Some who escape Cape drawn back home (Cape Cod Times)
Published on Monday, January 11, 2010
From the Cape Cod Times today - Read more here: Some who escape Cape drawn back home
By Aaron Gouveia
agouveia@capecodonline.com
January 10, 2010
All Joe Loud and his friends talked about while growing up in Marstons Mills was one day getting off "The Rock."
Loud, now 27, achieved that goal by getting a job that allowed him to leave Cape Cod and travel all over the country.
But when it came time to settle down, get married and start a family, Loud became one of many young Cape natives who boomerang back to the peninsula they once swore off for good.
"Ultimately, I missed it here," said Loud, who, along with his wife, Amy, is expecting his first child in April. "I missed my friends, family and the feeling of a small community with a lot of ties."
A year ago, the Times chronicled the exodus of the Cape's younger population as part of a multiday series called "Generation Exit."
Despite the hordes of young people fleeing the Cape because of a lack of jobs and affordable housing, some native Cape Codders under the age of 40 are bucking the trend by returning to the Cape after living elsewhere.
'We missed it here'
Stephanie and Robert Marceau, two Bourne natives, recently came back to the Cape after spending nearly four years living in South Carolina.
Stephanie Marceau said they left the Cape because Robert was unemployed and couldn't find work in the area. The couple was able to find a nice house in a "gorgeous" neighborhood, getting a four-bedroom, 2½-bathroom, 2,600-square-foot house for the same price as a fixer-upper ranch home on the Cape.
But not too long into their stint in South Carolina, Marceau said, she began to feel the seemingly magnetic pull drawing her and her family back to the Cape.
"We missed it here with our family and being near the shore. We wanted it back," Marceau said. "Whenever I drive down the Scenic Highway and look at the canal, I'm thrilled to be back home."
It's a story Erin Madden hears a lot lately.
Madden, 28, is the chairwoman of the Cape Cod Young Professionals. The group now has 350 members, including many people who returned to the Cape after an extended absence.
Madden said it is common, and often necessary, for some young people to gain life experience away from the Cape's sandy shores. But time and time again, Madden has watched those same people return when it's time to put down roots.
"Some people move off Cape because they're looking for something else, but when they grow out of whatever they're getting in another place they want to raise a family and settle down here," Madden said.
This was the case with Loud, who initially got a job at Best Buy in Hyannis after graduating from Barnstable High School. He was eventually promoted, and soon was traveling across the country opening new stores and living for weeks and months at a time in different cities.
But one day, while stuck in traffic on his way to work, Loud said he had an epiphany.
"It dawned on me that if people sit in traffic for hours during the summer just to get to the Cape, why the hell would I want to leave?" Loud said.
Loud has a mortgage business and is also trying to grow a new company called America's Communication Network. Young people who don't see career opportunities on Cape Cod are mistaken, he said.
"The Cape is what you make of it and with the quality of people here you'd be hard-pressed to find more valuable people ... from all walks of life," Loud said. "If you don't see the opportunities here, it's because you're not looking."
'Unbalanced' demography
One of the complaints from the Cape's younger residents is that the area is far from being a hotbed of activity when it comes to dating.
But Andrew Maker, 26, had to attend college in Virginia and then rent apartments for years in Washington, D.C., and Vermont, before returning to Cotuit in 2007 where he met his wife, Erin.
Ironically, Erin grew up a few miles away from Andrew and somehow the two never met because she graduated from Barnstable High School and he went to Sturgis Charter Public School.
The pair married a year ago and bought a 240-year-old home in Barnstable Village. When his friends come to visit they often tell him he's living the good life.
"My buddies come and visit me and there's Barnstable Harbor within walking distance where we can have drinks on the waterfront or cruise Sandy Neck," Andrew said. "We came back here because it's something most people just read about and not a lot of people get to have."
Several of the young people who return to the Cape do so with the knowledge they might have to cut back on luxury items or, in some cases, rely on family for help.
Although there are many examples of young people triumphantly returning to the Cape, Peter Francese, a demographic forecaster with the New England Partnership, said the mass exodus of young people from Barnstable County still dwarfs the number of those who come back.
Francese said the phenomenon is akin to a bouncing ball: The ball bounces the highest on its first bounce, but then bounces progressively lower each time.
So for every 1,000 people who leave the Cape, only a few hundred may return, Francese said.
"Some of them will always come back, but the problem in New England and Cape Cod is that not enough of them come back," Francese said.
And even if these Cape refugees do return, Francese said, it might not be until they reach retirement age, at which point they are likely no longer contributing to the overall economy.
"It's not the oldest county in New England for nothing," Francese said. "You need a balanced demography on the Cape, and right now, you don't have it."
Falmouth ... to Arizona ... back to Falmouth
But that didn't stop Keith Robbins, 29, from moving back to his hometown of Falmouth after nearly five years in Arizona.
He got a job in the parts department of a Phoenix Volkswagen dealership, and paid $530 a month for a spacious apartment in the city. His four years in Arizona were "a blast," Robbins said.
But last December, Robbins decided to move back home to be near family and the beach. While winter on the Cape is unpleasant at times, Robbins said it is no worse than oppressive 112-degree summer days in the desert.
Robbins was forced to take a pay cut when he was hired at a Bourne car dealership and that, combined with the Cape's steep rental prices, forced Robbins to make a decision.
While he could afford to live alone, Robbins said, for the amount of money he's looking to spend he'd be renting a place that's "falling apart."
But despite giving up a place of his own, Robbins said he gains much more.
"I love that it's a smaller town and I really missed the friendly nature of the people here," Robbins said. "There's no other place like the Cape; you just can't beat it."