Town of East Hampton announces emergency action to remove iconic "stilt house"

A Long Island man is among a group of plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit this week challenging the Trump administration’s recent ban on issuing visas to people from 75 countries.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday by a group that includes American citizens, immigration nonprofits and legal organizations, accuses the administration of seeking to "eviscerate decades of settled immigration law."The government last month suspended the approval of visas from 75 countries, most of them non-European and with large non-white populations.Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that one plaintiff, Cesar Andred Aguirre, of Shirley, Long Island is a U.S. citizen and a warehouse supervisor who pays taxes, according to the lawsuit. His wife and 2-year-old daughter are now stuck in Guatemala, one of the 75 countries, after she was told she could not receive a visa.The State Department said a "pause" was necessary to prevent immigrants from coming here to become "public charges" collecting welfare and other benefits.In response to the lawsuit, Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the State Department, said in a statement that a visa was a privilege and not a right, and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated immigrants should be financially "self-sufficient.""Such a requirement prevents billions in waste, fraud, and abuse and protects public benefits for Americans," Pigott said. "The Department is pausing issuance to evaluate and enhance screening and vetting procedures — but we will never stop fighting for American citizens first."Most people applying for immigrant visas are not eligible for cash welfare for years, the lawsuit states.Anna Gallagher, executive director of CLINIC, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit, said in a statement that "this administration is trying to shut down lawful immigration from nearly half the countries in the world without legal authority or justification.” Aguirre's wife, Dania Mariela Escobar Carranza, lived in Shirley with Aguirre and their two children, ages 7 and 2. In January, the family traveled to Escobar Carranza’s native Guatemala for her scheduled consular interview, the lawsuit states. Her visa had already been approved and the fees paid.She went to the U.S. consulate on Jan. 20 and handed in her documents but was told her interview was actually the next day. When she came back, she was told she could not receive her visa because of the pause, which had gone into effect the same day, the lawsuit states.***New York Democrats are gathering today for their state convention with the momentum on their side and three established leaders seeking reelection and party endorsement: Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, political observers told Newsday.Whether they can sustain the effort and avoid self-destruction remains to be seen."The only thing, barring something unimaginable, that can reverse this momentum is that there is an open civil war between progressives and moderates," said Larry Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University.Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have recently declined over issues including the economy and his immigration policy, which has helped the proverbial winds at Democrats' backs "blow harder" than they might normally, according to Levy. Democrats also picked up a state Senate seat in a major upset in Texas last week, further encouraging the party.Over 400 delegates from around the state are attending today’s one-day convention in Syracuse. Democrats in New York have a more than 2 to 1 enrollment advantage, but party leaders are gearing up for a tough election cycle, State Democratic Committee chairman Jay Jacobs told Newsday. Few surprises are expected, with Hochul anticipated to receive the lion’s share of votes, James running unopposed and DiNapoli, who has held the position since 2007, expected to do well, Jacobs said.***The Town of East Hampton announced yesterday that the town is taking emergency action to remove the storm-damaged “stilt house” on Mulford Lane in Lazy Point, an iconic much-photographed building that had long stood on pilings in the water as coastal erosion took its toll on the shoreline. The house collapsed into the water after ice heaves cracked the pilings during the freeze this past weekend. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that after a heavy freeze in late January, the pressure of the ice caused the pilings to buckle, “causing the structure to collapse and creating an imminent risk to public safety, navigation, and nearby coastal resources,” according to a February 5 statement from East Hampton Town. The town said the house had been seaward of the shoreline for “approximately two decades, has been uninhabitable and disconnected from utilities for many years.”On Feb. 3, The East Hampton Town Building Department placed a placard on the property deeming the site unsafe under the New York State Property Maintenance Code, at which time the Building Department determined the building “posed a serious risk of further breakup and debris dispersal into Gardiners Bay and surrounding wetlands.”***Proposed changes to New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, dominated the discussion during NYS Sen. Anthony Palumbo’s annual “environmental roundtable” Monday at Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts Center in Riverhead. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the proposed SEQRA amendments drew skepticism from environmental advocates and several elected officials at the roundtable. The proposed changes are part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push to streamline development in the name of housing affordability, but multiple participants at the roundtable argued the changes risk weakening one of the state’s core environmental review and public-participation laws — while failing to ensure any resulting housing is actually affordable.For example, Bob DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End, responded that SEQRA’s central value is not just the environmental analysis itself but the process. SEQRA “guarantees transparency, public participation and a hard look,” he said noting that if a municipality believes a particular large project has such public benefit and, in the balancing of equities in the project —the environmental, community and economic impacts — the municipality can decide not to require an in-depth environmental review. It can issue a negative declaration, or a conditioned negative declaration, and allow the project to proceed without an environmental impact statement.First District Assembly Member Tommy John Schiavoni of Sag Harbor voiced his concern, telling the room he was “disappointed” the issue was being framed as a fight between environmental and housing interests, adding that his staff was reviewing the details and that the “majority conference” — fellow Democrats in the NYS Assembly — would be hearing from them. NYS Senator Palumbo’s environmental roundtable, initiated by his predecessor in the First Senate District, longtime state senator Ken LaValle, is held annually and allows environmental and community groups and local elected officials to discuss issues of concern with state lawmakers. Anthony H. Palumbo is a Republican who represents the 1st Senate District, which includes the northern portion of the Town of Brookhaven, and the Towns of Riverhead, Southold, East Hampton, Southampton and Shelter Island. ***At last week’s Express Sessions event, “The Evolution and Preservation of Downtown Sag Harbor,” held at The Church on Madison Street, the panel of Sag Harbor Village officials and other community stakeholders discussed steps the village could take to help preserve the character of the downtown shopping district, at a time when development and market forces threaten many of its most beloved small businesses. Making updates to village code have long been a tool in the toolbox for the Village of Sag Harbor when it comes to that effort among other approaches. Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that a new possible strategy garnered some attention — and is in the early stages of being explored as another option. The idea of engaging a new kind of public/private partnership to safeguard mom-and-pop retailers that have given the village its distinct quirky appeal over the decades was discussed. Earlier this week, Sag Harbor Mayor Tom Gardella and former New York State Assemblyman and lifetime Sag Harbor resident Fred Thiele discussed in more depth what that could look like.The key ingredients in this new recipe, so to speak, would be the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund; private funds, available through either a new or existing nonprofit; and owners of key downtown real estate that would be willing to sell to those entities. It would be similar to the effort that was used to revive the Sag Harbor Cinema, where the $4 million from the CPF was used to purchase a historic preservation easement, and the Sag Harbor Partnership secured the necessary donations to purchase the building itself.“What we’re looking at is to see if the CPF could partner with a nonprofit or public entity to preserve what we consider to be part of the community,” Mayor Gardella said. “We’re just in the beginning discussions about this, to see if it’s even possible.”***Sag Harbor’s HarborFrost is tomorrow, and the festivities begin this evening at 5:30 p.m. with the Taste of Sag Harbor Kick-Off Celebration at the Sag Harbor Cinema.On Saturday, Sag Harbor transforms into a walkable winter wonderland filled with art,...