Paul Benson

Provincetown

Staff Reporter at The Provincetown Independent

Provincetown washashore. "A home at last." Reporter for the Provincetown Independent -- plus barman, tour guide, deckhand, and traveler. Happy to be here.

Featured in: Favicon

provincetownindependent.org Favicon

pridesource.com Favicon

mondaq.com Favicon

coastalnewstoday.com

Articles

Cape Cod Commission Plans Safety Upgrades for Route 6A

1 week ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — Some of Cape Cod’s charming roads have so many twists and turns that it’s easy to imagine the horses and buggies that once traveled them. Old King’s Highway from Orleans to Bourne is one such road — officially Mass. Route 6A, it has been protected by a multi-town historic district since 1987.
Amid Threats to Foreign Students, a Harvard Choir Sings in Provincetown

2 weeks ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — The Trump administration’s increased pressure on student visa holders nationwide — and its all-out campaign against Harvard — came into view in Provincetown last week when the Harvard University Choir decided it was too risky to travel to Denmark and instead came to the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House on Commercial Street to sing. The group’s appearance here had been announced only a few days before, but the church’s pews were filled for the one-hour performance on June 4.
Board Approves $500K for 26 Shank Painter

2 weeks ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — The town’s effort to get 40 condos — 30 of which would be sold to town residents at below-market prices — built at the site of the former police station on 26 Shank Painter Road hit a speed bump on April 28, when developers Christine Barker and M. Tatiana Eck told the select board that they needed $500,000 in “pre-development” funds for detailed architecture and engineering plans to get the project to its January closing date.
In Eastham, Property Tax Is a Hot Topic

2 weeks ago | provincetownindependent.org | Parker Mumford |Paul Benson

EASTHAM — Property taxes have been in the spotlight in Eastham this year. In the annual town election, two candidates for select board told the Independent that rising taxes were the biggest issue facing the town, while at town meeting, the citizen-petitioned Article 9A asked the select board to hire an outside auditor to assess the town’s tax strategy.
New Plans for Housing at Seasonal Communities Meeting

3 weeks ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — On an unseasonably hot Friday in May, local leaders from Cape Cod, the Islands, and the Berkshires gathered at town hall to discuss the state’s newest response to the worsening housing crisis: the “seasonal communities designation” created by last year’s Affordable Homes Act. The designation provides policy tools to towns that face a burgeoning market for vacation homes that has made it difficult for many year-round residents to secure housing.
Amid Turmoil, J-1 Students Are Welcomed Here

3 weeks ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — The hundreds of international students who come to the Outer Cape through the U.S. State Dept.’s Summer Work Travel program will still be here this year, despite a recent disruption to the scheduling of interviews for the J-1 visas that allow them to travel.
ICE Targets Contractor Vans on Vineyard, Nantucket

3 weeks ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

This article, by Paul Benson, includes excerpts from published reports in the Vineyard Gazette, the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, and the Falmouth Enterprise, reprinted with permission. A series of immigration operations in Massachusetts — including simultaneous mass arrests on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard on the morning of May 27 that removed 40 people from the islands — have set Cape Cod’s already anxious immigrant communities even more on edge.
Hepatitis Case at Restaurant Provokes Wide Alert

1 month ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the traditional kickoff of summer on Cape Cod, an alert went out from the Dept. of Public Health to news media across the state: a food-service worker at the Red Inn in Provincetown had contracted the hepatitis A virus, and people who dined at the restaurant between April 30 and May 15 could have been exposed.
Spring Brings New Businesses to Commercial St.

1 month ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — Winter felt long here this year — the weather was unusually cold, and there were a notable number of closed storefronts and restaurants on Commercial Street. Napi’s Restaurant closed for good in September, and the Provincetown Brewing Co. closed its taproom on Bradford Street in January, removing two community gathering places that were especially important to Provincetown’s year-rounders.
Provincetown Chooses Greg Hennick as Police Chief

1 month ago | provincetownindependent.org | Paul Benson

PROVINCETOWN — After a five-month search for a new police chief that included several public meetings, a six-person search committee, nine candidates, and two finalists, Town Manager Alex Morse told the select board on May 12 that he had appointed the department’s lieutenant and acting chief Greg Hennick as police chief.