Fire Island facing a summer of change
I love Fire Island.
Anyone who hasn’t experienced the feeling of the ferry ride can’t understand the profound sense of freedom it brings. People talk about Fire Island as though it were an extension of Manhattan, which of course it is. Only its remoteness, a scant 50 miles from one island to another, gives it a sense of isolation that, along with its glamour and beauty (natural, manmade and just plain man), make it a unique resort area. Unlike Provincetown, Setauket, South Beach, Rehoboth or Russian River, going to Fire Island is a trek. You’d better know what you’re doing once you get there and where you’re staying.
For several years, people in the Pines and the Grove have been saying that their communities are in a state of transition. In the Pines, the death of John Whyte followed the sale of his properties to Eric von Kuersteiner three years ago. It was more than the sale of the most important harbor properties; it represented a generational changing of the guard. White, by his ownership of the Botel, the only legal transient hotel in the Pines, the Blue Whale and the Pavilion, as well as a string of property in between, controlled the social life of the Pines. Since then, the Island Club, the only other bar or club in the Pines, has also changed hands.
In the Grove, the former Property Owners Association was succeeded by a new organization that attempted to incorporate all of the Grove, including renters and businesses, into its ranks. This coincided with several (or even most) of the bars changing hands.
One thing is for sure: To judge by the Memorial Day Weekend that just passed, the island is back with a vengeance. Of course, on Fire Island it’s all about the weather, and the atmosphere was certainly tinged with all-around joy at the immoderately high temperatures and brilliant sun for the traditional kick-off to the summer season. With the best Memorial Day Weekend weather in at least 20 years, despite a cool, rainy Friday, anyone who could scarf a sofa to crash on was on the island this weekend. Saturday was gorgeous, Sunday was better, and Monday it was downright HOT. I’ve been going out there since the mid-’80s and have never experienced a weekend remotely as nice, weather-wise.
It was nice to see the return of house parties. Great parties on Black Duck, Shell & Bass. Low Teas were jammed, as were High Teas every night. Von Kuersteiner has reopened the gym in back of the Bay Bar, formerly the Cultured Elephant, which helps bring the boys to the harbor. The Botel, now rechristened Ciel, looks great. Amazing what a coat of paint and some well-placed bunting can do. Apparently the rooms have undergone (or are undergoing) a very much needed renovation as well. This can only help bring international visitors back to the Pines. Von Kuersteiner hasn’t begun the desperately needed remodeling of the Pavilion, but last summer he added air conditioning (even though sometimes it was hard to tell whether or not it was on).
What he did this year, though, was brilliant: Taking out the banquettes upstairs and lowering the upper stairs didn’t cost much but has made High Tea negotiable. I used to dread High Tea because it was so hard to get around; now it’s easy and even pleasurable.
Low Tea, however, remains my favorite. Whyte revived dancing at this event and brought in some of the Pines’ favorite DJs. Von Kuersteiner is relying on a rotating roster of DJs, to mixed results.
Brenda Black spun on Friday, and people voted with their feet; they didn’t dance. Black didn’t bother beat mixing and piled up records that have nothing to do with each other. I guess some people like this mash-up style of DJing, but I’m looking for a journey. Or at least the kind of music that typifies Tea on Fire Island.
For that, we had to wait for Saturday and Sunday. Max Rodriguez turned it out on Saturday for a fun, up set. But the real surprise was Super Dave on Sunday. Hell, I didn’t even know he owned those records. He played songs that have been favorites on Fire Island for 20 years, but he did it with panache. "Souvenirs," which could stand as the Pines’ theme song, was played-but only a remixed intro. It was brilliant, and the crowd ate it up.
The big question, however, is whether the younger crowd who seemed to have abandoned the Pines somewhat in recent years has returned. The real-estate brokers all reported that everyplace available rented for the first time in many seasons. But may this be the result as much of more and more houses being taken off the rental market by owner-occupiers as by more people flocking to the Pines? No one has produced statistics either way, but empirical evidence points to more and more houses being taken off the rental market as owners decide to live in their own homes rather than rent them out to group shares.
Certainly at the house parties, there were younger faces. But there has always been a "fresh crop" coming out to Fire Island. Von Kuersteiner has made it plain that he wants to attract a younger crowd. He has been advertising in city media and Circuit Noize. When asked by one publication what he was doing to cater to the older crowd, he seemed to duck the question. And his selection of DJs this summer has skewed in favor of East Village favorites at the expense of former island stalwarts like Warren Gluck, Robbie Lesley and Susan Morabito, who helped define the island sound for many years. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. While I hope that a new generation discovers the island, I’ll be watching to see what happens the rest of the season.
Last weekend presented a mixed bag. Teas were jam packed; however, the Pavilion was not as crowded as one might have expected. Friday it was empty, despite no cover and $2 well drinks. Saturday, which should have been the big night, the Pavilion had a good-sized crowd, but not as many as last year, when Morabito spun on a weekend when the weather wasn’t nearly as good. Sunday was a relatively low turnout for Randy Bettis, one of my favorite of the younger DJs. This was not unexpected, however, since many of the most serious dancers left the island to go into the city for the Alegria party at Crobar.
In the Grove, there has been dissension caused by the resentment of some women to the presence of porn on monitors and go-go dancers and porn stars performing at the bars and clubs. This has brought out some divisions in the community along generational and sexual-identity lines. In addition, the wooing of mainland day trippers by the bars, always a cause of contention in the Grove, has escalated.
Several houses are up for sale, which means that, whatever the conflicts, the Grove is definitely changing. For several years, people have been predicting that the Grove would see a renaissance. Prompted in part by the high cost of the Pines, younger people, it was reasoned, would flock to the Grove, where rentals are lower. But the Grove has never been a group-share town; unlike the Pines, the homes are smaller. But change is in the air here as well as in the Pines, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out as the summer progresses.
Whatever happens in the Pines and Grove, both communities will always have the natural beauty, the isolation and the glorious lack of cars and other "civilizing" influences that will continue to attract New Yorkers.
