Were Port Angeles a desirable destination, of course there would be no need to "juice the engine" to entice air carriers, and/or customers. If the economy in Clallam County were thriving, again, there'd be no need to "pass the hat" to try and drum up financial support for carriers and/or passengers. If Port Angeles were enough of a cultural destination, hot real estate market, or happening or successful fill-in-the-blank...You get the picture.
Now, if Cherie Kidd got all put out and bothered by her (make believe) bum who supposedly raked in $200 - enough so that she made it a topic of City Council discussion and raised the threat of "increased penalties" for "aggressive panhandlers" - why then she must be terribly, terribly upset by the Port's overt and aggressive panhandling of the Feds. After all, if her figures and their figures are correct, then what the Port's done is a thousand times worse than what Cherie's tax-free freeloader did.
I can hear her now: "That's not what a proud, independent and American community would do! It's, it's unproud, and undependent and practically un-American! Mister Bloor, isn't there something, I mean, anything, something, we can do to stop this terrible blight on our thriving, beautiful and and and self-sufficient community?" After all, begging is begging, isn't it? A hat in hand is a hat in hand? Surely the city of Port Angeles is too proud to be looking for a handout...Like a common bum?
Surely? Cherie? Anyone?
Without government grants there is no local economy. Port Angeles has been a beggar's kingdom for a long, long time.
ReplyDeleteHow can you blame the Port for trying when the grant has been dangled?
ReplyDeleteOurs is a skim economy. What would our local power be without grants-with-absolutely-no-follow-up? Perfect for skimming into their pockets. It's a racket, but one they get away with. Especially in this apathetic place.
The Port is just doing their game. Sing & dance for their supper, then skim it off, and NEVER EVER tell anyone how much that grant really was. It's good work if you can get it.
Oh, I don't "blame" the Port for doing what they're doing. As you say, it's their game, and they're just playing it to the best of their (very limited) ability.
DeleteBut I'd like these things to be called and seen as what they are: Handouts, welfare, alms for the poor. They are scraps tossed to a starving community that can't make it on its own. A successful town, one with competent leaders, wouldn't need grants like this.
If I was a business owner I'd pay the panhandler to hang out by my competition. Something like "here's $10." Wink wink. We both win. :D
ReplyDeleteWhat competition? The EDC snuffs competition before it ever gets started.
DeleteMy main concern is that the Port is going to start their cut down all the trees in Lincoln Park and take over the kids ball fields master plan crap again. The city shockingly put the skids to it the last time when they found out the Port was planning on providing zip to replace the clear cut except their expensive new park design ideas that they paid to have drawn up.
ReplyDeleteAfter months and months of acting like the airport was some kind of a death trap and all the crazy tree huggers were going to be responsible for the bodies of air passengers littering Lincoln park ,the city realized the county fairgrounds were going to look odd sitting in a clear cut desert. They were so horrified by the price tag of a park redesign ( they need that money for their lawyers) that they only let the Port cut down a few hundred trees and destroy a camping area.
Of course the Peninsula Daily News went with the Ports slant that it had to be done because of FAA safety requirements. The Port was going to have to contract out the cutting of all those mature trees. No mention of the facts there has never been a accident or complaint of safety to the FAA or any other airline safety organization. No mention of the fact that the airport is FAA approved for landing and takeoff of a 737 on the runways just the way they are now without any lengthening of either runway. No mention of the money to be made by clear cutting Lincoln Park. They carried on like nobody but drunks and drug addicts ever used the park. The entire drama upset a lot of people who use and love the park and it is still part of the Ports master plan. There is lots more grant money to suck up from the department of transportation and the FAA if they can just lengthen that runway so something bigger then a 737 can land. They are just waiting like snakes in the grass and this free 200,000 bucks is probably just the fuel those idiots need to start another feeding frenzy.
the deal has already been struck on the trees. You are light years behind.
DeleteBet me! The Port needs to take their master plan and plan on shoving it up their collective asses.
DeleteI have a job for half a dozen panhandlers. Report to the city council chambers twice a month and carry signs saying: "
ReplyDeleteGase, Kidd, Downie and Collins: Step down for the good of the community." Pay is minimum wage with side of community service thrown in. Positions also available at corner of Front and Lincoln. Special locations pay even more including in front of U-Haul on Bean Road, Coldwell Bankers, on Front St.
If Port Angeles were a person, it'd be the kind of person whose parents have to find a prom date for them. On our own, without help from outside, we're helpless and hopeless.
ReplyDeleteA bit "rich", such a headline on "Independence Day" holiday weekend!
ReplyDeleteTo highlight the reality this pathetic town is anything BUT independent, and only continues to exist because of the constant flow of pity money from the outside.
An entire town where everyone is either a direct recipient of a handout, paid with handout money, or works to get handout money. Even the State of Washington has labeled us a "distressed" community, a name given to those so needy.
Poor Angeles.
And we have a "proud" leadership? Really?
How much of the population of Port Angeles has been intentionally marginalized by the PDN, and the select few that run this town?
ReplyDeleteIs this why the town cannot function normally, and requires continuous handouts?
It's is why the town could not function for six weeks if the PDN reported what is really happening in town. The population would come up on the city AND county meetings with pitch forks, scythes and a cat-o-9-tails. Cherie Kidd would not finish her first screechy monologue before tasting the lash. Downie would be whelped all over before he could stumble and mumble his first lie. Gase and Collins would then of course be rooting around under their desk like blind hogs looking for acorns. Over to the county, if they had lie detectors strapped to the commissioners and the commissioners strapped to 110 volts then before Bill Peach could finish his first lie ZAP and his eyes would go strait and he would see in stero-vision for the first time since childhood. Someone would pilfer with the rheostat as soon as Ozias flips on the mic cause you know he is going to be lying. Zap goes the newest commissioner and his bullshit beard is fried and wisps of white smoke waft from each hair follicle. Chapman is probably safe from this assault. He is so wishy-washy he doesn't even know when he's lying so the lie0meter would be worthless on him. Yes, the PDN is the most evil force on the peninsula because they give aid and succor to the lying elected bastards who chew up taxpayers and shit out contracts and grants for the chosen few. If each of you called one of their advertisers and told them what you think of the PDN then they would stop spending money with them and PDN would dry up and blow away in a fortnight of poor ad sales. It's not like they are here for charity work. They are taking gobs of money off this peninsula and sending it to Canada's version of the Koch Brothers, David Black in Victoria. How would you like to know Gaul Potlieb is the face of your organization locally. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Okay, I feel better now.
DeleteMore so than Kidd, Potlieb is the face of everything that is so, so wrong with this town.
Delete