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You can blame this on a lot of things and it is not just the cape either as someone previously said. To live on Cape Cod takes a serious amount of fortitude. Once anything comes over the bridge, it cost more. To live comfortably you have to either own your own business and be good at what you do, be in a profession like a physician or lawyer and be lucky enough to get linked to an already established group and/or hospital or be employed in some kind of federal/state/municipal job that though might not pay as much as the private sector has grerat benefits and security and most importantly have purchased your home sometime in the late 70's to early 80's.
The middle class here is hanging on by a thread. Being a resort community there is a much more consolidated showing of the upper class have's versus the have nots. Just take a ride by the water these days. You'll notice the small cottages that were strictly built for habitation in the summer are the odd men out as original owners or the surviving kin sell out for hefty returns whereupon the only able buyers take the original place down and build a trophy "summer" place. Monomoscoy Island in Mashpee is a perfect example of this, three trophy homes and one small vintage cottage then four more trophy homes. The original cottage becomes an eyesore to the new more affluent neighbors. Whereupon the capes loses more charm as each goes under the demo ball.
Now, being a resort community the service industry needs workers, people who will work for next to minimum wage and will live in squalor. Town owned housing authority husing and unscrupulous absentee landlords who charge the state for the rentals in run down housing. Typical of this is Hyannis area near Bearses Way. It's a ghetto now. Gangbangers/ drugs hookers and pimpin'. 16 year olds wearing baggy jeans with thier shorts hanging out and hoodies terrorizing the neighborhood and local merchants and all packing heat. Quaint old Hyannis ain't what Patti Page sang about so long ago these days. It's a dirty and dangerous place.
With the influx of displaced families, single mothers with no or little education, a flock of kids and a job at Burger King only breeds trouble.
You can't live here on 50,000.00 a year never mind 12,000.00 so with that comes the situation we have now.
We still have nice places here where you can go sit by a pond and hear no cars but we have the same problems that over the bridges do but except for say Boston, it costs more to live here and if your married both have to work and who's left to mind the kids? 40b housing and lotteries for the same leave ample opportunity for the more undeserving to get in where hard working folks fail. Crime is growing, the summer always sees a surge in it here.
Fall, thank God and the offseason is coming where it slows down a little, not much but a little.
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