In December, St Barts saw a glitter cyclone of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mike Tyson, Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend, and the world's biggest megayachts; but a judgement has pitted billionaire against billionaire, and human development against fragile nature on this playground for the 1%
Megayachts in the harbor at Gustavia, the capital of the Caribbean island of St. Barts, Feb. 12, 2022. A legal feud over a proposed luxury hotel pits development against the fragile nature on this tropical Arcadia for the ultrarich. (Jean Vallette/The New York Times)
Midwinter on the Caribbean island of St. Barts is a kind of second hurricane season. December’s annual landfall of billionaires and celebrities was a Cat 5, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Mike Tyson, the world’s biggest megayachts, and Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend canoodling in their bathing suits.
But in the midst of this glitter cyclone, two days before Christmas, a judge hurled the latest volley in a legal battle that has pitted billionaire against billionaire, and human development against fragile nature on this playground for the 1%. The court ruled that a company headed by American hotelier Denise Dupré must stop construction of her second luxury hotel on the island, and refill a football field-size hole, intended for an underground parking garage, on a popular but environmentally precarious beach.
The ruling might signal a turning point in the hyper-development of this tropical Arcadia for the rich. The deconstruction alone will cost the developer what some parties involved estimate to be at least 50 million euros (about $57 million). The company won’t divulge the actual cost of the proposed project.
For four decades, two cultures have shared the biome of this tropical “little pebble,” as the French royals once called the island. Most of the current island natives are French-speaking descendants of a clan of Normandy peasants and enslaved people who arrived on the agriculturally inhospitable outpost in the 17th century. The original island inhabitants were Arawaks and Caribs.
The islanders’ forebears survived centuries during which power passed back and forth between pirates, England and France — and even 100 years of Swedish rule — before settling into the modern era, first as part of the French overseas department of nearby Guadeloupe, and now as a self-governing collectivité still operating under French law. Until 40 years ago, jobs were so scarce that residents went to other islands — nearby St. Thomas mainly, where a fishing village called Frenchtown was settled in the 19th century by laborers from St. Barts — for work. St. Barts itself wasn’t electrified until the 1980s.
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