To the Editor:
This is a copy of a letter I’ve written to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
It’s hard to imagine anyone who cares more about Tisbury than planning board co-chairman Henry Stephenson. He thinks deeply about the town, and he has a fine sense of design. His Stop & Shop letter [Strategies and changes to Stop & Shop plan, April 17] to last week’s papers was right on the mark, in my view.
He proposed the most cogent and thoughtful alternative plan I’ve seen to date.
I hope you will heed his words about building size, building design, parking, congestion, and traffic, and I hope you will condition the project as he suggests.
I also want to point out something about this development that hasn’t been discussed much. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has a responsibility to promote appropriate economic development. I hope you will add to your conditions, if and when you approve a better, scaled-down version of the plan that is before you now: that Stop & Shop will be required to provide full-time jobs with full benefits at living wages.
We need good jobs. Part-time jobs at low wages are harmful and unprincipled. Stop & Shop and its parent, Ahold, can afford decency, and we cannot afford to accept less.
John Abrams
West Tisbury
