Provincetown is Fucked this Summer

Will no one think of the drag queens?

It is an issue on Nantucket and the Vineyard too. Boston people who are now telecommuting and moving to the Cape and adjacent ares compound the problem.

And trying to get new construction approved is next to impossible because the NIMBY eldergays here act like a development for people with household incomes between 80k-120k is basically a homeless shelter. We get referred to as "the poors" on the community facebook page.

Its disgusting.

I had no idea Provincetown had an economy. Based on what I’ve watched everyone is happy to take everything out in trade.

Tragedy of the commons/democracy. It’s the real reason why humans can’t maintain nice things.

its not just the drag queens boo boo its the drag queens, the DJs, the front desk people who help you find a toy to placate your precious lap dog when shes having separation anxiety, its the housekeepers who get you turn down service in the room you love to have just so, its the bartenders who make your manhattan with dry vermouth just the way you like it, its the sexy boys who tolerate your transparent needy flirtation as we pedicab your fat asses two blocks down commercial street for disco tea because you didnt practice walking in your wish.com platform heels, its the girls a spiritus who patiently take your drunken order for pizza at 2 am.

Its literally all the people who make provinceotwn provicnetown and without us, this place is just gonna be a bunch of menopausal sweater queens sitting around princess diana screaming at each other becuase theres no one to poor you a drinky poo.

Saugatuck it is

Fucking move then, first world problems for the rich, vapidity is not pretty, poor workers on the Cape clutch pearls!

Will work for food.

Can't they just set up cots under the Dick Dock?

What a non-sentence that was, R8.

[quote] We get referred to as "the poors" on the community facebook page.

Confirms my suspicion that "Provincetown eldergays" = "DL posters."

[quote]Confirms my suspicion that "Provincetown eldergays" = "DL posters."

Or Paris Hilton wannabees.

So workers there for the season don't get free housing? That's odd.

R14 Hell no! Some places have staff housing which are more like glorified barracks but you still have to pay around 500 a month to share a room with one or more other workers

People and their needs are such problems! Can't wait until it's all AI.

It's the whole Cape, not just PTown. Greed has finally won. There is no housing for anyone that's not a millionaire, those who bought up all the real estate during Covid and turned ordinary houses into short-term rentals to line their pockets. It's pretty bad.

Link?

This is a classic case of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" at work. Currently, DEMAND of real estate is driving workers/artists/drag queens out of P-Town; soon, SUPPLY of affordable service workers will push the Hand in the other direction until a happier medium is reached. I.e. who wants to go vacation/live in a place where restaurants, clubs, and shops cannot afford to operate/provide services?

The children of the rich can do the work. You know, to build character.

People forget that the people working these service jobs that they rely on need somewhere to live. If only rich people can live someplace then that place is screwed.

Ok Milton Freeman, but in the meantime, there'll be years where non-millionaires can't go to Ptown and who's to say it will ever achieve stasis?

We can GO to Provincetown. We just can’t live there.

I’ve been going to Nantucket all my life and Ptown as an adult. Big problem on the Cape too- same issue in the Hamptons. I know in Stowe VT the hotels etc are providing housing for their employees increasingly. The big hotels on Nantucket do as well- not so much the tradies who renovate etc. They commute to the island every day.

Ptown will be hopping as always this summer and workers will rise before dawn and get home well after dark. Establishments will be under more pressure to house their employees.

In Palm Springs where I have a second home, the tradies etc live in Cathedral City, but I expect eventually that town will price out lower income workers.

Tradie is not a derogatory term: they include carpenters, electricians, plumbers, stone cutters, landscapers and other specialists. In Coachella Valley most are immigrants as well- hard working, skilled and honest.

link to a ny times article from last year. this year is orders of magnitude worse

Bet somebody will be trying to fix this after this shitshow of a summer passes.

It's also a problem in Newport, Block Island and Watch Hill (thanks Taylor Swift!). It's not just the Cape and PTown.

It’s getting to be so difficult to be rich.

This is a more complex issue than one or two paragraphs can explain.

Not all "NIMBY's" are gay. There are plenty of people with money that move here and THEN want to change the character of Provincetown. I.E. The people that moved in across from the pier and then complained about the fishermen making too much noise to early in the morning. That's one example but it's common among the moneyed class to change an existing town or place to their liking.

