When President Obama took his first trip to Martha’s Vineyard after taking office, the excitement among locals here was palpable, from the signs of support strung across shop windows and front porches to a full-page newspaper ad taken out by 125 Vineyard grandmothers in support of his health care plan. This week, with the jobless rate stuck above 9 percent and the president’s nationwide approval rating at its lowest level, the Vineyard’s broad allegiance shows cracks, leaving some islanders with a more textured, even tormented feeling about the president. “I just have to say I feel really uncomfortable,
because I love loving him,’’ said Leslie Pearlson, a real estate broker on the island.
At the core of islanders’ misgivings is the shaky local economy. Although the Vineyard is sometimes depicted as a playground for the rich and famous, the numbers tell another side of the story. Empty storefronts dot main streets in Vineyard Haven, Edgartown, and elsewhere. According to the island’s Chamber of Commerce, at least one member of nearly every Vineyard household is dependent on summer business, which softened during the recession and still has not recovered. “Discretionary spending dipped so far down that it devastated retail and dining in particular,’’ said Nancy Gardella, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard chamber. Lifelong resident John Alley, a county commissioner and postmaster at legendary Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury, knows many island residents out of work. “They’ll take anything that they can get their hands on,’’ he said the other day as he sorted mail. “That’s tempered a lot of the enthusiasm.’’
Even in the high tourist season, nearly 700 of the roughly 16,500 year-round Vineyard residents are unemployed, state labor statistics show. In January, the jobless rate was 13.2 percent. The median household income, $57,000, is among the lowest of any county in the state, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Islanders have lost homes to foreclosure at a rate of two per month since 2008, a rate not showing any signs of abating, according to The Warren Group, a company that tracks real estate transactions. In addition to the stuttering economy, bitter finger-pointing in Washington between Republicans and Democrats, including the president, has fueled disenchantment.
“I think a lot of people in ’08 felt, ‘Hey, here comes a breath of fresh air, and maybe this guy can put an end to a lot - not all of it, but a lot - of the foolishness that goes on,’ ’’ Alley said. “But he hasn’t been very good at that.’’
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