Sense of Place
Amagansett
July 28, 2025
Dear David,
On behalf of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, thank you for your column highlighting our history during our 45th anniversary. Your thoughtful and supportive words mean a great deal to our members and the broader community who cherish these open spaces of natural beauty. Your column captured the essence of our mission: to protect and maintain the beauty, accessibility, and integrity of East Hampton’s trails for generations to come.
We’ve all witnessed the changes in East Hampton during these past 45 years. In a time of rapid development, environmental pressures, and growing public use of our open spaces, our mission has never been more urgent — or more meaningful.
We warmly invite all East Hampton residents to consider becoming members of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society whether you walk the trails often, occasionally, or not at all. We are proud to offer a range of guided hikes, historical walks, and collaborative events with other local organizations — programs that highlight the rich natural and cultural heritage of the East End. Our work is about more than trails; it’s about preserving a shared sense of place, purpose, and, most of all, the spirit of community. We are proud to be part of the fabric of our beloved East Hampton since 1980. Learn more at easthamptontrailspreservationsociety.org
With gratitude,
IRWIN T. LEVY
President
For a Leash Law
Springs
July 26, 2025
To the Editor:
Like many proposals, this one, for a dog leash law in the Town of East Hampton, is borne, in part, out of personal experience. My car almost hit a dog. I was going slowly, just missed the pooch, which suddenly spotted a fellow canine across the road and bolted. The dog had no leash and was in the charge of a nanny, who smiled but did not seem to understand my concern. Afterward, the pooch came up to my car window for a sweet hello and nose rub.
A neighbor was not so lucky. She described an incident where a large, unleashed dog attacked her daughter in the street.
The issue is not friendly or unfriendly dogs. It risks injury to an animal or person and damage to a car. Unlike Southampton or Sag Harbor, the Town of East Hampton has no dog leash law. When I spoke with the dog warden in town, I found a sympathetic ear. She advised I write to the board, which I did, copied town attorneys. Only Ian Calder-Piedmonte had the courtesy to reply. Dedicated to “transparency,” he told me he did not support a dog leash law, because he did not think it would pass, nor did he support my proposal that a question be put on the ballot in the fall. On the other hand, in the interest of being open, he said he would look into dog leash laws in nearby jurisdictions and speak with the dog warden.
For years, I would take my friend’s Lab on the Animal Rescue Fund Walk to the Beach and never once saw a dog off leash. When I queried bringing the topic to the attention of my local community for its views, it was suggested that I not be “political.” Political? Even controversial? Are we that far gone into divisiveness that we cannot address an issue that has to do with safety?
JOAN BAUM
Were the Mainstay
Springs
July 22, 2025
To the Editor,
Last week, July 10, Jon Diat, as always, wrote a good, if slightly benign, piece about both the Uihlein Marina’s Grand Slam tourney as well as capturing the character and of this year’s honoree, Capt. Rob Aaronson, and his legendary boat, Oh Brother.
As a lifelong want-to-be charter boat captain (I tried just did not have what it takes, most don’t) there is no one that admires this man more than me: If they made collectible cards like baseball (they should), Rob would be top-three card of mine possibly edged out by Michael Potts and Paul Genagreco of the Fisherman 2. And when the Coast Guard pulled me off my swamped Boston Whaler one cold November night 10 miles off the Point, I hired Rob to go look for the boat the next day, and, though we did not find the boat, I was thrilled to be up in the pilothouse of Oh Brother.
As always The Star came through with a good piece. I always wonder why so many Montauk locals hate The Star, especially when they are resolutely pro-commercial fishermen, dragger, gill netting. The Star barely covered the Gosman case regarding the undocumented illegal landing of thousands of pounds of fluke. Which brings me, alas, to my point and what was certainly the elephant in the room regarding the Grand Slam Tournament: Where the fa$#k are the fluke? And please don’t say they are cyclical. I personally think draggers killed the lion’s share of them, deeply hurting the recreational fishing industry. Just look at the results board of the Grand Slam: Some boats did not even land a single keeper — unheard of five years ago when, like the striped bass, fluke were the mainstay of Montauk fishing.
JEFF NICHOLS
Tesla Stadium
East Hampton Village
July 27, 2025
David,
I was disappointed to learn the village administration has decided not to install Electrify America EV charging stations in the long-term lot. Built on an agnostic platform, they’re compatible with almost all EV vehicles today.
