Starting Point: Whose beach is it anyway?

 

November 14, 2025 📆 Immigration Unmasked: Our new weekly immigration newsletter breaks down how Trump’s immigration policy is playing out in New England. SIGN UP HERE Billy Baker Reporter Email: billy.baker@globe.com Happy Friday, everyone. I hope you’re enjoying this warm weather. Today, I revisit a controversial beach lawsuit that I first covered in 2021, involving a small beach at the tip of Cape Ann, that has finally been settled. But first, here’s what else is going on: The Patriots now have the best record in the NFL after beating the New York Jets 27-14 at Gillette Stadium last night, New England’s eighth straight win. A spectating Rob Gronkowski danced with Robert Kraft in the owners suite. The Trump administration sued to block new congressional maps California voters approved last week, joining a court battle that could determine US House control in next year’s midterm elections. The administration hasn’t challenged GOP-led states that redrew their maps to benefit Republicans. As conservatives across the country seek to remove books from school libraries that deal with race, gender, and other topics, the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill that would make it harder to do so here. The bill now heads to the House. Write to us at startingpoint@globe.com. To subscribe, sign up here. TODAY’S STARTING POINT Aparna Azavilla, left, and her sister Anoushka return to shore after a diving class at Back Beach in Rockport, MA in August 2021. CRAIG F. WALKER/GLOBE STAFF Back in 2021, I became curious about red lawn signs all over Rockport that read “All are welcome, including divers.” Which I found odd because I had been under the assumption that divers had always been welcomed in Rockport. Scuba diving was my first introduction to the town, when in 1994 – as a gift for my 18th birthday – I took scuba lessons in the pool at the YMCA on Huntington Ave. in Boston. And for our ocean certification dives, they took us all the way up to the tip of Cape Ann, to Back Beach in downtown Rockport, because it offered a safe, gentle beach entry. And metered parking. Eventually, I found my way to the source of the signs, at the home of Stewart and Beth Renner. Now when you knock on a door and identify yourself as a Globe reporter, it can go one of two ways. The Renners went the way of “How much time do you have, and would you like some coffee?” The Renners live a block off Back Beach, and they explained that a group of neighbors just behind them, who live right on the beach and were mostly newer summer people, had gone to war with the divers who had been coming to Back Beach and neighboring Front Beach for generations. (Incidentally, I recently wrote about the mysterious deaths of three divers at Front Beach.) Insisting that the divers were loud and out of control, that they blocked their driveways and clanged tanks together at all hours, a group that called itself the “Back Beach Neighbors Committee” sued the town to get rid of them. And they lost. Then in June 2021, the same “Committee,” which lists only six members, launched a more radical argument, suing in land court to claim that they in fact owned the public beach, the public street, and the public land that holds an American Legion Post and a bandstand. A beach for me, not for thee Their attorney told me they believed Colonial deeds established the beach as their property. The rest of the land, he argued, should revert back to them because in the 1820s, the former owners along Beach Street gave the town that land to build a school, and it’s no longer a school. In 1930, it became the legion post. And the street itself, well, in the early 20th century, the property owners donated land to widen and improve the street, but that did not happen because the state soon began construction of Route 127, a block away. So Beach Street should revert back to them as well. To say the Back Beach Neighbors Committee was unpopular in town is an understatement. Everyone I spoke with snickered about “deep-pocketed summer people” and “selfish newcomers” who “moved here because they loved it and now want to change it.” And everyone was curious about the end game. Why? Do they really want to kick everyone off a beach that has been public since before any of us were alive? Just pop open a beach chair and have the place to themselves, surrounded by a community that loathed them? The only member of the committee who would speak with me, then 90-year-old Stephanie Rauseo, insisted they had no interest in owning the beach, and were just looking for leverage to get the scuba divers under control. It was a lot of leverage they were asking for. The beach is back Late last month, the town finally won the lawsuit. A judge threw out the claims of beach and street ownership at summary judgment, and on Halloween the town announced it had successfully fought the rest of the neighbors’ claims. The court did find that an underground vault owned by the town encroaches on one of the properties, which the town acknowledged in court, and hearings will determine how to remedy that. But for now, it’s over, and a public beach will remain a public beach. No small victory in a state where Colonial-era laws allow for private ownership of beaches all the way to the low-tide line, and coastal access is continually under threat. Back Beach will stay Back Beach. The 4th of July bonfire will continue, as it has since 1853. And everyone, including divers, will remain welcome in Rockport. 