Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor
Plain and simple
To the Editor:
After reading your write-up about Memorial Day I wanted to add a bit more.
Memorial Day parades are about honoring those who have fallen while serving our country. We pay our respects by remembering them, waving American Flags and being patriotic. Our Legion Auxiliary Post 281 sells flags and poppies that raises money to help veterans in many ways.
This past Memorial Day many of us saw some children with a lemonade stand and others selling watermelon pieces.
This is not what Memorial Day is about.
As an Air Force mom with family members on three of the five rocks in front of our American Legion Post, I feel compelled to remind everyone what the day is about. It’s all about the sacrifices these men and women have made for our freedom, plain and simple.
DEBBIE SPEECHES
Shelter Island
Reeling
To the Editor:
I am reeling from what I read and heard about the recent Town Board meeting. I regret I wasn’t there to defend my friends and neighbors from the mob mentality. The board’s cowardice in acceding to the mob’s demand to ignore Supreme Court precedent is unconscionable.
The disdain for and dehumanization of people like me and the people to whom we rent is reflected in a letter that was published by this newspaper on April 14, 2017. The writer of that letter proposed that renting “is no different than inviting a for-profit garbage dump into your neighborhood. You live with the stench while absentee owners collect profits.” Wow.
Comments on the anti-short-term rental (STR) petition and testimony at town hearings have also made it clear that classism and fear of the other fuels the anti-STR movement. The regulations overwhelmingly impact women, who constitute 70 percent of those who rent their homes and whose businesses are tied to the summer economy. A manager of an establishment that rents rooms complained that we pay too much to clean our houses, making it hard for her to hire housekeepers. Councilman Shepherd equates STR lengths to abortion rights.
We purchased a home on Shelter Island 24 years ago. It was then a welcoming, inclusive community. There were no associations imposing rules to standardize the residents and neighborhood. We lived and let live. The trope that the regulations will ensure everyone knows each other’s name is ridiculous. My Island friends are people who share my interests or have kids my daughter’s age. I barely recognize the Shelter Island of today.
I was taught by my forebearers’ example to use privilege and power to provide opportunities. I am appalled by the anti-renter elites using their power and privilege to keep others out and turn the Island into a gated community.
What is the difference between me and my guests using my home and a family or group of friends renting my home?
One of the differences is that if I can’t rent, my house may be empty those days. If rented, renters spend money at Shelter Island businesses, while I typically entertain at home. It doesn’t take a quantitative study to conclude that that affects the Shelter Island economy.
Supervisor Gerth recognizes that the ability to rent and to provide renting opportunities is a moral issue. We should too.
SHELLY d’ARCAMBAL Shelter Island
Seen and heard
To the Editor:
At the May 25 short-term rental (STR) hearing at Town Hall, I heard Paul Shepherd compare abortion term limits to STR lengths. I saw Don Bindler tell the Town Board they could ignore a United States Supreme Court ruling regarding First Amendment signage.
I saw a pack of wealthy Island elites unjustly attack Barrie Silver and Georgianna Ketcham. Both women are highly respected Islanders, active in the community and both have lived here for over 65 years. Why the lynch mob? They disagreed with these two women who had the courage to speak their minds over the injustice of this terrible STR law that hurts so many people, particularly women, retirees and the disabled. Shelter Island has one industry — tourism.
If you support this awful STR law, then you do not understand the hard working people on this tiny Island who depend on tourism for a living.
STRs are the lifeblood of Shelter Island’s tourism economy which lasts less than 10 weeks every year. Seasonal visitors directly and indirectly compensate every carpenter, ferry company, town taxes, town beach pass, babysitter, cafe, fresh egg seller, housekeeper, florist, nanny, hotel, B&B, inn, rental home, catering business, restaurant, bar, kayak rental, house painter, paddleboard rental, golf course, market, party rental, marina, pool service, brewery, pizzeria, massage therapist, interior designer, farmstand, landscaper, local charities, taxi service, plumber, charter boat, party rental, housewatcher and those who fish, oyster, scallop and clam for a living. Tourism puts food on the tables of locals. Tourism floats the Rock.
Buy local and support local businesses. We do, because we want them to stay in business. That’s the Shelter Island way.
Our petition now stands at 850 signers and grows daily. Join us — sign our petition. Visit change.org: Support Shelter Island’s Short Term Rentals and Protect Your Property Rights!
KATHRYN O’HAGAN
Shelter Island
Blessings
To the Editor:
We would like to thank the EMS volunteers, the Shelter Island Police officers and the North Ferry employees for their assistance this past Friday evening during our medical emergency.
They were efficient, speedy and compassionate in their jobs. Blessings on one and all.
The Haag Family
Shelter Island
