The Cape Coddah
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☀️ Who owns the beach?

☀️ Who owns the beach?

Plus: Remembering 1970s Dennisport

Cape Coddah
April 10, 2026

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Good morning Cape Cod. Fair warning: today is National Siblings Day, so your social media feeds are about to be full of throwback photos and questionable childhood stories. You've been warned! ⚠️

In this week’s Cape Coddah:

P-town passes the budget, but that’s it
Writing as therapy in jail
Events and live music

Let’s get to it.

💧 When the Beach Moves, Who Owns It?

When a beach literally moves, who owns it? The Massachusetts Senate just tucked a proposal into a $3.6B environmental bond bill that could make shifting barrier beaches public property.

If a beach erodes or migrates into a "great pond" (any pond over 10 acres, which is public land), it would belong to the state. Forever. The whole thing traces back to a years-long property fight on Martha's Vineyard between a developer and his neighbors.

Critics say it's one rich guy's personal crusade dressed up as public policy. Supporters say rising seas are redrawing the coastline and public access needs to keep up. The bill also includes a statewide plastic bag ban and a requirement for sellers and landlords to disclose flood risk. It still needs House approval before reaching the governor's desk. Read more»

🗳️ P-Town Passes Budget, Rejects the Rest

Provincetown's town meeting ran four hours Monday night, and voters were not in a rubber-stamp mood. They passed the $44.8M operating budget no problem, but shot down five articles.

The biggest rejection? A $332,000 annual subsidy to bring back Cape Air's winter flights to Boston. Even after someone called for a revote, it failed again. Also voted down: $300,000 for new pickleball courts (missed the two-thirds threshold by just 2%), a $380,000 gender-inclusive bathroom renovation that the trans and nonbinary community said didn't go far enough, and proposals to end term limits for committee chairs and drop newspaper job posting requirements.

A new pedicab licensing bylaw did pass after some tweaking, and zoning measures sailed through. Read more»

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🍦 Reddit Remembers 1970s Dennisport

A Reddit post asking "Anyone remember 70's Dennisport?" struck a nerve last week, pulling dozens of people out of the woodwork with memories of a different Dennisport.

Back then, summer rentals went for $200 to $300 a week. Kids had freedom, lifeguards knew everyone, children roamed beaches looking for friends, and rode bikes everywhere. Two stores on Old Wharf Road, Caroline's and Carol's, sold morning donuts and Wacky Wafers. Both buildings are houses now.

Kream & Kone on Route 28 had huge lines for soft serve. The Gingerbread House served ice cream from a building with a gingerbread man mural inside, later becoming Joey's Pizza. A t-shirt shop near Swan River had walls covered in iron-on designs, "every new wave and early hair metal band imaginable."

"Feels like a different world now," the original poster wrote. "Funny the stuff that sticks and the stuff that doesn't." Read more»

📸 @homeportcapecod |📍The Knob

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🖊️ Writing as Therapy for Jailed Women

A memoir writing class for incarcerated women at Barnstable County Correctional Facility started in 2023 when an inmate asked communications director K.C. Myers, a former journalist, for help writing a book.

The class of about 10 students reads published memoirs like Viola Davis's "Finding Me" and writes autobiographical essays about childhood trauma, abuse, generational substance use, and mental illness, common roots of what landed them in jail.

Jess Hutchins, 41, from Maine, wrote about her addiction. Teri Hathaway from Bourne wrote about being abducted outside a California convenience store. The class has produced two booklets of written work.

Sheriff Donna Buckley supports the class as a way to reduce recidivism. "Education is the surest means to reduce recidivism," said Michele Tarter, who's taught memoir in a women's maximum-security prison for 25 years. Read more»

Barnstable County Correctional Facility served as a filming location this week for "Deluxe Ocean View," a psychological horror film set on Cape Cod starring Brandon Flynn, Elizabeth Perkins, and T.R. Knight.

