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.
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?
This is how it was:
Powerful state legislators on a hostile mission to take over the Island ferry system. Moneyed mainland developers on a singular mission to convert the last pieces of open space into huge profits. A vise-grip of housing problems for middle-income workers. Wobbly leadership. A voter-driven mandate for change on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. Baffling tick-borne disease. Cold winter. Rainy summer.
Looking across Vineyard Sound from Woods Hole it’s hard to imagine that Vineyarders could have anything to wish for in the coming century.
To the mainland resident, the Island looks peaceful and perfect, a little slice of paradise in the midst of a breezy New England December.
If they only knew.
Just like anyone else, Islanders are looking forward to the new millennium with a mix of trepidation and optimism. The residents of this tiny chunk of land do have dreams for the coming century, albeit modest ones.
On a sunny and busy day this July, Oak Bluffs post office square was filled with the sounds of a man and a woman arguing angrily about whether or not the town should install a $14 million sewage system.
Houses were sold as soon as they came on the market, listings under $200,000 became an endangered species, and building lots were almost as hard to find as a heath hen.
That was Martha’s Vineyard real estate 1998, according to a random sampling of Island professionals in the field, and real estate 1999 is likely to be the same, only more so.