🧩 4 Down: Public spectacle | 🌤️ 46° A bit sunnier Veterinarians checked out the rescued gator at the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth yesterday. New England Wildlife Center POINTS OF INTEREST Getting warmer: The owner of an exotic animal company found and rescued a baby alligator that somehow ended up in the Charles River. The roughly 18-inch reptile is now enjoying a heated tank in Abington. Immigration on campus: Zachary Segal, the president of Boston University’s Republican student chapter, said he’d repeatedly urged ICE to raid an Allston car wash. ICE did so last week but declined to say whether Segal’s calls led to the raid. And planned protests forced the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester to cancel an in-person job fair session featuring Homeland Security officials and hold it virtually instead. Jeffrey Epstein: He and former Harvard president Larry Summers corresponded for a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes, emails show. They talked about President Trump, favors for Epstein, and Summers’ dating woes. And statues mocking Trump — including one that shows him hand-in-hand with Epstein — keep popping up around D.C. Two-step: Federal rules bar lawmakers from directly transferring funds from state campaign accounts to federal ones. Tram Nguyen, a Massachusetts lawmaker who’s now running for Congress, appears to have tried to get around that by giving $190,000 to a super PAC that backs Democratic congressional candidates. ‘Gambling ads are everywhere’: A Fenway High senior was among the many Massachusetts residents who testified on Beacon Hill yesterday in favor of restricting sports betting in the state. On the mend: UMass Memorial Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts reached a contract agreement, ending their weekslong dispute and preserving health care access for nearly 200,000 people. Threatening officials: Investigators are looking for a man they say visited the office of Trump’s acting US attorney for New Jersey with a baseball bat. (NBC) And a jury convicted a Cape Cod man of threatening Steve Xiarhos, a Republican Massachusetts state representative, after he said people might torch Xiarhos’ house if he didn’t tell Trump to “reel it in.” Radio drama: The BBC apologized for selectively editing video of Trump’s speech that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on Congress but argued that his threat to lodge a $1 billion defamation suit was baseless. (Politico) Burning bridges: Rhode Island’s Department of Transportation director blamed inspection companies for failing to catch structural problems with the Washington Bridge that required it to be replaced, a project that’s ongoing. The cost of Trump: Canadian tourism to the US plummeted for the 10th straight month as Canadians angry about Trump’s tariffs and insults boycott the country. (NYT 🎁) VIEWPOINTS ‘We need more Setti Warrens’: The former Newton mayor and chief of Harvard’s Institute of Politics, who died last week at 55, promoted civility and conversation in hopes of a better nation, writes James F. Smith. Veterans Day: With each passing year, fewer World War II vets — and even fewer former prisoners of war — are left. To remember their sacrifices, Hal LaCroix visited their graves. BESIDE THE POINT By David Beard 🎦 Weekend streaming picks: I couldn’t think of a “Freakier Friday” joke for this Friday, but this week’s highlights include that sequel, more Pedro Pascal (in “Eddington”) and new “Squid Game” episodes. Plus, the “Dazed and Confused” director goes all 1960s b&w artsy Paris in “Nouvelle Vague.” ☕ One cup of joe: The surprising connection between coffee and heart health. (USA Today) 💌 Love Letters: At 23, “how do I talk to guys?” ✈️ Want to get away? 40 percent of American women from 15 to 44 say they would leave the US for good if they could, a Gallup poll finds. That percentage has quadrupled since 2014, and now 1 in 7 older women also would like to go. Canada is the preferred destination. (Gallup) 🐦‍⬛ How do you band a bird? The joke answer is “between chirps.” The real one? It’s not easy ... at first. 📚 It’s homey: Beyond the low-key appeal of independent bookstores, one bookseller says graphic novels and romantasy novels are flying off his shelves. Plus, a big book recommendation. 🤟 Blind date: “I told him I wasn’t really a Mariah Carey fan.” But then the arancini came, and they worked through it. Have a great weekend! And thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by David Beard. ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at startingpoint@globe.com. ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can sign up for your own copy. 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday.

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