Telling the truth about one of the worst, most corrupt places on Earth, and providing more information than the Peninsula Daily News could ever hope to.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Marolee Nails It...With "It" Being the Lid of the Coffin
You really should go to Marolee Smith's blog and read her new piece. Really.
Yes, Marolee very accurately sums up the situation Port Angeles finds itself in. You can quibble about a few of the details, but not the overall downward direction.
Doubtlessly the current members of the City Council will read this and think it's not true, too harsh, unfair, whatever. But it's not. It's just reality. The irony being that having a couple more realists like Marolee on the City Council would almost certainly benefit the town. Denial gets us nothing, and nothing we have in abundance.
For me, the real question becomes "Why do we stay?" Why does Marolee stay? Why do any of us who can really see stay?
I struggle with that every day. But more and more I realize I have to go.
RCW 35.01.020: A second-class clty is a city with a population of fifteen hundred or more at the time of its organization or reorganization that does not have a charter adopted under Article XI, section 10,of the state Constitution, and does not operate under Title 35A RCW (= "code" cities which PA is now).
That's all second-class actually means, is a city size measure and nothing else.
Step one is to not be a fool about what a city's "class" size means. "Second-class" does not mean we will be worse off. Rather, this is a stupid marketing trick by Bloor and the same folks who apparently want the look and feel around here of 1916.
Wrong. Keep reading. Second class cities don't have the right of referendum and initiative. Means we the people will most assuredly lose power over council. Right now you can make a thing of this magnitude happen, and council can't stop it. Win, and you'll never do it again. And we will not have referendum to overturn laws we don't like. Say, red light cameras, or fireworks bans. Reversion to second class is the kind of "wisdom" that comes from small one-track minds. You're stepping on your neighbors, not council. It's a stupid move.
Actually in a 2nd class city any council action can be overturned at the polls the next municipal election. Not so now. Plus, elect 4 like minded council members in the new government and at the first meeting they could re-form into any type governance they want. The current council could do it. One good outcome would be to take this opportunity to shed some of this idiotic debt that lined so many pockets. Start new, start fresh, fund the things we want more of and nothing else.
Just asking because I haven't been here as long as some of you. Please name a citizen initiative of recent vintage that has succeeded in passing and in actual practice.
Very few do succeed, 10:14. Tim Eyman, for all his career efforts (and one presumes, expertise), has only gotten two into law; 19 eventually crashed. But if a petition fails on signatures; if an initiative fails at the ballot box or is ruled unconstitutional ... it SHOULDN'T pass, cause nobody wants it, or it's illegal. That's how it SHOULD be, if this is still a democracy. And the losers should get over it. And 9:54, can you cite the RCW on that? Or provide a reference? That could be useful.
Well done, Marolee. Thanks CK for posting the link, and making us aware of her fine piece.
Leave Port Angeles? If you have children, are young enough, and want a better life, all are really great reasons to leave Port Angeles. If anyone doubts that there are far prettier, far nicer, far more prosperous places on this planet, they need to do themselves and their families a life changing favor, and go on a road trip. Really. You only live once.
The reality is, there are better places, and worse places. Or, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". There are a lot of people who come to this area, and say how beautiful it is here. Compared to Detroit, it sure looks that way.
But we're not talking about looks. We're talking about attitude. This is what passers-by don't see. People move here thinking "natural beauty", and then quickly find out the reality of Port Angeles. We've heard it over and over.
Part of the attitude problem is the idea we can impose our views on others. Nationally, we go into other countries, overthrow governments *we* don't like, start wars, fly drones, kill innocents and collapse social order so that the few industrialists can gain control of resources (usually oil). Understandably, the residents in those countries are not thrilled with foreign troops killing their families, year after year, and they try to defend and retaliate. We end up with "terrorists". Do we try to understand? No. We double down, "strengthen our resolve", "stand together", and send in even more troops. (The last poll in Iraq revealed 97% of Iraqis see Americans as the "enemy").
Here in Port Angeles, it is little different, although a lot less violent. The controlling elements in town force their will on the residents, usually for control of resources. Understandably, the residents don't like it and attempt to have influence and change things. The established power structure doubles down, saying everything is great in Port Angeles, urging we "stand together", "strengthen our resolve", and enacts laws to silence the public inn every way they can. Delays the votes that could change things. The PDN hides what is going on, or so distorts coverage in attempts to control the public, and how it reacts.
