Another Loss
One of the top local news stories over the winter here on Cape Cod has been the loss of cottages to the sea down in Chatham. It’s a sad but inevitable situation. Man vs. Mother Nature. Cape Cod has changed significantly since our family began coming down here in the 60’s. Downtown Hyannis in particular has been in a steady decline, not quite washed out to sea, but none the better off. I wrote about it a year ago at this time, when we had our shop. I’m realistic enough to know that things aren’t going to improve overnight, or in a year, or in 5 years. The center of Hyannis was lost years ago when the mall was built. It is now just little controlled sprawl. As I wrote last year, the homeless wander the streets most days, providing a kind of ghostly life to a bleak town landscape. There is the Sturgis school downtown, a small charter high school located in a former furniture store. A small catholic high school is gradually opening its doors in the former Barnstable High building (despite some who wanted to condo-fy the building). Another positive step. Thank God for these high schoolers. Unfortunately, the college left town years ago.
Most out-of–towners only see downtown Hyannis in the summertime. Most are probably too young to remember much about the past – especially the department stores, the grocery stores and some of the fun diversions, such as the little miniature golf course right smack downtown…hey, it’s still there though!! WHOOPS!!!! NO IT”S NOT!!!!! Remember last year when I said that T-shirts and flip flops thrive in downtown Hyannis? Of course! Let’s rip out the last remaining icon from the 50’s in downtown “historic” Hyannis and build another store to sell flip flops, and floats and t-shirts? That’s what Hyannis is all about right? For sale to the highest bidder, right? Preserve the past? Well yeah, as long as the past doesn’t impede progress. So what if there are dozens of vacant storefronts and huge empty lots in downtown Hyannis? Let’s hang our hat on the new flip flop shop. Or the next made-in-China souvenir gift shop.
What’s wrong with the town planners? They know that Main Street and South Street have just become one-way shortcuts through town and that Main Street needs to revert back to two-way traffic. They know that it would have made sense for the power lines to be buried two years ago when the sidewalks were dug up and entirely replaced (as Falmouth had done). This would not only have made sense esthetically, but given the high winds and occasional hurricanes, less costly in the long run.
What about news reports? Oh, I forgot, the only “hard-hitting” news the rosy Cape Cod Times reports is the Cape Cod League baseball highlights….It goes back to what I’ve said about “young energy” and I don’t mean young in terms of age but in terms of an openness, a “why not” attitude, a not taking “no” for an answer. That’s what’s missing here. There’s no passion, just passivity. The town planners have become like the chamber of commerce, except that’s not their job. There’s no excuse for losing the 50’s miniature golf course. They just weren’t willing to fight for it. Or were shortsighted. Just let the developers and out-of town “family owned businesses” run amok and hope they do something that the town can take credit for.
Here are some photos taken a few weeks ago of the now gone miniature golf course and a whole lot of vacant space downtown where perhaps planners could have strongly encouraged businesses to look first….
(use your imagination, picture summertime, kids and families finding the pleasant little oasis of a mini-golf downtown, picture them coming back annually and that piece of history wiped out when they get here to look for it this year).
