Tag Archives: Wellfleet community

“Community”: a shallow premise for planning

A few days after the election, 80 or so of the most civic-minded Wellfleetians took time out from anguishing over the Future According to Trump to take up what seems a more manageable topic, the future of our own town. The idea was to crowdsource ideas to be incorporated in the latest update of our […]

November 29, 2016 – 6:27 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Rooting for the deadly underdogs

September averages the busiest month for hurricanes. This year, however, for the second year in a row, the news is the lack of the huge and often deadly storms. You can detect the note of disappointment as weathermen and weather journalists watch those low pressure “waves” coming off the west coast of Africa, encountering hostile […]

September 10, 2014 – 11:32 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

New Citizen life being born in Wellfleet?

Something new, an unprecedented form of citizenship, may be taking shape in Wellfleet, the Little Town That Could. It’s not clear even to those who are part of its emergence (including this writer) what this new thing is, or might be. At this point it could go in any of several directions, become this or […]

July 7, 2014 – 11:06 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Community Policing: problem concept?

On June 16th (7 pm, Senior Center) Wellfleet will hold a forum on “community policing.” It’s a well-intentioned effort to address current concerns about our town’s policing, “worrisome incidents” as one citizens put it. But the very concept is a problem. According to Wikipedia, “Community policing, or community-oriented policing, is a strategy of policing that […]

June 11, 2014 – 6:06 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Cops and community: what style of policing do we want?

It’s not a rumor that there are rumors going around town that our police are getting tougher, more zealous. Overly zealous. I have no personal experience of this myself, but the rumors probably don’t come from nowhere. What is being alleged is conceivable. And if true, it raises issues that should be addressed at the […]

June 6, 2014 – 1:28 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Cops and community: where should the buck stop?

What was the story of the arrest of two Wellfleet locals in front of the Wicked Oyster restaurant on the evening of May 3? Actually, there are currently two very different stories. The story told in the police report mentions some serious-sounding crimes such as DUI, assaulting an officer, endangerment of the two kids in […]

June 2, 2014 – 9:57 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

PAYT in Wellfleet: Are older citizens insensitive to young families? [18 March 2014]

The otherwise civilized debate at the recent pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) hearing was marred by a distinctly ageist theme reiterated by opponents that the selectmen and board of health, in sponsoring this program, are insensitive to the plight of the young. The burdensome cost of the required purple bags —$300. a year is one figure bandied about—is […]

March 18, 2014 – 5:14 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

A case for a tax break for Wellfleet’s fulltime residents? Maybe [op-ed CCT 2 Octover 2012]

Some of my best friends are non-resident taxpayers. Really. A proposal to give Wellfleet’s full-time residents a property tax break has stirred some of the most heated conversation heard around here in some t ime The relief, which would be accomplished by charging non-residents and fulltime residents at different rates, giving it a bit of […]

October 3, 2012 – 5:23 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Sacrificing for the greater good; or not [op-ed CCT 17 April 2012]

In recent years we’ve bought ourselves a lot of nice items here in Wellfleet. Expensive, but nice. A quantum leap of a DPW facility, $7.68 million worth of state-of-the-art fire station, a beautiful senior center about 10 times as big as the old one, a spiffy remodel of the pier with perimeter promenade for taking […]

April 17, 2012 – 2:00 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Can WHAT get its groove back? [op-ed, 7 February 2012 / CCT ]

As noted in several stories in this and other papers and an editorial in these pages, yet another chapter of the ever-compelling saga of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater ( WHAT), is unfolding. Six of the theater’s best young actors and writers have severed their ties with the mother ship (and even riskier, with that catchy […]

February 7, 2012 – 12:40 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)