News & Opinions Real Estate

Polo, Packed Bars, Shrink Keep Party Going in Anxious Hamptons

Posted on Monday, 8/20 by webmaster  ·  no comments yet

Here’s an interesting article on life here in East Hampton from the Bloomberg.com monitoring life here during the mortgage crisis.



Psychiatrist Greg Dillon sat in a white rocking chair on the porch of his East Hampton rental home yesterday and diagnosed the panic some of his Wall Street patients are feeling these days. ``You lose half of what you’ve got in the bank and, to them, they’ve lost half their ego,’’ Dillon, 39, said. ``The volatility in their mood tracks pretty evenly with the volatility in the market. There is a sense of things falling apart.’’



As the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped as much as 8 percent from its all-time closing high on July 19 over fears of a credit crunch, some shrinks were enjoying a bull market for their services. But in the Hamptons, the summer home of many Wall Street traders and executives, most people seemed to be taking the financial news in stride.



At Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in Bridgehampton, where the menu includes $41 broiled lamb chops, every table was filled Friday night at 11:30. ``We could seat the restaurant three times over,’’ said manager Kristin Regan.



On Saturday morning, dozens of people waited in line to buy coffee, pastries and fruit at the Amagansett Farmers Market. Many customers were eating their breakfast in a garden area with plastic chairs and tables. ``You wouldn’t know anything is going on on Wall Street,’’ said Jeff Huettner, manager of the 54-year-old market. ``People here are driving Bentleys, Ferraris and Porsches like they drive a Chevy anyplace else,’’ he said. ``This is fantasyland.’’



More Drinking



At Stephen Talkhouse, a music club in Amagansett where Paul McCartney’s estranged wife, Heather Mills, was spotted Friday night, at least 30 people were waiting on line to gain entrance at 1 a.m. ``The Hamptons are recession-proof,’’ music promoter Nick Kraus said. ``We’re the type of place that would be busier if people lose their jobs. They’ll just drink more.’’



Not everyone is so relaxed. Javier Sumavielle, a 45-year- old emerging markets trader with New York’s Pali Capital, has cut his normal summer four-day weekends in half. He said the demands of the job have reduced his playing time at Buckskill Tennis Club. ``I’ve never seen a crisis like this,’’ he said, referring to the fallout from subprime mortgage losses, not his tennis game.



Jenny Baker, co-owner of Sangha Yoga studio in Montauk, said there’s been no slowdown in her business. She said residents worried about Wall Street’s woes actually benefit from her service. ``Yoga is a good option for them,’’ she said. ``They can find some peace.’’



Polo Match



At a polo match in Bridgehampton, a hedge-fund analyst who asked not to be identified said he knew a ``a lot of guys who have gotten crushed’’ by the market plunge. ``At the end of the year it will be the haves and have nots,’’ he said. Janet Finkel, a Brooklyn Heights resident who owns the V2K window treatment company, said she’s selling her home in East Hampton for $1.7 million. The sale was supposed to close in October, but Finkel said the buyers want to move it up to this week because they’re concerned that their financing may fall through if they wait. ``Banks have changed the criteria for lending,’’ Finkel said while relaxing on the beach in Southampton. ``This is the end of the easy-money boom.’’



Paying for Flights



Anthony Ottimo, president of the leasing firm JetOne Jets, said hedge-fund managers are skittish over the market’s volatility. ``They’re really watching out for their dollars right now,’’ he said at Bridgehampton Polo, wearing a pink-and-white striped open-neck shirt. ``A lot of guys who used to fly and mark it off as personal travel are now paying for their own travel.’’



Most of the Hamptons residents interviewed over the weekend applauded Friday’s decision by the Federal Reserve to cut the interest rate it charges banks. The Dow soared 233 points on Friday after dropping 812 points over the previous six sessions. Charles Gargano, former chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., said Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke ``deserves a gold medal.’’ Gargano was standing at a crowded bar at Sag Harbor’s landmark American Hotel, built in 1846 at the height of the whaling era. He was surrounded by casually dressed men and women drinking wine and martinis. ``The economy is still strong and the fundamentals of the market are still strong,’’ he said. ``But people know there might be more pain.’’



Trump’s Take



In Bridgehampton, Donald Trump was promoting his planned restaurant and catering facility in Jones Beach and handing out awards at the polo match. A glamorous crowd socialized in the VIP tent, drinking from small champagne bottles through a straw. ``I have a feeling he knows exactly what he’s doing,’’ Trump said of Bernanke.



Dillon, the psychiatrist, said the feelings of Wall Street bigwigs are directly tied to their financial and job status. An executive with a wife and one child may buy a $17-million mansion not because he needs the space, Dillon said, but because it certifies his place in the business hierarchy. ``They are who they are because of their jobs,’’ he said.