on Saturday, February 28, 2009

    Like a lot of people, seeing my January bill from the Long Island Lighting Company, oops, excuse me, I am showing my age here, the Long Island Power Authority, got me thinking once again about alternatives. Well, these would be alternatives to asking Chuck Norris if he wouldn't mind delivering a few roundhouses to the members of the New York Public Service Commission.

    A solar or wind power system on the roof would seem to be the way to go. I have never bought the idea of "buying green power" from someplace up the grid. If anyone wants to subsidize no-carbon electricity generation, fine, but there has to be a better way than give even more money to LIPA. Even at current electric rates and factoring in the various rebates, a home or commercial photovoltaic installation is still expensive, kind of like paying for 7 to 10 years of power up front.

    One ... Read More »

By David Rattray on Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Sag Harbor Express is reporting this week about a huge and horrifying new proposal for a controversial development on the village's waterfront. Take a look at the architect's rendering here.