I received an email from Vinnie, the proprietor of the Mastic Shirley Report, about Steve Levy approving the use of Smith Point as an address. Check out Vinnie's comments from his blog then read on to see mine:
In the March 26th edition of the SUFFOLK LIFE newspaper, there is an article in which 'Smith Point Residents Lobby for Own Zip Code'. (by Barbara LaMonica).
I consider this an outrageous attempt to secede from their community in what only can be described as elitism. Just what exactly is the Smith Point Beach Property owners association? Everyone knows that NOBODY owns land on Smiths Point, just NEAR it. How near do you have to be to be included? Is this a new 'other side of the tracks' issue? I can find no reference to this group either online or in any phone directory either. The two people quoted in the article state they are from the Smith Point Beach Property Owners association but is this a group of two? I do see a group called the Smith Point PeninsulaHomeowners Association but there is no listing for the two quoted in the paper as being members of that organization.
Statements like 'we always lived in the shadow of Mastic Beach' are truly incomprehensible to me....you ARE IN MASTIC BEACH! other statements like 'we started to realize that we were significantly different' and 'we are the gateway to the Fire Island National Seashore' infuriates me to no end! HOW DIFFERENT ARE YOU? DO YOU HAVE TWO HEADS? The post office response so far is that zip codes 'are not assigned to provide community identity' seems comforting, but what identity are they trying to create? IT smells to me like they simply don't want to live in mastic or shirley anymore!
Also, apparantly Steve Levy is on board with this as well according to the article. Ive emailed him and other community leaders looking for a response but there has been an utter lack of communication so far.
Now I have all of our town leaders linked on the main page. If this infuriates you as much as me, then ACT! WRITE! EMAIL! CALL! Make your opinion KNOWN!
I appreciate Vinnie's comments and want to add my own. First of all, let's not forget the discussions a few months ago to make "The Links" into a pricey gated community. Will the address there also be Smith Point? Is this to help big builders sell these houses more quickly because people may not realize it's actually Mastic, Shirley and Moriches? Are these people trying to avoid the negative media attention and set up a segregated area? What about all the promises made to our community as we pay taxes that continue to increase? The solution presented by government leaders is setting up an incorporated village and charging more taxes but will this really change anything? Should we examine villages such as Amityville for our answers?
Further, do government officials want to "dress up" the area where people from all over drive to the beach in the summer to attempt to "hide" what is going on a mere few blocks away? It's time to get real around here.
3 comments:
The Suffolk Life article you refer to only quotes members of the Smith Point Beach Property Owners Assoc. You are mentioning the Smith Point Peninsula Homeowners Assoc,(who had NOTHING to do with that article), as the group behind this news story. We are not. As for Smith Point Town, no, however we are a recognized hamlet in the town of Brookhaven. Our boundaries as shown on the Manor of St George map,run south of the Links, east to Flower Rd and west to Smith Rd. We are not Mastic Beach, however we respect and admire our neighboring community of Mastic Beach. We don't believe that a post office or even a zip code change is necessary to improve our identity. In fact, a separate post office would be a colossal waste of federal tax dollars which could be put to much better use for our community (sewers? beach erosion?) The Smith Point Beach Property Owners are the group quoted in the news. Their president is one of the two people quoted in the article and is NOT a member of our association, nor would she be as she is not a resident of Smith Point. She actually lives up off Montauk Highway by CVS. The second person quoted is the chairman of SPBPOA, also NOT a member of our association. Thanks for your interest. Please feel free to visit our website www.smithpointhomeowners.org
For more information about the activity to incorporate Mastic Beach as a village, and what village status would mean both to individual residents, and to the whole area, see the Mastic Beach Village Exploratory Committee website.
If you are interested in helping, either by volunteering or by donating, or simply want to find out more about what is happening, the information is on the website.
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