Curbed Cup 1st round: (4) East Hampton vs. (13) Water Mill

Curbed Cup, the annual virtual award for the best neighborhood of the year, is officially kicking off! This week, we’ll be calling for readers to cast their votes. Each poll will only be open for 24 hours, so make sure to get your vote in!

East Hampton (4)

As one of the bigger and more population-dense areas of the Hamptons, East Hampton has a bit of an edge in this competition against Water Mill—but that doesn’t mean the underdog can’t surprise us and take over the winning spot.

East Hampton has had some traction in the last year—Uber returned to East Hampton and all town villages and hamlets, and the train station is getting a remodel within the next year. Not to mention, a new set of affordable housing condos are due to be up soon. The town has had some pretty great development projects underway in the last year.

Water Mill (13)

While Water Mill is a bit smaller than East Hampton and doesn’t have as much going on as far as development is concerned, it’s had an interesting year in real estate. Since most of the town is located south of the highway, and both Mecox Bay and the ocean are within the village limits, Water Mill has some incredible waterfront properties on the market—including the most expensive listing currently for sale in the Hamptons: the Henry Ford estate, listed for a whopping $175 million.

And, as being under the jurisdiction of Southampton Town, Uber has been available in Water Mill all the time that it hasn’t been available in East Hampton.

In the 2016 Curbed Cup, both East Hampton and Water Mill made it to the Final Four, so we’re interested to see how it will play out this year. East Hampton first took down North Haven in the first round, but eventually lost to Hampton Bays in the second round. Water Mill beat Southampton in the first round, but lost by a landslide to the 2016 Curbed Cup champion, Sag Harbor, in the second round.

• Uber will return to East Hampton after two years of being unusable [Curbed Hamptons]
• The East Hampton LIRR station house is getting a renovation [Curbed Hamptons]
• Ground cleared on affordable housing project in East Hampton on Accabonac Road [Curbed Hamptons]
• Henry Ford estate in Southampton will list for $175M, making it the most expensive in the Hamptons [Curbed Hamptons]
• Curbed Cup 2nd Round: Hampton Bays (4) vs. East Hampton (5) [Curbed Hamptons]
• Curbed Cup 1st Round: Southampton (7) vs. Water Mill (10) [Curbed Hamptons]
• Curbed Cup 2nd Round: Sag Harbor (2) vs. Water Mill (10) [Curbed Hamptons]