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Something odd is going on around here. And it is even beyond the scope of our temporary bridge that was built while our permanent bridge is being built (ha!). Seriously, even more confusing is the construction actvity that is either feast or famine, depending on what side of the water you live.
There are huge construction projects underway right now on Martha’s Vineyard. Multiple bridges, a YMCA and a hospital no less. The confusing part is that none of these projects are employing island residents.
Baffling. We are in the middle of a recession. The bulk of Martha’s Vineyard’s work force is made up of laborers who work in construction. Despite the inflated cost of living , we consistently underpay our residents well below the state average for wages. The final blow… there is no work because it is winter AND a major recession, yet hundreds of new jobs have opened up and none of them are available to the people who live here.
The town that I live in is so over budget that we are cutting services and eliminating jobs. Our schools and therefore our children, are absorbing the cost.
How come we have these massive building projects but the island is not benefiting from the process. Ultimately we will have a great new activity complex, a new hospital and a few new bridges, but where is the income from employing laborers on these jobs?
What would seem like a building boon is deceptive. I am no urban planner, and I certainly am a novice at understanding the qualifications required to build a hospital, but it seems to me that we could have given the work to the local contractors.
I am trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the skill required to build these buildings and bridges was simply beyond what our labor pool was capable of doing. On some level I can see that this makes sense, and yet…could we not have held workshops and offered the skills to our own people?
This may be naive and simplistic, but it seems reasonable to assume that these skills would easily be conveyed with the proper training. That we did not have to miss out so completely on what would appear to be viable jobs for the people who are looking for them. Would that have inflated the building budgets beyond reason?
Every morning the workers get off the ferry, and every evening they get back on it to go home. I can’t help but think about the guy that stands at the Five Corners in Vineyard Haven with his cardboard sign. He watches them come and go, holding his sign looking for work. Mostly construction work but I’ve a feeling he’d take anything.
There is one thing that Martha’s Vineyard does better than anywhere else…builds community.
Beyond the day to day civility of friends and neighbors living together on an island, this community knows who you are and how you are. Small towns can be claustrophobic for me, a city girl used to anonymity and crowds. But as we continue to walk through the endless trials of life on life’s terms, the comfort of this small community is proving to be essential to my survival.
The sustainability of a community depends on neighbors helping neighbors. Sharing tools and trades, food and spirit, friendship and empathy. I tend to walk around in my own little world, taking care of my business and family without too much thought to others, or their suffering. When I reach a little further, look a little deeper I can see that we all have something to contribute, to give to another that will help them, and ultimately help us.
Martha’s Vineyard is Paradise in the summer, and somewhere between average and far less than that in the winter. I am not specifically referencing the quiet or isolation, the loneliness that can engulf you on a gray winter’s day. This is construction and home management territory. American economy is stalled and even if you wanted to find work here in the winter you’d be out of luck. We have been adversely affected by the spiraling economy on a level that only tourism-dependent locals can understand. Our laborers are housing and construction based. We rent, sell, fix-up, winterize…houses.
To distract us and nourish us, the community has many options for food, gatherings and fellowship. There are holiday events to bolster the spirit and weekly suppers to interrupt the isolation. There are nature walks and yoga classes, evening classes in all sorts of random categories and people willing to give their time and energies towards a rich life here.
Even under the worst of circumstances, this island rallies around and comes together to support and help. A tragic illness, house fire, loss, no one is alone. Because of the size of our year round community, even if you don’t know the person directly, then you know someone who does. You know their children, husbands, wives or simply their positions…teacher, librarian, pastor, fireman. When the fund raiser is announced, we are ready. When the obstacle seems insurmountable, someone reaches out and shares the burden.
This has been a trying year for so many, and as we gather together at community meetings and events it is evident that we are still in the right place. That choosing this unconventional life will continue to reward in the places that are priceless, friends, relationships and community.
Martha’s Vineyard prides itself on being ahead of the curve for alternative lifestyles, conservation and clean living. We are independent of the rest of New England physically as well as emotionally. We live in nature and are surrounded by natural beauty to be preserved and valued. We don’t consider ourselves extensions of Massachusetts or Cape Cod, we are from Martha’s Vineyard. We have no chain stores or billboards, we buy locally and pay into land bank as a way of life. We have worked hard to protect the integrity of our environment.
The hot Vineyard issue of the moment is wind farming in and around our ocean waters. It seems that we could very realistically achieve even more independence by producing our own energy. By installing wind turbines in the ocean we could have our own source of renewable energy and at a fraction of our present costs. Sounds like a win-win, but what about the few consequences? In order for this plan to reach fruition, a majority of Vineyard residents would have to approve the implementation of a grid of very large wind turbines offshore. A veritable garden of massive white flowers collecting precious energy and moving us along on the sustainability path.
So what are those consequences? The obvious is visual. Though we have been assured of a say in where the wind farm would be erected, it will exist somewhere. Whether we will be able to see it from parts of the Island or not has yest to be determined, but the point is that someone will be able to see it somehow. This is a trade off, energy for unsightly wind towers. If you are out boating, sailing, fishing, will you be alarmed when you come across this installation? I will be.
How about environmental issues? Wildlife, erosion, the demands of the actual installation in the ocean floor, these are just a few that I can think up in seconds. I am no scientist, but have no doubt that I am only scratching the surface in terms of risk to the ocean and its denizens.
It has become a big topic of discussion and controversy in our area. There are those who believe that this type of sustainable energy exemplifies what Martha’s Vineyard stands for, and those who think it will destroy what we consider to be a precious resource. The unspoiled horizon and the knowledge that you can get out there and see nothing but ocean, as far as the eye can see. What is it worth to you?
