Key Points:
- People leave the city and move to suburbs due to COVID
- Decreasing parking time in order to prevent crowds and abide by CDC guidelines
- Locals facing consequences of limited parking
In the summer, families from all over, especially those from New York City, come to the Hamptons to enjoy their summer vacation. The village of Sag Harbor is one of the top destination spots for those visiting the area.
Although Sag Harbor is no stranger to tourists and crowded streets, this year is a bit different due to the pandemic.
The mayor of Sag Harbor, Kathleen Mulcahy, said that during the first week of November the village had an estimated 22,000 people come and not leave.
“I couldn’t tell you what the last [last year] first week of November was, but I can assure you it wasn’t 22,000,” said Mulcahy. This has been attributed to the increase of people (who have six-figure jobs) from the city moving to suburban areas, like Sag Harbor, due to the pandemic. A Business Insider article stated that “Over 65,000 households simply decamped to nearby suburban spots in Long Island and Westchester (both in New York State) and New Jersey. The ritzy areas of Scarsdale, in Westchester, and Greenwich, Connecticut, also saw an influx of new residents.”
As a result of the growth in the population, Sag Harbor leaders and residents now find themselves dealing with a parking problem in the village. Since the summer months, the village has put 30-minute parking signs in different areas on their ‘Main Street’ to help minimize the amount of people that would be in the village and to abide by CDC guidelines.
“We changed parking across Main Street to 30 minutes only. We didn’t ticket people, but we put up signs telling people not to be here,” said Mulcahy. “It worked; it worked very well and then we extended that to an hour and then for some we went back to two hours. If things get bad again, it’s something we might do again now, but we’re trying not to.”
Mulchay also mentioned that the village is expecting to implement parking meters on Main Street. The first hour would be free but after that you will have to pay.
“Parking is a problem. We need to try to encourage people to carpool more, bike more, walk more–come into town some other way and not bring a car.”
This is an alternative that some, including the mayor, believe would be the best-case scenario to ensure the safety of people in town.
For locals who have lived in Sag Harbor year-round before the pandemic, the “flow has absolutely changed,” as resident Chris Tice noted in regard to the increase of traffic and parking.
Tice, a real estate agent, knows firsthand how much the population has increased in the village and the parking issue that has caused.
(Courtesy of The East Hampton Star/ Photo By Durell Godfrey)
“There’s lots of traffic, lots of cars circulating,” Tice said. “I’m also seeing that on the weekends particularly there seems to be a lot more visitors than we would normally get in the off season.”
Tice also has her office in Sag Harbor and discussed the difficulty in leaving your job to move your car every three hours, especially when you probably won’t find a parking spot.
“I don’t do this as much during the pandemic, but under normal circumstances I might have days that I’m going into my office for four or five hours. It’s very difficult to do that right now and you know, if you’re employed in the village, it’s very hard to find parking where you don’t have to leave your job and go move your car every couple of hours.”
Mulchay acknowledges this situation and said that she is going to put into place a shuttle system for people who work in town so they don’t have to worry about moving their cars since they will potentially not find another spot.
“Somebody who is working in a shop can leave their car up there, get on the shuttle come down and not have to worry about their car all day and not worry about moving it every three hours,” said Mulcahy.