No, no, not again. First, it’s Mike De Koster from Gloucester Maritime, now it’s Ethan Forman, my reporter hero from our own crusading newspaper, the Gloucester Daily Times. Dec. 1 was his last official day.
Who will take up the crusading now? The strikes, elections, the meetings, the votes — or the sometime confusing back and forth of the 3A/MBTA zoning story — the old guard, the new guard, the fuzzy fringe, the waterfront — heck, he took on the biggest stories of every day in Gloucester. Ironically, he even reported the Mike DeKoster story.
Ethan was a complete news junkie. He was tireless at finding both sides of the story. His opinion was strictly left out of his writing. He got all over the city to talk to people, unearth the angles — he was like Officer Friday from “Dragnet”: “just the facts, m’am.” He knew everybody in the cogs of city government and the boards and he monitored social media for follow-up background comments. Plus, he was a really good guy, so people wanted open up to him. His police notes were far and away the most interesting ones — you wanted to know how they ended.
His brand of pound-the-pavement reporting has a strong tradition at the GDT stretching back to the Phil Weld days and earlier. The last 30 years saw standouts Sean Murphy, who was poached by The Globe, and the muckraking Richard Gaines, who wrestled with an opaque NOAA on the front pages for months to try and shine light on the draconian cuts to and eventual dissolution of our fishing fleet. Ethan Forman was every bit in their league.
When Ethan first came to town, we had breakfast at the legendary Zeke’s. I had sausage with my eggs, he had bacon. We both had our home fries extra crispy. As we loosened up, he confided that he didn’t get what all the fuss was about the ongoing uproars over increasing density and the overbuilding thing in the neighborhoods. He was from up-the-line, so I didn’t hold it against him. It never crept into his reporting. He kinda shook his head as I gave him my Glosta spiel but I liked him anyway. I think we converted him. By the end, he had fallen in love with Gloucester. He admitted to getting why people wanted to protect themselves.
And protect ourselves, we must. The faces of encroaching development have changed. Venture capital has turned its laser beam on us. The pockets are deeper, the buyers are richer and more into total takeover of their target sites. We will be locked out. The boards are revving up their concept of affordable housing that are ridiculous in neighborhoods that will never allow Gloucester people to live there. I was tipped off to the newest monstrosity by a Times reporter who begged me to see what was springing to life out on the road to Wingaersheek Beach on the right side. Upon seeing the first house, I thought it couldn’t be a single family house, but it was. Not a McMansion, but a McConvention Center. However, its construction fence ran forever, denoting sites for lot after lot after lot of these zillion dollar single family behemoths that look across the Annisquam marshes towards the A. Piatt Andrew bridge. There will never be an affordable unit among them.
The point is that we should all hope this is not the plan of the planners and the new mayor. Don’t they see, it’s a new kind of land rush aimed at cashing in the charm of our neighborhoods? Will they rezone our wards and let the investors battle the neighbors who will be overwhelmed by the money? Any access or even views will be lost to exclusivity. Go out and see this endless fence along this clear-cut, bulldozed future mammoth luxury housing complex. And count the “For Sale” signs on the houses across the street. It’s already here, but it doesn’t have to be replicated everywhere. Don’t let them double or triple our density and commodify our special open spaces. Don’t be like our president’s climate change policies and wait until it’s too late.
I’m just sorry Ethan won’t be here to record the future battle for the soul of Gloucester. He moved up. His last story was the rat-in-the-bagel shop story. I just hope that’s not a metaphor of what’s to come as our city plans for our neighborhoods: the rat in the bagel shop. Please, Gloucester, look before you leap and meanwhile, go look at the fence for courage. Is this what our leaders want?
Gloucester resident Gordon Baird is an actor and musician, co-founder of Musician Magazine and producer of “The Chicken Shack” community access TV show.