It's been a gay mecca since at least 1970 (probably much earlier, but that's when I found out about it), and the same effect is observable in Maui, which isn't a gay mecca.

Isolated resort communities have a built-in servant problem.

Geez, talk about burying the lead: the author doesn't even mention that Provincetown is a destination spot for gay tourists until the 12th paragraph.

Ed -- there's a pretty good clue in the 7th paragraph:

'The town's share of children under 10 ... is just 3.7 percent of its population. That ranked Provincetown last among the state's 351 communities.'

Well, I guess the windmills could go there.

Harry-- Yes, it's a potential problem for any resort town. Still, this line from the article is significant: "The summer boom and winter doldrums are problems for many Cape Cod towns. But Provincetown is striking because its population decline comes as the rest of the Cape enjoys rapid growth. Provincetown was the only Cape community to lose people between 1990 and 2000, shrinking 3.7 percent to 3,431 residents, according to census figures."

Why is only Provincetown shrinking, when the rest of Cape Cod has similiar issues, but isn't? It's at least an interesting question.

The rest of Cape Cod is booming. Just a few months ago, we lamented the passing of the rotary at the Sagamore Bridge. I guess the rotary at the Bourne Bridge was removed a few years ago.

Provincetown will find its level of stability - it might just be smaller than the current residents expect.

Speaking as someone who lives in a gay mecca, it works okay for us.

By the way, by "gay", I really mean lesbian. I'm unsure is it's proper to refer to lesbians as gay. In homosexuality, does the male embrace the female?

For that matter, "mecca" is probably not pc, either.

David: Putting the two words together certainly isn't P.C.

I'm sure that, despite references in the article, relative isolation and the lack of services couldn't have the first thing to do with it.

There's no problem in places like Orlando, because you can commute in.

The same complaints about Provincetown are also heard in Aspen, Hilton Head, Maui.

I could tell you stories.

If Branson (MO) suddenly became a "gay mecca", then we would have a real test of the proposition.

Hilton Head, Harry? Nope. Somewhat similar complaints, but not the population drop.

See here for example. Population in 2000: 33,862. Population in July 2002: 34,601 (+2.2%).

Of course, I grant that the age is above state average, but Hilton Head doesn't have quite the same problems as Provincetown. Partially I imagine the much higher immigrant population makes a big different, don't you think?

That is, of course, year-round resident numbers for Hilton Head, SC. Go around and search.

Plenty of resort towns have issues with the smaller winter population; Provincetown is certainly different from Hilton Head, though.

I'm not as familiar with Aspen or Maui, since I'm not from around there.

''What you're starting to see is a way of life in a community start to unravel," said Clyde W. Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, who is helping town leaders with an economic development plan. ''There's a crisis of identity in the sense that they see what the community has been for a very long time slipping away from them."

Resort towns aren't supposed to be booming suburbs. People go to resort towns to get away from the suburbs. What's the big deal? If you don't like it, move somewhere else. Change happens, towns grow and towns die. It's called freedom of movement. Small Minnesota towns are dying all the time.

The population of Maui is rising rapidly, but the number of locals who leave seems to be dropping equally rapidly.

It's the locals the Provincetown story is about.

No problem for Maui in attracting millionaires. The problem is finding, or keeping, working stiffs.

No place to live, so no reason to stay.

talk about your quintessential self-correcting problem--the millionaires aren't going to do the grunt work themselves

It's a problem all right. But is isn't self-corrrecting.

If they stop coming, the dead sugar plantations are not going to start up again.

It ain't easy to operate economies in remote areas, and classical economic theories make it even harder. Impossible at some level, as we are seeing in the smaller, remoter Pacific Island states.

If your only interest is in enriching cities, no problemo.

William McNeill wrote that, economically, cities could be viewed as diseases of the countryside. He was right.

Why would they all stop?

They'd stop coming if they couldn't get services.

Yes and then people who could afford to live there while they did service jobs would come back and you'll achieve a balance--that's how free markets work, though I know you don't believe in them.