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We’re All Only Human…Including the Board of Education

Jun 5th, 2008
by Saltbox.
9 comments
I haven’t been to a School Board meeting for longer than I haven’t written a blog post. But tonight I’ve done and am doing both. You may know (if you read the Sag Harbor Express) that the Board of Education of the Sag Harbor School District announced a special meeting for this evening for the sole purpose of appointing a new Superintendent of Schools. This came as a bit of a shock to most of the community, as there have been no public meetings, discussions, meet & greets, or other opportunities for the public to follow along and participate in the process of making this very important selection.

So, at 7:30 p.m. tonight the Board held and “executive session,” which is a way for them to meet out of the public eye to discuss things that require a degree of privacy such as personnel issues, negotiations, legal issues and the like. Then, at 8:00 p.m. they went into public session to vote on hiring Dr. John Gratto as the District’s new Superintendent, which they did. They did not allow any public input at this meeting. When some members of the public spoke anyway, voicing their displeasure at the Board’s lack of openness during the process of selecting the new Super, the Board did its best to ignore what was being said. Eventually, Theresa Samot, the Board President, asked for a motion to go into executive session again “to discuss personnel issues.” The motion was made, seconded and voted on, and the Board walked out, leaving behind not only the public, but a somewhat stunned looking Dr. John Gratto, who had been expecting a cookies and punch reception.

That’s the bare bones of what happened tonight. There was much more, but I’ll leave it to the local papers to report and speculate about all that. What I would like to draw your attention to in this space, is the very sad fact that our friends and neighbors who serve on the School Board seem to have forgotten that they are also members of the very same community that they ignored and stonewalled tonight. How did that happen? I’ve known one of the Board Members for many years, having served on the Board with her decades ago, and maintained a passing friendship with her every since. I’ve served on committees with two of the other Board Members, and my wife also knows and/or has worked with a couple more. By and large, we like and respect these people, and believe they feel similarly about us. Yet tonight, they were able to build a wall between themselves, in their roles as board members, and their friends and neighbors who were sitting in the audience asking for a chance to be heard. That they were able to create this imaginary wall, and sustain it in the face of public outcry was much more disturbing to me than the fact that these normally caring, concerned and thoughtful people made a bad choice in how they handled the hiring process.

At tonight’s meeting one community member stood up and pleaded with the Board to recognize the many errors they were making by sticking doggedly to the path they had chosen. He asked them, “Is this really how you want to start Dr. Gratto’s tenure in Sag Harbor?” He appealed to their common sense and their humanity. But the Board had apparently checked their humanity at the door.

But why? It didn’t have to be that way. Even in the face of having already committed to Dr. Gratto, the Board could still have listened to what the public had to say. Perhaps it was too late for them to change course, but they could have opted to remember that they are also community members, and listen to what their fellow Sag Harborites had to say. It would have taken so little effort just to listen. Nothing else was necessary. Perhaps they would have heard a comment or two that would lead to a better decision, or at least a better decision making process, but we’ll never know. That’s a loss for everyone; but the people who lost the most tonight were the members of the Sag Harbor Board of Education — they lost their humanity. Not permanently, I’m sure, but for long enough to do damage both to their standing in the community and their own psyches.

Sometimes we just identify too much with the role we are playing at a given moment, and forget that underneath that role, we’re all just human beings. The Board of Education had a collective forgetting tonight. I’m guessing that somewhere along the way they fooled themselves into thinking that because they get to vote on the decisions, that the decisions are really theirs to make. Though they tried mightily to hold onto that illusion, they were reminded tonight, that that’s not how it works. In the end, the community makes the decisions; the Board just implements them.

It’s my hope that the Board wakes up soon from this dream of ‘being in charge’ and remembers that they are us.

Posted in: Schools.

