ABOVE HN PHOTO: 2:25 a.m. at the Yarmouth/Barnstable town line… a young family with two young children were traveling all the way from New York when they began to run out of gasoline on Route 6, somewhere near the Barnstable/Yarmouth town line. A cellphone search directed them off the highway to a nearby gas station on Willow Street, in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. What they did not know at the time, was that they had entered a strange land, and the gas station was not in operation, probably because of local town ordinances that force businesses to close down between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. They called an emergency roadside assistance business that was also closed during the wee hours, probably because of the aforementioned ordinances. They called the police for assistance. The Yarmouth Police Department, thankfully, was still open (for now) and they stopped by to explain the bad news, which was that they were all essentially stranded. The couple and two young children, weary from the very long drive, pulled into a parking spot outside of a closed “convenient store,” where they planned to eventually call an Uber, in hopes someone would be available to transport them to their destination, further east, “down Cape.” HN approached and spoke with the mother who exclaimed, “This is America! How can this be happening here!” I truly felt her pain. These scenes are not unusual these days.

HN PHOTO NOTES & MULLINGS ON THE MATTER

This is one of the most annoying crimes I see during the overnight… and it’s a crime perpetrated by our local government, in the towns of Yarmouth and Barnstable. It’s difficult for me to write about it – because it’s so freaking ridiculous and annoying! – but I’ll try my darnedest to keep it brief. And make no mistake about it, the blame is, and should be, on our local town counselors and selectmen, because they alone have the authority and ability to fix this problem, fast.

And it’s especially annoying to me because I happen to love the towns of Yarmouth and Barnstable, and I want to see them thrive, but in recent years I’ve watched some of our town leaders destroy our local economy with extremely asinine, ignorant decisions.

As most people painfully know, years ago, the towns of Yarmouth and Barnstable created an overnight gas and food desert by passing bylaws that force all above-board, legal enterprises to close for public business between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. And the government folks, most of whom work banker’s hours, falsely believe their forced curfew only hurts a handful of people… but they’re wrong. Also, they allegedly imposed these laws to make some of them (government workers) safer… in other words, to make their jobs easier. But these bylaws have serious negative ramifications for our overall local economy in terms of momentum and growth. (Years ago, there was once a healthy Cape economy that used to thrive 24/7… and now, I would optimistically describe it as being on “life-support…”)

Also, these laws are unheard-of in thriving cities like New York and Boston, at least the last time I checked, which was several years ago when I called city police departments and asked. One police sergeant (I believe it was a precinct in the Bronx) answered as if I were calling from an insane asylum, or maybe another planet, the notion of forcing businesses to close was too absurd for him to grasp. I don’t think he believed I was serious…

… I was serious. As serious as a heart attack.

An economy is like a living thing, it has a heartbeat. But every morning in the towns of Yarmouth and Barnstable, at 1:00 a.m., our local officials force our economy into a debilitating cardiac arrest… and our economy remains lifeless and dead until 3:00 a.m., when our long-suffering business owners break out “the paddles,” in an attempt to reverse the crippling damage. With electricity, they faithfully attempt to restart computers, gas pumps, ovens, coffee makers, stoves, diesel trucks, and pharmacy medication distribution systems. And very slowly, the economy struggles to reopen its eyes for hopefully another day on this traveling-side of our maintenance-deferred roadways. Overnight truckers, highway maintenance employees, hospital workers, hash-slingers, bus drivers, cops, firefighters, delivery persons, and yours truly (your faithful overnight photojournalist), break out our rosaries and try to forgive the government idiots that make our overnight vocations much more difficult. When things were sane, we bought coffee. We bought bread. We did our grocery shopping. We picked up prescriptions. And we bought gasoline and other forms of energy, the lifeblood of what we do.

These forced curfew bylaws also damage our tourist industry in many ways. For example, every year I watch overnight recreational fishermen and women visit our towns with pleasure boats in tow. I watch them set sail and return with their catch. I also watch as our fire departments and other first responders rescue them when bad weather or some other calamity kicks up. I then watch these same visiting droves hightail it out of here during the dead hours, to find “real towns,” ones open for business, where they can purchase gas, coffee, cigarettes, and maybe some warm grub… or whatever else their hearts desire.  And I watch them all leave with the money they could have spent here, shaking my head in frustration… (this is just one example…)

… and think of all the selfish, high-paid idiots in our town governments who support these imposed gas & food deserts, that snatch the food from the mouths of our overworked, overtaxed working families… and that send our economy into forced cardiac arrest.

* Sigh *       I, of course, and sadly, have much more to type regarding this annoying subject. But it’s 5:30 a.m., and I promised to keep it brief.  I’ve got to run… as the paddles are back out, trying to shock some life back into these poorly led towns.

P.S. – Today’s Hytown Vignette is a brought to you by Crosby, Stills and Nash… [CLICK IT/CRANK IT! HEADPHONES ABSOLUTELY OBLIGATORY!]

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