New York voters agree across party lines that the biggest problems facing the state are the cost of living, crime, the influx of migrants and the need for affordable housing, according to a poll released today. Michael Gormley reports on Newsday.com that the Siena College Research Institute poll found 83% of voters felt the cost of living in New York is a major problem and only 12% considered it a minor problem. The sentiment was shared equally by Democrats and Republicans, who often diverge greatly in political polls.

Next on the list of top major problems were crime, by 73% of voters, the need for affordable housing, 77%, and the recent wave of migrants to the state, 62%, according to the poll.

“In assessing the severity of problems facing New York, there is, surprisingly, considerable agreement among Democrats, Republicans and independents,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.

“A huge majority of Republicans, a large majority of independents and a plurality of Democrats all say the quality of life in New York is getting worse … ," Greenberg said. "Only 4% of independents, 5% of Republicans and 22% of Democrats say things in New York are getting better.”

The poll questioned 804 New York registered voters from Sept. 10 through Wednesday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

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Southampton Village residents packed the seating area at the Southampton Cultural Center on Pond Lane last Thursday night eager for their first chance to weigh in with their thoughts about a proposal to close Pond Lane to vehicular traffic in order to create an expansive waterfront park and Peter Marino-designed public gardens along Lake Agawam. Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that for nearly the whole first hour of the meeting, Lake Agawam Conservancy President Bob Giuffra had the floor, giving an updated presentation on the plan, including new renderings from Araiys Design that outline existing conditions along the portion of Pond Lane that borders the lake, and proposed improvements that could be done there to mitigate stormwater runoff if the road is closed to motor vehicles. However, both Thursday night’s presentation and the initial presentation put forth by the conservancy at the last Southampton Village Board work session have not seemed to sway a strong contingent of residents who remain adamantly opposed to the closure of Pond Lane. While there were several residents who spoke in support of the project, the majority who took their turn at the lectern expressed opposition. Many of them said they were not opposed to the creation of the gardens but did not want to see the gardens created at the expense of closing the road. They said Pond Lane was a key thoroughfare not only because of its location in a historic area but also because it is another driving option in Southampton Village, which has been plagued by traffic issues for years.

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Montaukett Chief Robert Pharaoh has been chosen as the Grand Marshal of East Hampton Town’s 375th anniversary parade this coming Saturday, Sept. 23, as the town supports the tribe in its quest for recognition by New York State. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the parade begins at 10 a.m. on Main Street and travels up Newtown Lane to Herrick Park…where at the reviewing stand Hugh King, the town historian, will serve as announcer. The Montaukett Women’s Circle Dancers will perform on the East Hampton Middle School grounds. A wide range of community groups will also participate in Saturday’s parade, and there will be local vendors, food trucks, live music and children’s games and activities.

That’s this coming Saturday in East Hampton Village starting at 10am.

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A top LIPA official testified at a hearing yesterday on LIPA's future that PSEG deserved a grade of only a D+ for operating the local electric grid because of lagging customer satisfaction scores and other missed performance metrics. At that same state legislative hearing in the Rockaways, a PSEG official said the utility's scores for reliability and other measures were among the highest in the state and nation as he argued for allowing PSEG to be allowed to continue to manage the system. Mark Harrington reports on Newsday.com that the Legislative commission on the future of the Long Island Power Authority has been hearing public testimony over the past week to determine the best future course for LIPA, including as a fully public power utility that would do away with the public-private model that PSEG favors.

PSEG's contract with LIPA expires at the end of 2025, and LIPA has begun the process of putting out bids for a new contractor, in case the state commission balks at letting LIPA run the utility itself.

At public hearings Monday and last week, PSEG Vice President of External Affairs Christopher Hahn touted PSEG Long Island's scores for reliability and customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power Survey.

But NYS Assemb. Fred Thiele (D-Sag Harbor), the commission's co-chairman, said his “frame of reference is certainly to look at the J.D. Power reports that came out last year, where in residential customer satisfaction PSEG is near the bottom.”

Newsday has reported PSEG in 2022 scored 690 of a possible 1,000 points in residential customer satisfaction, fourth from last among large Eastern utilities.

The legislative commission has scheduled another hearing for tomorrow in Southampton Town Hall at 11 a.m.

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New York bosses are now barred from asking job applicants and employees for access to their private social-media accounts, thanks to a new law just approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Carl Campanile reports in THE NY POST that under the legislation, employers are forbidden from requesting or requiring that an employee or applicant disclose “any user name, password, or other means for accessing a personal account” such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The private information is forbidden from being used for hiring or disciplinary purposes, said NYS Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx), who authored the bill along with state Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens). Such snooping by employers has become common.

“Gov. Hochul signed this law to protect the privacy of New Yorkers and protect their rights in the workplace,” said the governor’s spokesman, Avi Small, yesterday. Assemblyman Dinowitz said he’s been pushing for such restrictions on social-media monitoring for a decade and that this law gives individuals the discretion to decide whether to keep such information public or private. “They should be afforded the complete freedom to safeguard their privacy regarding workplace matters, interviews, or admissions processes, without the apprehension of job loss or rejection due to non-compliance with such requests,” the legislator stated on Monday.

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The Legislative Commission on the Future of LIPA will conduct a hearing for East End communities tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Southampton Town Hall. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the Commission, established in 2022 by the New York State Legislature, is charged with creating “an action plan for implementing a true public power model for residents of Long Island and the Rockaways.”

“The goal is to avoid the tens of millions of dollars in annual management fees paid to an outside utility; establish greater transparency and clearer lines of accountability for the safe, reliable, and affordable delivery of electricity to ratepayers; and give LIPA’s customers a greater say in how this essential service is provided,” according to the Commission.

An earlier round of public hearings was held last winter.

Register for the livestream at https://totalwebcasting.com/live/nylipa

People who wish to testify in person can register on-site the day of the hearing.

Written testimony can also be submitted at nylipa.gov/public-input.

That NYS legislative hearing regarding the future of LIPA is tomorrow at 11am in Southampton Town Hall.

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It has been six weeks since a shark bit a 65-year-old woman who was swimming off Rockaway Beach. State statistics indicated it was one of 17 “negative human-shark interactions” in New York waters since 2018, raising a question: If more people are encountering sharks, are more sharks out there?

“We don’t think there are more sharks,” said Merry Camhi, the director of the New York Seascape Program at the New York Aquarium. “We don’t have any scientific data to support that.” James Barron reports in THE NY TIMES that Ms. Camhi is an author of a paper published in the Journal of Fish Biology that said that “more systematic surveys are required” to get a better sense of what sharks are here and whether the population is shifting.

Scientists did genetic analysis on tooth pulp found on a bite victim to identify the transgressor as a young sand tiger shark. That species is known to use the Great South Bay, off Long Island, as a nursery, the paper said.

The paper acknowledged the perception that there are more sharks in the water off New York, but Camhi suggested that perception exists because more people are in the water with more gadgets, like cameras that can record videos and drones that can fly overhead, doing the same.

Despite all the footage and anecdotes, she said, scientists are not seeing a jump in shark populations, which she said remain lower than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. More than two dozen species of sharks are known to circulate in the New York Bight, from Cape May, N.J., to Montauk, N.Y.

The paper mentioned possible explanations for the increase in interactions, including climate change, which some marine specialists say has driven other marine animals north in pursuit of the fish populations they feed on. More menhaden in New York waters means more whales, the director of the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton said in June, after two humpback whales died off New York and New Jersey.