Damage along the shore of Westerly, R.I., after Hurricane Carol, which struck on Aug. 31, 1954.
From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
Nice about-face by Bailey’s Beach Club, in Newport, which had initially tried to close a nearby roadside snack stand started by three very enterprising Rogers High School students (“not our kind, dear!’’), but then decided to support it after a GoLocal article reported on what seemed to be a case of snobbery and arrogance, arousing some brief public outrage. Still, the reaction to the oh-so-exclusive Bailey’s imperialism reminded me of what irritates a lot of us in a nation increasingly run for the benefit of the very rich: That most of the people at Bailey’s are materially or socially fortunate through little effort of their own but rather through the accident of being from rich families. The famous Lucky Sperm Club.
To read a GoLocal article on this entertaining controversy, please hit this link.
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In another interesting coastal development, there’s a move underway to lift the prohibition on federal flood insurance for more than 900 homes, mostly owned by the wealthy, on the East Coast. Many of these homes should never have been built in flood-prone areas, now made ever more vulnerable by seas rising because of global warming. The proposed change would have taxpayers cover some or most of the cost of rebuilding fancy houses and would provide federal aid to fix such infrastructure as roads and bridges.
