 NANTUCKET, September 7, 2006 - Starbucks may be sprouting in Paris faster than wild mushrooms, but you won’t find a single one on Nantucket. That fact is slightly ironic, given that the owners of the world’s largest coffee chain are one of the first families of the island, and especially since the name Starbucks is taken from the first mate in Herman Melville's classic, Moby Dick.  What you will find are a series of locally owned and operated
businesses. Unlike adjacent Martha’s Vineyard, where uncontrolled
development was allowed to run wild, the town of Nantucket has fixed
codes and ordinances to a level that even the French would admire. The
result has been a cohesive community, notable for the integrity of it’s
architecture and the purity of its water and air.
Nantucket has the reputation as a playground for the jet set, a fact that can be attested to by the lines of Gulfstreams waiting on the ramp at Massachusetts’ second busiest airport, or the fact that the average home in town would have some sort of defect if it sold for under 2 million, or that the newest country club requires an upfront initiation fee of $250,000. 
A salt breeze was blowing across Nantucket this morning, as the eastern
sky turned a ripe peach-color. In those moments that separate the ocean
of darkness from the ocean of light, you can almost feel a calmness
reaching out.
 In a world where commercial interests usually take precedence over
artistic integrity - almost every major Paris fashion house is part of
a larger global corporation with ambitions far beyond producing
biannual couture - it’s nice to step back to a simpler time and place,
where canvasses dry in the storefront gallery, and where the day’s
catch came out of the water only hours before it appeared on the table.
Living without Starbucks is a small price to pay. |
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