So, Where Do We Put the Affordable Housing, Take Two

Oct 12th, 2007
by Saltbox.
3 comments

Transportation issues are on everyone’s mind again even though the worst of the summer season is over. (So, you’re thinking, “what’s that got to do with affordable housing? — wait, I’ll get there.) The much hyped South Fork Commuter Connection (SFCC), comprised of extra Long Island Railroad trains between Speonk and Montauk, and feeder buses to take commuters from the trains to various south fork hamlet and work centers has captured people’s attention, and got them asking questions. Some of those questions came my way today and led to an interesting conversation about…affordable workforce housing.

As I write this, it’s late, so I’m going to give you the shorthand version of that conversation. The Commuter Connection is similar to the light-rail/feeder bus network proposed by Five Towns Rural Transit (5TRT) as a mass-transit system for our area. 5TRT is an outgrowth of the East End Transportation Council (EETC – dontcha just love acronyms?). EETC commissioned the SEEDS  (Sustainable East End Development Strategies) Study. Boiled down to one important bullet point, SEEDS stated that  you cannot separate regional transportation problems from regional land-use issues (zoning). Get it? No? OK, I’ll elaborate a bit.

In order for mass transit to be successful, you need to have relatively large groups of people who are all moving between the same places — say, from where they live to where they work. That puts the mass in mass transit. If you don’t have these concentrations of people all in one place, than the trains/buses don’t get used, ’cause you can’t lay track to, or put a bus stop at everyone’s front door. Unfortunately, for decades zoning policies in our area have encouraged us to build houses on large plots of land spread around on every buildable acre. At the same time, we’ve encouraged businesses to locate all along our highways and byways, between the hamlets. In general, this type of development is known as suburban sprawl. From a transportation perspective, there’s no there there.

But, the SEEDS study tells us that in order to get people to use mass transit — thus keeping their cars off our over-burdened highways — mass transit has to be convenient. Otherwise, people won’t use it. Duh! So, SEEDS says in order to fix the transportation problem, you need to first address the zoning problem by encouraging a mild increase in hamlet center density,  (through a variety of strategies) while upzoning the areas farthest away from the hamlet centers, so that fewer homes are built in outlying areas. SEEDS also suggests putting an end to strip mall development along our highways, while encouraging “infill” and redevelopment in existing business centers. (Please remember, this is a very simplified explanation of the SEEDS recommendations.) The idea is to make it possible for more people to live and work closer to transportation hubs, so that it’s actually convenient to use mass transit.

That got us talking about Sag Harbor, and more particularly about Bulova, because if you think about our transportation issues, and the solution suggested by SEEDS, then you realize that the place where we should be encouraging more of our workforce to live is in the Village center. But, the Bulova developers are saying we should put our workforce housing somewhere else — not in their development — which just happens to be the largest parcel left anywhere near our hamlet center that’s available for (re)development.  Its location and size makes Bulova the ideal place for workforce housing. Yet knowing all the facts, Village government is sitting on their hands and letting the Bulova developers’ need for financial gain trump both the community’s need for affordable workforce housing and a potential solution to our regional transportation issues. A million+ bucks in a “workforce housing fund” sounds nice, but is beside the point since the donors are dictating that the one place where it actually makes sense to put workforce housing is off limits. This opportunity to address two important regional issues at once won’t come around again.
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Currently listening to: Boom Town by Greg Brown.

Posted in: Affodable Housing, Development, Transportation.

