This article by Jonathan Soroff appears in the May/June 2024 print issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.
Anyone who’s spent a consistent amount of time on the Outer Cape over the past few decades will have noticed the graying of Provincetown. The demographic in both seasonal and year-round residents has shifted appreciably older; in fact, Trevor Pittinger, executive director of the Provincetown Business Guild, cites the statistic that less than 6 percent of seasonal visitors are under the age of 35—a staggering figure for those in middle-age who discovered P’town in their twenties.
“We used to just get on the ferry and come,” says one old hand nostalgically. “You didn’t even need to know where you were staying.”
Try that now—when inns, rentals and Air B&Bs are booked up to a year in advance—and you might find yourself sleeping on a park bench. The reason is abundantly clear: Like everything and everywhere else, P’town—a place that prides itself on inclusivity—has become prohibitively expensive for anyone who isn’t well-established in their careers or otherwise well-off.
What’s worse, many of the service industry professionals without whom the place would grind to a screeching halt can no longer afford to live there.
“Everyone’s moving further down the Cape,” says Jane, a bartender at the popular restaurant The Mews. “We have to because rents are ridiculous in town. And forget about buying.” (The median per square foot price of property in Provincetown is roughly $1,149, compared to the $415 average in Massachusetts.)
But moving further away creates a new problem.
“When we get to work, we have nowhere to park,” Jane says, adding with a sardonic laugh, “I might have to buy an Amazon delivery truck.”
Like rising sea level and climate change, these inequities create a significant problem for a place whose main economic engine is tourism, but innovative efforts are underway to counteract the trends. Businesses are making an effort to attract younger visitors, and the town is making strides to ensure that the people who keep the place running have somewhere to live.
“Housing is our top priority in Provincetown,” says Assistant Town Manager Dan Riviello, pointing out that new housing is being developed at Jerome Smith and Shank Painter roads, as well as two other town-owned parcels.
“Still, we realize that building takes time, and people need housing now, which is why we recently launched a program called Lease to Locals.”
A win-win approach, it provides cash incentives to landlords who sign a year-round lease with a local tenant, so that anyone with room to spare can help ease the housing crunch while realizing a return on their investment.
As for attracting a younger demographic and making P’town accessible to them, Pittinger says, “We’ll never be able to mitigate all the costs of visiting P’town, but we can help reduce it.” Accordingly, the Pride Center has joined together with the guild’s lodging members to offer an accessibility opportunity for twenty-somethings, with an emphasis on first time visitors. The SummerONE program has acquired rooms from local hoteliers to offer a two-night stay over Pride Weekend (May 31–June 2). Rooms will be given away via a lottery system to applicants aged 21–29, who will pay only $50 per night and will also receive round trip ferry passes and tickets to the Pride Queer Comedy Showcase at Town Hall. (The application can be found at P’town.org/community/lgbtq-center/)
“Everyone remembers their first P’town experience,” says Pittinger. “Walking down Commercial Street, realizing you’re in the majority, and that wherever you go, you belong. It’s life-changing. I think of P’town as a resource, and if we’re not sharing that with as many people as possible, we’re not doing our job.”
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