Long Island consumers are more pessimistic about their immediate financial future than at any time in the past two years because of issues like the rising cost of food and housing, according to a new poll. The Siena Research Institute reported this week that its Index of Consumer Sentiment was 65.1 points in September in Nassau and Suffolk counties. That’s the lowest reading since June 2023’s 61.2 points and down from 70.1 in September 2024. James T. Madore reports in NEWSDAY that in the metropolitan area, which includes Long Island, the index was 72.6 points last month, compared with 78.1 a year earlier. Statewide, the trend was similar. Readings below the breakeven threshold of 76 points indicate the number of consumers who are worried about their financial outlook is larger than the number who are optimistic.

Worried consumers are more reluctant to open their wallets, which leads to less spending, said John A. Rizzo, an economist and Stony Brook University professor. He added that consumer spending accounts for about 70% of all economic activity.

Rizzo attributed the “sharp decline in consumer confidence” to rising prices, particularly for imported goods that are subject to U.S. tariffs, and uncertainty about the future of Obamacare.

“None of this bodes well for the holiday shopping season on Long Island,” he said.

In the Siena survey, the high cost of food and housing in Nassau and Suffolk was among the factors holding down the local consumer-sentiment index reading.

More than 7 in 10 Long Islanders said food prices and housing costs were having either a very serious or a somewhat serious impact on their finances in September.

Travis Brodbeck, associate director of data management at the institute, which is part of Siena University, said gasoline prices also “remain a serious strain on New Yorkers’ finances. Yet, residents are not signaling any major belt-tightening."

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Educators on Long Island have sought to reassure students and parents that schools are safe amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Darwin Yanes reports in NEWSDAY that U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted carrying out enforcement activities near schools in Brentwood and Hempstead last month, and educators said some students have questioned whether they should attend classes. The Department of Homeland Security, which has said more than 2 million undocumented people have been removed or have self-deported from the country since January, issued a statement last month emphasizing the federal agency does not target schools. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not conducting enforcement operations at, or ‘raiding,’ schools," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not going to schools to make arrests of children." She noted, "Criminals are no longer able to hide in America’s schools to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense."

Echoing the sentiments of other Long Island school administrators, Brentwood Schools Superintendent Wanda Ortiz-Rivera said. "Our role is to provide reassurance, resources and consistent support…I want every parent to know that their child is safe, supported and loved in Brentwood. ... We need our students in school; they are the heart of our community and the reason we do this work…Together, we will continue to ensure that every child who walks through our doors feels welcomed, inspired and ready to succeed."

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Free Family Fun tomorrow in Bridgehampton.

It’s the 26th Annual Long Pond Greenbelt Celebration on Saturday, October 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Vineyard Field, behind the South Fork Natural History Museum (SOFO). This free event features nature-themed activities like games and crafts, guided walks, interactive nature displays, and a host of other activities presented by local environmental and community organizations. Have your face painted by Fun4Faces, and indulge in ice cream at noon.

Join in at Vineyard Field, behind the SOFO Museum at 377 Bridgehampton/Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton tomorrow from 10 a.m. To 1 p.m.

Co-sponsored by Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt (FLPG), the Peconic Land Trust, and the South Fork Natural History Museum (SOFO). For more information and to RSVP, please contact FLPG at [email protected] or call 631-745-0689.

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A judge this Tuesday dismissed a Riverhead Town lawsuit that sought to block the Town of Southampton from building a new sewage treatment plant key to revitalizing Riverside, an economically distressed hamlet that borders downtown Riverhead. Alek Lewis reports in NEWSDAY that the ruling removes a potential impediment to Southampton Town's plan to revitalize the hamlet with new commercial and residential development. Meanwhile, Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the consultants working for Southampton Town on its strategy for revitalizing Riverside this week unveiled some more of their vision for how the redevelopment might take place in the coming years.

While the plan would encourage denser development in certain areas, the overall density of residential units across the redevelopment area would be just seven units per acre, the consultants and the town planning staff that is working with them told members of the Southampton Town Board last week. The first redevelopment project has already been proposed, a 40-unit affordable rental apartments building, and town officials said that some in the Riverside community have bristled at such density and voiced concerns that the town’s revitalization plans may be too aggressive. So Southampton Town staff and the consultants labored to reassure residents and elected officials that the image as a whole, over the longterm, is much different.

The consultants, from Historical Concepts, a Manhattan-based architecture and planning firm, told the Town Board on Thursday, October 2, that they have been working over the summer on how to plan for allowing density, and distributing it equitably to the property owners in the areas where the town wants to incentivize redevelopment, while still steering the new development with principles of smart growth and the goal of creating a walkable community. And the planners emphasized that the overall density of seven units per acre, or between 40 and 50 per new block created, is the ultimate measure of the impact of the revitalization project, which began in 2015. The Southampton Town Board will discuss the logistics of creating the sewer district for Riverside at its October 15 meeting.

