First, I should point out that my brother, Stephen Buckley, is running for Selectman in Chatham. That said, I don’t speak for him and he does not speak for me. There are two other candidates, V. Michael Onnembo and Leonard Sussman. Mike Onnembo ran for selectman here before, and was very supportive of my run for State Rep. in 2006.

Sussman, an architect, has lived in town for five years and is now chairman of the Planning Board. Over the past year, I’ve heard him make some statements that seem to show a certain distance from reality, or at least the reality I tried to represent when I was on the Board of Selectman. Like his claim that the number of people in town has not increased in 30 years. Or that there has been no increase in the number of professionals telecommuting.

Now I can differ with someone, for sure, and still respect them. But it was his absolute certainty in his point of view, to the exclusion of anyone else’s that I have come to find disturbing. And more than a hint of condescension.

So it caught my attention when, at the Selectman Candidates Forum, Democrat Len Sussman questioned whether Chatham even wants a year-round economy, believing a poll should first be conducted. As if this were some strange and foreign concept, and not something the Cape Cod Commission and other demographers have had on the front burner for the past decade.

Sussman went on to say that more affordable housing should be built to attract hi-tech workers making $75,000 to $80,000 (despite their not being eligible due to their higher incomes).

This really is quite sad, because this shows of indifference or ignorance that there actually might be people who have to work for a living in Chatham and struggle to do so in the face of similar costs of living as Boston but on 40% less pay. Meaning, families here end up having to work harder to make more money just to keep out of poverty — but once they do, they are ineligible for low-income housing that counts towards the state-mandated cap under Chapter 40B.

Chatham has a good track record of supporting housing for working families, giving special preference to those with a strong local connection. Lately, however, the Board of Selectmen has allowed its eye to be taken off the ball, and has come to incorrectly believe that such preferences are illegal and unconstitutional. Rather, they are less profitable for developers looking for government subsidies given for low income tenants only.

While increasing supply of units is helpful, it would be encouraging if the town would return to the idea that better jobs mean a better community. Since I graduated from high school in 1984, I don’t think a child attended Chatham Schools who hadn’t wished that there was a better hope for a job than waiting tables or pushing a mower.

I would prefer to live in a place where people had jobs paid enough to afford buy a home (or even rent). Instead, the new attitude of wealthy retired and semi-retired professionals who came to Chatham for an affluent lifestyle that I never knew or agreed to be a part of, could make that snobby reputation we so-richly did not deserve real.

Young college-educated professionals can’t find a life here? Let them eat cake.

Thus our middle class — those at the heart of our community — whither.

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