I wanted to thank you and the Island Institute for working to protect the islands, simple as that. It’s a shame that what’s going on at Diamond Cove amounts to nothing short of a takeover of the place by commercial and investor interests.
The idea of a place where people actually live, as opposed to a place where people buy homes and Inn rooms to rent to short term renters, seems so tenuous to hold onto. We’ve lived at Diamond Cove since it was started. We had two of our children here. We’ve since had to move off and become seasonal homeowners, but relish the idea that it’s like a mini, small town America where no cars contaminate the streets and kids can play at will together, and afternoon porch parties and weekend pickup sports games await.
It’s a shame that the city has used its legal power to assert that it can vote here-I’m still not sure that’s even legal since they don’t have their name on the deed and claim they don’t own the properties. But don’t be convinced that the “majority” of people here want this-at best it’s 50/50 of the homeowners, and if you count the people who actually live here, it’s a clear majority that do not want this.
Those that want it are investors who want to see prices go up so they can sell their homes or condos, and a group of homeowners who frankly are never here that much and hope this will drive their assessments down. A large portion of the homes here at Diamond Cove (about 35 percent at my count) are formally or informally for sale, and the people who wanted a nice neighborhood place to grow old in are just looking to give up because the city and Commercial/Investor interests are taking over.
The Diamond Cove Homeowners Association Board, you should know, was largely a slate run in by these same players, and now we cannot even change our dog leash laws on our own-the city just voted its votes to not give us flexibility to change our dog leash laws on private property, of all things. So it’s a shame. I hope that your group can continue to work to preserve the island way of life because it’s worth preserving. Putting a hotel in the middle of this beautiful historic island district would just be the biggest shame of the world.
Danny Briere
Diamond Cove,
Great Diamond Island