Sag Harbor: Still Making History

Oct 8th, 2007
by Saltbox.
1 comment

What’s the one constant in Sag Harbor’s 300 year history? Change. Starting as the port for the farmers in Sagaponack, Sag Harbor went on to become a bustling center of trade, home to one of the country’s largest whaling fleets, and an industrial center producing everything from watchcases to parts for the lunar landing module. As you walk the village, you can see bits and pieces of those various histories: The Custom House dating from the earliest days of the village; the Bulova Watchcase Factory, perhaps the jewel in our industrial crown, and the many lovely structures on south Main Street that started life as the homes of the prestigious and wealthy captains of the whaling fleet. Commercial, industrial, residential, waterfront, religious, and other structures from many different eras crowd together in the barely two square miles that is the entirety of Sag Harbor village. Wherever you walk history abounds, some from long ago, some of a more recent vintage — for history is an ongoing process. Yesterday’s obscenely modern structure is today’s honored period home. (Think Norman Jaffe’s south-of-the-highway homes.) A previous generation’s cheap motel is now a chic boutique hotel (Think Alexis Stuart’s Bridgehampton Motel.) Yesterday’s Watchcase factory is tomorrow’s luxury condos.

Many say that Sag Harbor has entered a period of unprecedented change that may irredeemably alter its character forever. Others, with perhaps a more long-range view, understand that there has never been a quintessential Sag Harbor. This village is not frozen in time. It evolves to meet the needs of its inhabitants. Looking back, or ahead, we may not recognize those inhabitants, but it was, and will be their village, not ours. Ours is the Village that we have today: historic, funky, upscale, charming, nautical, artistic, resorty and small-town. It’s the culmination of all that came before, and the root from which the Sag Harbor of tomorrow is sprouting even as we watch.

To help us reflect upon these changes and consider how the village will continue to evolve and adapt, a few members of the 300th anniversary organizing committee, led by Benito Vila, have put together a workshop which will be held on Saturday, October 13th at the Methodist Church on Madison Street, to celebrate the character and legacy of Sag Harbor. This workshop, which looks to be a lot of fun, will begin with a presentation and discussion led by experienced preservationists and local artists, after which everyone will head out into the streets to “catalogue” in photos, sketches, or what have you, various aspects of the village’s public and private spaces. Once the cataloging has concluded, the collected materials will become the basis for one or more collaborative projects. One such project might be an online “wiki” where digital photos and digitized sketches are stored, tagged as to content, and commented on by participants, and later by others who view the wiki. The John Jermain Memorial Library has offered the use of its computers to facilitate the creation of the wiki, or other online project, and will make the results available to the public through its website. Other projects may also be developed based on ideas brought forward by participants.

Everyone is invited to participate. At the very least we hope to enjoy an afternoon with friends and neighbors celebrating together the place we live. At best we will create a time capsule of sorts, recording images of the village, documenting what is currently here, and identifying the qualities we hope to retain and encourage for the future. Given the proposed commercial development of existing properties and parcels throughout the village, there will be much to compare and contrast. The effect of those initiatives will be an important consideration as we observe Sag Harbor continuing to make history.
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Currently listening to: Our Little Town by Greg Brown.

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Posted in: Development, Historic Preservation, Local Events, Our Town.

Saving Sag Harbor

Aug 28th, 2007
by Saltbox.
1 comment

There’s a new and very active group in our community calling itself Save Sag Harbor. Its primary mission is to preserve Main Street’s traditional look and business mix — mostly small locally-owned stores and restaurants — by preventing national chains and big box stores like CVS from moving in and driving up commercial rents to the point where they are the only businesses that can afford to have a presence here. For an example of what that looks like, visit East Hampton. As regular readers of this blog can probably guess, I’m very sympathetic to this cause. But, the name of the group strikes me as problematic.

The problem I see can best be stated as a question. Would Sag Harbor actually be “saved” if chain stores were outlawed here? And, that question leads me to another: what would a saved Sag Harbor be like? Let’s start with the easy stuff. Clearly, there would not be a CVS here. With CVS out of the picture, Sing City, the liquor store and 7 Eleven would be able to stay. Did I say 7 Eleven? That’s odd. 7 Eleven is definitely a chain, and a few short years ago nobody wanted them here either. I thought I was starting with the easy stuff, but I’m already running into difficulty. Fortunately for Sag Harbor, 7 Eleven’s original franchisee, the Young family, was determined to prove that 7 Eleven could be a good, if not perfect, neighbor. They obviously succeeded, since no one talks about keeping out 7 Eleven anymore. Quite the opposite. We want them to stay. Times change, as does our perception of a “saved” Sag Harbor.

