Landmark Decisions

The Massachusetts Historic Commission has weighed in on the aesthetics of the Nantucket Sound Wind Farm, as the Army Corps of Engineers report bears witness. The sight of the windmills, six miles off shore, will impact historic landmarks along the south coast of the peninsula. There are six lighthouses and one compound that will be affected.

The compound refers to the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, hamlet of once and once-future presidents.

But it's a curious argument that the detractors of the wind farm are making; that the compound is a tourist attraction. Ever tried to see it? I've lived here for 35 years and the closest I got was sailing my dinghy over to their jetty.

In fact you cannot see it if you're a visitor. You can take the Hyline tour boat over to the vicinity, but even they keep their distance. The tour busses that head down to Hy-port, turn by and drive by, never really seeing anything of the compound.

Ted still lives there. And for a time even Ted didn't live there, opting to hide out on Squaw Island, before of course, he let Joan have the place. But now that he's back ensconced in the compound, sans matron, he's started to reshuffle the ownership of the properties among the next generation, allowing a nephew to buy a house, thereby perpetuating the Kennedy abode familia for years to come.

It's a disingenuous argument to make in the least that the Kennedy compound is a tourist attraction. A historic place maybe, but with no visitors allowed, not really a landmark. The windmills will definitely get more visits, to use the industry jargon.

The lighthouses, were always public, now they're open to the public. And so the Kennedy compound should be. Instead of passing the houses on to clan members, how about passing them on to the public's trust. Or even allowing private trusts to buy them, with tourism promotion dollars from the state, for instance.

Give tourism a real chance on Cape Cod; Presidential Tours of Hyannisport. That might actually boost the local economy. But until then, the days of visiting for the aura (the past) of the place are long gone. People want to see the real thing now. Even if it's just the windmills.

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I was just thinking. Suppose the Cape Cod Times' new publication as christened, The View, is coincidental?

As the folks at Clean Power Now like to say, "It's not the view, it's the vision."