It always seems to come back to the water in Port Angeles...
Fluoride in the water...
The City possibly running out of water...
And now, land rapist and environmental thug Dan Morrison is, as previously discussed here, being "fined" the less than whopping amount of $14,000 for destroying wetlands...In order to build his stupid, stupid sprint boat track.
City staff are so amazingly complicit in all of this, and so much more. They lead the dolts on the City Council around like little dogs on leashes, and the citizens suffer.
Think about it: The City has committed to spending tens of millions of dollars on the Turd Tank, to hold waste water, sewage water. They have that monstrosity right on the shoreline, on the water. Meanwhile, how many dollars have they spent to protect or expand the City's water supply? How many hours have they spent pondering climate change and responses to (soon-to-be-normal) drought?
Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink...Or a thought to think. SHAME ON CITY STAFF. And SHAME ON THE CITY COUNCIL for so easily and willingly abdicating their sworn duty to serve the public.
Of course, the public is doing their part in all this as well, by responding to the City's "suggestion" that they conserve water by...Increasing their water use.
So...Who really is to blame?
What a mess.
There's a sickness in Port Angeles. That is one fact that is impossible to ignore.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's the water, but it's also the drugs. Did anyone else see this little notice about trying to round up volunteers to clean up local parks?
ReplyDelete"A site coordinator at each park will hand out supplies.
Clallam County Health and Human Services will provide an educational brochure called “Get the Point” on how to safely dispose of used syringes that are found in parks and other public locations.
Any used syringes will be disposed of at the public health office."
"Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink..."
ReplyDeleteFrom , "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", by William Taylor Coleridge; a known drug user...
Uh ... correction, please!
DeleteThe poet's names is Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Google. It's a thing, y'know?
It is fine & restoration, tho why epa agreed to 1:1 mitigation is unclear. Thought they could require greater ratio as part of agreement. As for the needles, having engaged in cleanups before here combination of healthy fear and revulsion should be instilled in any participants. As society we are essentially condoning activity given we Allowed medical profession to over prescribe oxycodone causing addiction, now give free syringes, clean them up wherever droppt after use, and prevent deadly overdose via naloxone. Why not legalize Free heroin under medical supervision, thereby taking gangs and big pharm out of equation, relieving addicts of need to support habit via crime? Or do you want your kid or neighbor getting stuck as they recreate in our parks?
ReplyDeleteThe aggressiveness or passivity for enforcement action by the EPA is calibrated to the Director's stance. Talk to Obama appointee Gina McCarty if you think $14K and a 1:1 mitigation ratio is puny.
DeleteLet me just say it again: Dan Morrison is a land rapist. Please feel free to use that phrase, post that phrase, Google that phrase, etc. Let's help build Dan Morrison's online reputation up to what it should be.
ReplyDeleteDAN MORRISON + PORT ANGELES = LAND RAPIST.
The property on Dry Creek had been farmed and tilled but that earth moving was OK. I am not clear why piling it into berms is not OK.
DeleteHe filled in a wetland. Which is illegal. That is not OK.
DeleteTilling wetland OK. Piling on wetland not OK. Got it.
DeleteAnd there you have it, another local "but it's just wet in the winter" "they aren't wetlands if you fill them in" and "what's the big deal".
DeleteNever took any geology, don't "get" that it's part of how wells get magically refilled. They don't get that there is a valuable ecosystem that has nothing to with the idiot two-legged fucktard that wander around here.
As dry as everything is around here these days, I'm wondering where Dan got the water to fill up the track with.
ReplyDeleteBut, as you point out, it isn't as if anybody locally is taking the water problems seriously, and water use has increased under "voluntary conservation". Americans are so good at voluntary regulation.
Drugs? Look at previous thread for interesting stats about drugs and their impacts. Seems to show another reality: How staff leads the council and public around with rhetoric.
My crazed neighbor is watering her stupid lawn every night -- when she won't be "shamed" by the likes of all the other neighbors (who dislike her intensely). She just must have that green, green lawn. Can't wait for a stage 3, so I can nark her out.
DeleteI have a neighbor who still is clinging to the green lawn thing. What a dope.
DeleteWas downtown last night. Yeah, Friday evening, from around 5 pm until almost 9. The Friday night of the big Sprint Boat races. Thought it would be a kind of barometer of how Port Angeles is doing. Spent the time with a friend who has spent a lot of time over the last year downtown, day and evenings.
