The Martha’s Vineyard Times was recognized with two awards by the New England Newspaper & Press Association during a virtual conference held Thursday.
The Times was recognized for the third year in a row as a Distinguished Newspaper of the Year. The newspaper was nominated for Newspaper of the Year, but was runner-up to the Vermont Standard. It is the sixth year in a row that The Times has either come in first or runner-up as Newspaper of the Year.
For the second year in a row, The Times won a Publick Occurrences Award, which is named for the Boston newspaper published by the colonists and closed down by the British. The award is meant to showcase the New England region’s best journalism of the year.
The Times was recognized for its special section, “Voices on the Housing Crisis.”
“The paper let the affected residents tell their stories, along with statistics and other details that really brought the issue home to readers,” the judges said in recognizing the newspaper. “Although the package didn’t present any clear solutions to the housing crisis, it did spell out in the words of people affected by it how important and stressful the search for affordable housing on the Vineyard can be.”
If the Times were a genuine newspaper they would report on the facts about the housing crisis. The facts are that the island community over the last 40-50 years has voted on zoning at town meeting by a super majority of 2/3 or more of the voters to prevent development of cluster housing or multi story apartment buildings that would have a positive impact on increased housing. This type of housing would increase our population requiring wider roads, turning lanes, traffic lights and all the stuff that we don’t won’t for us to become Hyannis or New Bedford. Islanders are responsible for the housing crisis, no one else.
Congratulations once again, on your courageous reporting in the face of such institutional and administrative opposition to the truth.
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