What remains is Osborne Lane’s Tesla Stadium, where there are 12 little-used proprietary Tesla Superchargers. Unfortunately, Tesla’s share of the EVs on the road is 45 percent and dwindling daily.
What to do with another white elephant?
DAVID GANZ
A Tinderbox
Lazy Point
July 28, 2025
Dear David,
East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and the town board’s response to the Napeague area’s dead pine trees: “We share your concern and fully support efforts to improve safety in the area” and, “We believe it would be valuable to jointly advocate for an accelerated timeline for the state’s planned work” in the article, “Napeague Fire Was a Learning Experience,” after four and a half years since the dead tree situation appeared, is weak, unacceptable, and irresponsible. Where is the leadership and action on the part of our elected officials? What are they doing as active advocates for their constituency — local firefighters, first responders, and homeowners?
The public meeting held on this topic on Feb. 13, and the recent article, referenced the hiring of a certified burn boss — who/where is this burn boss — hiding in the woods?
My husband and I recently had the opportunity to converse with a firefighter team that travels America and lectures on firefighting — combative and preventive. We explained the situation to the best of our abilities, showed them Google Maps, mentioned the bats, etc. Their collective response was to bulldoze all of the dead trees.
East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and the town board: Hire those bulldozers now! Given our fire chief’s professional opinion that, “the downed trees burn just like a dead Christmas tree” and that the felled trees create serious barriers to access potential fires, Napeague, Promised Land, and Lazy Point are a giant tinderbox just waiting for a spark, a cigarette, excessive heat to launch a large, inaccessible fire. People in these areas would be trapped in their homes. What do you want, another Maui?! It’d be on your conscience, your shoulders, when this happens and you and the board have done absolutely nothing but defer to the state, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Pay the price later but protect your citizens and their homes now!
P.S.: No one from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, 631-321-3529, whom Kathee has recommended to contact, has returned my phone call.
Sincerely,
PAMELA KEEN
Needs to Act Now
East Hampton
July 28, 2025
Dear David,
In regard to the situation on Napeague, Chief Beckert’s suggestion to change the “false narrative that our woods are somehow safer because these trees have been felled and left in place” seems like a “duh!” moment. How could anyone think leaving the dead trees would stop fire spread, not to mention the obvious issue with getting fire apparatus into the woods with all the downed trees?
Kathee Burke-Gonzalez’s response of, “the town does not have jurisdiction over these lands” and, “we have long urged the state to manage its properties on Napeague” is typical political passing of the buck. When a fire starts it will be volunteers from departments in the Town of East Hampton tasked with battling the blazes and homes owned by residents of East Hampton at risk. The town needs to act now, regardless of who owns the land.
RICH MOREY
Growing Urgency
East Hampton
July 25, 2025
Dear David,
As a candidate for the East Hampton Town Board and a lifelong member of this community, I feel compelled to speak about an issue of growing urgency: the large number of dead and dying trees across our town, especially in our pine forests. The pine beetle infestation has left vast tracts of woodland brittle, brown, and dangerously flammable. If last week’s brush fire in Amagansett reminded us of anything, it is how quickly things can escalate, especially during hot, dry spells.
We are fortunate to have an extraordinary group of dedicated volunteer firefighters who risk their lives to protect us. But we must not ask them to face increasing fire hazards without greater support. Addressing the spread of dead trees isn’t just about aesthetics or property values; it’s a matter of public safety. The town must work proactively with state and local partners, as well as our local fire departments, to manage fuel loads, clear hazardous dead wood, and improve response access in vulnerable areas.
As someone running for town board, I believe we must prioritize the protection of both our natural environment and the people who call East Hampton home. That includes honoring the commitment of our volunteers by giving them the tools and conditions they need to do their jobs safely and preventing disasters before they start.
Respectfully,
J.P. FOSTER
Thoughtful Decisions
Wainscott
July 28, 2025
Dear David,
Kudos to the town board and Highway Department for the roundabout at Long Lane and Stephen Hand’s Path. It’s a clear improvement in safety, harmony, and pollution reduction. Things can get better in this town when thoughtful decisions are made.
As for the airport and the gun club, mindless decisions are being made to continue an untenable status quo of awful noise, needless pollution, destruction of our sole-source aquifer, and erosion of quality of life.
