A Gloucester trance and a Gloucester chance

By Gordon Baird from a Fishtown Local

The ethereal silence of a silver sky amplified its stillness this late December afternoon as Christmas approached. Everything motionless in 50 shades of grey, silver and white. Not a sound can escape Smith Cove as if it were encased in a captive snow globe.The expectation of the holidays, family and the end of another year have slowed the passage of time into an involuntary partnership with motion. Both have ceased to exist in the hypnotic trance that Gloucester harbor has become.

The trance is suddenly broken by the stroke of oars. One stroke is all it takes to shatter the illusion. Stroke . . . coast . . . stroke . . . coast. This passing sailor strains to observe the mission - is the rower towing something, a rope? It is large enough to resemble a magic dragon or a great worm, a hawser, in fact. But to where does it lead? Across to the other side of Smiths, it is clearly headed, but to what end? The rope submerges behind the rower but its trajectory snakes back to a solitary ghostly silhouette, a classic Gloucester shape, a white wooden specter from another era, an ancient Friendship Sloop, pulsing at its foggy anchor. A figure emerges from the cabin and gestures affirmatively to his rowing accomplice. Not a sound invades this ancient tableau as the two keep a close eye on the other.

Until, in seemingly one motion, the rower has jumped up from his skiff and scooped his endless towline onto a dock on the far side of the Cove. Without a word being spoken, his accomplice casts off the mooring line and the sloop suddenly rides free. But gentle, insistent pressure on the towline reveals the intention of the maneuver - Nomad, this classic wooden craft, begins to crab diagonally towards the East Gloucester shore.

Still not a word has passed between them in a ritual performed since our city was founded. Slow, firm and determined runs Nomad through the airless silver afternoon. My stranded, windless small sailboat has a front row seat to the intersection of where the Past has become the Present. I fully expect to see Howard Blackburn come up from the cabin and tip his hat to Tucker, the ghostly sloop's owner. Nomad is now fully tied up and its partners silently offload the long wooden boom towards shore. All is quiet again. All is Gloucester.

That is the Gloucester that people love. The city continues to evolve but that is the Gloucester that has kept me here for nearly 75 years. The living Gloucester that certain determined councilors and some members of the planning infrastructure just don’t get. They can’t for the life of them, figure out why people like me and others get so worked up by the never-ending efforts to rezone the life out of this city. And here we go again. I’m not talking about the state’s 3A proposals. The rewriting of our city’s Comprehensive Plan is going along with the stated objective of creating One-Size-Fits-All zoning across the city. The old Plan stressed that development must take a neighborhood’s existing character and density into consideration. Not so, this new version. The gloves are off to pump up building everywhere, separate from the 3A zones. These champions of density have a West Coast Sprawl vision - their backgrounds were in Northern California and Seattle and if it was good enough for them, it’ll do for us. They laugh and mock those of us here that want to oppose that. More oppose it than they dream. People just want to keep what they have, what they bought.

Soon, later this year, the zoning proposals will re-emerge, taking away neighbors’ rights to know what’s coming. You see, it’s “by right”, no hearing zoning that voters said they didn’t want 2 years ago. You won’t know what your new neighbor has planned until the bulldozers show up.

The usual cast of letter writers, Deanna, Sunny, Carolyn et al - all connected to the system can’t begin to understand why people wouldn’t want to give Carte Blanche to Boards and developers that strive merely for density. That is the route to more projects in every neighborhood that will end up being second homes and Air BnB’s, not more Affordable Housing but more gentrification. You will no longer know your neighbors’ names.

What is Gloucester and what will she become? One size doesn’t fit all. Get ready for another battle because unless our current administration realizes bigger and more crowded isn’t better, we’re headed for one. I am hoping all candidates for Mayor can agree on that and let us know.