I know it sounds like I’m revving up to defend CVS, Starbucks and their ilk. Trust me, I’m not. I just want to point out that one has to think carefully about the issues facing our little village. Nothing is ever quite as straightforward as it seems. Another example of this is historic preservation. Everyone’s for that. Right? A saved Sag Harbor would certainly retain its place in the National Register of Historic Places. Well, yes, but I have a couple of quibbles with Sag Harbor’s Architectural Review Board. It seems they are, to put it mildly, resistant to alternative power generation devices, such as solar panels and wind turbines. I find this attitude quaint, which I guess is appropriate for people whose mission is to preserve the past. However, I pose this question to the ARB: how quaint will Sag Harbor be when the entire historic district is under water? It’s pretty clear that the world’s best hope for preventing the polar ice caps from melting is for many people to take many small steps to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions. Unfortunately for the historic purity of our village, that includes people who live in historic homes. Which is worse, solar panels or homes under water? In my version of a saved Sag Harbor, there are solar panels on many roofs.

Now for my other quibble with the ARB. In spite of the fact that I’m in favor of allowing solar panels and/or modest wind turbines to appear on the roofs of historic homes in our village, I really am strongly in favor of historic preservation; so much so, in fact, that I question whether the ARB and the other agencies that regulate the look of our Village are too. As I walk down our lovely streets, I find my sensibilities assaulted by what appear to be charming historic homes with huge inflated cancers growing on them. What the heck is up with 168 Main Street? Is Ira Rennert moving to Sag Harbor? What about the house across the Street from 168 Main where a small cottage was expanded to three or four times its original size, all of which expansion is clearly visible from the street?  How can one say the historic look of that house has been preserved? Clearly the codes governing the expansion of historic homes are not adequate in the face of today’s “bigger is better” home owners. In my version of a saved Sag Harbor, this trend will not only be stopped, but reversed.

Unfortunately, the questions only get harder. What to do about traffic? Sag Harbor is a delightfully walkable community; or it would be if there were fewer cars on the roads. Have you ever tried to cross at the intersection of Jermain and Madison on foot? Clearly, until we get people out of their cars, Sag Harbor will continue to suffer from ever increasing traffic woes. An integrated network of light rail, buses, and…gasp!…passenger ferries would go a long way toward enabling people to come to Sag Harbor while leaving their cars at home. Can we truly say that Sag Harbor is saved if we don’t address the traffic problems?

Another tough one: affordable housing. I’ve always believed that what sets Sag Harbor apart from the surrounding communities, and made it the best place to live in the Hamptons is its heterogeneous mix of social, economic and ethnic populations. Not only was there a healthy mix of different types and classes of people, but also, these groups were not divided. Everyone lived side by side in the same neighborhoods. As in a classroom where students of differing abilities are mixed together, everyone benefits. In a village, it’s the year-round, working families that provide the necessary infrastructure, and a good deal of the character of the place. They, in turn benefit from the culture and economic opportunity provided by the second-home owners. Cultures mix and something new and better emerges. Homogeneity — in this case represented by a community of only the wealthy — results in inbreeding and an ultimately sterile environment, lacking in all the charm that attracted people here in the first place. Unfortunately, the “free” market in real estate has killed any hope of retaining the mixed economic neighborhoods of Sag Harbor past. Artificial life-support in the form of mandated affordable housing units is the only hope of preserving some remnant of this tradition. To really save it though, the affordable units must be integrated into all new housing developments, not segregated in affordable-only sub-divisions. In a saved Sag Harbor, there are affordable units in the Bulova condo renovation too.

