Category Archives: public life
Annual Town Meeting
Last night was West Tisbury’s annual town meeting (ATM means more than automated teller machine around here). As usual the school gym was packed. Even with two entrances, each staffed by two people checking townsfolk against the voting rolls, we … Continue reading
The Iceberg Cometh
Town meeting season starts next week on Martha’s Vineyard. Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, and West Tisbury all hold their annual town meetings on Tuesday the 10th. In Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and West Tisbury, elections take place two days later, on … Continue reading
The Privilege of Pique
This is by way of a sequel to “Compromise,” in which I listed a bunch of things I don’t like about WUMB-FM, the public radio station I listen to when I’m listening to the radio, and then explained why I … Continue reading
Let OB Vote!
Contrary to earlier reports, in the newspapers as well as in this blog, voters in only five of the six island towns will get to express their opinion about the proposed roundabout in a non-binding referendum this spring. Guess who’s … Continue reading
Doomsdog Coda
In my last report on Zion and Sensi, the two Akitas who ran afoul of the law in my town of West Tisbury, an agreement had been made to turn the dogs over to the Lexus Project, an organization based … Continue reading
Meetings
An islander who knows whereof he speaks recently noted that for some people the Vineyard off-season is one long meeting. In the last eight months I’ve been to a bunch of meetings. Not all that many compared to what, say, … Continue reading
Referenda
Ever since the roundabout resurfaced last spring, we’ve all been itching to put the issue to an island-wide vote. Surely if we, the people got to speak, we could kill this thing? But for better or worse, there’s no such … Continue reading
Occupy MV Needs (The) Help
A rush proofreading job had to be in New York on Monday. The job was on paper, meaning (duh!) that it couldn’t be sent electronically. UPS, my usual overnight carrier, doesn’t ship on or off the island on weekends (and … Continue reading
Round About Now . . .
No, the bulldozers haven’t arrived at the blinker intersection, but the roundabout hasn’t gone away either. In early December, Edgartown and West Tisbury filed a suit in superior court to appeal the decision of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) to … Continue reading
Musicale
When I first heard a couple weeks ago that there’d be a musicale at the Pit Stop on January 14, I couldn’t wait. But as the date drew closer, my enthusiasm drooped. I didn’t want to go. I was afraid … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 