To maintain a high-volume commercial airport that the overwhelming majority of citizens either despise or ignore is wrong. To sell leaded fuel for aviators to spew on us is wrong. And to maintain a needless outdoor shooting range — one directly in flight paths of incoming aircraft — is equally mindless. We don’t live in some bucolic rural outback — we live in the world’s chicest construction site. Anything our town leaders can do to improve quality of life for local citizens is mindful — and most welcome.
BARRY RAEBECK
Illusion of Safety
Amagansett
July 25, 2025
To the Editor:
Here is a prime example of the things I think about when I can’t sleep: What did Christa McAuliffe and Fern Holland have in common? Both died relying on a promise made by government that an activity was safe. Ms. McAuliffe, as you probably remember, was the schoolteacher in space who died in the Challenger explosion. Ms. Holland, as you probably don’t, was a 34-year-old civilian lawyer who was shot to death in Karbala, Iraq, in 2004 by men dressed in Iraqi police uniforms, just short of a year after President Bush displayed his huge, inane “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Ms. McAuliffe was scheduled to conduct daily classes from orbit, and Ms. Holland signed up to help Iraqis establish democracy.
I was thinking of Ms. Holland and Ms. McAuliffe while reading “Napeague Fire Was a Learning Experience” by Christopher Gangemi in last week’s paper. We too have a government-induced illusion of safety that, relied on too strictly, can lead to terrible harm. I always thought it was the role of government to try to achieve safety, not merely to talk about it.
Years ago, when the pine beetle infestation began, I heard that the town would upon request cut down any dead tree but would not remove it. Our woods are full of wildfire fuel now, standing dead trees and fallen or cut ones, in a hot spell accompanied by drought — California conditions. Some of us probably still think that fires, which can travel 14 miles an hour, are something only visible on television in other places — that is one way we lean into the illusion of safety.
The Manorville fire in April traveled three miles into Westhampton. If the Napeague fire (I live on Napeague) had burned that far, it would have gone more than halfway to Montauk or Amagansett — and destroyed some houses on the way.
It’s easy to say that we don’t have the resources to cut down and remove all the dead trees, or even to make fire-breaks everywhere they are needed. But how can we know what we can or can’t do when we are not even having the conversation? Organizing ourselves to accomplish even a small percent of the work would at least remind us that we are free agents in the world, and not merely wood chips washed about in ocean waves.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Stephen Hand’s Path
East Hampton
July 23, 2025
To the Editor,
The traffic light at the intersection of Stephen Hand’s Path and Route 114 needs to be adjusted. The red light for Stephen Hand’s Path lasts close to one and a half minutes. The green light is only 28 seconds! Very few cars get through. This is the shortest green light in the Town of East Hampton. This creates a traffic backup to the new roundabout. The green light needs to last at least one minute. Many cars take Two Holes Of Water Road rather than wait and wait on Stephen Hand’s Path to get through.
Speaking of Two Holes of Water Road, fix the potholes! Repave the road! Get to work, East Hampton Highway Department.
JANE ADELMAN
Buy This Land
Dummerston, Vt.
July 27, 2025
Dear Editor,
Born in 1974, I lived in Sag Harbor from age zero to 16 and again from 1999 to 2001. I attended Sag Harbor public schools from third to 12th grade, and graduated from Pierson. My mom still lives in Sag Harbor.
Growing up, I was grateful for the positive news and opinion articles The Star gave to the Northwest Alliance. My dad was a farmer and the volunteer president of the group, which led a successful effort to protect Barcelona in East Hampton Town from being developed. According to nysClimateImpacts.org, sea level rise will make large parts of the East End uninhabitable within the lifetime of today’s children. Southeast Vermont, where my wife and I have lived and farmed since 2001, is a natural place for East Enders who enjoy hiking through thousands of acres of protected forest land to move. Its lakes and rivers are wonderful for swimming. Backcountry downhill skiing offers an alternative to the crowds at resorts.
The point of this letter is to find someone willing to buy 68 acres of forest and wetlands in Dummerston, Vt., where I live. This person would need to agree to sell the land to a land trust like the Nature Conservancy.
I went door to door in our neighborhood and raised about $3,500 to pay for an appraisal and for government fees for appeals of wetland and zoning permits (a lawyer volunteered his time) to try to give us time to buy this land. At the annual town meeting, we came close to approving money to buy the land and have it be protected that way. (In New England, these meetings let any resident of a town vote to override anything the select board does. The select board is like the mayor and city council combined. We have used this method to save three farms in Dummerston since 2003.)
