The Real Martha's Vineyard: Income Inequality and a Housing Crunch

Bill O'Reilly calls our Island "Martha's Vineyard, a place of wealth."

It's a "Massachusetts elite playground," according to the British Daily Mail.


And indeed, there's a lot of wealth on the Vineyard, in season, when the elite are enjoying our home as their summer playground.

But the Associated Press, from which we used to expect a higher standard, really fell on its face when it called the Vineyard a "well-heeled Massachusetts island."

Apparently AP reporter Darlene Superville has been watching O'Reilly on Fox TV and reading British tabloids, instead of paying attention to what's really going on here.

Martha's Vineyard certainly has many well-off property and business owners along with its wealthy — sometimes very wealthy — seasonal residents and visitors.

But even the super-rich don't stay for more than a few weeks out of the year. And while these elites may define the Island in the minds of media mouthpieces who've never spent an off-season day here, we who live on the Vineyard year-round know better — and so does the Washington Post.

"The average wage on Martha’s Vineyard is 71 percent of the state average, according to a recent government report on the island’s housing needs. By contrast, rental prices are 17 percent higher and house prices are 54 percent above average," writes Billy Kenber, who visited the Vineyard as part of the White House travel pool covering President Obama's family vacation here last week.

When he wasn't riding in the press bus following the Obama motorcade, Kenber found his way to a food pantry in Vineyard Haven where dozens of families sought relief from hunger.

“We’re losing our middle class and we’re losing our young people because the jobs aren’t there and because of the cost of living and housing,” Peter Temple, executive director of Martha’s Vineyard Donors Collaborative, told Kenber.

As reported on MV Patch earlier this year: "Market rents are not only well beyond lower wage earners, but are also too high for those earning even at median income," according to a study of housing costs on Martha's Vineyard.

The income and housing insecurity afflicting many Islanders contributes to a phenomenon Patch blogger Jen Zern described in a post called "I was on Martha's Vineyard All Summer and I Need a Vacation:"

"In tourist economies like ours, the money ebbs and flows with the crowds. Therefore (unless we’re independently wealthy) we ALL take second (and third, and fourth) jobs here during the summer. We can’t even help it. We’re on YES autopilot: Yes, I’ll work that second shift. Yes, I’ll cater that wedding on my day off. Sure, I won’t sleep for 72 hours straight. Like woodland creatures, we inherently know that this is the one and only time to gather up nuts for the cold, barren winter. Saying no is not an option – not until Labor Day."

The division between the Island's seasonal haves and year-round have-nots has even made its way into the mainstream "reality TV" show "The Vineyard."

In the first episode of the ABC Family series, shot on the Island earlier this year, Vineyard resident Cat Todd scorns "summer girl" Sophi Alvarez, who's never had a job before arriving at the Black Dog Tavern as a young adult.

Cat started working at 13, she tells Sophi, because she "needed the money."

And unlike Sophi — who's rooming in the impossibly sweet East Chop rental that plays the role of the Black Dog workers' dorm — Cat is still living at home with her mom, with whom she hasn't been getting along.

Island housing advocates have been sounding the alarm for years and the Vineyard does have some programs to help Islanders find year-round homes they can afford.

But, writes Kenber, some on the Vineyard see the Island's middle class as rapidly disappearing.

Do you agree? Is the Island becoming a place of haves and have-nots? What can we do about it? Tell us in the comments.

[Editor's note: Billy Kenber, who wrote the article for the Washington Post cited above, is actually a reporter with the Times of London, according to the Post.]