Vote suppression and voting roll purges have been a hallmark of the Trump era. The census fight needs to be understood in that context.  

It’s a cliché around here to say, “I’ve never seen so many people in town!” but everyone agrees there really never were so many people in East Hampton than on the July Fourth weekend just past, and the days leading up to it.

Sometime after 10 p.m. on the Fourth of July, the brake lights from stopped cars on Montauk Highway curved west from where we stood on the sidewalk outside Pizza Village. Like thousands of other spectators, we had come to Montauk for the fireworks, and now everyone it seemed wanted to go home.

I had just written about a “rite of summer,” namely the first day of the 2019 junior lifeguarding season, and was inspired, therefore, to take part in another, namely the opening for the season of our outdoor shower.