Martha's Vineyard Says Stay Away

Jeanna Shepard ~ Vineyard Gazette

Over the weekend, the CEOs at Martha's Vineyard Hospital and Nantucket Cottage Hospital issued a joint "statement" to their residents and second-home owner tax base to not threaten the islands' year-round populations and medical capacity. It was certainly in keeping with the national, state, and local government shelter-at-home edicts. We know several neighbors who beat this latest restriction and left their homes in Boston, DC, and New York City for hopefully safer environs on the Vineyard.

As posted on The Steamship Authority website

It's good policy, but Vanity Fair's William Cohan detects the xenophobic underbelly.

"People on the island are worried the early influx of seasonal residents will bring the virus with them and deplete existing food supplies at the two Stop & Shop supermarkets on the island, one of which, islanders have long said, does more than $1 million of revenue a day during peak season. They are worried that if people start panicking and want to leave, the options are limited to (already reduced) ferries and flights. Of course, the private-jet crowd, a staple of life on Nantucket, can always come and go as they please."

P.S. Some things continue unabated. Our Vineyard quarterly town school and property tax bill arrived in today's mail.