Tag Archives: affordable housing

For a real town, taking on market forces

Cape towns need to “commit to a fundamental reimagining of what we are willing to do,” Senator Cyr is quoted in this paper a few days ago, “or we will not have year-round sustainable communities.” “Fundamental reimagining” is a challenging phrase. What might he mean by that? At Wellfleet town meeting on this coming Saturday, […]

We should see affordable housing as an opportunity for architecture

Affordable housing is more talked about than actually accomplished in Wellfleet. With under two percent of our housing stock affordable, we lag far behind most towns on the Cape in meeting the state mandated ten percent. The possibility of making a big improvement in this situation was the subject of a Community Forum on a […]

Non-residents’ push for the vote: what’s at stake

Outer Cape non-resident taxpayers have clamored ever more loudly in recent years to be able to vote in the town where they own a house, as well as where they live. A recent My View by the president of the Provincetown Part-time Resident Taxpayers Association spells out the argument: to deny secondhome owners a say […]

Are we dying? Or just changing?

In Wellfleet’s recent town meeting a speaker noted, as shocking evidence of the need for affordable housing, that “in last 25 years we have lost 62% of the young people in our town.” In a column a couple of years ago I raised the question “are Outer Cape towns dying?” I had seen an article […]

The death, by secondhomes, of outer Cape towns.

It was a shock to read in a recent news story a summary of an independent study on Truro’s future. “By 2035, Truro’s population of year-round residents is predicted to fall from 2,003 to 1337, with new home-buyers choosing seasonal or part-time occupancy . . . . the number of young adults is expected to […]

Secondhome owners’ counter-productive naivete

An explosion of angry letters from secondhome owners dominated the op-ed section of this week’s Provincetown “Banner.” They were miffed by an editorial calling secondhome owners “fair-weather friends” and making a connection between the secondhome market and homelessness [(which is seen as contributing to the recent death of a well-known local artist). “These are hurtful […]

Nantucket’s school-age population growing, Cape’s shrinking. What’s going on?

“School boom on Nantucket; Student population soars as immigrant population takes root.” Who knew? It was interesting to learn from Saturday’s “Cape Cod Times” front page story that while Cape schools are shrinking, part of the much-lamented youth flight, Nantucket’s are bursting at the seams. “Some public schools on Cape Cod have closed as families […]

Contradictions of affordable housing [op-ed CCT 25 June 2013]

Affordable housing is an issue with, it seems, very few opponents. There is m ore to its appeal than pure altruism. First, most of us aren’t rich and we naturally sympathize with those who can’t afford the average house in our high-priced town. Especially when they are our own kids. Naturally, we’d like them to […]

Affordable architecture is not an oxymoron [May 2010 / CCT]

One of the warrant articles at Wellfleet’s recent town meeting asked citizens to spend to restore a mid-20th century cottage with architectural creds, one of a number with which the town is blessed. The money would come from the Community Preservation Fund and it seems an appropriate use to preserve our architectural past. Those present […]