Aug 10, 2007

Shhhhhhhhhhh

Dear New York Times. Shut up shut up shut up shut up. Shut Up!

You know that feeling of knowing something no one else knows about, then some big mouth comes along and tells all the rich, obnoxious people about it? That's how I felt when I saw the Times' "we discovered this unspoiled gem" story on the Rhode Island town of Narragansett.

As a former resident of the great little state of R.I. (Mrs. T-L and I already miss the place after only a month), I always loved Narragansett. It's got some of the better beaches in the state, nice bars and restaurants, and is just a cool little town that gets very little of the obnoxious NY license plates and hedge fund zombies that Newport, Jamestown, Block Island, etc. get in the summertime. So much for that.

My irony detector started smoking when I came across this sentence toward the bottom listing the town's Pros and Cons. (This was one of the cons.)

This fishing village and the downtown Pier area are in danger of being overly commercialized by developers who see an opportunity to tap into the growing interest in the neighborhood.
But the very same out-of-towners who read the New York Times are pretty much the exact group of people driving this kind of development and spoiling of smaller New England towns. The article even goes into detail on real estate prices, so you know before long the town will be completely bought up by New Yorkers looking for vacation homes.

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