The problem with J1 worker limitations this year is also that "too many" of them are not returning to their home countries.

Part of the reason that there is a lack of local workers is that much of the work force likes to work in the summer and then collect unemployment in the winter. Year round commercial establishments can't survive or flourish with no local workers that want to work rather than collect unemployment.

It's complicated.

Having said that, housing is a huge problem. Huge. As it. is everywhere. Provincetown doesn't have a lock on that problem. The local and state governments are attempting to make changes, but it's not fast enough.

Provincetown has also experienced the real estate boom, and prices for properties are ridiculously high. It's beginning to cool, but the same problems with Airbnbs - as an example - in every other vacation destination occurs here and limits - if not obliterates - open market rentals. And if people that have lived here forever want to sell their properties and cash-out, how do you regulate that?

All of which is to say- again - it's complicated.

What also needs to be considered is that there is a HUGE sense of entitlement by the locals. As an example, if you lived in NYC and wanted to live in Manhattan, you needed the income to do that, otherwise you moved to Brooklyn. or Queens. Locals want what they want when they want it. This may not be a popular opinion, but, as an example, if you choose a career as a drag queen, you are accepting that you will have a certain level of income. That level of income doesn't guarantee you a place to live, and a style of living to which you were accustomed before the community changed or a style of living you've aspired to. It doesn't work that way. Everyone that chooses a career here, has agency. It's a choice to live here.

it may no longer be funky or artistic, but money poisoning a vacation destination is not unique to Provincetown.

Anybody that lives here, if they're honest, understands that there are a number of different factors to the problems.

NO ONE can move here anymore unless they are rich. Many friends - let's call them middle class - that wanted to retire here have had that dream dashed.

It's not just rich gays that are responsible for the changes, though there are plenty of them.

And, before you go there, I'm not one of them.

Again, it's complicated.

Betty Buckley and Darren Criss will be performing there in concert this summer. I hope they have housing !

I look forward to the stories of Darren Criss hooking up with men while he's there.

I hooked up with Tom Chase while he was a bartender at the Crown & Anchor. I also hooked up with Chip of the Chip & Reichen team from the Amazing Race while in PTown.

[quote] I look forward to the stories of Darren Criss hooking up with men while he's there.

The fake stories, you mean, R31?

r29 i dont really agree that its as complicated as you want to make it sound, and your attempt trying to shift blame onto the workers themselves is weak.

first of all the whole unemployment thing you bring up is 100% inaccurate. there are plenty of people happy to work in the winter. Establishments close off-season due to a lack of business, not due to a lack of staff, and you know that.

Provincetown makes its money off of tourism, and the tourists arent coming to gawk at the real estate. Tourists dont come here because of the property values. They dont come here because Ryan Murphy has a new kitchen that just got photographed for Elle Decor.

They come here For the drag queens and the bars and the food and the fun.

the reason rich people like owning property there is because it's a desirable place to visit.

it isnt a desirable place to visit because rich people own property there.

if ptown stops working as a place where gay people want to go on holiday, then the social capital that property here affords its owners will diminish, and the property values will start to decline after.

Same in many beach towns in Florida. So many long term rentals have been converted to Air B n B's that the waiters, hotel maids,grocery clerks.cooks fisherman have been priced out of town.Resturants have to close and limit hours as they have no staff. Even the strip clubs are having problems finding pole dancers. Retiree residents which were the year round patrons of local businesses have been priced out too.This what happens when you go from a beach side town to a "resort community".

It's true in all touristy areas of Florida, R34. There's just more options in general in Miami and Orlando, but the effect is being felt there too. It's also true near ski resorts and lots of other touristy places all over the US.

People will buy property in a popular area, then do one of two things. If they are on the beach or right near the attraction, they will rent out whole thing at like 1,000 a night, or, if they are close to an airport, they will divide up their home into like five rentals and do each for 150 to 200 a night, because there's a lot of people who just need a place to sleep for a night and prefer that over a hotel. Neither of these are affordable options for the people who actually support these communities. And it's just getting worse.

Air B n B's will do for housing what Wal Mart did for small business. Vile end stage capitalism.

There's nothing surer

The rich get rich

And the poor get laid off

In the meantime

In between time

Ain't we got fun?

I was astounded by the maximum amount of unemployment that you can get in MA. Last year it was $1033/week. In CA, our maximum is $450.