Editorial | Breaking News: Unity is strength

This week, the Riverhead City Council succumbed to public pressure and abandoned comprehensive plan recommendations that supported resort development on the bluffs along the Sound.

Hundreds of people wrote to city officials and thousands signed a change.org petition organized by the Greater Jamesport Civic Association against the idea. It was an impressive display of political power, and we’re glad to see it was successful.

But this situation is unfortunately out of the ordinary when it comes to Riverhead, where seemingly widespread apathy is the status quo.

So what makes this time different?

Before we answer that question, let’s look at the campaign against the Byhalia pipeline in Memphis, Tennessee, highlighted in an episode of Heather McGhee’s podcast, The Sum of Us, which explores the negative effects of structural racism on people of all races and walks of life.

The nearly 50-mile-long crude oil pipeline, designed by Plains All American Pipeline and Valero Energy, would run through historically black working-class neighborhoods in South Memphis — the “path of least resistance,” as a pipeline company spokesperson put it — and over the Memphis Sand Aquifer, a critical drinking water resource not unlike our own aquifer here on Long Island.

Concern about the negative environmental and community impacts of the proposed pipeline united residents of different races and economic sectors in the largely segregated city. Black and white residents united to oppose the pipeline’s construction. They went door to door to raise public awareness about the plan and its potential impacts. They wrote op-eds in local newspapers. They attended public meetings in large numbers and spoke out on the issue. They partnered with other groups that had different knowledge and skills. In short, they organized into a formidable force.

The pipeline company fought back, courting community members through donations to local charities and trying to curry favor at churches and homeowners association meetings. But residents took notice and rallied around their leaders and other influential voices, including elected officials and celebrities.

And out of that fight emerged a new, young leader: Justin J. Pearson, who is now one of the youngest members of the Tennessee state legislature.

The pipeline project was cancelled in July 2021; a spokesperson for the pipeline company said there was not enough demand for oil to continue the project.

Did Riverhead’s recent crackdown on agritourism resorts have the same effect? ​​Well, eventually.

The City Council has been considering legislation regarding the agritourism complex since late last year. True, there were concerns from residents of the Willow Pond condominium complex late last year, but nothing city officials couldn’t let slide. Then civic members and other groups, such as the East End Group and the Southold City Council, began sounding the alarm. There was still little momentum.

Just a month ago, Riverhead residents’ opposition to resorts began to resemble the Memphis movement against the pipeline. Civic groups, environmental groups and large numbers of residents answered the call. Signatures poured in on petitions. Residents, under pressure from a ticking clock, with a public hearing scheduled and the resorts recommended in the comprehensive plan update about to be adopted, made their voices heard. And the Town Board listened. It was certainly an announcement that brought the end of the process forward, but better late than never.

The campaign against the agritourism resorts is reminiscent of community opposition to Calverton Aviation and Technology’s plan to build a cargo logistics center at EPCAL. Public pressure contributed to the project’s widespread rejection by the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency and then its cancellation by the Riverhead Town Board.

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, civic leader Claudette Bianco of Baiting Hollow said she was “very disappointed that it took hundreds of letters, thousands of signatures and a possible press conference for you to see that residents did not want” the resorts. She said civic leaders represent many residents and “it shouldn’t have taken the community to go into an uproar for you to do what we want.” Other speakers, who are “regulars” at City Hall, echoed her sentiments.

We disagree. If this situation teaches Riverhead Town residents and civic leaders anything, we hope it teaches them that size matters when it comes to a movement.

Whether civic leaders are elected by vote of their members or appointed by their founders, they are simply not considered representatives of “the people.” You hear it over and over again when Town Board members squabble with civic leaders. Town Board members regularly argue that civic associations do not represent everyone in their communities.

But all that changes when City Hall is packed, as it was on Wednesday. A civic leader’s strength should be as an organizer, someone who can get a group of residents out of their chairs and into their seats at a public meeting. Only then, when a community movement grows to a size that threatens politicians’ chances for reelection, will civic leaders be taken seriously.

Until then, it’s easy for them to dismiss civic representatives as “the same six people who always complain about everything” — a sentiment often echoed in the halls of City Hall, and sometimes even uttered from the podium. A civic leader’s credibility and power come from the knowledge that when an official sees him at the podium, he has hundreds of people behind him. And the only way to ensure that they understand him is to fill the meeting room to capacity.

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