Hyannis: Building a future no one wants

We're building a future no one asked for and no one wants on Main Street, Hyannis

I asked Scarlet, a senior at Sturgis, to research a story on the new construction on Main Street. I wanted to know her thoughts on the new buildings and I asked her if she could interview several construction workers building the new "monstrosities" downtown. 

Scarlet presented herself as a  “journalist” for a school project when she and her mom visited 201 Main Street for these interviews. The site manager waved them in, and an electrician by the entrance cheerfully explained that these giant complexes are popping up everywhere in Massachusetts.

201 Main will have ninety-five tiny apartments with a clubhouse—“mostly for travel nurses,” he shrugged—as if that explained why the building looks like it was air-lifted in from Route 1 in Saugus.

Scarlet, notebook in hand, told him she’s studying how her generation is supposed to afford… well, anything. Gas. Car insurance. Food. Rent priced like a luxury yacht slip. The workers didn’t laugh—they nodded.

One older electrician said he lives on a cul-de-sac with his wife, who raises chickens. He prefers country living and thinks the Cape has become far too “urban” for his taste.

Two plumbing apprentices from Wareham admitted they still live at home. One already has a college degree but found better prospects in copper pipe than in his political science major. Both said they dream of normal things—yards, trees, cars, and the occasional hunting trip—not a lifetime spent stacked in a 420-foot long building with neighbors they can hear sneeze through the wall.

The foremen agreed. One from rural Rhode Island, the other from Taunton—both said these mega-projects don’t belong on the Cape. “Great for building,” one joked, “not so great for living.”

Their biggest gripe? We’re not reusing what we already have. Old mills in places like Fall River and New Bedford are perfect candidates for real affordable housing without paving over historic neighborhoods. They even told Scarlet to look up King Philip’s Lofts in Fall River as an example of what could be done. Instead, Massachusetts is plowing ahead with a build-first-ask-questions-never approach.

Scarlet took photos—lots of them. “People need to see what we’re doing,” she said. And she’s right.

The people who live here don’t want this future.

The people building it don’t want it. And our kids can’t see themselves in the future we’re constructing for no one in particular.

If we don’t speak up now, Scarlet said, we might wake up one day in a Cape Cod no one recognizes—and no one wants.