Back during the last days of the Cold War, there was a made-for-TV-movie called "The Day After." It detailed the struggles various people faced after a full-scale nuclear war. It came to mind after last night's election results.
No, I'm not comparing the election to nuclear war, but there are some struggles ahead for Falmouth.
For those of you who don't know, I came in third out of the six candidates. Pat Flynn was first; Carey Murphy second. Believe it or not, my loss wasn't a surprise to me - I had expected to place in the top three. Not bad for a first time - and without a campaign manager!
The "official" results aren't on the town website yet; I'll add a link here when they are.
But I digress...back to the struggles...
Perhaps the most surprising thing in this election was the fact that through much of the campaign, most of the other candidates didn't seem to be listening to the people. While most of them focused on the issue of sewering, the people were complaining about development - and 40B in particular. Fortunately, that has started to change. According to the Cape Cod Times, Pat Flynn mentioned engaging "the public in the ongoing debates about affordable housing, wastewater treatment and economic development."
She got it right on the first issue - affordable housing is the root cause of the 40B problem. However, wastewater is a symptom, not a cause, and wastewater isn't even the real problem - nitrogen is. Development is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about, and until we get development (and 40B is unrestrained development) under control, the nitrogen problem will only get worse.
Pat Flynn is starting to listen; let's hope the other selectmen also hear the message.
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