Sunday, January 10, 2016

Food for Thought...Sure, You Bet. But Food for People...Well, Not So Much.

What with all the activity and angst around the Port Angeles City Council's latest boneheaded moves, I waited a few days to move on to a new subject. But there was another PDN article this past week that really caught my attention, and seems deserving of discussion.

It was the article about the food banks in Clallam County, and the headline summed it up pretty well: Food banks draw nearly a quarter of county residents, Port Angeles director says.

The article goes on to explain: "Once food banks in Clallam County began comparing figures last year, they found that nearly one-quarter of those living in the county had used their services in 2014, said Jessica Hernandez, director of the Port Angeles Food Bank. "When we put all of our information together, we saw...our food banks served one in every four people in Clallam County," said Hernandez.

She goes on to explain: "Year over year for the past three years, we have seen an increase of twelve percent in clients. And that is not people coming back every time, every month. Those are individuals, another twelve percent, that I didn't see the previous year."

Are any other (for profit) businesses growing 12% a year in Clallam County?

Good news? No. Sustainable? No. Are these comparable rates to other areas? Unknown, but...Shocking? Yes. And again, is this sort of negative growth sustainable? No. As in,  
OH NO.

No community is undone by one thing. No one indicator spells doom, generally speaking. But an indicator like this, coupled with the persistently high rates of unemployment and drug abuse, as well as the shrinking, failing schools and the overall aging of the population in Clallam County, in addition to the huge numbers of people who can't pay their utility bills each month...Well, it's not a pretty picture. Yet, to bring it all back to the previous topic, some members of the City Council are worried that not adding fluoride to the water will make Port Angeles less marketable, less likely to succeed, while essentially ignoring all of these other issues. The fluoride issue is a debatable one, from a PR and image perspective. But there can be no doubt, none at all, that these other issues weigh heavily indeed upon the City, the County, and all the people therein.

Or, to put it in a simpler form that may be more digestible for elected officials: It's right hard to market a town that's poor, unemployed, drug-addled, run down, aging, ugly, and, yes, just plain hungry. You've carefully created a town that is both depressed and depressing. Residents live with it every day; visitors can't help but notice it. Yet you, you City Council members and County Commissioners, you do nothing but enable this despair. You go through the motions of fretting about tooth decay in "the children," yet you do nothing to stop the systemic decay of their community, their schools, and their future.

How many of those City Council members look like they've missed a meal lately? How many of them do you think actually care or worry about indicators like this? And how likely to do you think real change is when these cold, clueless morons, the Fluoride Four plus more, are in charge?

Clallam County is fucked up at the county level,
but Washington State is pretty fucked up, too.

35 comments:

  1. Yet, the council voted to allow the city staff's recommendation to raise utility rates by 5% this year and next. Fees were increased.
    The council seems to be completely disconnected from the people of this community. Pushing fluoride is not really caring about "the people". Spending on a survey that they discounted is a blatant "f-YOU".
    The poor, the sick the huddled masses --- is what we are becoming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Could you be disconnected from the simple reality that the city purchases electricity from the BPA and delayed raising electric utility rates for residents as long as possible after BPA raised the price it charges in October 2011?

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    2. The "disconnected reality" is that the council in 2011 anticipated that "Smart Meters" would be installed along with an entirely different utility rate structure. They even passed a rate ordinance in anticipation of imposing time of use rates as soon as the citywide smart meters came on line.
      It took years for the city to put a halt to the smart meter fiasco, and so now must revert to the former long-standing rate structure. The 5% across the board rate increase is likely needed to recoup the revenue increases the city figured it would have garnered from the smart metered time-of-use rates.
      Somebody needs to call BS on any claim by the city that "it hasn't raised rates for five years, even though BPA rates have increased, blah blah." There are many reasons why revenues are failing to keep pace with the city's revenue projections. Pretending to be benevolent or caring toward ratepayers does not figure among them.

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    3. pssst...they also raised all the FEES, but no one talks about that. Why? Liars!!

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  2. Cherie looks an awful lot like she might eat the meals, but then toss her cookies. She's way too thin for an old woman.

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    Replies
    1. Read Ripley's blog...she admits she is a spoiled princess.

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  3. A neighbor of mine proudly partakes of all freebies offered, food bank and lunch at Salvation Army among programs I am aware of. The puzzling thing to me is how much food would his 2 pack a day cigarette habit could buy at an average cost of cigarettes at $9 per pack. Is this kind of choice the norm or the exception?

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  4. Port Angeles is a slowly dying town, so it makes sense that there's a slowly dying Mayor to preside over the town until, and he, flatline.

    Curiously, Sequim is thriving. New housing developments are bringing new people into Sequim and the areas around Carlsborg and Dungeness. New businesses will be moving in to the bustling business corridor along the eastern end of Sequim.

    There's no fluoridated water in Sequim and the schools are doing well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The schools in Sequim are not doing all that well. The bond issue failed. There has been new development in Sequim, but it looks better than it is because their base is a lot smaller than PA's. By the way, PA's schools sent several students to the Ivy League last year, as well as many to UW, and the scholarships available to local students would be the envy of many communities. There is nothing wrong with Port Angeles High School. The teachers are, in the main, excellent and the AP programs good. The problem is that about half of the student body is poor.

      It's OK to dump on the economics and the politics of this town. It's neither truthful nor decent to dump on the schools.