Whoever buys this land may lose money on the deal. Land trusts in Vermont take years to do a deal like this. The seller — a developer much like Ben Heller, who owned Barcelona in East Hampton in the 1980s — is unwilling to wait at all. Our appraisal was done by a licensed professional and found that this 68 acres of forest and wetlands is worth $313,000. I’m including my contact info in this letter: [email protected] — landline phone 802-254-2531. Anyone who buys this land and tries to develop it will face vigorous opposition from our community. This land is home to moose, bears, bobcats, coyotes, fish, and many kinds of birds. Please help if you can. Thanks.
EESHA 0WILLIAMS
Timely and Urgent
East Hampton
July 15, 2025
To the Editor:
For those of you eager for perspective as to how we got where we are today, and where it might lead, do see the new PBS documentary “Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny.” The parallels between our present political situation and 20th-century German totalitarianism are terrifyingly obvious. Merely because our president has shown no genocidal intent is not reason enough to ignore the analogy that otherwise stares us balefully in the face.
Arendt, a Jewish student of philosophy in Weimar Germany, became one of the last century’s notable political thinkers. Having studied and lived in Hitler’s Germany, she eventually escaped Nazi arrest and made her way to New York City. Her 1951 treatise on the origins of totalitarianism posited that totalitarian movements exploit societal despair by offering a false community of belonging and simplistic solutions. So, the Nazis targeted Germans who felt abandoned after World War I using propaganda to promise renewal and community. Similarly, Donald Trump’s “carnage” rhetoric and MAGA ideology prey on disenfranchised Americans, convincing them that only he can restore their place in a broken society. Both movements transformed lonely, disengaged citizens into fervent followers by weaponizing their grievances.
Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil” illuminates this parallel, arguing that figures like Adolf Eichmann were not monsters but thoughtless bureaucrats unable to consider the human consequences of their actions. Trump’s principal henchman, Stephen Miller, embodies this archetype, displaying no guilt over dehumanizing migrants and justifying cruelty as “saving the country.” His lack of empathy — viewing vulnerable people as threats — mirrors Eichmann’s detachment. Similarly, Steve Bannon, a principal Trump ideologue, claims Western civilization suffers from “too much empathy” and rejects compassion as weakness, instead promoting division and dehumanization.
The Trump movement’s tactics echo Nazi strategies: scapegoating minorities, lying relentlessly, undermining democratic institutions like Congress and the courts, exploiting media to spread propaganda, and constantly vilifying opponents. Hitler used stormtroopers to intimidate; Trump incites groups like the Proud Boys, and puts armed soldiers on American streets to quell self-serving “emergencies.”
Arendt’s analysis is timely and urgent: Totalitarianism thrives when loneliness and disengagement meet fanaticism. Our courts will help slow Trump’s march toward totalitarian power. But, in the end, it is up to us. We must recognize the historical patterns in Trump’s behavior and do whatever we can to reject him and his cohorts who trade in dehumanization. Or, replicating Eichmann’s “banality,” we can fail to exercise moral judgement and go with the flow. Arendt has warned us. In the 1930s the Nazis screamed “erwache.” Now, 90 years later, it is time for America to wake up!
NORBERT WEISSBERG
Misleading Points
East Hampton
July 27, 2025
Sir,
Congressional Republicans, including Representative Nick LaLota, repeatedly push misleading talking points. Here are just a few examples: They claim the “America First” budget cuts are reducing inflation and debt, when in fact both continue to rise. They insist waste, fraud, and abuse justify deep cuts to programs like Medicaid, but independent reviews show those problems are vastly exaggerated. They say America is safer and more unified under G.O.P. leadership, yet crime statistics and public sentiment tell a very different story.
When pressed, they pretend extremist plans like Project 2025 are not Republican proposals, despite the clear connections. And the promise that their economic policies create jobs and prosperity for all is simply not supported by the facts.
We deserve leaders who tell the truth and focus on real solutions, not empty slogans and falsehoods that hurt the most vulnerable.
Sincerely,
ANDREW VAN PRAAG
In Support of Peace
Montauk
July 28, 2025
To the Editor,
I will admit that I have nearly completed a decades-long transition from unconditionally supporting Israel to finding its behavior detestable. But of far greater concern is that I feel I’m drifting toward holding all Jewish people complicit in Israel’s actions in Palestine and that deeply troubles me. It goes against everything I’ve believed in my whole life. It’s wrong and I know it. And I resist the inclination as best I can.
