Tag Archives: corporations

OUTER CAPE: BOYCOTT CVS

Despite widespread local opposition, CVS will apparently be coming to Ptown. Even though the deal was worked out with town counsel, let’s not kid ourselves: it’s another victory of a big, nonlocal company over a small town and its sense, expressed in a bylaw, of what’s good for it. According to a quote of the […]

January 13, 2018 – 3:25 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Corporate siege of the Outer Cape intensifies

The front page of this newspaper recently featured two Outer Cape stories: an update on the Herring River restoration in Wellfleet and Truro, and Dollar General’s determination, despite a lot of local opposition, to put one of its 13,000 big box stores in Eastham. The Cape Cod Commission has decided to weigh in on the […]

August 18, 2017 – 1:47 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Voting ourselves a bigger gun

The first night of Wellfleet’s recent Town Meeting, FinCom, trying hard to curb spending, suggested cutting the proposed $101,000 budget for “legal services” in half. In the debate, one selectman pointed out that we spent about that amount just in the lalte 2016 court case trying (unsuccessfully) to prevent Cumberland Farms’ makeover of its existing […]

May 22, 2017 – 2:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Cumberland Farms winning the battle vs. Wellfleet

Maybe it’s legal. But it’s wrong. And Bad. A company shouldn’t be able to ride roughshod over the wishes of a whole town. A few years ago, Cumberland Farms petitioned the Town of Wellfleet to enlarge the existing store on Route 6 and add a gas station. At a well-attended hearing, citizens were overwhelmingly opposed […]

December 28, 2016 – 10:18 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

PILGRIM AND EVERSOURCE: WHAT TO DO ABOUT COMPANIES IN CONTEMPT?

Laws are codified public sentiment. They are supposed to represent what’s right. They exist to protect us. But sometimes laws don’t feel like that. Case in point: the laws that allow two local companies to act like outlaws. I’m speaking of course of Entergy and Eversource, both widely perceived to be endangering the public health […]

April 19, 2016 – 7:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

iNCONVENIENT STORE

In the matter of Cumberland farms vs. the town of Wellfleet, we’ve had several months of waiting for the other shoe to drop. In the fall of 2015, the citizens of Wellfleet read in the newspaper about a court ruling which, if it is not reversed, will have a major impact on the future of […]

March 3, 2016 – 3:54 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Wellfleet’s formula biz bylaw shot down

In 2011 Wellfleet voted in a bylaw to ban “formula businesses.” The logic of the bylaw is that such chains and franchises as McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and other usual suspects would have a deleterious effect on our quality-of-life and the character of our town. Some months later Cumberland Farms proposed enlarging its long-grandfathered store […]

December 1, 2015 – 2:35 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The bottomline is Entergy’s only concern

It has made the headlines here and in Boston: Entergy, the parent company of Pilgrim nuclear power plant is, at long last, considering closing it down. The gist of the story: after years of faltering performance plant has recently been ranked as one of the worst in the nation. If the cost of making the […]

September 24, 2015 – 11:57 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Oil spills and nuclear meltdowns are not accidents

On the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, along with a review of the still ongoing longterm effects, it was asked: what did we learn from this accident? Not enough, apparently. Spills continue; the huge 2010 BP spill is still fresh in mind. At what point do you begin to see these catastrophes […]

April 8, 2014 – 11:57 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Wellfleet’s opinion of an enlarged Cumby’s is pretty clear [ CCT 24 January 2012 ]

For whatever reason, the little town of Wellfleet, with our off-the-grid self-image has, after long neglect, been coming up on corporate radar. Hard on the heels of Dunkin’ Donuts’ application to enhance its beachhead here with a drive-thru window, Cumberland Farms has applied for a makeover. It proposes to enlarge the store itself and move […]

January 24, 2012 – 6:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)