When it comes to the built environment on the island, I guess I started out as a sleeper — mostly unaware of how much the island has changed from the 1980s version that came to be selected as one of the twelve last great places of the western hemisphere. Maybe the designation itself lulled me to sleep: “Hey, we made it! And now the big guns of the Nature Conservancy are here to make sure it stays that way.” Indeed, the Nature Conservancy has been, and continues to be, a mighty force for conservation. But they cannot do it alone.

The other source of slumber for me was locality. I used to scoff at the stories of how families in different sections of the island spoke with different accents. It is such a small island. And yet we are not Corn Neck people, nor West Side people, nor Green Hill people, nor Calico Hill people. We are Bluffs people. The four different houses we rented in the 80s and 90s were all within sight of the lighthouse, as is the house we are now blessed to have. So I was only cognizant of a small corner of the island.

It was a series of meetings sponsored by Scenic Block Island in 2003 that awakened me to the fact that development could knock us off our last great perch. Because I was curious, I got a list of the hundred biggest houses on the island from the town GIS office and went out and took pictures of them. Many of them are grossly disrespectful, but I assumed there was nothing I could do about it. I had become a weeper. The more information I gethered about the “Other 50%” (my collection of house pictures grew to almost 1500 courtesy of the island appraisers) the more discouraged I got. “It’s horrible, but there’s not a thing we can do.”

The trouble with that attitude, of course, is that it is self-fulfilling. Those that believe there is nothing they can do always turn out to be right. But stewardship demands that we try, even if only in a small way. So I will use this web site to make available the information about the island’s built environment and the tools that are available to understand and potentially influence it. I take heart from those who have written to the Block Island Times of late, stressing the importance of individual action: “Stop being sleepers and weepers. Be an active keeper, if only in a small way.”

A small but significant way that you can take action in regards to the island’s built environment is to make this the winter that you get to know more about it. KeepOurPlace.com is committed to making tools and information available. I am on-island this week working with Martha Roldan (the indispensible Martha Roldan) to update my material. The Autumn 2006 editions will be available by the end of the month. I hope you will dig in and get more conversent with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Tomorrow: In Summary