A Working Waterfront ~ The Irene & Hilda

Here's another "scanned from the contact sheet" shot. The scene is commercial fishing boats in my home town of New Bedford,MA. back in 1965. A century earlier square rigged whaling ships off loaded barrels of whale oil at these very same wharves.

The photo reminded me of a current ongoing battle over the Miami River and the waterfront here. The small companies that haul freight to and from the Bahamas and the Carribian islands dock there, as they have for decades. Suddenly developers want to build waterfront high rise condos along the shoreline and construct office towers with waterfront views. Suddenly the land is too valuable for fishing boats.

There's a lot of money at stake, a lot of pressure to change the zoning, and a lot of resistance to the changes. Rich investors versus hard working seamen. Who's going to win? Expect the price of fish to go up. The price of land already has.