Speaking of condos, I would say that without a doubt the monstrous and obtrusive condo development proposed by Michael Maiden for Ferry Road near Long Wharf has no place in a saved Sag Harbor. This property clearly must be acquired and preserved by local government for use as a public space. If allowed to go through, the impact of those condos on the character and livability of Sag Harbor’s downtown will be overwhelming, maybe even a tipping point beyond which “Saving Sag Harbor” becomes an empty rallying cry.

There are, of course, other issues that need to be addressed before Sag Harbor can be considered saved: bike lanes and sidewalks, the library, open space preservation (yes, even in Sag Harbor) and more — too many to address in one sitting at the keyboard. None of this is simple; all of it is interrelated. Saving Sag Harbor requires action on many fronts by an informed and concerned populous. It is not now, and never will be a one-issue campaign.

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Currently listening to: Who Will Save Your Soul? by Jewel

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Posted in: Affodable Housing, Development, Government, Historic Preservation, Local Businesses, Our Town, Transportation.

Where am I?

Aug 20th, 2007
by Saltbox.
2 comments

This post is only about Sag Harbor and the Hamptons in the most tenuous of ways. It’s certainly obvious that our region is under a lot of stress right now. Most folks I talk to either say we’re rapidly approaching, or have just passed a tipping point, and that the very natures of our communities are, or will soon be, irreversibly changed…and not for the better. Community groups are working overtime, to try to stave off this undesirable future. Politicians, and would-be politicians are promising to change things if only we help them get elected. New committees are forming every day, and I applaud (and often join) them. Save Sag Harbor! Stop CVS! Stop LIPA! Stop the condos! Support affordable housing! Support open space! Fix the traffic, goddammit!

Anyway, that’s not what I’m writing about. I’m writing about me, and how all that has affected me.

Recently an anonymous writer left a comment to my last post, which was written over a month ago, asking, “Eric, Where are you???” Well, the unfortunate answer is that I’m in the land of the over-committed. Reading anon’s question started me thinking, and I realize that not only is my time over-committed, but so is my mind. I’m so far lost in the forest of local issues, that I can no longer see any single tree clearly enough to write about it.

In early June, this over-commitment came to a head when I was asked to assume the role of co-acting director of the John Jermain Memorial Library. This came shortly after I was asked to serve as the treasurer for a local candidate’s political campaign. I agreed to both. As some of you know, I also serve in other capacities for other organizations and committees. Anyway, those last two additions to my schedule were the straws that broke the blog. I literally have no time. As I’m writing this, I’m also thinking of at least three other things I could/should be doing, and will have to do when I finish, and none of them are reading the latest Harry Potter, which I really would like to be doing.

So, as you can see, though I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself, I think I have an excellent reason for not keeping up with my blogging. But, the truth is that I really like blogging, and it’s important to me. Other things that are important to me have also been neglected of late: my family, my health, my home. The first two are the most important things in my life. The third is also way up there on my priority list. This blog ranks pretty high too. Yet, I’ve been ignoring them all. Not good.

It’s not that the things I have been doing aren’t important — I’m not just sitting around watching reruns of South Park. Even so, I see a need to reorder my priorities, if for no other reason than, as things now stand, I’m not really capable of giving each of my commitments the attention it deserves. That became obvious recently, when I found that I just couldn’t justify the time to attend the meetings of one of organizations on which I serve; so a few months ago I just stopped going. Now if I can just find the time, I’ll write a letter of resignation…

More relief is on the way. The library Trustees are, I believe, close to making a decision on hiring a new director, which means that soon I can stop attending Trustee meetings, and working every other Saturday, and start doing only one job during the work week instead of two.

As for the rest, I’m just going to have to find a way to communicate to each of the groups I belong to that my commitment there is of a limited nature. I will have to say no when asked to take on new responsibilities. I will not be joining your group, organization, campaign or attending your meeting, workshop or fund-raiser, so please don’t ask. This will be hard, because I really care deeply about our community. I want to fix Sag Hampton (the region), but not at the expense of breaking me.

