Holiday season…. It’s a little crazy how we go from packed streets in Bar Harbor until the end of October now to November and the end of paid parking on downtown streets because there are so many spots available. Then election day and having gotten through it, a lot of happy people and a lot of miserable people.
I don’t usually share my political views publicly but I did take a public position on an important local vote regarding capping cruise ship visitors at 1000 people a day, making what we all think of as cruise ships, Holland Americas, Carnivals, Norweigians etc. unable to visit Bar Harbor any longer.
I’ll be honest, the thought of going on a cruise makes me nauseous to even think about. I don’t do well on big boats and will never be able to go to Nova Scotia from Bar Harbor again due to one of my only childhood traumas being violently sick on an old school Ferry trip. (I have to stop thinking about it or feel sick right now :)
BUT - I try to be open minded and not think just of myself so below was my social media post. Note: My side lost the vote, it was very close and in my opinion those who want to make Bar Harbor into a retirement community rather than in a tourist community prevailed. I get it, I just don’t think it is fair.
FB POST:
So many in Bar Harbor have been bemoaning the demise of “community” for some time. The toxic dialogue, threats and lines in the sand make me so sad. I believe in order to have a vibrant community you must have compromise, no one group can get everything they want. A successful negotiation has no winner. Though I do think are are several issues we need to find balance on, the cruise ship question is the biggest and seems to bring out the most vitriol and what I perceive as pure cruelty to each other.
I have friends and people I care about on both sides of the cruise ship argument. That is why I believe the only answer is to compromise and try to meet in the middle. I worry about my fellow business owners and their employees if we don’t find a compromise and I worry about the non-profits that I, and my fellow business owners, support on a regular basis, sharing the benefit of doing business in a vibrant business environment. As I am closer to the end than the beginning of my career and have had the opportunity to prosper and support causes I care about, I ask myself, is it fair for me to prohibit the next generation of business owners and employees from making a good living in this tourist town? Because a tourist town Bar Harbor is and has always been. It is not a retirement community and as much as we may all wish we could have this town and National Park to ourselves, that’s not reality.
Let’s find a balance, have no cruise ship days, big ship days, something for everyone. No, I don’t like trying to get to my office that takes 5 minutes in the winter but 20 in the summer. But, as my Dad said to me when I complained about tourists when I was about 10 years old, “that’s how you eat kid”. At that age, I didn’t want to sound stupid by asking Dad if tourists really bought insurance but as I got older I understood that Dad’s clients depended on tourists in order to buy their policies, in a way - whether directly or indirectly - we all make our living from the tourist industry whether we like it or not. If you are fortunate enough to be retired but lived here before retirement, you too benefitted.
Community takes compromise. Please help get this community back to the one we grew up in where respect was shown to each other regardless of the side you were on and opposing sides listened to each other. We eventually found a way for both sides to maybe not be completely happy, but satisfied that they had been heard and their concerns acknowledged. We agreed to disagree when necessary and found somewhere in the middle that everyone might not love, but could live with for the good of the entire community.