To the Editor:
In response to the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival’s letter in last week’s Times (June 9, “MVFF responds”), there is no question that the programming described in your letter is of great service to the community. I have personally enjoyed attending and participating in past MVFF events.
In this letter and other statements, you speak to the visual aesthetics of your plan, but you do not speak to the externalities of the operation, which will most certainly be of bigger impact to the neighborhood. By selecting a site for your permanent home, the implication is that your programming will become centralized.
Your great success in Chilmark and Oak Bluffs is fantastic. My concern is that concentrating these events in a rural residential neighborhood will fundamentally change the character and peaceful nature that has existed since its settlement. The coming and going of cars and trucks, night after night, brings with it light pollution from headlights and noise.
Sound travels far in this neighborhood. From Old County Road, one can hear parties down New Lane and bands playing at the Ag Hall during the fair.
Aside from relocating your existing operations, will you not seek to expand the frequency and capacity of your programming? I find it hard to believe that you would invest so much money in a permanent home without the intent to grow.
You already understand how the neighborhood is reacting to your proposed plan, and you seek its input. The input you will receive, I imagine, is “restriction, restriction, restriction.” I ask you: Why relocate to a neighborhood where every step forward will be met with a fight? Why drag your donors into a situation that will most likely limit, disappoint, and downsize your operations and audience?
Since your mission is Island-wide and focused on community, I would encourage you to avoid making a decision that pits you against neighbors — who do have a measure of say in the scope and scale of your programming. As a first step toward a positive outcome, I would reconsider the purchase of the Walsh property.
I believe that the Island is a better place because of your efforts to utilize community space to present creative, entertaining, and thought-provoking films, and to engage youth in the arts. We in West Tisbury have ample space, already constructed, for you to use to further your mission — to everyone’s benefit.
If you must, and you deserve to, have a permanent home, there are areas in West Tisbury zoned for the type of operating you do. I’m sure you can find a welcoming neighborhood. But it will be one that is prepared to deal with the externalities of your business. West Tisbury Village clearly is not.
Miguel Samuel de Bragança
West Tisbury
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