If all goes as planned, I may even find the time and the perspective to fix Sag Hampton (the blog). We’ll see…
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Currently not reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
and certainly not watching South Park by Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Posted in: Dear Reader.

A Tale of Two Sundays

Jul 16th, 2007
by Saltbox.
4 comments

Two Sundays ago my wife and I were in Richmond, a city of approximately 200,000 people, and the capital of the State of Virginia. We were visiting friends, and as it was our first time in the city, they offered to take us on a quick tour of some of the main attractions. We soon discovered three things about Richmond: it has many historic sites; it is, for the most part, a clean, attractive city; and the downtown is empty on Sundays. Two hundred thousand people, and barely a handful of them downtown on a Sunday afternoon!

Now, the town in which I live is much smaller than Richmond. Take the population for instance. The Village of Sag Harbor has a year-round population of about 2,300. Even the School District, which is quite a bit larger than the Village has a year-round population of only about 6,600. You’ll notice that when I mention our local population figures, I always qualify them with the phrase “year-round.” The reason for that would be obvious if you were in downtown Sag Harbor with me last Sunday. Now, it is well known that our population swells considerably during the summer months, but I didn’t realize that all 199,999 people that I did not see in downtown Richmond two weeks ago, would be  vacationing in Sag Harbor a week later.

The week-to-week contrast was startling. In Richmond one week, we could drive around the city unencumbered by traffic or even pedestrians, park when and where we wished, make u-turns with impunity, and have free and easy access to whatever we wished to do. One week later, in Sag Harbor, driving and parking were near impossibilities, and walking the length of our two-block long Main Street was almost as difficult.

I don’t really have a point here, unless it’s to say that Richmond is a nice place to be on a summer Sunday, if you don’t like crowds. Of course, Sag Harbor is also a nice place to be on a summer Sunday — unless you don’t like crowds.

To be fair, we did see a few people at a church in Richmond. One of them was quite agitated about something. When we saw him he was shouting, “give me liberty, or give me death!” I was so impressed that, after he settled down, I took a couple of pictures which I include here for your edification.

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Currently listening to: Harbor by Vienna Teng

Posted in: Our Town, The Season, Travel.

So Where Were We?

Jul 13th, 2007
by Saltbox.
3 comments

I’ve been on vacation, but now I’m back. So where were we?

Oh, yes…the Town of Southampton has approved a study, to be conducted by its planning department, of the gateway to Sag Harbor along the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. This has been a little slow getting off the ground, but in the interim, local hero Priscilla Ciccariello has spearheaded an effort by a group she calls “the coalition” to prepare a comprehensive document detailing the reasons the study needs to be done, what specifically needs to be studied, the areas of concern for the surrounding community, the hoped-for outcomes of the study, and the reasoning behind those hopes. It’s an amazing document — a testament to the wisdom that exists outside of official channels. It represents countless hours of work by volunteers whose only interest is the welfare of their community.

Priscilla has presented her pre-study study to the Town Board, the Town Planning Department, and the Village Board of Trustees among others. If ever there was validation for the concept of government officials seeking and heeding community input, this document is it. Lets hope our government officials have the good sense to build upon the foundation that has been provided for them.

Everyone in Sag Hampton owes a debt of gratitude to Priscilla Cicariello and everyone else who worked on this document.

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Currently listening to: Migrations by The Duhks

Posted in: Development, Government.

Where are the Japanese/Korean Car Dealers?

Jun 10th, 2007
by Saltbox.
7 comments

This is an actual and honest question. If anyone knows the answer, please let the rest of us know by posting a comment.

The question is: Why are there no Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi or Hyundai dealers anywhere in Sag Hampton? Don’t tell me they’re in Riverhead, that’s 50 minutes away when there’s no traffic. We have Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler, and OF COURSE we have Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Mini-Cooper, Range Rover, Saab (but, curiously, not Volvo), Audi, Porsche, and Jaguar, but if you want to buy the best selling car in America, a Toyota Camry, you have to drive 28 miles through Hamptons traffic to get to the closest dealer. What’s with that?

