Maritime working harbor vs. Disneyland effect

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To the Editor:

I’m an architect from Florence, Italy, and a Vineyard summer resident since 1994. I am an active campaigner for ending over-tourism in my hometown.

Like so many other areas of Italy, like Venice or Cinque Terre, Florence has lost her soul, her social dimension, and has become inhospitable for local inhabitants. I fear the same may happen on Martha’s Vineyard.

Florence is now an open-air fun park, where her historical architecture and monuments have merely become the background for sweeping crowds of visitors to indulge in “vita lenta” stereotypes and “local attractions” popularized by social media.

The historical city center is now emptied of Florentine residents, artisans, and local realities. All that made Florence a bustling cultural, industrial, and artistic hub at the height of the Renaissance is dead. We have failed to protect our precious heritage. It is now a sad Disneyland customized for tourism. Buy, eat, drink.

Seeing the transformation of some historical waterfronts in the last 30 years made me afraid that this beloved Island would soon suffer a similar fate. But I saw hope when, this 17th of July, I attended the open house at Gannon and Benjamin Boatyard in Vineyard Haven, where a significant project to — at the same time — preserve and give new life to the Vineyard Haven waterfront was discussed.

VLOC, Vineyard Lands for Our Community, started in 2023 as a nonprofit public charity for the creation of this new piece of waterfront in Vineyard Haven. The “HarborWorks” project along Beach Road (20-46 Beach Road) is redeveloping five adjacent properties at the epicenter of the Vineyard Haven Harbor.

The concept behind this project is to inject a renewed vital lymph to the life of a piece of the Island. A seed that may invert the “Disneylandisation” of Martha’s Vineyard.

The project is based around the existing maritime works and the boatyard, but also aims to provide spaces for artisans and artists. It will also guarantee public access to the waterfront, including a pier for boat launches, a courtyard, a community park, and a pavilion for performances, music, dance, and public speaking. 

The nonprofit organization is raising funds to realize the project in collaboration with local businesses. It’s a project for the community with the community. The project area will be an incubator of production, with multiple purposes, a new engine for Island-based works.

The waterfront will be a true living mirror of the working Island community. We have many examples of existing Disney waterfronts, museums of themselves, postcards to be seen, just memories of a “glorious past.” If we don’t preserve the maritime local works and other local businesses, we will miss the opportunity to save the soul of this Island and risk losing her residents.

 

Tommaso Bertini
Florence, Italy