Keep Our Island Green

03/30/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTBx-hHf4BE

A video of one tin soldier by its original singers, the original caste. I think they sang it the best. I took the music from the original caste, and synced i...

03/26/2024

The Land Bank conserves land for the good of the flowers, trees, birds and animals. There is an undeniable need for continuing environmental conservation if we are to preserve the Vineyard’s quality of life. The Land Bank serves that common good providing equal access to all (subject to any deed restrictions).
The Vineyard is undeniably and substantially a better place for the environmental conservation funded by the Land Bank fee. The Land Bank should remain focused on this successful mission, and funds should not be diverted to encourage housing development and population growth.
There is no need for a housing tax. The Vineyard has grown 25 percent over the last ten years, the second fastest growing region in Massachusetts (after Nantucket). But somehow all these new people found housing. How is that a crisis? It sounds more like a success story that a tiny island with limited resources was able to accommodate such robust population growth.
On the supply side, every month there is another article in the paper that new affordable housing is in various stages of the pipeline. These are good programs funded by public and private money that are already meeting the specific needs of the community.
The increase in development funded by the new proposed tax will cause overdevelopment and environmentally unsustainable population growth. This bill is being pushed through with the backing and support of the residential construction industry, without any environmental impact reports.
The Housing Bank Bill is a bad solution to a problem that doesn’t even exist. Keep Our Island Green

https://www.mvtimes.com/2024/03/22/new-optimism-housing-legislation/?fbclid=IwAR3_aN9p2yGlQpSm1Z1cweFKnTQc2hBTQZy3kxd_XgUZoQumRM5OGsY8qHE

One of the state’s highest elected officials, in comments before members of the Boston business community yesterday, signaled that he is open to legislation involving the creation of a real estate transfer fee, bringing renewed optimism for housing advocates on the Island. According to State House...

11/06/2022

Senator Cyr is stripping the bill of the environmental provisions. The Islanders have lost control. So what is going forward is not what “was finally agreed upon, overwhelmingly, by all six Island towns at their town meetings this past spring.”
No bill is necessary to establish a housing bank funded with grants, community preservation funds, charitible contributions, etc. The bill is required to approve the tax on Vineyard homeowners’ real estate transactions. The funds raised by the tax will juice the development of AH beyond environmentally sustainable levels and worsen our Island’s overpopulation issues. The funds will line the pockets of the construction firms who are awarded the development contracts to the detriment of the Island’s sensitive ecosystem.
We can have a housing bank on our own terms, and do it responsibly, without this bill. We only need to say “no”. Keep Our Island Green

On Wednesday evening, in what might seem like a step backwards regarding the proposed Housing Bank, the committee appointed to review and modify the Housing Bank legislation had to make the difficult decision to pull back and rework the act, following comments and recommendations by State Sen. Julia...

10/25/2022

There is no way to mitigate the environmental degradation that will be caused by an increase in population growth and the overdevelopment of AH. We should be seriously looking at the rate of development and population growth that the Island can reasonably sustain. Instead we are creating a new tax so that more people can live here. The HB threatens our pristine Island ecosystem, for ourselves and future generations. It is not too late to say “No”. Keep Our Island Green

The Housing Bank Review Committee (HBRC) welcomed state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Falmouth, at their meeting in Edgartown’s Town Hall on Monday evening, after acknowledging the need to seek input from state representatives regarding the proposed legislation for the Mart...

07/24/2022

If this can be done it will be a creative solution that spares the Island from overpopulation and overdevelopment. A win/win for the environment and local businesses. This is a great alternative to the imposition of a tax and a new bureaucracy to aquire and develop new housing on MV. This proposal will not have a negative impact on our fragile ecosystem.

https://www.mvtimes.com/2022/07/24/late-ferry-proposed-marthas-vineyard-businesses/?fbclid=IwAR05Jt_Ty2Q4RQHG1O4zpvw3kkn2gZvCKL0xR9QXA1t5QIpt9fpad2mfyps

A petition drive launched by Edgartown restaurant owner Christian Thornton is calling for the Steamship Authority to add a late-night Steamship Authority ferry during the busy tourist season so the Island can attract off-Island hospitality workers. As of Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after the....