P.S. – We bought a Toyota Prius today — in Oakdale, not Riverhead. Oil changes are going to be a bear.


Ours is blue.

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Currently listening to: The Luckiest Guy On the Lower East Side by The Magnetic Fields

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Posted in: Local Businesses, Our Town.

Summer’s Here, Grumble, Grumble

Jun 7th, 2007
by Saltbox.
3 comments

Besides the longer days, warmer weather, and flowering trees, I have noticed a few other harbingers of the summer season. The very first sign occurred at work about a month ago. I work in a public library. Generally speaking, our patrons (people who use the library’s services) are a wonderful group of people. We, the library staff, and the public we serve can go  months without experiencing a single unpleasant moment, which is exactly what happened over the long winter just past. Then one day recently, two entitled individuals descended on the library one right after the other, spreading the unhappiness at the core of their souls outward like a plague. We attempted to meet their needs as best we could — though, in truth, their needs can never be met to their satisfaction — and then they were, thankfully, gone.

At that point the staffer who had dealt with these two individuals and I, who had witnessed the carnage, shared a knowing look. “Summer must be here,” she said.

The second sign of the onset of the high season has been making itself known to me over the past few weeks as an ever increasing number of suicidal maniacs attempt to have their vehicles occupy the same spot on the road that the vehicle I’m driving happens to be occupying at a given moment. These folks are quite inventive in their single minded quest to to end their lives, and mine. I won’t bore you with the details. If you’ve driven a car anywhere in Sag Hampton recently, you have undoubtedly encountered the same idiots, or their brethren. There’s apparently no shortage of them. So far, I guess our luck has held as you and I are still here to laugh (ruefully) about it.

Then there’s The Golden Pear’s way of announcing the summer season. This Main Street eatery recently stopped offering/accepting their buy-ten-get-one free coffee cards and canceled the 10% discount they briefly and half-heartedly offered to employees of other Main Street businesses. The reason? “It’s summer,” they said, as if that explained anything. You’d think summer, being the busy season, would be a time when they could most afford little largesses. What they’re actually saying, though, is, “We neither need nor want local patronage while we’re busy fleecing the summer folk. Don’t bother us now, but please come back in the winter when when we won’t be full up with people falling over themselves to spend $13.00 for an omelet.”  Is there a more craven institution in Sag Hampton? In addition to the minor tackiness of the canceled discounts, the Pear also recently turned down a request to donate a prize to a raffle sponsored by a local non-profit. The reason given for not donating anything was because they have received “too many requests for donations.” Read that as too many requests from locals who don’t spend enough money here. Then there are those oh-so-friendly signs warning customers not to linger too long over their meals — another anti-local campaign aimed at the seniors who used to while away their mornings over breakfast and coffee, when the location now occupied by the Pear was the Harbor Deli. As if the local seniors could afford to eat breakfast at the Pear! There’s really no need for the signs; the Pear’s grossly inflated prices having already accomplished the intended result.

So, it seems that all the signs concur, summer’s here. Be careful out there.
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Currently listening to: Good Vibrations by Brian Wilson.

Posted in: Behavior, The Season.

Our First Year: Taking Stock

May 20th, 2007
by Saltbox.
8 comments

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been writing this blog for a year now. The first post was published on Saturday, May 20, 2006. Since then I’ve published 82 articles and received 101 reader comments. As near as I can tell, on average, about 15 people a day stop by. Some days, usually after an article has been republished in the Sag Harbor Express, that number rises dramatically, often reaching 80 visitors in a single day. I realize that those are not big numbers for a blog, but I am also aware that I’m writing for a limited audience, and that many people only read the blog posts that are published in the paper, and never visit the website. Yet even at 15 readers a day, that still means the blog has received well over 5,000 visits from readers (including many repeat visits) during its first year.

