Letters to the Editor: Consider the environment

Cutchogue

Consider the environment

As I left the first public meeting on Southold Town’s new zoning, I recognized more than ever that environmental zoning solutions require foremost attention. Having a long view and foreseeing the many challenges we face with traffic, noise, habitat loss, drinking water threats, marine ecosystem breakdown, building pressures and preserving the rural character of the limited, unique, and fragile North Fork ecosystem requires serious consideration and action. 

We can require at least 70% native plantings for new commercial buildings and encourage ecological landscaping, drastically minimizing resource-dependent, fertilized lawns, eliminating unnecessary runoff into our bays and Sound. 

Native plants provide food and habitat for pollinators and other wildlife, thereby increasing biodiversity; they also reduce dependence on natural resources and save money. We can encourage residents and businesses to minimize use of leaf blowers, which create noise pollution, damage habitat and produce air toxicity contributing to climate change and illness.

Bird-safe windows and dark sky-compliant lighting are a no-brainer on new construction and can be encouraged on already existing homes and buildings. Green spaces in our halo zones would provide relief from the heat, offer beauty, encourage walking and biking, and support local wildlife. Implementing forward-thinking traffic mitigation measures makes sense as getting around easily is something we all value. 

By taking these steps, we can create a more sustainable, beautiful, healthier and more peaceful community that benefits ourselves and our fellow wildlife, providing increased quality of life now and for future generations.

Sharon Kelly 

Cutchogue

Follow precedent

A legal precedent is a judicial decision that becomes law for future judicial proceedings. The phrase “on all fours” refers to a judicial proceeding that has parties, facts and legal issues that are almost identical to a previous judicial proceeding. When a judicial proceeding is “on all fours,” it mirrors the precedent so closely that the prior ruling should be applied to the current proceeding. “Let the decision stand” is the essential meaning of the legal expression “stare decisis.” Precedent and stare decisis are the foundations of English common law on which the legal system of the United States is based.

The 2025 application to Southold Planning Board for Site Plan approval to permit a massive garage to be built on the 23-acre farm at 1350 Alvah’s Lane in Cutchogue should be denied for many reasons. But the primary reason is that essentially the same application was made and denied eight years ago in 2016.

Benja Schwartz 

Cutchogue

Their story changed

My family sold the development rights from their farm on Alvah’s Lane. Around 10 years ago the same farm on Alvah’s Lane was purchased by a corporation. In addition to the farm on Alvah’s Lane the corporation farms over 20 farms it leases or manages all over the North Fork.

When the corporation applied to build a barn on Alvah’s Lane, it at first admitted that the building would be used not only for farming, but also as a base of operations for farms all over the North Fork. After it appeared that the Southold Town Planning Board was probably not going to permit an industrial-sized garage for use as a base of operations for off-site farming, the corporation said that it needed the whole building to farm the Alvah’s Lane farm.

The Planning Board denied the application. It didn’t believe the corporation’s claim that the building would be used only to produce crops and livestock on the Alvah’s Lane site.

Less than 10 years later, the corporation again applied to build a barn on Alvah’s Lane. Now it claims the proposed building will be used only to farm the farm on Alvah’s Lane. The building now proposed is only slightly smaller and, instead of directly facing the road, it now indirectly faces the road. It is still an industrial garage, not a barn. This time, the corporation was represented by a man who admitted he did not know much about farming. His statement that the proposed building would only be used for the farm on Alvah’s Lane is incredible.

Farmland from which the development rights were purchased by taxpayers should forever be used only for farming. The deed of development rights limits the use of the property to growing crops or raising livestock. That is what the corporation can do. The corporation cannot use the property as an industrial farming facility and should not be allowed to build a garage.

Nancy Sawastynowicz 

Greenport

Greenport Worker Appreciation Day

The importance of saying “thank you” can become lost in our hectic day-to-day scramble. We are all trying to process the information we read daily about global conflicts, fragile financial markets, tariffs up or down, political antics near and far and concerns over local issues that may affect us.

What we don’t often see is the hard work, commitment and sacrifice of those who are “in the trenches” making sure the job gets done. Our village workers, who mostly go about their day doing the things that need to get done, work in hope of providing the stability of utility services for electric light and water, safe streets and sidewalks to travel on, clean parks, marinas and beaches to enjoy and helpful assistance in a sometimes very turbulent place.

I applaud the idea of saying thank you to those who often do not hear it. I support recognizing, not the ones in front of the cameras, but those who do the actual work — our Greenport Village workers and staff. If we are to remain a place that we are proud of and hope to improve upon, we must never forget to recognize the work they do, day in and day out.

The idea, born by Colin Ratsey, is to make sure we do something to show that, in a time when morale could be low and the job seems tougher because of all the drama around us, we should be clear and say, “Thank you” to the unsung heroes who make our village work.

So I commend the Greenport Business Improvement District for organizing Wednesday, May 21, as Greenport Village Worker Appreciation Day. It starts with a complimentary lunch at the firehouse and followed by a very casual pizza party at 5 p.m. at the [Greenport Harbor] brewery. We support such an event and will continue to honor those who work for our village. It is a no-brainer and I thank the BID for trying to help find positivity and celebrate the good in a climate of heightened stress, uncertainty and dysfunction as we head into another summer season.

So next time you see that village worker actually doing the work in our streets or in Village Hall, be sure to let them know you appreciate all they do for us.

Richard Vandenburgh 

Mr. Vandenburgh is co-owner of Greenport Harbor Brewing Company in Greenport and Peconic.

Cutchogue

High time for change

A letter writer in the May 8 issue of The Suffolk Times (“Fresh voices needed?”) says staffing at Harvard should be based on “merit and not on diverse status, gender, race, ethnicity or quotas.” If only the university had followed those noble goals 50 years ago, when the overwhelming majority of students were white, male, and the product of prestigious prep schools few others could afford or had access to.

William Sertl 

New Suffolk

Our own private apartheid

While hundreds of thousands of people in America are being rounded up and hunted like animals — some U.S. citizens, some on the legitimate path to citizenship and others having worked the hardest and most undesirable jobs that have kept us thriving  — and are denied due process and sent to Venezuela, El Salvador and wherever corrupt foreign governments will imprison them in horrible conditions for eternity, the first U.S. sponsored plane full of white Afrikaners was welcomed by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Fast-tracked to immigrate. Who are they? What is an Afrikaner?

The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging or AWB — meaning Afrikaner Resistance Movement — is an Afrikaner nationalist, white supremacist and neo-Nazi political party in South Africa. Although white South Africans make up only 7% of the population, they own farmland that covers about half of the country. That is indicative of a broader prosperity gap, with white South Africans enjoying much higher employment rates, lower poverty rates and more lucrative wages than their Black counterparts. 

The Afrikaner “refugee” operation is shrouded in secrecy and deception. The new Americans were instructed by the U.S. State Department not to talk to anyone. Who pushed for this deceptive operation? Why are the lives of these white South Africans more valuable than the millions of starving and suffering refugees in our own country and around the world? Could the world’s wealthiest man and most influential Trump ally have anything to do with it? 

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa and raised in a wealthy family under the country’s racist apartheid laws. Musk’s family history reveals ties to apartheid and neo-Nazi politics. The Nazi salute he used to hail his victorious electoral purchase and the destruction of our federal government was disgraceful and sealed his image as an anti-semite and racist.

This is a disgusting abuse of power and a violation of the Constitution. What do we have left with which to defend our democracy? What kind of people are we without hearts and principles?

Joni Friedman 

Southold

FEMA on the ropes

And the hits keep on coming. There are days, this among them, that I feel like I have gone 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali.

Cameron Hamilton, FEMA’s acting administrator, has told people that he was terminated, leaving the nation’s disaster agency without a top official three weeks before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.

I fear not only for us, but for all of the people in this country who may be affected by disasters.

Rosellen Storm 

Cutchogue

Cryptogrift

As many people know, our president, Donald Trump, has launched a crypto meme coin called $Trump. People who claim to have expertise in cryptocurrencies frequently say, “You just don’t understand how crypto works” when asked to explain why it has value. That way, they don’t have to answer the question, because no one has yet figured out how to give it real value.

While the dollar may no longer have gold in Fort Knox to back it up, at least it has the full faith and credit of our government. 

From what anyone can tell, the crypto pushers believe it has value for no other reason than they believe it, and there’s nothing of real value behind it other than that ridiculous belief. The fact is there are people who’ve made, and lost, fortunes trading in this garbage.

Crypto trading is a zero-sum game. If someone makes a buck, then someone else loses a buck. People keep trading in crypto for the same reasons they pump quarters into slot machines — they hope when they win it’ll produce a massive payout. But in the end, the house always wins, so there will always be more losers than winners.

Mr. Trump has a captive audience of followers. Something like 77.3 million people who voted for him. If just 1% of them buy his meme coin [and] each of them puts $1,000 into it , that’s $773 million in crypto activity. It’s estimated that Trump has already gotten $320 million in transaction fees from people trading his $Trump meme coin, much of which appears to come from foreign investors who are likely seeking to influence the president of the United States.

Folks, we just witnessed Trump pull off a $320 million grift in plain sight — and nobody’s doing anything about it. That’s where America is at this point.

Michael Levy

Cutchogue

Memorial Day

To remember those who did not come home. To honor their graves with decorations. To remember the life they gave so others could live free in succeeding generations.

All veterans hold their sacrifice in awe. We are all humbled to have served with such men and women. We are grateful such people lived.

This day, initiated after the Civil War, is a part of the soul of our nation. Our flag is at half staff till noon — the only day this occurs as a show of respect for their sacrifice. May God’s eternal light shine upon them forever, and may we never forget.

Bob Bittner