Posts from — April 2010

An eventful spring in our corner of the world. On Tuesday, beer and wine passed by a healthy margin, making Vineyard Haven a “wet” town for the first time in 180 years. Tristan Israel – prominent in the Island music scene – was reelected as selectman, despite some opposition.

In another notable race, Kenneth Garde was unseated from the Tisbury board of health by Michael Loberg in a landslide. Mr. Garde has been in the news frequently over the past couple years: a handful of his Siberian Huskies have been banned from town and his three adult children were arrested for trafficking heroin out of his home. (The ringleader pled guilty.)

Mr. Garde has one year remaining of his three year term as public works commissioner.

Last month, a member of the Tisbury town planning board and a registered sex offender was arrested on charges of “rape and assault and battery of a retarded person”. Apparently, he cannot be removed from the town planning board before his term ends.

On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the controversial Cape Wind project – 130 turbines in Vineyard Sound – would proceed. Details, such as the cost of the project and its effect on local energy prices, have not been ironed out, according to NPR. Meanwhile, environmentalists debate the pros and cons of the project. Opponents promise legal challenges.

Shall the board of selectmen of the town of Tisbury be authorized to grant 19 licenses for the sale of wines and malt beverages to be drunk on the premises of restaurants, including restaurants within inns and hotels, with seating capacities of not less than 30 persons, to be consumed with meals only, and only to patrons who are seated at dining tables, and to grant seasonal licenses for the same as the selectmen may determine?

Tomorrow, Vineyard Haven will answer this question again – two years after saying “no” by two votes.

Of course, in April 2008 – before the financial crisis and the devastating Café Moxie fire – our town was different. This feeling permeated Tisbury this past off-season, when an alarming number of commercial spaces in Vineyard Haven (and across the Island) were vacated, and many year-round businesses closed for the winter. While many of these shops have been filled, some key spaces – such as the former home of Bowl & Board and, of course, the Café Moxie property – are dormant.

These trends frighten me. Based on conversations with neighbors, friends and business people, I’m not alone. People say they’ve never seen anything like it.

Beer and wine won’t solve the town’s microeconomic problems. But it will increase activity during lunch and dinner, and bring in more Meals Tax revenue. In the evening, additional foot traffic will encourage retailers to remain open. More evening business – both in restaurants and in retail stores – means longer hours and, therefore, more jobs. Higher sales revenue means business owners are more likely to stay open into the off-season or year-round.

But beer and wine opponents are concerned that selling beer and wine will change the town. I see two main components to this argument.

First, they believe this law will increase alcohol consumption in Tisbury, causing more crime, congestion and noise. But this reasoning assumes that people don’t drink in Vineyard Haven restaurants. In fact, the town’s BYOB policy allows heavy drinking:

Tisbury is about as dry as any town. What it isn’t is regulated. I owned and ran Café Moxie since 2001. Every night, all summer, customers regularly carried in all kinds of alcohol, martini setups, coolers, you name it. It’s very possible this regulation will result in less consumption of alcohol.

- Paul Currier, Tisbury resident, in a Letter to the Editor of The Martha’s Vineyard Times, April 1, 2010.

This is my experience, too. Eating out in Vineyard Haven, I’ve seen patrons with a case of beer (actually, a “30-rack” of cans) at the dinner table. Zephrus provides lockers to patrons for storing liquor; Che’s Lounge’s extends BYOB to music events. For those who plan ahead, dinner can be a boisterous affair. However, this regulation will eliminate binge drinking from establishments licensed to serve beer and wine.

Second, they argue that selling alcohol is a “slippery slope” – once prohibition ends, it’s only a matter of time before bars and liquor stores arrive. This regulation, they say, could spark a huge cultural shift in Tisbury, a town that has been dry for 180 years:

Because of its entrepreneurial spirit, Tisbury has long been identified as the commercial center of the Island. Even today, its major enterprises, three ship yards, oil distribution, retailers, real estate, are not dependent on the sale of beer and wine for the success of their diverse and productive activities. It is this spirit of enterprise and the energy and innovation it brings that we must look for the future growth and prosperity of our town, rather than anything that would diminish or erode the essential values affirmed in our distinguished and important heritage. We have for long been a community noted for its simplicity, its integrity, its authenticity, but most important of all, for its independence. That means primarily not being dependent upon anything other than the genuineness of our own character…. It is to honor… our own distinctive heritage as a coastal town that we should affirm and sustain our character, to refuse to diminish it by taking on a dependency on alcohol that can only diminish who we are.

- Jim Norton on the Committee to Preserve Our Town website.

Although I enjoy Mr. Norton’s business-as-alcoholic conceit, industries like shipbuilding and oil distribution are not dependent on alcohol sales anywhere, and never will be. Only a handful of restaurants are large enough to serve alcohol under the law as it is written, and it is extremely difficult to open new restaurants in Vineyard Haven.

Mr. Norton rightly associates Vineyard Haven’s dry economy with its fiercely independent spirit. Many residents on both sides of this issue (myself included) love our town’s quaint, rural character – Tisbury is a charming anachronism.

However, Mr. Norton’s faith in the integrity, creativity and independence of Vineyard Haven doesn’t jibe with his fear that selling beer and wine in restaurants will diminish our community. Our town is stronger than that.

Prohibition is a relic – a symbol of a bygone era – not a safeguard. Tisbury isn’t independent because it’s illegal to sell beer and wine; Tisbury is independent because it’s the town’s nature. Residents choose to live here because they want to be around like-minded people.

Today, I see the town’s economy and way of life in decline. Beer and wine won’t solve these problems, but it will bring additional patrons into Tisbury restaurants and shops. Stronger summer business means more year-round options for Vineyarders – and that’s a pretty good start.

For more information, visit the official website of the Committee to Bring Beer and Wine to Tisbury .

Note: Beetlebung Coffee House seats fewer than 30 persons and will not apply for a beer and wine license.

BOSTON:

4/6: Wilco / Orpheum Theater
4/6: The Smith Westerns / The Great Scott (Allston)
4/12: Titus Andronicus / The Great Scott (Allston)
4/17: The Morning Benders / T.T. The Bears (Cambridge)
4/20: Elvis Costello / Orpheum Theater
4/23: Apples in Stereo / Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge)
4/24: Los Campesinos! / Paradise Rock Club
4/26: Echo & The Bunnymen / Paradise Rock Club
5/8: Local Natives / The Great Scott (Allston)
6/2: The National / House of Blues
6/3: The National / House of Blues
6/11: The Rolling Stones / Showcase Live (Foxborough)
6/18: Reigning Sound / T.T. The Bears (Cambridge)
8/19: My Morning Jacket / Comcast Center (Mansfield)
8/21: My Morning Jacket / Comcast Center (Mansfield)
9/7: Tortoise / Paradise Rock Club
9/18: Pavement / Agganis Arena