Now, we hear how it is all about "Law and Order". Nothing about WHY there is turmoil. Just silence those that complain.
To paraphrase Norman Mailer on the tyranny of the minority (in this case the Flouride Four):
...and yet finally they did not run the land, they did not comprehend it, the (city) was loose from them, ahead of them...They were the most powerful force in (Port Angeles), and yet they were a psychic island. If they did not find a bridge, they could only grow more insane each year, like noblemen in an empty castle chasing (grants and loans) with sticks.
The worm has turned folks. They are beginning to see the error of their ways. They are actually listening, or at least pretending to listen to the few like Marolee who have a firm grasp of the situation and a pen in hand. What is new is these realist now have an outlet like CK and the Port O Call. These are real game-changers. These outlets must be used to tell the leadership what they need to hear. I believe they are reading both and responding in ways large and small. Of course this is in looking out for their own self interests but whatever it takes to steer the ship away from the rocks is still a good outcome.
No worm has turned, no game changed here. This council is incorrigible, time after time after time. Pretending to listen does absolutely NOTHING. Why in the hell keep thinking they'll change? Isn't that the classic definition of insanity?
I can argue over one point she makes, and that is about a city needing to continuously grow. As I read someone else say recently (on the Port O Call website), there obviously are limits to most everything.
As that person said, nobody really thinks that the Olympic Peninsula is going to support a population of 1 million people. Or any number close to that. The whole county now is around 70,000. If the area cannot support a million people, how many can it, realistically? There are limits. Then what? The area dies?
Why are we not having these kinds of conversations in government planning? What is our maximum population, and are we doing anything to build for it? Or, are we already there?
Do city planners in Clallam ever ask what similar-sized small towns are doing to be successful and re-inventive, and take lessons from that? Or do they choose to remain clueless? It's not like every town in the country is like here ya know.
Washington Post today has an article under general title, "Unnatural Causes, sick and dying in small-town america", which while specific to opioid addiction, has noted previously that US counties under 1 million population generally depressed economically, with all the attendant ills that go with such depression. So its not just Clallam County. Money, jobs, our kids, and fun are all in the big cities. No excuse for failures here, but perhaps even with a more progressive Council area would still be economic sluggard. All who see Strait recognize extractive natural resources exit taking jobs as they go. Killing more trees is not the answer.
As far as local planners planning for population the City of Port Angeles just completed a comprehensive plan update for next 20 years, where vast majority of City didn't participate given there is so much else to do here at 6 pm on a Wednesday night (trying to score pain meds at the hospital emergency room maybe, or watch mold grow on roof), and which addressed urban planning as required by State. The city council meeting at which it was recognized was essentially hijacked by a "non issue", potential truck traffic on Lauridsen, which was not one of the updates the plan contemplated. This was because council reacted to an article focusing on one aspect of public testimony in the PDN reporting on the planning commission public hearing. In some ways that turned out great as a total smokescreen allowing comprehensive plan to sail through without discussion of added language on anthropogenic climate distortion. Tricky those progresssive radicals on city council.
And the concept of city "planners" is outdated and misunderstood. Presently City has one planner and one planning manager, because every city worker needs to be managed apparently. That's it. One.
Planning is best done when development is moribund, not when things booming so city's strategy I believe, however short sighted, is fiscally conservative. Wrong, but given howls of anguish from citizenry (and this blog) about misspent money, I believe we are experiencing pound foolish for penny wise.
Public agency planners in general (spent 30 years in California and Hawaii employed as same) just interpret existing ordinance when it comes to development. Except for policy documents, which usually come down from City Council to be translated to ordinance, they are not change agents. So please don't blame Gentle Ben, the one planner the city has...
Yes. It's over folks. Get yourself and your kids out of that $hi+hole. You'll never regret it. :D
ReplyDeleteYes, Marolee very accurately sums up the situation Port Angeles finds itself in. You can quibble about a few of the details, but not the overall downward direction.
