The real estate bust has cut sharply into the revenue of the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank for a second successive year, with land bank income more than 25 per cent lower than it was in 2006, the last of the good years for property sales.

For fiscal year 2008, which just ended, the land bank took in $9.56 million. This was down 14 per cent from the $11.12 million of 2007, which was in turn 14 per cent below the $12.94 million of 2006.

Rising sea level changes, together with changing geology, may be preventing the breach at Norton Point Beach from closing, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer.

Todd Ehret, an oceanographer with the National Ocean Service in Maryland, said he is aware of Edgartown’s problem. He said there is no assurance that the opening at Norton Point Beach will close, though history suggests it.

When it comes to sandy beaches, barrier beaches and inlets, Mr. Ehret said changes are under way around the country.

On the Fourth of July a couple of centuries back, the United States was founded on compromise, taking the good with the not so good.

It’s appropriate that today on the Vineyard, the fireworks, parades, flags and cookouts are served up along with traffic, crowds and chance of rain.

And for those involved with safety, service or transportation, it’s a day of continuous motion.

It wasn’t long ago that the price of a gallon of gasoline on the Vineyard reached the $2 mark for the first time, sending shock waves from Menemsha Texaco to the Edgartown Mobil station and prompting fears about the effects of higher fuel costs on the summer tourist industry and year-round economy.

That was six years ago. Now with gas selling for an average of $4.75 a gallon for regular and premium selling for over $5 a gallon, the idea of $2-per-gallon gas on the Vineyard seems outdated and nostalgic.

The automobile has long been an integral part of American life; there are 40 million more registered motor vehicles in this country than licensed drivers.

Yet on Vineyard sidewalks and bike paths this week, people cruised along on bicycles with no worries about traffic and congestion. The parking lots for the Tisbury and Edgartown park and ride programs were jammed full, while bus stops for the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority were packed with people waiting to be picked up at all hours of the day.

She was just a cute teenager in a sundress, sitting in a diner with her family and some family friends. Until her mother Deborah and Deborah’s partner, Todd Follansbee, settled the bill, and then suddenly Katie Ann Mayhew was on her way across the street to prepare to sing in Symphony Hall.

As surely every Islander knows by now, Katie was in Boston Tuesday night to sing in the finals of the Boston Pops High School Sing-off. One of three finalists, she would be singing her original audition song, Being Alive, from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company.

She is most at home in the water and on it.

“My grandparents had a house on Morse street with a barn out back and they gave it to my parents when they got married. We called it The Shack and I was there from zero to ten. We would start coming Easter weekend and go straight through until Halloween and we’d be here all summer. We would load up the car Friday after school and we’d stay until Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on the tides. Dad was a fisherman, you know, so if the fishing was good, we’d stay.”

“West Tisbury is a hungry town,” Toni M. Cohen said Wednesday as she looked across a packed meeting room where popular Island restaurateurs Mary and Jackson Kenworth were seeking approval to demolish, rebuild and enlarge the burned-out Deon’s restaurant on State Road.

Most of those attending, including residents and town officials, voiced support for the Kenworths’ new restaurant plan, but the zoning board of appeals was uncertain whether the proposal is allowed under zoning regulations.

Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank executive director James Lengyel describes the 52.2-acre property acquired by the land bank this week as a microcosm of the Vineyard.

The Chappaquiddick land, he said on Tuesday, announcing the agreement which will protect it, “has open fields, rolling hills, wetlands, streams, a beach, long distance views. It’s got just about everything.”

For $3.4 million, the land bank has bought outright 3.2 acres of land from Jane Knight. It also secured a conservation restriction for another 49 acres.

Carolyn, from Rhode Island, one of the dozens of holiday makers who stood in line for fried clams one recent Sunday at The Bite in Menemsha, was taken aback at the prices.

“This is pretty intense,” she said, looking down at the red and white take-out carton, roughly the size of a Tiffany’s ring gift box. Containing eight to ten clams, a half pint of deep fried whole bellies at The Bite currently costs $12.95. Counting his change, her father told her: “You just presided over a theft.”