OPINION: Montauk's Never Ending Party

Montauk is a place for a different breed. There is a reason Ralph Lauren does not have a shop in Montauk, while there are four in East Hampton Village. A few years back, local long-time commercial fisherman, Jeff Bline, told me Montauk is for “real” people. In interviews with Frank Mundus and Bob Tuma they, too, talked about the toughness of Montauk locals.

For the last 50 years, a certain type of summer tourist visited and rented in Montauk. In East Hampton Village they called it “blue collar working class.” That was their way of saying “real people,” instead of the phony want-to-be's who infested other sections of the East End. When I had a four-year prolonged visit to Montauk as a guest due to divorce, I attended the off season pub quiz events, the fundraisers, the town "American Idol' nights and other events to witness the real heart and soul of the people of Montauk. So I understand the horrors they have been going through these last years due to the summer weekend invasions of the milleniums. The peeing in yards, the inebriated homes break-ins to use showers, raid refrigerators, and sleep on couches, and sadly, in some cases to rob the homes. This is incomprehensible behavior and must be stamped out through proper police actions and new town laws.

However, town officials must also not use this misfortunate behavior to harvest election votes by picking on businesses that cater to summer guests. If they declare war on the next generation of tourists who are now discovering what my grandfather, father, and my children came to love, that being Montauk, then they will slowly kill off the year round community who live in Montauk. Who wants Montauk to become only a summer home community of rich hedge fund one percenters? Such is the situation now south of the highway in East Hampton Village.

Slapping around the local summer hotspots with fines to show these out of town owners who’s in control is definitely a way to curry favor to win elections. But it is sad that the children of the aging local population can no longer live in their own Montauk and East Hampton homes? This is a long-term poison. It is true that present homeowners will make a pretty dollar when they cash out — some of the old families are cashing out now — but look who is coming in. Not blue collar, not white collar, but the ultimate rich, which in time will turn massive parts of Montauk into Lily Pond Road and Further Lane homes and people.

I am 63 years old and had a ticket to Woodstock in 1969. I didn’t attend, but those who did changed the world. A new generation is having their moment. Will Montauk be a 1968 Mayor Daley of Chicago situation or a Max Yasgur, the Woodstock farmer who attempted to understand and help the 400,000 kids sleeping, urinating, and polluting his farmland on that summer weekend? I have no real answers. I am just writing this because I care for the long-term future of Montauk, not just the next season. The New York Post headline asked, ‘Is The Party Over in Montauk?” I hope the party never ends. (Thank you Lisa Finn for the Editing)