A Disservice
To the editor:
I appreciate the Independent for the in-depth stories that are important to those of us who live on the Outer Cape. It is thoughtful, well-written, and thorough, and I look forward to reading it every week.
An example is Dec. 17’s “Community Fund Takes Off in Wellfleet” [page 4], which covered the great news that the Fleet Fund is up and running. Your story will, I hope, spur more people to contribute to this much-needed fund.
The photo of fund president Paula Erickson in the print edition, though, is different from the one in the online version. The print version shows Paula dressed in costume for the 2017 July 4th parade. Although almost everyone in Wellfleet knows and loves Paula’s creativity in creating clever costumes for public events, I think the picture, in which Paula is not necessarily recognizable, does a disservice to the serious nature of the article and especially the hard work that Paula is doing in leading the fund. It is a jarring juxtaposition. The online version has a different and more appropriate photo.
I know that you are operating with a small staff and every deadline must create many last-minute challenges and decisions. This was one that, I believe, went the wrong way.
Lucile Burt
Wellfleet
Lil’ Dunkin’?
To the editor:
Dunkin’ Donuts and other chain stores shouldn’t seek special treatment as a “local small business” just because they operate as a franchise. [“Dunkin’ Owners Eye Drive-Through Again,” Dec. 10, page 1.] Even if the Dunkin’ owners in Wellfleet weren’t owners of dozens of other Dunkin’ franchises, it would be an absurd claim.
Corporate franchises aren’t just local stores that happen to have multi-billion-dollar brands attached to them. Their business model and corporate rules encourage exactly the opposite of what we seek by supporting local businesses.
Quirky and unique local establishments express a town’s character and remind us that the community is special. All Dunkin’ franchises must use the same standard menu and ingredients, and standard colors and design on the walls, uniforms, signage, and cups. Franchise profits depend on customers recognizing the same familiar experience across thousands of stores and in national advertising.
Local businesses are worth supporting because they recirculate dollars within the community. Franchise-based corporations like Dunkin’, meanwhile, make profits by bleeding them out of a community. They require owners to purchase standard ingredient mixes and packaging from far-flung suppliers and to pay large franchise fees to distant corporate headquarters.
The reasons so much of America runs on Dunkin’ and other franchises aren’t the reasons to support local business.
Phineas Baxandall
Cambridge and Truro
Salt Marsh Erosion
To the editor:
In her Dec. 3 article “West End Salt Marsh Dieback Accelerates” [page A8], Tessera Knowles-Thompson ably describes a very complex ecological phenomenon. Reading it, I learned quite a bit of new information regarding an issue in which I was peripherally involved four or five years ago.
I have no memory of the Army Corps of Engineers bringing to light back then the challenge of the purple marsh crab depredations on marsh vegetation and the resulting erosion of the West End salt marsh in Provincetown.
I hope that article will spur renewed attention by local, regional, and federal officials to take another, more detailed look at possible alterations of the West End breakwater to remedy this situation. We cannot afford to lose another salt marsh on Cape Cod.
Dennis Minsky
Provincetown
Preserving Wellfleet’s Downtown
To the editor:
Regarding your Nov. 19 article “Proposed Downtown Fitness Studio Seeks Parking Relief” [page A6], about the planned demolition of 20 Briar Lane in Wellfleet and construction of a new building there:
It happens all too often that someone buys a historic building and then changes his mind about it and wants to take it down and build something new. Wellfleet is considered to have one of the most beautiful main streets on the Lower Cape. As a resident of Briar Lane, I wonder what happens when all the antique homes are gone?
And yet we see big unused spaces, like where the old antiques shop was at Cove Corner on Route 6 next to Dunkin’, and where there is talk of yet another pot shop in a small town where too many pot shops have already been approved. How nice it would be to have that space for something healthy — a fitness studio. Plus, there is plenty of parking there.
Barbara Kennedy
Wellfleet
Seeking a Biographer
To the editor:
I enjoyed reading the article about Wamsutta Frank James by Deborah Ullman in the Nov. 26 edition of the Independent [“Wamsutta Frank James Made Good Trouble,” page 3].
As a kid growing up in Braintree, I was aware of the Thanksgiving Day protests in Plymouth but never attended. I did some internet searching and read his powerful 1970 speech, read that he was the founder of the organization United American Indians of New England, was a trumpet player who graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, and that he served in the Coast Guard Auxiliary during World War II.
We are blessed on Cape Cod with so many excellent writers. Would any of them consider writing a biography of this fascinating and important man?
Abigail Archer
Brewster
