Would a curious, wannabe scientist be welcome at the Research Center as a visitor? Is there anything I could actually help with/volunteer on while there?
Do you mean at Woodwell Climate Center (woodwellclimate.org), formerly the Woods Hole Research Center? If so, I'm not sure. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI.edu) is nearby but unrelated.
Public outreach is very important for ocean science so we (WHOI) do have a visitor center and regularly host events[1] on campus and online. I'm not aware of anything for volunteers right now but in the past we have asked for help labeling data sets or reporting marine mammal sightings[2].
The cape is a fine place to visit and a terrible place to live. The whole place is a "quaintness facade" put on to part tourists from their money. It's fine for a week or for a summer but living it grates on you.
Your dollars are worth ~20% less (nothing pays even close to 20% higher) and unless you have big dreams of running a tourist facing business (or fleecing the people who fleece the tourists) there is squat for opportunity there.
I would only accept a job at Woods Hole if it will specifically further your career.
It is like any resort / vacation area. There are lots of jobs in food services and the trades - nearly all of the properties are single families and they have to survive beach climate, wind, and the occasional hurricane.
The Cape has a lot more unique stuff than the average vacation region, as you can see Woods Hole is there.
Yes, and they all suck as places to actually live (possible exception if you're retired and have lots of money) for those same reasons.
>The Cape has a lot more unique stuff than the average vacation region, as you can see Woods Hole is there.
Every vacation area has some similar myth that they pour into the kool aid in order to convince themselves they're important and that it's not just about the tourism industry.
>So much bitterness and cynicism on HN.
I'm bitter because I lived it.
Geology can't work its magic on that godforsaken sandbar fast enough.
Cape Codder / tech biz owner here. I guess that makes me the one who fleeces the businesses that fleece the tourists? You're mostly right, but obviously seriously jaded/bitter. Real estate is expensive, the business economy revolves around tourism and the population is aging. That doesn't mean we're just giving up though, so please if you're young and have the income to support a life here please do so! We need more young people willing to fight for the future of the Cape!
I am curious why you think anyone not set to inherit a business would not be better off pursuing opportunity elsewhere.
There is some decent opportunity in the trades but not if you're not already an established professional but outside the tourism industries there isn't much.
If you have any ambition to do anything to anything people will stand in your way and put up roadblocks because your expanding liquor store or auto-body shop (or whatever) isn't what they think is "befitting the local character".
As someone who is, unfortunately, in a lower earning portion of the US,
> so please if you're young and have the income to support a life here please do so!
Please feed into our pyramid scheme so I can continue to maintain my quality of life? Guy, what? Nobody is just handing out money, why do you expect it to be handed to you?
Did I say "the Cape is a great place to live! no problems here! move here!"? No. I agreed with the fundamental problems the Cape faces, and am asking for others to help change/stop these issues. Fighting for affordable housing, advocating for good schools, supporting non-tourism based business... there are countless other causes. My point was that "I'm not going down without a fight" and we need help, because we're losing the war for the Cape, and the future is bleak if "good men do nothing". No one is asking to be handed anything, I'm asking YOU and others to fight for a robust and thriving community.
I can't believe I'm defending "advocating for the Cape" on Hacker News of all places.
fwiw i love cape cod and the islands and hope you can figure out a way to fight for those things. i spent a lot of time on martha's vineyard growing up and it was always so sad to hear islanders talk about their kids leaving for better opportunities.
Hey thanks. I have kids and talk to them openly about the problems with the Cape, and how they might find more opportunity elsewhere. Like most kids they love their home, but fully recognize that housing costs, and career opportunities are limited.
My wife and I built our business from the ground up, but couldn't have done so without family support and some advantages that others do not have. This privilege is something we recognize and work to "fix" by participating in local government and biz development organizations.
Getting "young" working families to simply show up at town hall is a huge challenge but we're working on it, and are not going to let the Cape slide into just a place for the wealthy, elderly and second home-owners.
My wife and I lived in many places throughout the US.
Compared to Silicon Valley, it's a massive bargain. Our house on the Cape is a "mansion" compared to what we could afford if we lived in Silicon Valley.
I even spent a few months living in Falmouth, near Woods hole. Homes were affordable, schools were good, prices were reasonable. Can you find a cheaper place to live? Yes, but it's all about your priorities. You can have a mansion in the middle of nowhere or a reasonable house a 15-minute walk from the beach.
Anyway, after moving around a lot in my early life, what I can tell you is that if you can't figure out how to be happy in a generally middle-class location like Cape Cod, you won't be happy anywhere.
Woods Hole isn't like most of the cape, though. It's got a different culture, it's geographically very much on the edge of it, the landscape is super different than the gentle beaches you get on most of the cape, pretty close to Boston relative to other spots, etc. I would agree that many parts of the cape fit your critique though.