I gather these statistics from a few different sources, which tell me how many readers I have, and where they are from, but not who they are. So, unless you leave a comment signed with your real name (not required), I have no idea who is reading the blog. It is fascinating, though to discover that I have had readers from all over the world, including what seem to be repeat readers in Germany, England, California and other far off locations.

It’s comforting to have these statistics, because as much as I enjoy writing these articles, it wouldn’t be half as much fun if no one was reading them, and, since not that many readers leave comments on the blog, without the statical reports, I just wouldn’t know if anyone was out there.

During the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to write about many interesting topics, some controversial, some not, some personal, some not, some informative, and some just for fun. Being the one who picks the topics is both challenging — I often have no idea what I’m going to write about when I start a post — and inspiring. Having the responsibility of  picking meaningful topics, has often inspired me to write something of which I end up being quite proud.

Herewith, the highs and lows (in my opinion) of my first year as a blogger:

Best Post: 98.6 Miles – Maybe the best thing I’ve ever written.

Best Comment: I wrote about an op-ed piece that Robbie Vorhaus wrote for the Sag Harbor Express and then he commented on my blog post. It was a real thrill for me to have someone I wrote about read and comment on what I had written. The post was called What I Learned About Love Today, and Robbie Vorhaus’ comment can be found at the end of the post.

Funniest Post: What’s In a Name? – This one was written by my wife, Bobbie. We got a lot of comments about this one, both on line and in person.

Most Childish Post: A Mess for S.G.  – Really pointless, although one reader did comment that he thought it was “hilarious.”

Most Rewarding Moment: This is a tie. My first most rewarding moment, came at a Sag Hampton gathering where I was introduced to the head of a local real estate company who, it turns out, had been reading Sag Hampton. He proceeded to let me know why my attitude about the gentrification of Sag Hampton (I hate it) was wrong. While I didn’t, and still don’t, agree with him, it was very gratifying to learn that he was a Sag Hampton reader! The other most rewarding moment was when the post I wrote about Robbie Vorhaus’ column (mentioned above) was in turn written about by Jennifer Jones in her blog, Goodness, Graciousness. I have a great deal of respect for Jennifer, so to have her pick up a topic from Sag Hampton was very meaningful for me.

Biggest Disappointment: Only 101 comments. (Unfortunately, that number is misleadingly high, since some of those are my responses to others’ comments.) As I’ve said before, one of the main reasons I started this blog was in the hope that it would evolve into a forum of sorts where everyone was welcome to express their thoughts and opinions on a broad range of topics relevant to the Sag Hampton area — and certainly we have had a bit of that going on. But, I hoped for more, and still do. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I just don’t write about the right things, or maybe I don’t write well enough keep you engaged. If that’s so, then I accept that I’m never going to see the volume of comments I had hoped for.

But, if it’s not me. If the topics I write about do interest you, and if I am writing well enough to keep you reading to the end, then I want to encourage you to click on the words “Post a Comment,” or sometimes “Leave Comment” that follow each post, and let me, and the other readers of Sag Hampton, know what you think. (By the way, if there are already comments on a post, the words “Leave Comment” are replaced by “X Comments,” where X is the number of comments already left. In that case, just click on “X Comments” to add yours.) Oh, and if someone has already commented, and you want to comment on their comment, you can do that too. You don’t have to register – that’s optional. You don’t even have to leave your name – just check the box that says “Post Anonymously.”

With that said, let me sincerely thank you for making Sag Hampton part of your world over these past months. With your encouragement, I’ve really enjoyed my first year as a blogger. Looking ahead…well, I’m not sure what I’ll be writing about, but I’ll do my best to keep it lively, and  I hope you’ll do your part too…go ahead, just click below and have your say.

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Currently listening to: The Late Greats by Wilco

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