The drama surrounding the exclusive, boring beach on Fire Island

This week, an idyllic beach on Fire Island was the scene of a populist coup: Ho-Hum Beach, long an exclusive area for residents of the nearby affluent village of Bellport, was suddenly opened to everyone on Tuesday after a rival city council began ferrying people across in water taxis. The NAACP called it a victory; the mayor of Bellport called it “unconscionable.” Local news has dubbed the whole thing the “ferry affair.”

Bellport is a sleepy little town on the south shore of Long Island that residents like to say has the exclusivity of the Hamptons without the pretentiousness. (“It’s not the kind of place you show off,” one local told New York Just in 2021.) The houses are historic New England-style saltboxes, the shops and restaurants are charming and understated, and Isabella Rossellini owns a farm nearby. Most importantly, owning property in the village comes with privileges, including subsidized country club membership, access to an ice-skating pond—and the right to ride the ferry (which is actually a modest boat with a capacity of 47 people) to Ho-Hum, a rustic beach across Bellport Bay on Fire Island. Bellport has owned the property the beach sits on since 1963, but Fire Island’s beaches are technically federal land designated as Fire Island National Seashore. Ho-Hum has always been a quirky zone, not really part of Fire Island but also sectioned off due to that very literal gatekeeper role. Technically, anyone can get to Ho-Hum by boat, but only villagers and their guests are allowed to use the ferry that runs there daily.

The problem is that the people in Bellport who have access to the exclusive privilege of the Ho-Hum ferry are overwhelmingly of a certain demographic. According to the 2022 census, Bellport’s 1,844 residents were 97.5 percent white. The 10,530 residents of the neighboring city of North Bellport, who are barred from Ho-Hum, were only 64.1 percent white, 39.8 percent Hispanic or Latino, and 28.9 percent black. (These percentages don’t add up to 100, since many Hispanics also identify as white.) The people of North Bellport, while still quite wealthy, aren’t that wealthy either. Locals who end up having to drive 20 minutes to other beaches instead of taking a five-minute ferry ride feel discriminated against because they come from a lower-income community that is much less white. “I’ve never been there,” said a black resident of North Bellport Newsday“and I have lived here since 2007.”

In January, Dan Panico, the councilman for Brookhaven, a town northeast of Bellport, made democratizing ho-hum his pet issue and began publicly urging the village of Bellport to open the beach. He pointed to a 2018 annexation agreement between Bellport and Brookhaven that gave Brookhaven residents a right of access. “I’m no different, you’re no different than the children and families of North Bellport, and they have a right to enjoy this island and go to the beach,” Panico told the audience at his inaugural address, which happened to include Bellport Mayor Maureen Veitch. Veitch said she was “surprised” by Panico’s statements.

On August 25, Panico made good on his word and announced that the Town of Brookhaven would offer water taxi rides to Ho-Hum. The Town of Bellport fought back. Panico claimed that an unnamed councilman went online and “sabotaged” the taxi rides by reserving most of the seats under a series of fake names. Then the Town of Bellport issued a citation to the taxi for docking without a permit. The following day, August 26, Panico held a press conference with black residents standing behind him with signs reading “Ho-Hum for All.” Mayor Veitch released a statement condemning the stunt and saying Panico was “obsessed” with Bellport.

Panico has vowed to continue fighting Bellport in court. Debate over the Ho-Hum uproar raged on Facebook. Some villagers said Bellport needed to get with the times; others argued they had access to the beach because they paid the higher taxes to maintain it. One user kept speculating whether Panico was simply adding Ho-Hum as an “amenity” to his plan to encourage residential development in Brookhaven. Another Bellport resident called it “pure communism.” And yet another put all the blame on Panico: “We are being attacked by a rogue politician.”