Survey shows BH residents overwhelmingly disapprove of cruise ship frequency
Ruth Eveland, Elissa Chesler nominated for BH planning board
BAR HARBOR, July 17, 2021 - In an epic show of discontent with the presence of cruise ships, an overwhelming percentage of residents - 63 and 66 percent respectively - said the town allowed too many days with ships and too many passengers in 2019, the last year cruise ships had a full season here.
In the survey conducted in April and May by Pan Atlantic Research of Portland, 55 versus 35 percent of respondents said the cruise ship industry had a negative impact on the town, and 53 versus 26 percent said their “quality of life” had been negatively impacted by cruise ships.
The survey will be discussed at the town council meeting Tuesday night, a copy of which was obtained by QSJ in advance. The council’s next step will be to use the survey as guidance to develop questions on the November referendum on whether to cut back their presence here.
Pan Atlantic said it needed 400-500 responses for an accurate representation of resident opinion but instead got 1,378 valid responses, a huge sample size almost as large as the recent municipal election when two anti-cruise ship incumbents won landslide victories.
The respondents broke down into 985 year-round, non business owner residents (71.5 percent), 207 seasonal non business owner residents (15 percent), 93 business owner residents and 65 non-resident business owners (11.4 percent total) and 28 did not indicate their relationship to the town.
For the first time in decades, the council has a strong anti-cruise ship bloc: Joe Minutolo, Val Peacock, Jill Goldthwait and Friedmann. They will draw fresh political oxygen from the survey and the recent re-election of Friedmann and Minutolo.
“We’re either going to stand up for community, or stand up for commodity which seemed like the path we were headed,” said Minutolo.
Council member Gary Friedmann, who spearheaded the survey, said, “I believe the survey accurately reflects town residents' views on the cruise ship industry.”
The survey also shines a light on three pro-cruise ship council members, Erin Cough, Jeff Dobbs and Matt Hochman and their widening divergence from voter sentiments. Cough and Hochman voted against conducting the survey. Dobbs was absent when the vote was taken but has since said he would have voted against it. Hochman and Dobbs’s terms expire in 2022. Cough’s term expires in 2023.
Other survey conclusions from Pan Atlantic were:
• 55% of respondents feel that cruise ship tourism detracts, overall, from the image and attraction of Bar Harbor, while 27% feel that cruise ship tourism enhances the image and attraction, overall.
• Participants rated the overall impact of cruise ship tourism on the overall quality of life for Bar Harbor residents lower (mean score of 2.52) than that for land-based tourism (mean score of 3.14).
The three greatest challenges related to cruise ship tourism based on unaided survey participant responses, are "Foot traffic/ Overcrowding/ Street congestion," "Too many ships/ Too many tourists," and "Environmental concerns/ Pollution."
• With regard to the greatest challenges presented by land-based tourism, the negative impacts of "Limited parking availability" "Car traffic congestion," and "Foot traffic congestion" were cited as the top-three challenges.
• Environmental/ Pollution challenges were mentioned much less frequently in relation to land-based tourism (3%) vs. cruise ship tourism (15%}.
• Almost half of respondents rated the economic impacts of cruise ship tourism (46%) and Passenger Service and Port Development Fees (45%) to the town as important, overall.
• However, less than a quarter of respondents rated the economic impact of cruise ship tourism as important to themselves (19%), their friends, families, and neighbors (24%), or their business or place of employment (18%).
• Business owners were much more likely to rate these impacts as important to themselves (37%), their friends, families and neighbors (38%), and their businesses (37%).
• Half of respondents (49%) indicated that the summer spent without cruise ships in 2020 had a purely positive impact on them. Furthermore, 25% indicated that the impact was mixed or neutral, while 13% indicated that it was purely negative (13% did not respond).
• Key positive impacts cited include less foot and traffic congestion; better access to downtown shops, facilities, etc.; better overall quality of life; cleaner environment; and better harbor vistas.
• There was broad agreement from respondents across the year-round resident, seasonal resident, and business owner communities on the top suggestions for improving the management of cruise ship tourism:
(1) Reduce the overall number of ships (29% among year round residents, 23% among seasonal residents, 26% among business owners)
(2) Reduce size of ships (18% year-round, 16% seasonal, 15% business)
(3) Limit number of ships per day (11% year-round, 7% seasonal, 8% business)
(4) Move tendering or disembarking to another location (10% year-round, 10% seasonal, 10% business)
(5) Ban cruise ships entirely (10% year-round, 7% seasonal, 8% business)
• Finally, in terms of the future management of cruise ship tourism in Bar Harbor, some survey respondents pointed out that in making future policy decisions, the Town of Bar Harbor needs to ensure balance between the viewpoints and the interests of various groups, including year-round and seasonal residents, businesses, the fishing and marine sector, environmental organizations, etc.
The entire executive summary of the survey may be viewed by clicking here.
QSJ has written extensively about the industry’s woeful environmental record. The ships docked in Bar Harbor emit more pollution than all of MDI. Click here for my previous article.
Head librarian, JAX scientist nominated for BH planning board vacancies
BAR HARBOR - Looks like the proposed cap on vacation rental homes has a fighting chance to succeed in November.
The nominating committee of the town council voted 3-0 to replace two outgoing members who likely would have voted against the cap with two non-business people making it the first time in decades that the board will not be dominated by business folks. A planning board rejection would have required a supermajority of votes to override, a steep climb.
The town planning department is attacking the crisis in affordable year-round homes by trying to reduce vacation rentals which make up 19 percent of the housing stock. Under the proposed ordinance change, owners may not transfer vacation rental registrations until the percentage drops below 10 percent.
Board nominee Ruth Eveland, who was director of the Jesup library for 12 years and former chair of the town council, is a shoo-in for the planning board. She’s one of the most revered citizens of Bar Harbor. The second candidate nominated is Jackson Labs academic Elissa Chesler.
They submitted the following statements on their applications:
Ruth Eveland
Elissa Chesler
Contrast their thoughtful replies with that of self-styled libertarian Jennifer Cough, who owns a postage delivery business and who ran unsuccessfully against Friedmann and Minutolo.
Scribbled in hand-written, self-contradictory prose, Cough said her biggest asset is her “common sense” and that homeowners have a right to rent out their homes.
Erica Brooks, a realtor with Swan Agency, and a staunch opponent of the cap, was not nominated. Her term is expiring this month. Another business friendly member, Basil Eleftheriou, did not seek re-appointment. The three other members who make up the board are Joseph Cough (Erin Cough’s husband), College of the Atlantic executive Millard Dority, and chair Tom St. German, owner of the Jack Russell Steakhouse.
With the two new members and Millard Dority, the planning board may begin to resemble a publicly minded body again. The St. Germain era has been marked by self-dealing and decisions which resembled more like business negotiations than sound planning.
As a sitting chairman, St. Germain is now proposing to build a 44-room hotel on Cottage Street with no planning board oversight.
Whether the new board will forsake the usual business comity for some measure of propriety remains to be seen. St. Germain’s only obstacle is the Code Enforcement Officer, who reports to him and the rest of the planning board.
Will the new board allow the standing chair and developer continue to operate in tandem?
Earl Brechlin and Nate Young’s applications were disqualified by the nomination committee because they were filed after the deadline. The committee is composed of Val Peacock, Jill Goldthwait and Jeff Dobbs.