Pedicab Concerns
To the editor:
This summer, for the first time, I have felt concern about Provincetown’s pedicabs.
I have had at least 10 near misses in the last few weeks, both as a biker and a walker. I had one minor hit on the side of my hand the other night as a pedicab turned right off Commercial Street and started up the hill on Cottage Street while I was walking my dog. I yelled “Stop!” to no avail.
Earlier that evening, I heard a tourist ask a resident if they had been hit yet.
My specific concerns: The substantial increase in the number of pedicabs on the streets this summer; the presence of throttles on the cabs allowing them to drive much faster than cabs that are only pedal-assisted; drivers on their phones while driving with one hand, often oblivious to pedestrian and bike traffic.
I urge the town to issue fewer pedicab licenses next summer. The town should also require large visible license or registration plates on the backs of the cabs to facilitate the reporting of safety concerns in the same way we do with automobiles.
It’s disturbing to hear a visitor ask, “Have you been hit yet?” Let’s hope we can all continue to say “No.”
Claire Willis
Provincetown and Brookline
‘Bias’ in Lawsuit Report
To the editor:
In his suit against the Community of Jesus (COJ), 18-year-old Oliver Ortolani, who grew up there, makes serious charges against a local institution that merit good coverage. Your reporting last week [“Lawsuit Claims Sect Exploited Child Labor,” front page] didn’t meet your high standards.
Using “Sect” instead of “Community” in the headline indicates bias. It smells negative and points to an extreme or heretical group. Some hold that opinion; others of us do not. Your opinion does not belong at the head of the news.
While I’ve never been a COJ member, I did work for them years ago and have followed with enthusiasm their progress. I disagree with the suit’s claims and some of your context provisions. I note but one of each as representative:
Ortolani describes the work site at the performing arts center in Brewster as a fenced-off place in a forest. Yet the completed building almost touches the older Paraclete Publishing building, where COJ members would have been working early to late. It was and is a hub of COJ activity. He and all members’ children would have been well aware of the place. It is also near the popular bike path and homes just to the other side of that path. Indeed, some neighbors complained of construction noise. In the scope of the suit, this is minor, but it points to exaggeration elsewhere.
Your article quotes the COJ website’s statement that it is part of the “Benedictine monastic tradition” and correctly notes that it is not part of the Catholic Church. Yet the sentence assumes there is a contradiction between those two truths. There is no contradiction. The COJ is not Catholic, but it follows Benedictine tradition, as do quite a few other Protestant communities.
Thomas Ryan
Eastham
The writer worked for the Community of Jesus from 1992 to 2010, coordinating artists and architects, and later spent six years leading the religious education program for children there. He is also an investor in the Provincetown Independent.
En Plein Air
To the editor:
Thank you for Mark R. Harsch’s wonderful story about my Firebirds players who painted this summer [Aug. 14, page B1].
I sent the article link to En Plein Air Pro in Dallas, Texas, the manufacturer of the easel prominently featured in the pictures, and they loved the story so much they offered me a free easel worth $350. I am having them send it to Ryan Kucherak, the Northwestern student who got the last line in the story.
Joan Lockhart
Eastham
More Humility, Please
To the editor:
I was enjoying Dennis Minsky’s column on Char Priolo [“A Treasure on the Trolley,” Aug. 21, page A3] but was stopped short when I read that he had learned from Char that “people are what matter most.”
Really? On what grounds?
I love Dennis and Char very much, but as a naturalist, Dennis should know better. That anthropocentric attitude has caused untold suffering to nonhuman animals in the name of “science” and “cultural traditions,” not to mention greedy pursuit of profit. And are nonhuman animals responsible for the perils of climate change?
In the name of “progress” and fashion, we humans have pushed many species to the brink of extinction.
I hope that Dennis and Char will reconsider and understand that humankind must learn humility in the face of Nature and the Cosmos. Alexander Pope’s wiseacre comment about “the proper study of Mankind” should be replaced by Henry Beston’s insight that animals “are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
Dana Franchitto
South Wellfleet
For an RTE Means Test
To the editor:
It is ironic that as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, where our forefathers defended us against unreasonable taxation, that the Eastham Select Board readies itself to do the exact same thing to part-time residents by imposing the residential tax exemption (RTE).
Good government policies should have clear goals and effective means for measuring progress toward those goals. There are several possible goals for the RTE, none of which have been articulated by the select board.
Everyone who owns property in Eastham has an interest in ensuring that full-time residents are able to afford a place to live. Does the RTE attempt to aid those residents, lower-income or otherwise, stay in the homes they already own? If so, how does the RTE accomplish this? What data are being gathered by local governments to track progress toward this goal? Only good data can provide a basis for making sound decisions.
The Eastham Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association has long advocated for a means-tested RTE to help those truly in need. Those who can afford to pay their own way should not see any RTE benefit. The select board should prepare a home rule petition to make this happen.
Eastham already has generous programs to help those in need, including the Family Support Program ($490,000 per year), Lease to Locals, and the Taxpayer Assistance Fund. Let’s maximize programs like these to get meaningful help to those who need it in a fair and equitable manner.
Tom McNamara
Eastham and Weymouth
The writer is president of the Eastham Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association.
Funding the Parks
To the editor:
I appreciate Maria Burks’s overview of what’s been happening to our beloved national parks, particularly the Cape Cod National Seashore [“A Short-Sighted View of the Parks,” Aug. 21, page A3].
I fully expected this gut-wrenching lack of funding from the present administration. I only hope that our national parks can limp along through the next three years.
The administration and staff at the Seashore have been diligent stewards of this beautiful place. Without them, we would look like the New Jersey shore.
Kathleen E. Bacon
Wellfleet
Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
