Why is Montauk Out of Control?
Older Montauk folk are now complaining Montauk is out of control. Now there are many who believe Montauk, as a whole has never had to play by the same rules as the rest of the Town of East Hampton, and quite frankly as a former year round resident I know some of that to be true. The alarm seems to be centered around the behavior of the new generation of young who seem to have even less respect for the hamlet, inhabitants, its traditions and its laws. I think a good way to describe Montauk’s uniqueness was back a few years when I wrote a story in the winter about a man being arrested for stabbing another man during a dispute in a card game at Liar’s Saloon. The twist was the attacker was later bailed out of Jail by the man he supposedly stabbed with the remark being something like, “When he gets drunk and starts losing he always thinks I’m cheating.” Those two life long friends still work together I believe to this day. But now Montauk has a “hipster” problem. New folks who now urinate all over town after drinking at clubs even sometimes breaking into homes not to rob; but to crash on a couch, or raid the refrigerator sometimes after throwing up. Homeowners are not thrilled about this and there are fights too. The whole situation will end around Labor Day and does only last during the “Summer Season.” But many residents and home owners believe the traditional season renting families are being driven away by groups of out of control weekenders who spend their 36 hours in Montauk, drunk, drugged and partying to the limit. The question is why are new limits of rowdiness being reached? Is this the new norm or just a phase or anomaly? I don’t know the answer. The young will have to rule their world. After all Montauk was once a sleeping fishing village, that turned into an anti-Hamptons respite for a different cut of dudes. Now that is changing fast, and nobody truly knows into what.