07/14/2022

It is nice to see the housing bank people finally acknowledging the environmental degradation likely to result from their good deeds. However, these amendments are insufficient attempts to mitigate the effects of their proposal, which will increase year-round population growth, already the second-highest in the state (after Nantucket), in our fragile Island ecosystem. If you build it, they will come and with them an ever increasing demand for more services and more homes. Where are the independent environmental impact studies? We should be fully and fairly informed in advance of giving our support. That hasn’t happened. Poor Martha. Keep Our Island Green

The Housing Bank Review Committee (HBRC) heard amendment proposals to the Housing Bank Act from the Coalition to Create the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank( CCMVHB) at their Wednesday meeting. John Abrams, representing the coalition, thumbed through the act as written, providing proposals for chang...

06/13/2022

It's basic economics.

05/23/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE An eye-opening presentation of the devastating effects of overpopulation and deforestation.

Michael Moore presents Planet of the Humans, a documentary that dares to say what no one else will — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on...

04/03/2022

Despite the robust amount of affordable housing already in development, AH folks maintain much more is needed. However, they cannot present a single commissioned study that supports their claim. They can only offer their good intentions and anecdotes. The housing bank bill is the creation of a government bureaucracy with an annual budget of 15 million dollars to develop housing like that depicted here. If you'd like to see cluster development like this all over the Vineyard, then, by all means, vote "yes" on the housing bank bill. But in our view, we should at least first have a study that establishes a need to do more than we are currently doing, determine precisely how much additional AH we need, and identify who gets the additional housing. Moreover, we should study the impact such proposals will have on the natural environment. There is no evidence that the housing bank bill is needed or will even work. The economic consequences and environmental impact of the bill have not been studied. VOTE "NO" ON THE HOUSING BANK BILL. IT'S JUST A BAD IDEA SUPPORTED BY PEOPLE WITH GOOD INTENTIONS.

02/03/2022

It would make perfect sense that the rate in percentage growth of year-round population would not equal the percentage growth rate of new housing on MV. The reason is because people do not live one to a house; we do not expect that a new home should be built to accommodate each man. woman and child that moves here. In order for the year-round population growth rate to match the new housing rate, 4,297 new houses would have to be added Island wide over the last decade. That would be development on a completely unprecedented and environmentally unsustainable scale. As it stands we currently have 17,562 houses on the Island to accommodate a year round population of 20,600. That means we currently have .85 of a house for every person living here or 3.4 houses for every family of four. Deduct 50% for seasonal housing and you get 1.7 year-round houses on the island for every family of four currently living here. Those numbers do not describe a housing "shortage" and certainly not a "crisis" in terms of available housing.

New data available from the U.S. Census show the Island housing stock has increased only slightly, and is far outpaced by the Island’s population growth over the past 10 years. According to the data, for the first time in 50 years, Martha’s Vineyard’s housing stock shifted from seasonal to yea...

01/27/2022

We don't think the government should interfere by developing housing projects with our tax money. Ideally, a person shouldn't need to apply or meet anyone else's criteria in order to live here. They should just come here, and make it happen in a free market.

The bureaucracy AH folks propose does not protect our organic community, but replaces the community with a huge social club, with admissions in the discretion of the AH bureaucracy. The present model, private development of affordable housing in a free market, currently provides adequate and sustainable growth.

We should not subsidize the construction industry and provide private businesses with employee compensation at the expense of Vineyard Homeowners and the environment.

01/27/2022

A 17-year-old Brazilian immigrant arrives on MV, starts a business, works hard and buys a home here in 2019. And he did it without an affordable housing tax being imposed on Vineyard Homeowners. According to AH advocates such a feat is next to impossible, but that is just not true. Ask him how he and many others like him are able to buy a house without government handouts. He did it the old-fashioned way. He earned it. We support this man and his family as members of our Island community.

An Island family fractured by an 18-year-old immigration case is seeking support and trying to raise awareness to bring family members home. Jose Erivelton Pereira Abreu, an Edgartown resident who owns a landscaping business, traveled to Brazil with his family for a green card interview, but was den...