The Route 6 Quaker Meeting House overpass in Sandwich will be renamed the Raymond G. Tourville Veterans Memorial Overpass, honoring the Sandwich High grad and Marine Staff Sgt. who served 10 years before dying by suicide in 2024.

Weather balloons are coming back to Chatham five years after the National Weather Service shut down its Morris Island station due to erosion, with a Denver-based company launching a 45-day pilot program from Chatham Airport starting in May.

A crane doing tree work in Cotuit flipped Thursday morning after its outrigger punched through a hidden, abandoned cesspool, sending the boom between two houses and halfway across Main Street.

🍝 40 Years, New Address, Same Italian Love

Big news for Provincetown regulars. Front Street Restaurant, the beloved Italian spot that lost its lease after 40 years at 230 Commercial St., just signed a deal for a pop-up location at 317 Commercial (the old Luke's Lobster/Surf Club space).

Owners Omar and Marianella Neil are hoping to open by mid-May. And honestly? This might be an upgrade. The new spot has nearly triple the seating, tons of outdoor space, and for the first time ever, they're doing lunch. Think raw bar, burgers, Italian subs. Dinner stays the same.

The couple bought the restaurant in 2019 and learned their Italian cooking from the previous owners. Community support has been overwhelming. As Omar put it, "Just the way we cook with love." Read more»

An island painter filed a lawsuit seeking nearly $300,000 from former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick after allegedly slipping and falling on June 21, 2024 while working at Belichick's 45 Fair Street property.

A Cape Air flight returned to Nantucket Memorial Airport on Monday morning after the upper portion of the main cabin door opened mid-flight shortly after departure, with the plane continuing to operate normally and landing safely.

Martha's Vineyard's six library directors say they're navigating big shifts, from AI-written books flooding shelves to rising book ban attempts, all while expanding into everything from food pantries to clam rake lending.

Nantucket's short-term rental tax revenue bounced back 24% last summer but is still below its 2023 peak, while traditional hotels and inns are quietly stealing market share, now accounting for 43% of room occupancy tax revenue.

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🚨 Texas Plates, Loaded Gun, Fuzzy Story

Yarmouth police pulled over a silver Audi with Texas plates Saturday night after watching it sit for 35 minutes in the driveway of a known drug house, then leave without stopping anywhere.

The driver, Quintarious Moore of New Hampshire (not Texas), said he was just visiting his cousin. That story fell apart pretty quick. Officers found a loaded purple-and-black 9mm tucked under his seat, 41 extra rounds in the trunk, and a bottle of tequila in the car.

He couldn't remember his cousin's last name, changed his story multiple times, and had no Massachusetts gun license. He was charged with unlawful firearm and ammo possession. Read more»

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SUNDAY - APRIL 12

John Ruzicka @ Love Farms | 1 PM
Cape Symphony @ Barnstable PAC | 3 PM
Moonbellies @ Yarmouth New Church | 4 PM
Natalia Bonfini Band @ CC MOA | 4 PM
Rose Clancy @ Chatham Squire | 5 PM
Pressing Strings @ Neptune’s CC | 5 PM
Candlelight Concert @ Cape Cinema | 6 PM
Sean Brennan @ Margaritaville | 7 PM
Natalie Cressman & Ian F. @ Wellfleet Pres. | 7

_{Nothing in this section is sponsored. We'll let you know when something's sponsored.}

Friday

55 🌡️ 43 | 🌤️ | 💧 1% | 💨 SSW 12 mph

Saturday

56 🌡️ 38 | 🌤️ | 💧 1% | 💨 N 17 mph

Sunday

53 🌡️ 42 | ⛅️ | 💧 0% | 💨 E 8 mph

💧🌡️ Water temperature = 41ºF

175 Cliff Road, Wellfleet
Asking $1.1M
2 🛏️
2.5 🛁
1,818 sqft
9,148 sqft lot

_{Nothing in this section is sponsored. We'll always let you know when something's sponsored.}

Thanks for reading The Cape Coddah today. If you found something useful or entertaining, please share it with someone who remembers 1970s Dennisport.