Cape Vincent- The Commodity!

This post subject was sparked by an email I received recently.

 Numerous times in this Cape Vincent wind fiasco people have mentioned to me that they might sell their home or summer residence if wind turbines invade the community. Is it already too late?  Some of us really don’t have that choice.  People who do are lucky although there will probably still be a loss. I can’t walk away, and  I know a lot of people who can’t as well.  It’s why we fight so hard in our chosen ways.  It’s not about the money either.  It’s about long emotional ties to this area even if it is only seasonal ties.  My little cottage along the River is full of ghosts, pleasant ghosts, starting with the constant presence of my parents who first brought me to Cape Vincent, and the long long string of family and friends and experiences attached to this place.

My Mom, circa 1940's

Photo from an old friend,  , Fishing in CV circa 1930's 1940's

So what’s it worth? Years ago before AZ somebody once asked me where I lived.  I told them I camped out in Rochester during the week until I can get back home to our small cottage on the St. Lawrence. Money didn’t draw me here and money won’t take me away, or have the ability to magically dissolve what this place means.

For me to sell out would be just like somebody cutting of one of my legs or arms. I am a seasonal resident of 60+ years, and I can’t imagine what it would be like for a long term resident to have to leave at the insidious hands of the wind developers.  That is what the wind developers took from many of us. That is what the BP community destruction machine and its slick huckster project managers bring to our community.  They swallow community’s whole and slobber at the mouth and give an obscene burp at the end like we were a satisfying meal they just devoured. How many of these wind developer dealers have blown through our communities?  They pack up their spreadsheets, their wind studies, and  piss on their lease holders, and walk away, to find an easier more gullible and uniformed sucker community that won’t stand up to their obscenity.  Or they trade and bargain us off like a commodity, at a dirt cheap weekend swap meet or yard sale.

 Oh maybe we could walk away too in a physical sense, but it would still haunt us for the rest of our lives. Nothing would really be gained or healed.

Having these thoughts and discussions it occurs to me that too many people on BOTH sides of this CV wind disaster see CV as a commodity.  The pro wind side…we realize what their agenda is, and they sold out the emotional and physical beauty of CV  in a heart beat over their kitchen tables to some magic trick salesman who reassured them he was their new best friend.  They even had to hire a shill like Marion Trieste to reassure them they were doing the right thing. Wear a green shirt, it’s good for the environment, and you can all sit together an look like weeds the community can’t get rid of!   For the developer it’s all profits and greed and share holders and spread sheets.  What’s the price of electricity today?  What will it be tomorrow, next week or next year. What the latest on the PTC subsidy?  If we have to buy some poor suckers property and life we destroyed that has to move away how will that affect our  bottom line?  When we  rape CV who can we sell the power too?  After all some wind executive somewhere at BP desperately needs another Porsche, the 2012 model is already getting boring, and the 2013’s will be in the showroom soon!

For us…we have economic studies, we talk about selling and what price we could get…what will the loss be?  The worry about the impact on the tourism dollars, we worry about property values, and appraisals.  How should we develop CV, what businesses should be here, and where will the dollars come from to keep the school open?  What can I do or not do with my property investment?  After all it’s my RIGHT!!! You can’t tell me what to do with my property or my money. I will sue, what will a lawyer cost?   We have polls to see what the community thinks about wind development, and other development.  How can we attract families and business, and tourism and more dollars to CV and who pays the most taxes, and how do we protect the tax base, and what is the latest assessment on our homes and cottages?  Where do we put commercial and industrial zones to bring in more money? Can we get more Canadians to come across the River and spend money?  Should we give a PILOT agreement to a wind  or solar developer and how much should that be? Is it worth it?  Which broker do I list my house with?  Can we market properties in CV more effectively.  We can surely protect ourselves with Property Value Guarantees if the wind developers overrun our community.  In fact if we were smart we could list those PVA’s as a derivative and bundle them and sell them as a commodity to Wall Street and the Banks.   What comp plan and zoning are best to protect us but let us develop?

 I realize some of these are legitimate concerns. I am not stupid or anti development as long as it protects the community’s spectacular beauty and the emotional and human investments many of us have here.

But what is Cape Vincent and this community really worth? Where is the Blue Book listing on CV? Can we put it on a commodities exchange somewhere and sell it to the rest of the world?  Can we look up the latest bid and ask price on a market somewhere, or on the CNBC ticket tape that runs across the bottom of the TV ?   LOOK …symbol CV…there it is!!!!  It’s up a whole dollar today at the market close!!!   Should we put it up for auction at a prestigious auction house NYC?   Should we list CV on a commodities exchange in NYC or Chicago and let a bunch of traders play havoc with it?  What is the commission if we can sell it? 

It occurs to me that some of this is somewhat obscene, and that ALL OF US might be better off if we stopped trying to treat Cape Vincent and the Golden Crescent as a commodity to be bartered away or negotiated over in some form or another, and instead start looking at what we really have that is precious and unique in beauty and what has the potential to and has sustained us on a more human and emotional level. Where is the detailed committee study on that impact?  Who sits on that committee, and what pollster do we use to measure that impact?  Which is the best lawyer to advise us on what we can and can’t protect in emotional and human resources?

  Like I said some of us just can’t walk away, and what the wind developers have already taken from us in emotional and human treasure is beyond comprehension, and will likely never be recovered.

And if you don’t get that fundamental concept of what has been taken from us in CV , you need to pinch yourself to see if you are still functioning as a basic human being.

Those thin little met towers you see sticking up all over town are like thin hypodermic needles that injected some  insidious fatal poison in our community veins, and when they pull the plunger back they suck the life and physical and emotional beauty right out of our communities.

Instead of calling our real estate brokers… we all need to speed dial your conscience… and start realizing the obscenity of what these repulsive wind developers have taken from us and driven us to become, and what they could still do to us. 

                              BP is actually bringing emotional violence to the well being of

                                  this community and to ourselves and it is unforgivable!

                  And you can't put a band-aid on what has happened with a new comp plan, zoning law,  or 
                              economic study as good as they might be.  That won't stop the bleeding!!!