"[12] Sandra E. Garcia, writing for The New York Times Style Magazine in October 2020, recounts a history of the SANS community and reports that Simons, who has a home in Sag Harbor Hills, helped lead fundraising efforts for the national and state landmark applications.
[13] Garcia also writes, "there are 195 buildings in the subdivisions — which, alongside several other sites and structures, collectively go by the acronym SANS — all erected before circa 1977 across the 154 acres that lie north of Sag Harbor village’s Hampton Street, which still divides the predominantly white community from the historic Black one.
"[13] The Sag Harbor Express reports that Simons promoted the landmark application effort through meetings, fundraising and petition drives,[14] and she reached out to the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) for help with the process, which sent 25 volunteers.
[15] The Montauk Sun reports that the organizing efforts included obtaining a grant from The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation and conducting an Intensive Cultural Resource Survey to produce the required documentation for the applications.
[16] Simons discussed the efforts with The Wall Street Journal in 2017, stating, "If we don’t say anything we’ll lose the essence of this neighborhood," and "Children won’t remember what it took to be here.