The Lighthouse Keeper
BY DANIEL W. DRAKE

"So go downtown, things will be great when you're

Downtown - no finer place for sure

Downtown - everything's waiting for you."

To give him his due, maybe the lyricist had a sense of humor, but it seems unlikely that Petula Clark was referring to Nantucket when she sang her paean to urban excitement. "…listening to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova.." would be beyond the pale in our downtown - and public dancing to it would be grounds for arrest for disturbing the Quaker peace.

Putting aside the details, however, Clark and her lyricist latched onto the universal truth there is a special appeal to many downtown areas. Nantucket's is no exception. In the "season" the place is full - some would argue too full - all day into the evening. There is a wonderful sense of life to it, particularly as day turns into evening and the pace settles down to the point where no one is in a hurry to get anywhere. ... Whether one is there to shop, or eat, to soak up the history, or even to live, Nantucket's downtown is a vibrant, if not swinging, place.

Even in the dead of winter, the heartbeat of "urban" life goes on, although at a greatly diminished rate. The streets are quiet and the boat basin all but empty, but - despite the brown paper in some windows - a reasonable number of shops stay open. There are a couple of coffee shops, some takeout places and enough dining spots to offer some choice of where to sit down and have lunch.

In the evenings, even in January and February, there is a movie theater. Eight or nine restaurants are open for dinner quite a few nights a week. One or two may even offer musical entertainment on weekend evenings. But, for pretty obvious reasons, people do not linger. They do what they came to do and then go home. The place takes on a different, although certainly pleasant, character when the streets seem deserted.

A correspondent, who is both a summer downtown resident and the owner of a downtown retail building, recently wrote expressing concern about the changing character of downtown Nantucket. He cited the indefinite closing of the Tap Room at the Jared Coffin House and the in-limbo status of the Dreamland as examples of recent events which are changing the area.

He was right. The Dreamland is certainly a summer happening, but if it were to permanently close as a movie theater, it would have the same resonance as the closing of the Opera House did many years ago, albeit on a wider and more diverse range of patrons.

The absence of year-round dining facilities at the Jared Coffin House has had an impact which, arguably, is relatively greater in the winter months than any effect it might have in the high season. No place has taken its place as the venue for serious business meals, or as the focus of the island's Sunday brunch sojourns, or as the place that could always be relied on to be open when nothing else was.

Much has already been made of the lack of any restaurant open for a sit-down meal on Christmas Day. Similarly, many have noticed that there was no place downtown (and only one on the whole island) to get a full breakfast last Wednesday, January 10.

Why is it a big deal? Why should we be concerned about these services not being available on a holiday? The answer is simple. Nantucket's second biggest industry is tourism and it doesn't entirely disappear, even in December and January. Those who are here can't fully enjoy the beaches or fishing or even walking on the moors; their focus is largely on downtown. And without the visitors, none of us would have a downtown.

Is it true, as rumored, that Christmas dinner at the Jared Coffin House was cold cuts and soda? It really doesn't matter. What is smart about innkeepers feeling that they have to turn away Christmas visitors unless they also want to have their guests join their families for Christmas dinner? What good can come from telling a telling a tourist that he or she can only get a full breakfast on a given day by taking a ten dollar cab ride each way?

There has been a fair amount of turnover in the downtown retail community in the last couple of years. There is no single reason. Some of it is higher rents; some of it is new requirements by the landlords on how their retail tenants do business; some of it is lack of business; and some of it is business owners just getting tired and deciding to pack it in.

None of this is bad per se. It is part of the evolution of a community. Just as the world didn't end when the Opera House closed, it will not end because there is no kitchen at the Jared Coffin House or no movies at the Dreamland.

On the other hand, it is important to be alert enough to take whatever steps can be taken to assure that bumps in the road, like no place to eat, are minimized in the short term. It is even more important to recognize and act on trends which may have a long term impact on Nantucket's economy and, therefore, on downtown..

Statistics from the Visitors Bureau show almost a 50 percent drop in inquiries of all kinds after 2000. The number has rebounded somewhat but is nowhere close to the pre-2000 levels. Where is Nantucket in the tourism spectrum? How are things changing?

Twenty years ago, a visitor to Bermuda could walk up Front Street in Hamilton and have a wide choice of wares from a number of stores selling jewelry, china, crystal, watches and cashmere sweaters. Bermuda promoted shopping as one of the great tourist experiences in visiting that island. Visitors came in droves. Then something changed. Now, it is reported, Front Street has only one such store left and that is a shadow of its former self. Today, the sidewalks are filled with souvenir stores and t-shirt shops.

Such stores are not bad, but, in great numbers, they change the character of a place, reflecting in turn the changing nature of the people who visit there. Even over a period of years, such a change can easily sneak up on a downtown, and it is only long after the fact that the locals wonder what hit them.

So, as the song says, we can't "…wait a minute more…" to insure that when we and our off island friends go "Downtown - everything is waiting for (us)." Both private groups and governmental agencies have to work on promoting a diverse and vibrant economic community and join forces in an effort to identify and respond to what the future holds for

Nantucket's downtown. I

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The "Lighthouse Keeper" reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent the editorial position of The Nantucket Independent. Please send any comments to drake@nantucketindependent.com.