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Describe Falmouth's Dichotomy

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The town of Falmouth, MA is like a double sided coin -- on one side the beautiful vacation town that vacationers see, and on the other side, the financially depressed, desolate, drug riddled town only residents know. Tourists visiting Falmouth see the huge mansions overlooking the water, the beaches with the sugar white sand and bright aquamarine water, the quirky, top-end shops along Main Street, and the nice, expensive restaurants with their gourmet fare. It’s this unblemished, fairytale side of Falmouth that draws in visitors from around the world.
Residents know the other, dark side of Falmouth -- the brutal cold and isolation that comes in the dead of winter after the tourists are long gone. They see the inequality in terms of income and education, see the parents who are struggling to keep food on the table to feed their kids, and the homeless people on the main drag of town that newly minted Falmouth drivers pass in their $50,000 Volvos on their way to high school. They see the high rate of depression and suicide and the drugs that are prevalent anywhere you look. They see the large number of teenage mothers with no father around to support them …show more content…

The “summer” version of Falmouth that visitors bought into seemed to only invalidate the dark reality I saw as a resident. Even my family and friends, who would visit from out of town, were quick to dismiss my commentary on the sad state of the town I lived with. Homelessness, drug abuse, wealth inequity, lack of a middle class, a depressed, seasonal economy based on the tourism at the expense of minimum wage service employees – as an outsider they could not or did not want to see the things I saw. Surely somehow *I* was wrong about Falmouth, or perhaps just being negative they would say – after all, how could a much desired summer destination have such a dark, dismal underbelly, that was only apparent to some of the

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