Ocean Pines residents rest easy — the community is not collapsing into a black hole of despair and destruction.
Yet, to listen to the comments of some of the candidates for the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, one might easily come to that conclusion.
Contrary to what people might think, or say, Ocean Pines is not the laughingstock of this or any other area. Were that the case, the real estate market there would have imploded long ago and people would be fleeing for … where exactly?
That’s the point. There is no place that doesn’t have its problems, many of which far exceed the nature of any difficulty that Ocean Pines might experience.
The relative absence of crime comes to mind. And there are trees, safe streets, pools, clubs, and quiet. Lots of quiet. Trade that, for instance, for a place in Salisbury. Ocean City is a nice place to live, but then there is the business of sharing it with a couple of hundred thousand visitors every year and the much more expensive price tag of a single-family home comparable to what might be found in Ocean Pines.
Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke are great small towns, but as such, they can’t afford to offer the kinds of amenities that Ocean Pines residents can enjoy.
Besides, even the most well managed places don’t always get it right. The best the leaders of any community can do is to try to keep a majority of its residents off their backs, to be as responsive as possible to their constituents and try to avoid controversy.
The current board has made mistakes, as did all its predecessors and every member of every local government in the land.
Disagreements over priorities or how things should be handled are fine, but they don’t mean that the livability of Ocean Pines has changed much at all.
Yet, to listen to the comments of some of the candidates for the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, one might easily come to that conclusion.
Contrary to what people might think, or say, Ocean Pines is not the laughingstock of this or any other area. Were that the case, the real estate market there would have imploded long ago and people would be fleeing for … where exactly?
That’s the point. There is no place that doesn’t have its problems, many of which far exceed the nature of any difficulty that Ocean Pines might experience.
The relative absence of crime comes to mind. And there are trees, safe streets, pools, clubs, and quiet. Lots of quiet. Trade that, for instance, for a place in Salisbury. Ocean City is a nice place to live, but then there is the business of sharing it with a couple of hundred thousand visitors every year and the much more expensive price tag of a single-family home comparable to what might be found in Ocean Pines.
Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke are great small towns, but as such, they can’t afford to offer the kinds of amenities that Ocean Pines residents can enjoy.
Besides, even the most well managed places don’t always get it right. The best the leaders of any community can do is to try to keep a majority of its residents off their backs, to be as responsive as possible to their constituents and try to avoid controversy.
The current board has made mistakes, as did all its predecessors and every member of every local government in the land.
Disagreements over priorities or how things should be handled are fine, but they don’t mean that the livability of Ocean Pines has changed much at all.