The Sessions Report

Animal welfare advocates from across the region came together last week for the latest Express Sessions event, hosted at Union Burger Bar in Southampton Village, to discuss the challenges they face in caring for both wildlife and domestic animals, the issues they’re dealing with currently and the best ways for the community at large to help.

The final in a series of “Local Matters" Express Sessions panel discussions focuses on Westhampton Beach Village and the issues that are important to its residents. The event features a panel of Westhampton Beach Village officials, including Mayor Ralph Urban, as well as community and business leaders.

The first in a new series titled “Local Matters” focused on Southampton Village with an Express Sessions event at Union Burger Bar on October 9. Top of mind for area residents and panelists in attendance were traffic, affordable housing and the continued push to develop a sewer district in Southampton Village.

The latest in the Express Sessions panel discussion series,“ The South Fork’s Bounty, on Land and at Sea,” was held on May 8 at Inlet Seafood in Montauk. Suffolk County has the fourth-largest agricultural sales in New York State, and it is first in aquaculture. In both cases, the farms and waters of the South Fork play an important role in providing food for the region, state and nation. In March,...

In February, The Sag Harbor Express talked to Main Street business owners in the village and made a startling discovery. While the summer of 2024, post-COVID, was generally considered the busiest in Sag Harbor’s history, with crowds of people flocking to the business district daily — the businesses did not experience a similar boost. Sales were largely flat, or even slightly down from historical l...

A new half percent tax on real estate purchases in Southampton and East Hampton towns went into effect on April 1, 2023, to raise revenue for affordable housing initiatives. Since then, each town has accumulated millions of dollars to combat the region’s housing crisis. At this Express Sessions discussion, a panel of elected officials and housing advocates assessed how successful the Community Hou...

As the holiday season approaches, there is an opportunity to take a moment to appreciate — and to support, financially — the many nonprofit organizations that enrich the cultural life of the South Fork, and provide a "Helping Hand" to so many families in need. This special Express Sessions event had multiple purposes: to shine a spotlight on the often underappreciated work of so many local chariti...

Since the recreational use of marijuana was legalized in March 2021, the rollout of the new industry has been erratic. Today, the state is still struggling with creating a legal network of private shops — though Native American tribes, including the Shinnecock, have successfully operated on their own. The Town of Riverhead is expecting a pair of cannabis shops to open in the months ahead, and plan...

There are numerous passionate residents offering input, though the conversations are splintered and many voices are competing. A major proposal by the Shinnecock Nation for a gas station off Sunrise Highway — and, in the longer term, development on the bluff at Westwoods — has sparked concern among Hampton Bays residents. But there are other pressures: a developer has amassed parcels and has a vis...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed an $11 million project that widened the beach to protect Montauk properties from rising oceans. Dredging and dumping sand on beaches is expensive, and it’s only a temporary measure — but it remains the preferred strategy, despite the costs. This Express Sessions event on April 4 featured a discussion of beach nourishment, its application on beach...

With 10 acres of tribe-owned land off Sunrise Highway being cleared for a possible travel plaza, which would feature a retail shop and tax-free gasoline pumps, the Shinnecock Nation continues forward with a list of economic development activities. Not far away are the two "monuments" — roadside electronic billboards bringing in advertising revenue. Little Beach Harvest recently opened the first na...

The Express News Group hosted its latest Express Sessions live event, "Can the Winter Be Brisk for Businesses in East Hampton?" on February 1 at Rowdy Hall in Amagansett with East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, The Anchor Society founder Bess Rattray, Honest Man Restaurant Group owner Mark Smith and Hal Zwick, the director of commercial real estate at Compass Hamptons. Traditionally, merchant...

Since 1963, a sprawling 84-acre stretch of Shinnecock Hills has had a college presence, first as Southampton College, then, starting in 2006, as the Southampton campus of Stony Brook University. Over the years, some things have stayed the same — the campus is a focal point for marine science and a bastion of the arts — but the vision for its future has varied. Today, Stony Brook has plans to build...

Sag Harbor Village, with a new mayor at the helm, appears poised to tackle an important planning project, including an update to its zoning code and the potential for the creation of a comprehensive plan, which would serve as a blueprint for the village’s development future. Considering the various pressures the village faces, including a proposal for a new residential and commercial development t...

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone visited Southampton in late August to announce that the county plans to seek proposals for “innovative traffic solutions” for a seven-mile stretch of County Road 39 from Hampton Bays to Southampton Village. He joined also the Express Sessions conversation on October 26 at Union Sushi & Steak in Southampton, with panel of local and county public officials expl...

There is no easy solution for the South Fork’s affordable housing crisis, which is striking schools, police departments and volunteer emergency corps hardest. A new idea is to use some of those same properties where men and women are employed, or where they volunteer, to build affordable housing and to give them an inside track at a place they can truly call home, in exchange for their employment...