The jury is still out in this debate, let’s not rush into anything that we don’t fully understand. Could there be smaller, less obtrusive ways to generate energy? If not today, then tomorrow or next week? Are there other issues that affect our quality of life that may be more accessible to us today? Take a minute and think about it.
I started writing this Blog in January. January 20th to be exact. My first post was about the Presidential Inauguration and the hope for the future that the our new democratic government represented. It was a fitting beginning for me. Hope, change, environmental conservation. We were on the same page!
Soon after the election of our first black president, my husband and I began our journey into real estate development and green building. With much trepidation, apprehension and a little excitement mixed in, we built Martha’s Vineyard’s first LEED certified gold standard residence.
Most of my blog posts have been about the building process and a learning curve and what we experienced as a couple building this house together. The apprehension evolved into pride as we pulled off an incredible building project and a ground breaker to boot. We were able to build that house within our projected time frame (which was unreasonably short in hindsight) and came in at our projected budget. Granted we did not allow for a great profit margin, but our primary goal was to build a better house for a reasonable price and hopefully make our investment back at the same time.
Oddly, it didn’t really occur to us that the house would not sell before our loan was up with the bank. Ok, maybe it occurred to us, but sometimes its best to ignore the danger signs if you want to stay on the road. We could not afford to quit so better to live in a fantasy! Despite the slowed to a crawl real estate market, we had a very popular destination and everybody wanted to see that house. We have shown the house to almost everyone we know. My husband continues to put out the Open House sign at any opportunity, at a minimum of once a week. We received some great local press MVGazette.com and we are thrilled by all the positive feedback.
There have been a couple of serious inquiries to date, but no contract and we have run out of time. The bank that was so gracious and enthusiastic about funding our project has had a change of opinion of the viability of construction in a down market. As we traveled the construction road with them the assurances and encouragement were a relief to our anxieties. Our fears were met with a happy “don’t worry” and we were satisfied that a reasonable extension would be arranged. What a relief! Well, the extension just came in…at almost double the original rates.
The last couple of months have been very stressful, it has been difficult to keep writing posts about our amazing house when it looked like we may not sell it after all. It’s certainly not that I have nothing to say, I’m just concerned about how I’m going to say it. Meeting challenges, having acceptance, continuing to forge ahead…and not murdering my husband in his sleep have all exhausted my resources.
Now we are making a new plan. One thing we have learned through our mutually diverse life experiences is resilience. It took awhile for the obvious to reveal itself, but we are finally seeing a way to move ahead and make the best of this situation. As of right now, we will be the new residents at #15 Green Avenue. We are putting our primary residence on the market and will be buying ourselves out. The financial benefit will be immediate, we will be able to convert an unmanageable construction loan into a traditional mortgage. Of course the house will remain on the market, we do need to sell it.
Having made this decision we are finally able to take a breath and look at the situation in a positive light. We will have both properties on the market, and may in fact end up without a home of our own, but the relief at being proactive and doing everything in our power to forge ahead compensates for any fear of the future. Seems silly, but putting on blinders and walking through the fear can be liberating.
We will sell Green on Green, it simply did not happen in our ideal time frame. So we will move in for the meantime and set up house. We are hoping to have a great big holiday party and be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor…for now. Tomorrow will come whether we are ready for it or not, so why not enjoy today.
I’m not going to pretend to understand anything about fishing. Nor do I want to be clued in to this bizarre and foreign activity that sweeps people into a state of obsession bordering on hypnosis. I went fishing once. Was 10 or 11 years ago and it was the only way to get my then boyfriend (now husband) to spend any time with me.
I was out on that boat for hours, then I caught a fish. It was a huge Striped Bass and I was pretty excited and certainly proud. I was also all done. I had been on that boat for hours being thrashed around by the waves and said boyfriend’s navigating skills. I caught the fish and I was complete. In my mind I had won, game over. I mean who needs to repeat that experience when what I really wanted was to be warm and comfortable.
Over the years I have learned to tolerate the sport. I married the obsessive fisherman and one of my HUGE concessions was to let him enjoy his stuff and I got other stuff in return. When we had our child he definitely put her and my welfare ahead of fishing, but as Chesca has gotten older his need to catch and release has crept back into our lives.
The Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish derby has always been a particularly challenging time in our relationship. It is 30 days of fishing, smelling like fish, weigh-ins at night, and a missing person at the dinner table. If he is missing at dinner then you know there are other responsibilities that are being ignored in the name of ” The Derby”.
My peace has come with the realization that I don’t have to understand the drive to fish in order to see the benefits of fishing. My husband loves to fish. He’s a nicer person when he gets to balance out his day with a little fishing. He works really hard and deserves to unwind and find his serenity wherever he can.
The derby has daily and weekly prizes as well as the grand boat/truck/money that is presented at the end of the 30 days. It also has categories for children and they can get prizes. Sometimes my daughter will go out derby fishing with her dad and they bond, having the time of their lives catching fish. I get to stay home and read a book, a luxury that I don’t take lightly. If and when my husband goes over the edge into obsession-land, he has the self-awareness to recognize it and own up to it.
Today is the last day of the derby. My hubby’s not out fishing, he’s working towards some common goals that we share. It’s also a Nor’easter, whatever that means. I am going to miss the tiny power surge that I get when he asks if I mind if he goes. There is a small (and largely ignored) part of me that enjoys the knowledge that I could deny him his fishing time. He knows that I have no patience for it, and haven’t ever understood the endless pursuit. But I want him to be happy. If this is what does it, who am I to complain? Fish on.
I started writing this Blog in January. January 20th to be exact. My first post was about the Presidential Inauguration and the hope for the future that the our new democratic government represented. It was a fitting beginning for me. Hope, change, environmental conservation. We were on the same page!
