Simply put, the consultants hired to address this issue, Studio Cascade, have proposed three options, that could be summed up as small ("the light touch" for $2.3 million), medium ("Klallam Cove" at $3 million) and large ("Peabody Place" at $3.6 million). Insert standard speech here from Nathan West talking about how "the City will be aggressively seeking grant funding opportunities" for blah blah blah.
But, as always, even if Nathan is both lucky and somewhat correct, these projects will cost the City money. Where will that money come from?
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. That isn't the first question that needs to be asked. The first question should be: Does the City need to spend this money at all? Debt, debt, debt is weighing heavily on you, Port Angeles. Sure, one more wafer-thin slice of debt may seem inconsequential, but is it really necessary at all?
Is this another tourist-baiting project that is unlikely to succeed? Is this another diversion of time, energy and funds from actually needed infrastructure projects? Will any of these options measurably improve life for local residents who are footing the bill?
So many questions. Yet the current City Council is unlikely to even come close to hinting at maybe sort of kind of asking them. Damn the torpedoes, and full spend ahead!
Consultants! The City flounders, and the consultants fleece.
Meanwhile, on a very much related note...Let's all ponder for a moment how the City's lack of vision and willingness to lurch from one unnecessary project to another has been a bonanza for consultants like Studio Cascade. A significant chunk of that debt, debt, debt can be traced to consultants like these who have literally raked in millions over the last decade from the City's lack of vision or leadership. How much quality of life has that spending bought you? How much of an economy has it nurtured? Has it been worth it? And is even MORE spending on these things really any answer at all to the problems that plague Port Angeles?
A new pier could be a great investment if four of the council members would take a long walk on a short one.
ReplyDeleteHa! My favorite quote is from Fred Allen: "I like long walks - especially when they are taken by people I don't like."
DeleteThrowing money at the coldest place on earth. The Port Angeles waterfront. :D
ReplyDeleteJust imagine if all the money that has gone to consultants over the last ten years had instead been funneled into some sort of locally run low interest loans for new businesses. If the city had done something like that (an option which was the NUMBER ONE choice identified during earlier "visioning" attempts) then now we'd likely have more businesses, more jobs, more visitors, and more of a marketable identity.
ReplyDeleteAs is though, all we have are empty storefronts rotting away, and expensive empty fake beaches that serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever. No jobs have been created, and the only jobs that have even been saved are those of the deadwood city staffers who have helped bring us to this sorry state.
Don't forget it was Collins, Gase, and Kidd that voted against the $400 city donation to the children's fishing derby at Lincoln Park, stating city couldn't afford the money. Yet they have no problem pissing away money on high-end dubious projects, such as the EDC.
ReplyDeleteHey, fuck the kids! Nathan's Boondoggle Beach needs a playmate.
DeleteI just tried to access the Port O Call website. I waited 30 seconds, then left. Coming here, to make this comment, I had to wait literally one second for this page to load. Hello, Port O Call? You have a problem.
ReplyDeletePhase 3 of the $17 million Water front Improvement Plan.
ReplyDeleteWho decided to obligate us to $17 million. More.
Note the usual name in these proposals: Zenovich.
We see there is no need to show any success or need. Just come up with an idea that will employ enough consultants and the usual suspects, and we're good to go. Cost is irrelevant. Actually, the more, the better. This is how the area survives.
Come up with an idea. Call it "economic development" for Poor Angeles, and the money appears. For the special people.
The rest of us?
Those pictures posted previously show the realities. Expensive projects to employ the selected that are enjoyed by few.
It's part of the no vision approach. Let's piecemeal every bit, without any real logic behind it.
ReplyDeleteI can hear it now: "Lets get a grant!" "I know, free money. If we get a grant we can pocket some of it, right?"
The problem with the town is all the fancy financing deals, the crazy patchwork projects, and the lack of any real fiscal responsibility. We have a grant induced project to tear up Race (to make it part of the bypass..where all traffic will get routed up Race, out Laurdison). But, meanwhile, roads, and alleys are is such bad need of repair it's pathetic. Some roads have not been re-paved in 20 years (most roads have an 8-10 year cycle).
We have major infrastructure issues (aging water pipes/sewer pipes). We aren't putting money aside to address these -- but deal with it piecemeal, emergency.
We cut back on all city services to residents, while adding heaps of new fees ($ to change your garbage from weekly to bi-weekly? Really?) raising salaries for the city staff, and over-paying idiots like Bloor.
Is our city trying to drive itself, and all it's residents into bankruptcy?
We can't keep dishing out -- the city needs to just stop this nonsense.
Ask your city council what the short-term + long term debt is. Answer: deer-in-the-headlights.
Delete"About fifteen" people showed up for this thing. There are no comments on the PDN article about it. Sure seems like the local population isn't so gung ho about this proposed boondoggle...I mean makeover. Still, by all means, don't let our lack of enthusiasm stop you from wasting more money on this.
ReplyDeleteIt is more than aggravating to pay consultants from Spokane to come design something worthwhile in any coastal community, let alone Port Angeles. Clallam County is home to some darn good design and planning professionals. Were they even considered for this work?
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the "Welcome to Port Angeles" and other signage that these Eastern WA geniuses were supposed to produce? I recall that their first round of sign designs were soundly ridiculed. I hope they never got paid for that.
Folks, it's up to YOU to stop this nonsense.
ReplyDeleteCK, we need THE LIST of those who regularly profit from skimmed "grant" money. Our local mob should not be invisible. Isn't "sunshine" what we want? I hear it's the best disinfectant.
Bullshit. We can't even get the city to honor a straw poll. Like we have ANY SAY AT ALL when it comes to these grant projects that the staff want, and the four bozos on the council rubberstamp...
Delete"It's up to us." Snort/Chuckle. Don't make me laugh. It was a done deal before they trotted out the faux "lets get your input".
The only way we could stop it would be with a hostile takeover.
Or, say, re-classifying the city???
DeleteBegin by looking at a list of membership for the Economic Development Council...
DeleteAs the story said, this is just another phase of $17 million the City has already planned to spend. No need to hear from the public. The City Council has already decided what is best for us.
ReplyDeleteDidn't even have to go through the motions of a survey, or pretending to care.
What is in line, next? Oh, that's right. The Race Street/Laurdisen Blvd bypass, so tourist traffic can more efficiently avoid downtown, and those $17 million waterfront improvements.
Perfect.
Last time I was out on that pier and I admit it's been about a year, the paint was peeling. Some of the rails were rusted and broken. We have the Ferio Marine life center and it is interesting and something worth a visit for tourist and locals alike. The city used to provide a decent amount of funding and now it seems to be a problem and funding has been reduced . It makes absolutely no sense to add a bunch more crap that the city will refuse to help fund once those grant bucks are gone. It's like our fearless leaders see the word grant and go insane.it makes no difference what our end of the grant might be. I swear if someone offered a 3,million dollar grant and said "if you want this money every 15 th of every month for 10 years you must paint yourself blue ,stick a feather in your ass and bark at the moon" there would be a run on blue paint and feathers at Swains. Let's enlarge the end of the peeling rusty pier and put some very large carnival rides on it. That way when we have our every other month septic overflow and dump several million gallons of sewage out of that pipe right down by Hollywood beach the kids will have someplace to play where toilet paper isn't sticking to their shoes! Maybe we should outsource our septic problems to somebody when will spent some time researching grants that will cough up a few bucks for some needed improvements to our septic and aging pipe problems.
ReplyDeleteAll this spending is not going to end well.
ReplyDelete