It snowed as if it would never stop snowing. A resort economy sputtered back to life. History came alive and sailed down the Sound into Vineyard Haven harbor. These were a few benchmarks of the year.
It was a year punctuated by visits from a president and right whales, the arrival of a roundabout and a reality television crew. Pieces of the past were restored and given new life while other parts of the Island changed irrevocably.
After the years following the recession that began in 2008, when the Vineyard as well as the nation remained mired in day-to-day survival, 2012 felt like a shift in a new direction. There was a slight uptick in economic optimism and a move toward planning for the future. Questions of character and big house debates revealed that the main topic was no longer unemployment and how to make ends meet, although these issues still remain, but how Vineyarders define themselves and their community.
When campers from the Vineyard's own Camp Jabberwocky went on
an unusual tour in Canada this year, their slogan was a single question
that was at once jocular and earnest. "How's your
news?" they inquired in on-the-street interviews with everyday
people.
As the year 2001 comes to a close, it is perhaps an apt question for
the Vineyard: How's our news?
Who needs Broadway when you live year-round on Martha's Vineyard? Turn the camera lens back on the last year, and you can spot enough drama for a dozen plays, both comedies and tragedies.
Ideal grist for the mill, money and power spurred much of the political intrigue and battles of 2002, whether the stage was the Steamship Authority, the Martha's Vineyard Hospital or the southern woodlands, which lived another year in its wild state - free of golf balls and putting greens.
Now that heavy rain and snow have arrived, last year's dry
summer is a distant memory. In fact, the Island ended up with more
rainfall than usual in 2002.
Looking back over 2002, the Island's economy showed strength during a year of uncertainty and possible war.
Land, the Island's most formidable asset, held its value. According to James Lengyel, executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, land and housing values grew in 2002. Land bank revenues for the six-month period from July 1 to Dec. 31 were up 12 per cent over the first six months of 2001. Transactions were up four per cent.
Moments before seven Island teenagers set to sea this June in a 28-foot wooden vessel bound for the Hudson River, the students speculated that the journey ahead would likely be eventful. One week, 180 miles and several storms later, the novice sailors and their vessel Mabel made it to the shores of New York. Ragged yet safe, the teens agreed: The adventure had been memorable.