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When members of the Southold Town Trustees first approached the Southold Town Board in July to propose changes to its wetlands code to better protect the shoreline, their suggestions — to define several innovative, environmentally friendly construction practices and move the setback for pools 10 feet further away from wetlands — were met with enthusiastic support. But numerous residents who showed up for a public hearing on the changes this week raised objections to a section of the updated code that adds new fresh and brackish water bodies to the town’s already long list of areas where new private docks are prohibited. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that in addition to protecting public access to waterways, Town Trustees in Southold are charged with administering permits for activities within 100 feet of wetlands, beaches, dunes and bluffs, in accordance with the town’s wetlands code — Chapter 275.

The new waterways where private docks would be prohibited under the proposal are primarily fresh and brackish lakes and ponds, including Laurel Lake, Marion Lake, Marratooka Pond, Husing Pond, Lilly Pond, Great Pond, Inlet Pond and Dam Pond.

The Southold Town Board held the public hearing open for written comments only through its Nov. 5 meeting. Comments may be emailed to Town Clerk Denis Noncarrow at [email protected].

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday accused the White House of attempting to “defund the police” by withholding $34 million in antiterrorism and security funding for the New York City subway and regional railroads…including the LIRR…stoking a continued feud with the Trump administration.

Stefanos Chen and Winnie Hu report in THE NY TIMES that at a news conference in the Lower Manhattan headquarters of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Governor Hochul admonished the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for withholding money from what she said was the nation’s biggest terrorism target. The governor, a Democrat, also said the Trump administration was targeting New York State for political reasons.

“In a stark moment of hypocrisy, the federal government is literally threatening our ability to keep these operations safe,” Ms. Hochul said as she stood in front of a bank of monitors showing security camera footage of subway stations, bridges and tunnels.

Last week, federal officials decided not to disburse New York’s share of the Transit Security Grant Program, amounting to roughly 40 percent of the nearly $84 million total fund. The state uses the grant money to support counterterrorism efforts in the subway and on the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road.

Jessica Tisch, New York City’s police commissioner, said the program, which was established after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, had supported efforts including bomb squads, canine teams and undercover officers who have sought out chemical and nuclear threats, among other risks.

Ms. Tisch said there have been eight plots targeting the New York City subway since Sept. 11, 2001.

Of the 21 transit agencies nationwide that had applied for the security grant this year, Ms. Hochul said New York’s transit authority was the only one that had been refused.

“This is not hyperbole, this is not exaggerating — this is the reality, we have been singled out,” said Governor Hochul.

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The 2025 Peconic Bay scallop season is on track to be another disaster, according to early bay surveys, but reinforcements are on the way in the form of more than 700,000 disease-tolerant scallops. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that in a survey of one of 21 sectors of the Peconic Bay off Greenport this past Tuesday, Cornell Cooperative Extension aquaculture and shellfish restoration specialist Harrison Tobi donned scuba gear and traversed three separate 50-meter underwater lines in search of scallops. He surfaced with only seven juveniles in his mesh bag, and no adults of the size that baymen harvest for sale at market.

"It doesn’t look good," Tobi said, for the scallop season that starts Nov. 3 in bays across Long Island, and in the Peconic in particular.

It's the sixth year in a row that the Peconic Bay has seen historically low levels of scallops, after experiencing some of the bay’s most productive years just prior to 2019. Population numbers are "not great and, unfortunately, it's routine," Tobi said.

Scientists have discounted prior theories that warming bay waters and low oxygen levels during the summer spawning season led to the die-offs in summer, just after they breed.

Instead, they have identified a pathogen that impacts all scallop tissue, and is particularly detrimental to their kidneys.

To help reverse the trend, biologists at the Cornell Cooperative Extension are breeding bay scallops from other waters with a slight variation in genetics that allows them to be more tolerant of the pathogen. The scallops, from Martha’s Vineyard and Moriches Bay, are the same genetic species as the Peconic scallops, but of a lineage with a tolerance to the pathogen.

In the meantime, the cost for Peconic Bay scallops has soared from around $15 a pound six years ago to $35 or more in recent years, Tobi said.

The Cornell program, which is funded about 90% by Suffolk County, has also been using state and federal grants and preservation funds to work on programs to rebuild the Peconic Bay and surrounding scallop populations. Disaster recovery funds from New York State, after the Peconic Bay’s mass die-off, are also helping.

While expressing hope for a turnaround of scallop populations over the next several years, Tobi emphasized, "This isn’t a science experiment."

He added, "This is applied science to a problem, which is the economy, which is these baymen, which is their families." Many baymen depend on the seasonal revenue to get them through the fall and winter.