Editorial: Time to build housing
Just about everyone interested in the quality of our personal and community lives on Martha’s Vineyard knows this: We don’t have enough (or enough types of) housing to meet the needs of any but the...
View ArticleEssay: All I want for Christmas is (Jew)
I just watched “The Late Late Show” host James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” Christmas special. Special guest Mariah Carey sang the pop song, “All I Want for Christmas,” with other celebrity guests...
View ArticleLet’s be a beacon
My dream for the Island I love is that we all embrace in word, and most especially in deed, the ever-growing diversity on the Vineyard, while ensuring that all know why that is important. It is also...
View ArticleIsland as incubator
Twenty-five years from now, my grandchildren will be able to live and thrive here because we will have successfully weaned ourselves from the addictive demands of the tourism “industry.” Milton Mazer...
View ArticleA great year, thanks to volunteering
Volunteering to become the Daisy Girl Scout Leader on Martha’s Vineyard, for Troop 66210, has given me the most change-your-mood, uplifting, and heartening feeling that anyone could ever experience....
View ArticleA year at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services
From the very beginning, collaboration has been at the root of our work at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. It all began in 1961 with a small dedicated group of year-round and seasonal residents...
View ArticleMy ‘blue-sky’ dream for Martha’s Vineyard
Our Island is rich in natural resources and blessed with a variety of local food sources. We can fish, farm, milk, and churn, and by doing so produce healthy local food for those on the Island. So why...
View ArticleFunding those housing dreams
What if we charged a Land Bank–like tax on all seasonal rentals, and used the income to develop affordable housing for year-rounders? And what if we made all of that housing rent-to-own, so that...
View ArticleWhat if Martha’s Vineyard had a college?
It could be named Caleb’s College, to honor the first native American graduate of Harvard, who grew up near Tashmoo Pond in the mid-17th century. It could specialize in marine biology and oceanography...
View ArticleThe Vineyard comes together to support kids
For many years the Vineyard had a void in service to our young people. We have seen a major shift in awareness from this reality to one in which opportunities to learn, grow, and serve have become...
View ArticleWe can have both affordable housing and land conservation
Affordable housing has been part of the Land Bank’s planning since 1989, when it first adopted a housing policy. As a result, the Land Bank has been part of many of the affordable housing...
View ArticleMy dream for Island health care
Instead of being worried about losing access to the health-coverage expansions that resulted from the Affordable Care Act, my vision for 2017 and beyond is that Massachusetts continues to provide...
View ArticleEssay: Climate change, the Vineyard environment, and the president
Supporters of Donald Trump wanted a president who could “shake up the system.” Given the president-elect’s proposed cabinet choices and advisors, we can expect several changes in environmental policy...
View ArticleEditorial: A selectman as MVC commissioner: Not so surprising after all
As we reported in last week’s Times (Oak Bluffs selectmen appoint selectman Gail Barmakian to the MVC, Dec. 29), the appointment of a selectman to the regional board caused some surprise and confusion...
View ArticleMartha’s Vineyard Center for Living looks back and to the future
By Leslie Clapp It was wonderful to read the “Vineyard dreams” essays submitted by various organizations and individuals in the Dec. 29 issue of the Times. We certainly live in a community that is...
View ArticleEsther writes from the year 2035
By Patricia Moore My name is Esther. The year is 2035, I’m 80 years old — and like lots of Vineyard residents these days, I treasure living in this “aging-friendly Island community” because: We’ve come...
View ArticleEssay: Marches and milestones
The author plans to attend one of the Jan. 21 Million Women Marches. The MVTimes reports in this issue on Vineyarders who will be marching (pg. A7). On Monday, Dec. 19, I was turning 65 — 65! This...
View ArticleEditorial: Crisis commands collaboration
It all started with a phone call. Last spring, as overdose fatalities on the Island continued to mount, West Tisbury Police Chief Dan Rossi called Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS) executive...
View ArticleEditorial: The case for the causeway
Chilmark should vote to amend its wetland zoning bylaw to allow an elevated causeway over a wetland from Squibnocket Road to the Squibnocket Farm subdivision. Rising sea level and increased storminess...
View ArticleEssay: What democracy looks like
I met a woman named Ceallaigh Pender, who from head to toe was dressed as a vagina, at the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., and she held a sign with a picture of ovaries that said, “Grow a pair.”...
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