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    2. SOME of the kids who stay in school in Port Angeles undoubtedly end up doing well academically. The poison pill is the incredibly high dropout rate.

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    3. Port Angeles School District's on time grad rate in 14-15 was 77.2%, exactly the same as the state wide rate that year. When you look at Port Angeles High School alone, it's grad rate in 14-15 was 81.2%. http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?year=2014-15&yrs=2014-15&schoolId=31&reportLevel=District

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    4. I'm guessing the drop out rate here is possibly only slightly higher than the state average. I don't know for sure. But if you look at that graph that CK attached to this post, it's clear that the state of Washington, despite the "high tech" presence of Amazon, Microsoft, etc. is behind the times. Our taxes are regressive, our schools are shaky, and our elected leaders are self-serving. Port Angeles and Clallam County just reflect the problems incubating higher up the food chain.

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    5. Port Angeles schools are a great place to get high, get pregnant, and on occasion graduate.

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    6. If the best you can do is say that PA matches the dismal dropout rate of the state as a whole, well....That's not much to boast about, is it?

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    7. What's wrong with being above the state average? The nationwide grad rate is 81% as well (in 2013, the most recent year nationwide data is available). Do you expect everyone to graduate high school? If you do, you're not much of a student of history.

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  5. Yes, I saw that headline, and was stunned.

    The crazy disconnect between the local leadership and reality revealed, once again.

    What will it take to "throw the bums out"?

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    Replies
    1. More and better bums willing to run for office, and voters willing to vote for them.

      Otherwise...

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  6. Developing a Charter City form of government is a start. At least the citizens can overturn any dumb decision made in a Charter City. Coming soon, Port Angeles will redesign its government to become a charter city. Sign up and vote it in.
    If we are smart, at the same time we redesign city government we should file for Receivership, which is what bankruptcy for a municipality is called. Slough off this hundred fifty million dollar debt and start over. Yes, at the same time some of those overly generous retirement packages handed out by the city elite will have to be scaled down but that is only fair since those are the ones who got us into this mess to begin with. We obviously cannot continue in the same manner for very long. Ten dollars per hour is the new normal and there is hardly anything we can do about it until we land some family wage jobs. Instead the Port puts its money in a composites plan that has never been done before instead of bringing regular old fashioned jobs like manufacturing things. What a concept. Not sexy just effective to lift the wages of the area.

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    1. So the idea would be to consolidate power with one person, ignore the council and hire/fire at will? The following 3 step plan would do more:
      1. Recall the 4 morons.
      2. Elect new morons
      3. Get involved: Speak up, attend meetings, keep them accountable

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    2. And, I think we will be on that path. Rumor is that the city is looking for a "compromise", where they will hand out filters to those that want them, rather than listening to the repeatedly stated desires of their constituents.

      Sign the "Step Down NOW!" petitions. Get out in the streets.

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    3. If 4 morons are recalled, then the council would have the ability to decide on 4 new morons, it wouldn't be an election.
      I think #3 should be #1

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    4. Yes, do remember that if and when someone leaves the City Council (or dies) before their term is up, the remaining members get to decide on their replacement. It's tough enough putting the election into the hands of the people; do you really want to leave it in just three or four pairs of hands? Especially pudgy, stupid hands like Dan Gase? Cherie Kidd?

      I didn't think so.

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  7. Replies
    1. We'll be saying the same about Pat Downie soon enough.

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    2. Thank you SO much for (essentially) putting David Bowie and Pat Downie together in a sentence.

      David Bowie is an anagram for "Baddie I Vow."

      Pat Downie is an anagram for "Two Pained."

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  8. Before you forget, sign the petition of no confidence relating to the fluoride four. Petitioners are downtown at the fluoridated health food store.

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  9. Interesting there were NO candidates from either Clallam or Jefferson county to apply to head the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce. To take Russ Veenemas place.

    Gee. I wonder why?

    According to Revitalize Port Angeles, Port Angeles is a Wonder Town full of growth, opportunity and prosperity. Why wouldn't there be ANY local candidates interested? People that know what is really going on in town.

    Oh, I see.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, and he was quick to get out - or be shown out - of Poulsbo, having only really been there a year (he started October 2014) before interviewing for and taking this job. But hey, don't worry! Port Angeles has done really well with Navy and Coast Guard vets taking positions of (semi) importance there - hasn't it?

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    2. Sounds like Port Angeles has yet another winner!

      Really?! We keep getting the losers. Loser candidates to fill loser positions in a loser town.

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    3. Boy, quick to judge or what? Did you consider that Abshire may be getting back to the Peninsula because he's a native of the area, rather than a loser? Was your hair-trigger judgment of that flash in the pan city council member Mania as harsh?

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    4. Max Mania was, for all intents and purposes, a volunteer, so little do PA council members get paid. And he tried to knock down bad idea after bad idea for years, for free, all while taking heaps of abuse.

      Meanwhile, the new COC guy will be making, what, close to six figures? After fleeing his last job. Which he held for a year. To come...here? That just doesn't make much sense, but at least he will be well compensated for his bad decision, for however long he lasts.

      And he's just about got to be better than Russ, but that's a pretty low bar that's been set.

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    5. Actually the chamber cut its ED pay to fifty eight K

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    6. @ Anon 2:35

      The comment was more about the fact the NOBODY from either Clallam or Jefferson county was inspired by local conditions to apply for the job.

      As in, most everyone knows how screwed up things are, here, and won't apply for a $60k job.

      Yeah, Loserville.

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