ReplyDeleteDoubtlessly the current members of the City Council will read this and think it's not true, too harsh, unfair, whatever. But it's not. It's just reality. The irony being that having a couple more realists like Marolee on the City Council would almost certainly benefit the town. Denial gets us nothing, and nothing we have in abundance.
For me, the real question becomes "Why do we stay?" Why does Marolee stay? Why do any of us who can really see stay?
I struggle with that every day. But more and more I realize I have to go.
Yeah well, it's easier to kill the messenger than it is for them to hear the message.
DeleteSo they will continue to marginalize Marolee (and people like her), which thereby continues the marginalization of the town.
Hear no evil, see no evil, and it's another great day in Port Angeles, right?
RCW 35.01.020: A second-class clty is a city with a population of fifteen hundred or more at the time of its organization or reorganization that does not have a charter adopted under Article XI, section 10,of the state Constitution, and does not operate under Title 35A RCW (= "code" cities which PA is now).
ReplyDeleteThat's all second-class actually means, is a city size measure and nothing else.
Step one is to not be a fool about what a city's "class" size means. "Second-class" does not mean we will be worse off. Rather, this is a stupid marketing trick by Bloor and the same folks who apparently want the look and feel around here of 1916.
DO YOU?
Wrong. Keep reading. Second class cities don't have the right of referendum and initiative. Means we the people will most assuredly lose power over council. Right now you can make a thing of this magnitude happen, and council can't stop it. Win, and you'll never do it again. And we will not have referendum to overturn laws we don't like. Say, red light cameras, or fireworks bans. Reversion to second class is the kind of "wisdom" that comes from small one-track minds. You're stepping on your neighbors, not council. It's a stupid move.
DeleteActually in a 2nd class city any council action can be overturned at the polls the next municipal election. Not so now. Plus, elect 4 like minded council members in the new government and at the first meeting they could re-form into any type governance they want. The current council could do it. One good outcome would be to take this opportunity to shed some of this idiotic debt that lined so many pockets. Start new, start fresh, fund the things we want more of and nothing else.
DeleteJust asking because I haven't been here as long as some of you. Please name a citizen initiative of recent vintage that has succeeded in passing and in actual practice.
DeleteVery few do succeed, 10:14. Tim Eyman, for all his career efforts (and one presumes, expertise), has only gotten two into law; 19 eventually crashed. But if a petition fails on signatures; if an initiative fails at the ballot box or is ruled unconstitutional ... it SHOULDN'T pass, cause nobody wants it, or it's illegal. That's how it SHOULD be, if this is still a democracy. And the losers should get over it. And 9:54, can you cite the RCW on that? Or provide a reference? That could be useful.
DeleteWell done, Marolee. Thanks CK for posting the link, and making us aware of her fine piece.
ReplyDeleteLeave Port Angeles? If you have children, are young enough, and want a better life, all are really great reasons to leave Port Angeles. If anyone doubts that there are far prettier, far nicer, far more prosperous places on this planet, they need to do themselves and their families a life changing favor, and go on a road trip. Really. You only live once.
Life is too short to live in Port Angeles.
DeleteNow there's a bumper sticker!
DeleteThe reality is, there are better places, and worse places. Or, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". There are a lot of people who come to this area, and say how beautiful it is here. Compared to Detroit, it sure looks that way.
ReplyDeleteBut we're not talking about looks. We're talking about attitude. This is what passers-by don't see. People move here thinking "natural beauty", and then quickly find out the reality of Port Angeles. We've heard it over and over.
Part of the attitude problem is the idea we can impose our views on others. Nationally, we go into other countries, overthrow governments *we* don't like, start wars, fly drones, kill innocents and collapse social order so that the few industrialists can gain control of resources (usually oil). Understandably, the residents in those countries are not thrilled with foreign troops killing their families, year after year, and they try to defend and retaliate. We end up with "terrorists". Do we try to understand? No. We double down, "strengthen our resolve", "stand together", and send in even more troops. (The last poll in Iraq revealed 97% of Iraqis see Americans as the "enemy").
Here in Port Angeles, it is little different, although a lot less violent. The controlling elements in town force their will on the residents, usually for control of resources. Understandably, the residents don't like it and attempt to have influence and change things. The established power structure doubles down, saying everything is great in Port Angeles, urging we "stand together", "strengthen our resolve", and enacts laws to silence the public inn every way they can. Delays the votes that could change things. The PDN hides what is going on, or so distorts coverage in attempts to control the public, and how it reacts.
Now, we hear how it is all about "Law and Order". Nothing about WHY there is turmoil. Just silence those that complain.
Nationally, and locally.
To paraphrase Norman Mailer on the tyranny of the minority (in this case the Flouride Four):
ReplyDelete...and yet finally they did not run the land, they did not comprehend it, the (city) was loose from them, ahead of them...They were the most powerful force in (Port Angeles), and yet they were a psychic island. If they did not find a bridge, they could only grow more insane each year, like noblemen in an empty castle chasing (grants and loans) with sticks.
The worm has turned folks. They are beginning to see the error of their ways. They are actually listening, or at least pretending to listen to the few like Marolee who have a firm grasp of the situation and a pen in hand. What is new is these realist now have an outlet like CK and the Port O Call. These are real game-changers. These outlets must be used to tell the leadership what they need to hear. I believe they are reading both and responding in ways large and small. Of course this is in looking out for their own self interests but whatever it takes to steer the ship away from the rocks is still a good outcome.
ReplyDeleteNo worm has turned, no game changed here. This council is incorrigible, time after time after time. Pretending to listen does absolutely NOTHING. Why in the hell keep thinking they'll change? Isn't that the classic definition of insanity?
DeleteMarolee's post is a good one. Well written.
ReplyDeleteI can argue over one point she makes, and that is about a city needing to continuously grow. As I read someone else say recently (on the Port O Call website), there obviously are limits to most everything.
As that person said, nobody really thinks that the Olympic Peninsula is going to support a population of 1 million people. Or any number close to that. The whole county now is around 70,000. If the area cannot support a million people, how many can it, realistically? There are limits. Then what? The area dies?
Why are we not having these kinds of conversations in government planning? What is our maximum population, and are we doing anything to build for it? Or, are we already there?
If so, now what?
Do city planners in Clallam ever ask what similar-sized small towns are doing to be successful and re-inventive, and take lessons from that? Or do they choose to remain clueless? It's not like every town in the country is like here ya know.
ReplyDeleteThose citations were damn sexy!
ReplyDeleteWashington Post today has an article under general title, "Unnatural Causes, sick and dying in small-town america", which while specific to opioid addiction, has noted previously that US counties under 1 million population generally depressed economically, with all the attendant ills that go with such depression. So its not just Clallam County. Money, jobs, our kids, and fun are all in the big cities. No excuse for failures here, but perhaps even with a more progressive Council area would still be economic sluggard. All who see Strait recognize extractive natural resources exit taking jobs as they go. Killing more trees is not the answer.
ReplyDeleteAs far as local planners planning for population the City of Port Angeles just completed a comprehensive plan update for next 20 years, where vast majority of City didn't participate given there is so much else to do here at 6 pm on a Wednesday night (trying to score pain meds at the hospital emergency room maybe, or watch mold grow on roof), and which addressed urban planning as required by State. The city council meeting at which it was recognized was essentially hijacked by a "non issue", potential truck traffic on Lauridsen, which was not one of the updates the plan contemplated. This was because council reacted to an article focusing on one aspect of public testimony in the PDN reporting on the planning commission public hearing. In some ways that turned out great as a total smokescreen allowing comprehensive plan to sail through without discussion of added language on anthropogenic climate distortion. Tricky those progresssive radicals on city council.
And the concept of city "planners" is outdated and misunderstood. Presently City has one planner and one planning manager, because every city worker needs to be managed apparently. That's it. One.
Planning is best done when development is moribund, not when things booming so city's strategy I believe, however short sighted, is fiscally conservative. Wrong, but given howls of anguish from citizenry (and this blog) about misspent money, I believe we are experiencing pound foolish for penny wise.
Public agency planners in general (spent 30 years in California and Hawaii employed as same) just interpret existing ordinance when it comes to development. Except for policy documents, which usually come down from City Council to be translated to ordinance, they are not change agents. So please don't blame Gentle Ben, the one planner the city has...