YACK on: Philanthropic Lone Rangers
Grant Sanders
There has been a rash of senseless acts lately on Nantucket. Acts that will change the face of this island, perhaps forever. And, frankly, I find it a little bit scary. And shocking. And somewhat incomprehensible.

I speak, of course, about the sudden outbreak of wanton philanthropy on this island. (And my voice quavers slightly in fearful apprehension as I do so.)

First, our local Planning Board, duly and rightfully elected by the people of this island, decided they wanted to see Eel Point Road paved. Some sissy whiners and malcontents were against the idea, but that made no difference. The Planning Board was dead set against the notion of leaving Eel Point Road alone, even after a number of people spoke out against it in public. The hot-mix screed had been revved up and it looked like Eel Point road was going to be a lovely ribbon of bituminous carcinogens when suddenly, and without warning, some anonymous person wrote a check for over $26 million dollars, bought the land to be developed near 40th pole and took away the Planning Board's reason for paving the road. Personally I was shocked that someone with that much money would purchase that amount of land and just sit on it to keep a piece of untouched dune from being developed and stop a road from being paved. I mean, who does that? It flies in the face of what has made this island what it is today - an overbuilt playground for the shallow and self-centered fueled by greedy developers.

Next, the people of Nantucket voted in a special town meeting this July (some might have called it "a very special town meeting") to either leave the Dreamland Theatre as an empty lifeless shell or create a public and private partnership to save the historic structure, fix it up and get a movie theater running

again. Thank goodness cooler and more rational heads prevailed and the town voted, by a rather narrow

margin, to let the old building rot and to allow this festering sore to continue to infect and poison the downtown commercial district. I mean, who needs the headaches of fixing up an old building, anyway? But then, just like on Eel Point Road, some rather wealthy summer residents stepped in and announced their plans to go against the wishes of the local community. They formed a non-profit foundation and bought the theater from the previous owner for nearly $10 million and now they are working to turn it into a theater again. And just a theater! No condos, no restaurants, no hoity-toity retail, no t-shirt shops! (It's clear to me that these philanthropic lone rangers have no idea what Nantucket is all about. I mean, how can you buy a building downtown and not fill it full of gaudy money-making ventures and t-shirt shops? It's just not Nantuckety.)

And then there was the act that made my blood run cold. The town went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly to not fund a new transportation hub downtown. Then, in steps a wealthy couple who make their money through some crazy Internet scheme (I'm suspicious of this whole world wide Web thing. It will never catch on in my opinion). And what do they do? They bring in their own foundation dedicated to the idea of sustainable green transportation and they buy the land that the town rejected and announce they plan to create a transportation hub for the town - for free - and then support a transition to a greener transportation system on the island. Don't they know that Nantucket would not be Nantucket without traffic jams? Without a 10-minute wait at the stop sign near the high school? Without driving in endless circles around the old historic district in the middle of August looking for a parking space? This is just insanity. Consider that even in the summer, when the island has 50,000 people on it, the NRTA only has 3,000 riders per day. That means that 94 percent of the island isn't even using the NRTA. So why in the heck would anyone want to make it better?

My friend and fellow columnist, Dan Drake, posed an interesting question in his column last week: "Who runs Nantucket?" Well here's your answer, Dan. It's anyone with a big pile of cash or the ability to form, fund and run a nonprofit foundation. That's who runs this place.

It's obviously not the people of Nantucket who have shown that they want a paved Eel Point Road, that they don't want the Dreamland fixed up and they don't want an improved transportation system.

Of course, we can use this crazy philanthropy trend to our advantage. Which is why I will be sponsoring three initiatives at the upcoming Annual Town Meeting. One, to cut funding to the entire sewer system. Another to end any money spent on the Fairgrounds Road Public Safety Complex. And, a third to gut any spending to improve Our Island Home. If we vote them down resoundingly at Town Meeting, by summertime our wealthy summer neighbors will be falling all over themselves to form nonprofit foundations that they can use to fund the sewers, the Public Safety Complex and our town-run elder facilities.

Heck, I might even sponsor a warrant article to defeat any funding of a complete kitchen renovation in the home of Grant Sanders. My wife and I might be able to get a nice Viking range out of the deal.

YACK on. I

Grant Sanders is the Host of YACK, The Nantucket Online Community at yackon.com and he has nothing against wealthy people. He would like very much to be one someday. His views are obviously the product of his own very warped brain and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Nantucket Independent. Or his wife. Although the Viking Range does sound tempting.