Editorials

Despite the acrimony and a surprise third candidate, the prospect of a contested election for East Hampton Village mayor has already proven to be a good thing, at least for a clash of ideas.

No sooner did we begin writing about the differences in village and town sign-law enforcement than a new annoyance arose. If you’ve been out and about in the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed them — new street-number signs placed by a certain home security company on which a red oval corporate logo is actually larger than the digits.

Now is the time for town and village officials in East Hampton to think about beach season and if existing bonfire policies are adequate. We believe they are not.

In 1918, the word “influenza” did not appear in The East Hampton Star until Sept. 20. On that day, the news from Amagansett led with a short note saying George V. Schellinger had been sick for several days. His was the first of many mentions over the next year and a half for the newspaper, which we have been looking through as a new pandemic looms.

Shopkeepers in East Hampton Village are not supposed to display wares outside their premises. Nor are they supposed to place signs in public view without meeting several standards. This even applies to “open” signs, as the owner of a high-end toy store on Park Place has learned.

East Hampton Airport could be closed. That was once so far-fetched that it was not considered a serious idea. That has all changed as industry, pilots, and the Federal Aviation Administration have made meaningful noise limits and flight reductions all but out of reach.

The stores have all but run out of hand sanitizer as fears of the coronavirus increase. A friend we spoke with said someone he knew, noticing that even Amazon was out, was able to order a vat from an industrial supply house for herself.

Unrepentant, Juan Figueroa, the owner of a modern house in Springs who hosted illegal for-profit parties there last summer, thought a $32,000 town settlement was well worth it. According to Page Six, he declared, “I would have paid anything to never see their unhappy resentful faces again.”

Census 2020 is coming, but many East End residents are at risk of not being counted.

Local news organizations are at the heart of a healthy, vibrant community, and readers who support them with their subscription dollars are, too. We thank you.

We find ourselves agreeing with Montauk business owners who object to a bike-share company that would like to set up shop there, so to speak. They say the start-up would eat into their rentals, which in at least one case, the Montauk Cycle Company, could be as much as a third of its revenue.

Cannabis is coming. That was one of the key takeaways from a recent forum in Sag Harbor on the future of marijuana cultivation and products in New York State.