Where exactly is Long Island heading?

"The owner closed what was essentially a local monopoly because of what it termed "significant operating deficits in recent years." While the store will remain open to sell over-the-counter medications and other products and to keep running its soda fountain and lunch counter, prescriptions are being transferred to Southold Pharmacy on the mainland, inconvenient at the least for Shelter Island residents, especially its senior citizens."

"The uncertainty evokes an Ernest Hemingway character in "The Sun Also Rises" who is asked how he went bankrupt. "Gradually, then suddenly," he responds, a reply at once cheeky and ominous. Long Island has seen troubling trend lines for years. Scarce and expensive housing, exorbitant child care, rising insurance premiums. Health care costs that never stop spiking and new fare increases approved recently by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the new year."

Closure of the Shelter Island Heights Pharmacy eliminated the only local source for prescription fulfillment, with the owner citing "significant operating deficits in recent years." The storefront will still sell over-the-counter products and operate a soda fountain and lunch counter, but prescriptions were transferred to Southold Pharmacy on the mainland, creating inconvenience for Shelter Island residents, especially senior citizens. The pharmacy's shutdown exemplifies broader Long Island pressures: scarce, expensive housing; exorbitant child care; rising insurance and healthcare costs; recent transit fare increases; and high taxes driven by school district levies that strain taxpayers.

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