From the New York Post:
‘We should blow up the bridges’ — coronavirus leads to class warfare in Hamptons
Yes, absolutely. I really don’t need to know more than that, but I am curious.
It’s all-out class warfare in the Hamptons.
Don’t tease me. It’s not “all-out class warfare” until there is a body count.
The year-round residents, the locals who serve and clean and landscape for the super-rich in the summertime — and put up with all manner of entitlement and terrible behavior in exchange for good money — are silent no more.
“There’s not a vegetable to be found in this town right now,” says one resident of Springs, a working-class pocket of East Hampton. “It’s these elitist people who think they don’t have to follow the rules.”
The elite never follow the rules. That is the surest sign you’ve made it as an elite. Once you can own your own rape island or have despots funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into your money laundering scheme of a foundation you know you’ve made it.
Every aspect of life, most crucially medical care, is under strain from the sudden influx of rich Manhattanites panic-fleeing, bringing along their disdain and disregard for the little people — and in some cases, knowingly bringing coronavirus.
The Springs resident says her friend, a nurse out here, reported that a wealthy Manhattan woman who tested positive called tiny Southampton Hospital to say she was on her way and needed treatment.
The woman was told to stay in Manhattan.
Instead, she allegedly got on public transportation, telling no one of her condition. Then she showed up at Southampton Hospital, demanding admittance.
That’s just evil. Seriously. How many people did that woman possibly infect because she decided she was rich enough to bypass the NYC quarantine and bring her disease to her summer resort home hospital.
“We’re at the end of Long Island, the tip, and waves of people are bringing this s–t,” says lifelong Montauker James Katsipis. “We should blow up the bridges. Don’t let them in.”
I highly recommend whistling while you do it.
“That small act reflects a lot of what we deal with in the summer,” he says. “Selfish. Disrespectful. Absolutely horrifying.”
“I’ve seen breathtaking acts of selfishness,” says lifelong East Hamptonite Jason LaGarenne, 42. “I saw one guy walk out [of a grocery store] with a cart full of carrots. Just carrots. Another cart was full of bottles of water and orange anti-microbial dish soap. If you’re a ridiculous person in general, I guess your ridiculousness is amplified by something like this.”
This comes as no shock to me. The super-rich showing up in what they think of as exclusively their vacation spots and buying up everything depriving the locals of necessities.
The offseason, October through June, is sparsely populated and can be very isolating. During that time, local grocers only stock food and supplies for a severely reduced population. There is no FreshDirect, no Whole Foods, no door-to-door food deliver
I’ve never been to the Hamptons but this is something I’m familiar with this in Florida. There are areas that are know for their spring break or tourist spots that during the offseason are practically ghost towns.
My grandparents used to own a vacation home in one of these spots on the Gulf Coast. When we visited them during the offseason the community was very different. It was just retirees and a city rolled up the sidewalks at 8:00.
If the Hampton locals were not planning for a tourist rush, they are only going to have on hand what they need for their small community. Having people escape New York City and descend on them as a refuge without warning will drain them of their resources.
The South Hampton hospital is pretty small too. It’s only a 125-bed hospital with eight ICU beds. It’s not built to support a huge population year-round, especially during a crisis.
“The biggest problem — what really gets me going — is that they think because they’re all the way out [here], they’re safe,” says Katsipis. “But some of those people are sick, and they’re going out to bars and acting like they’re on vacation. What do these city people think — we have some imaginary, magical bubble?”
I’ve mentioned this before. I love the book World War Z, and there is one chapter in which a security guard for a celebrity talks about the celebrities who hunkered down with private security in guarded mansions and partied while the zombie apocalypse was occurring. It was fun until the zombies breached the walls of the compounds and the celebrities were all eaten.
I’m getting a strong whiff of that.
Then there is the famous story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe. The nobles have a party during the plague but the plague shows up and kills them all anyway.
I’m getting a strong whiff of that too.
Still, every local who spoke to The Post said their community has one thing going for it that the rich don’t have: They really look out for each other.
The super-rich believe that they are entitled to break quarantine and consume everything the locals have because of their money.
This is why the royalty always wanted to disarm their serfs. They know they can only heap this casual abuse and disregard for the lives of those under them for so long before there is a peasant revolt.
One seems like it’s coming in the Hamptons.
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