I realize that the Jewish community in America is acting no differently than the rest of America. But, I think what distinguishes Jews and gentiles is that the Jewish community has a greater vested interest in speaking out against the genocide and apartheid in Palestine to stem the spread of antisemitism, especially now when children are starving to death.
“In the United States there is more and more and more expanding expressions of hatred to Israel,” former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed recently in The Guardian. “I think many of them are anti-Israel because of what they watch on television, what they watch on social networks.
“What can I do to change the attitude, except for, number one, recognizing these evils, and, number two, to criticize them and to make sure the international public opinion knows there are [other] voices, many voices in Israel?”
Of course, there are others like Olmert who courageously speak out in support of peace and a two-state solution. They are the ones who give me hope and prevent me from betraying my core makeup of being unprejudiced.
Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, opined in The New York Times, “My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could. But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.”
Gentiles in America are afraid of the vindictiveness of Israel and powerful Jewish Americans, but they don’t often say so openly. Instead, they speak in whispers, or they don’t talk about the subject at all. They’ve seen the reprisals in America directed at those who have dared to support or be open-minded about the Palestinian point of view. We’ve seen prominent college presidents at our most prestigious universities forced to resign and peaceful college protesters arrested and/or expelled, along with lucrative job offers being rescinded. There are even laws being enacted that outlaw peaceful support of Palestine. For someone who witnessed the power and good that came from peaceful demonstrations in the 1960s, this authoritarian repression is particularly troubling.
We’ve also seen our elected officials intimidated as they uniformly parrot the script of Israel’s world-class propaganda machine, i.e., the right of Israel to exist and the right to defend themselves. They rarely have anything more to say, indicating they are not well informed on the subject or know their position is difficult to defend. No one mentions that over 700,000 Israeli settlers with the support of the Israeli government have illegally stolen privately-owned Palestinian land for decades in the West Bank and 22 new Jewish settlements have recently been approved — the biggest expansion in decades, which Peace Now, the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, called “the most extensive move of its kind” in more than 30 years and warned that it would “dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further.”
Our government and media have remained virtually silent on this contentious issue for decades yet find justification for imposing sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who dares to speak the truth about the occupation and genocide.
Americans don’t like being ignored, silenced, or intimidated, and when sentiments fester below the surface for too long [it] means they will likely explode later in less constructive ways than respectful, open-minded dialogue now.
How can anyone look the other way when an estimated 174,000 buildings have been destroyed or damaged, 70 percent of all Gazan structures, and well over 60,000 Palestinians killed including more than 17,000 children of which nearly a thousand were less than a year old?
Israel, encouraged by American complicity, has undermined, if not destroyed, all the institutions created after World War II to maintain worldwide social order and prevent a repetition of the Holocaust.
“For too long, international law has been treated as optional — applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful,” U.N. Special Rapporteur Albanese recently stated. “This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order.”
Even the lessons learned from the Holocaust may be compromised, as Professor Bartov explains: “Those engaged in the worldwide culture of commemoration and remembrance built around the Holocaust will have to confront a moral reckoning. The wider community of genocide scholars — those engaged in the study of comparative genocide or of any one of the many other genocides that have marred human history — is now edging ever closer toward a consensus over describing events in Gaza as a genocide.”
I seek only peace, prosperity, and dignity for all, and certainly that can be achieved if Israelis and Americans, particularly Jewish Americans, summon the willpower to get better informed and the courage to speak their mind. You probably won’t find the truth in traditional, mainstream media, but rather in more independent and/or progressive investigative news sources like The Lever, The Intercept, Democracy Now, The Guardian, and Haaretz (an Israeli newspaper).
JEFF GEWERT
Genocide
Sagaponack
July 28, 2025
Dear Editor,
What do you do in the face of genocide?
JEREMY GROSVENOR
Trauma
Amagansett
July 27, 2025
To the Editor,
Oftentimes, when an individual experiences trauma it is miscategorized. This can lead to someone with the lack of training classifying a symptom as merely aggression or even viewing it as aggressive behavior. Not truly understanding someone is now in a completely different state of mind due to said trauma. Whether this is from the sight of a person, building, place, etc., where that trauma event occurred.
The position of authority may seek to hold the narrative against the victim only exacerbating the cause and effect after. To quote Zenda-Lee Williams “Everyone loves a survivor once she’s quiet. Once she’s soft, polite, ‘healed.’ ”
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI