Letters to the Editor: Debate highlights class divide

Jamesport

Debate highlights class divide

First, please know that I appreciate your coverage of issues facing school districts located in the Town of Southold (“Enrollment crisis fuels push for merger talk,” Jan. 29). Despite my pleasure in your reporting, I feel compelled to share that I believe that continued dismissal of Riverhead as a feasible collaborator with Southold stakeholders is holding Southold back and doing a disservice to Southold’s kids.

Are Southold and Greenport school districts really better off on their own? Why do school districts place so much value on their independence? Is it because independence intrinsically means something? Or because that independence means they’re not “big” like Riverhead?

Riverhead has always had its issues but has never had a chance to work out its issues without external pressures and demands from neighboring towns. Even the sheer size of its school district is due to the Town of Southampton refusing to provide schooling for their own residents.

Riverhead could teach Southold’s multifarious school districts a heck of a lot. One of the questions that everyone should be asking — administrators, parents, all community stakeholders — is whether learning is more important than looking down our noses.

Nina Keller

Southold

Airbnb: The North Fork’s downfall

Airbnb has quietly wrecked the small-town vibe it claims to “celebrate.” What were once neighborhoods of full-time residents are now rotating hotels — strangers every weekend, lights on but no community. You lose the porch talks, the kids riding bikes, the neighbors who actually care. In their place: keypads, trash overflow and parties that vanish by Monday.

Economically, Airbnb doesn’t “support housing,” it competes with it. Homes that should house families get pulled off the long-term market and flipped into short-term rentals because it’s more profitable. That drives up prices, squeezes local renters and makes it nearly impossible for young families, teachers or service workers to live where they work. Wages don’t rise to match inflated rents; investors cash out while locals get priced out.

The tax base doesn’t win either. Profits flow to out-of-town owners, not back into schools or infrastructure. Small towns aren’t anti-tourism, but turning homes into hotels hollows out the very character people came to experience in the first place.

Jason Taggart

Greenport

ICE raid

Two weeks ago over 100 people demonstrated against ICE in downtown Greenport. A week ago ICE came into town. Three people were arrested, none with criminal records. My question: Where were those 100 people during the raids? Couldn’t we have an alarm system so that we would know where ICE is operating and turn out enough people to let ICE know we are watching, and filming, their operations? It’s not enough to protest. We need to be there when they come, and let them know their behavior is inappropriate in every way.

Michele Chaussabel

Laurel

Follow the rules

The doubling of fees with respect to developers who begin work without the required permits is a step in the right direction (Town Board raises planning fees…” Feb. 5).

As planning director Heather Lanza said: “… [It] serves as a disincentive for developers who ask for forgiveness rather then permission.”

That attitude has had a corrosive effect for too much of our daily lives.

John Viteritti

Cutchogue

Reply to ‘Rage’

Last week’s letter “Rage then, Rage Now” — in response to my letter in the Jan. 29 issue shows a complete misreading of my intent.

Our Preamble is the guiding principles of our Constitution. Our representatives on both extremes are failing in that guidance, and therefore their oath.

My wording of “criminal immigrants and criminal citizens” intended to make no distinction between citizen or immigrant. Crime cannot be tolerated, and both should be held accountable, as our law states.

Our country has come a long way from the days the writer points out. We are both most likely of that generation. However, when a protest turns to throwing ice bottles, spitting, kicking, shooting off fireworks, disturbing the peace or interference with law enforcement, it no longer is “protected” by the Constitution. The powers in Minnesota tolerate those actions in violation of the Constitution.

If the local, state and federal government no longer works together to ensure the guiding principles of the Preamble, I fear for the continuance of the country. 

The way to change the immigration law is through Congress, not by one level of government refusing to assist another because they disagree with the law.

Bob Bittner

Southold

Call Rep. LaLota

Call Congressman Nick Lalota at 631-289-1097 and let him know how you feel about Kristi Noem and ICE.

These are the facts and circumstances as I understand them surrounding the recent ICE killings in Minneapolis :

Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, were shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Without waiting for a review of the facts, Kristi Noem, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, immediately stated that Good and Pretti were domestic terrorists and that the ICE agents shot them in self-defense. A review of the many videos of these incidents tell a very different story.

On Jan. 21, 2026, I received an email from Lalota. Among other things, he said: “ That renewed focus on enforcement has made communities safer…” (Here he is referring to Noem’s border enforcement agents)

I called and left Mr. LaLota a message telling him that many Americans do not approve of ICE and the way it is carrying out its responsibilities. I also asked him to call for Noem’s removal from office.

On Feb. 4, 2026, several people testified at a Congressional hearing about their recent experiences with ICE. Among them was a woman, Aliya Rahman, who was born in the U.S. and who is disabled with autism and a brain injury. A video shows her being violently removed from her car in spite of her pleas that she was disabled and on her way to a doctor’s appointment. She was arrested and sustained injuries while in ICE detention.

I urge you to contact Mr. Lalota and tell him what you think.

Dick Sheehan

Sound Beach

ICE federal law enforcement

Although America is a country of immigrants, there’s a right way and wrong way to enter. People who came to America the legal way did themselves a favor. Ones who never bothered to try and become legal citizens have no right to stay.

The fact that America voted for a president in 2024 who told us he was going to fix the ongoing border crisis means the time was coming to either legalize oneself or deport voluntarily. Nobody in liberal states had a problem with President Obama deporting three million criminals during his administration. The local law enforcement agencies had no problem during his administration providing help to ICE, releasing criminals from jails right to federal roundup for deportation. In fact, Obama gave a medal to Tom Homan for doing such a fantastic job in removing criminals from our country. Better Times Review should do a thorough journalism review on why the blue states have had such a tough time dealing with the concept of choices having consequences when voting for a president.

Philip Winterfield