ReplyDeleteI won't name the establishment we spent time in, but will say for the entire time we were there, less than a dozen people came and left. At 8:30 -9 pm, you could have sat down in the middle of First or Front, and not worried about being hit by a car!
My friend said that wasn't unusual. That most of the time in the evenings, they watch the raccoons walking around town.
I've been in the area for about 15 years now. It is worse now, than it has been since I've been here. I've seen it with my own eyes, change. Getting quieter and quieter. Fewer and fewer people bothering to go down town.
I remember pictures being posted here a few weeks ago showing how dead downtown was during the Arts Festival on that holiday weekend. It is like that, most of the time.
Somebody spoke about how crazy it is for the city to be putting all the millions in on building a trail along the waterfront, heading towards the logyards and industrial businesses. Why? Do the city leaders really think tourists are going to want to go there? Why did they spend the money there, with all the problems the city has? Are they planning on getting rid of all the industrial uses west of downtown, and that is why they are building all those improvements there?
Thanks for your "on the spot" reporting. Views like yours are very valuable, taking subjects from the "I heard" category, and putting them in the much more grounded "I saw for myself" category.
DeleteI worked briefly at a business downtown that, long ago, decided to experiment with later hours. You know what happened? Nothing. Not one sale just a lot of money wasted. That and stories like this are why I just shake my head at the people who think all that downtown needs is to stay open later and people will magically decide to rush downtown. That doesn't happen during the weekdays, that doesn't happen during the weekends, why would it happen at 7pm?
DeleteWhy would people go downtown? To eat? There are lots of places to eat, but most people don't go out because of the prohibitive cost. To DRINK? Right, you know how much a DUI costs, don't you? Most people drink at home. To get laid? Not enough loose women, sorry. To shop? For junque? For brew supplies, for what? Boutique items? Stuff from China? What is there that I need? For entertainment? What entertainment? Give me a reason to go downtown, and I'll consider it. For now, nothing is there.
DeletePeople are going downtown. Next Door does very well. Edna's still in business. The problem is that not ENOUGH people are going downtown. A few businesses are doing very well, the rest are surviving.
DeleteAccessibility is one reason. Downtown is off the beaten path, almost an afterthought to the rest of the town. You have to consciously choose to go there. Constantly tearing up the same streets with construction doesn't help. There's very little character down there, just a mish-mash of building styles broken by dirt lots turned into parking. There are hardly any events downtown anymore. The farmers market is on the edge of downtown, easy to get in and out.
But I think most importantly is, like 1:43 said, money. A third of this town can't afford to pay their utility bill. Even the ones who can pay, can't afford much else. There is actually a lot of money in this town, but like the rest of the country only a few have enough to "shop local". The rest of us either survive on the bare minimum, or shop Walmart and Amazon where the prices are better. Either way, what little money we have isn't going to the community.
Our civic and business leaders are either clueless, don't care or have outright contempt for their voters.. I'm sure Edna's got a loyal following who can afford her merchandise. She doesn't need to know, may not know, what's really going on in this town. The west side of downtown is piled with logs going to China, but that doesn't put much money into the community. But we can go "pound sand." McIntire apparently has actively discouraged new businesses because competition would increase salary levels, and get more money flowing through the community and we can't have that.
I don't see any way out of this except for things to just get worse. I hate that, but if enough things start breaking down maybe we can get new leadership in here, people who actually care about the taxpayers. We can slowly start getting money flowing again and maybe someday we might have a normal town again.
Accessibility is a problem for downtown? 400,000 people get dumped off right across the street from Edna's store every year, ans you think accessibility is an issue? People seem to be able to find their way to Swains and Walmart to stand in lines at the check-out.
DeleteAnybody who thinks Port Angeles is doing fine, cannot ever have run a business. The sidewalks are all but empty, if not outright empty most of the time. No credible business person would see that as a recipe for success and prosperity.
Virtually everyone in Port Angeles has cell phones, food and a place to live. This isn't India, with people dying on the sidewalks.
Wait until "enough things start breaking down" ??? What do you see working, now? If it were not for all the government money coming into the area via grants for habitat restoration and all the government jobs and projects, there would be no economy at all. The region is being artificially propped up by outside money, now.
But, yes. Maybe some day enough people will look around, and decide their lives and community are worth the effort, and will get off their dead asses, and work for needed changes.
Wow. Someone forgot to take their medication...
DeletePerhaps I used the wrong word with "accessibility", but even so it didn't warrant that level of animosity. And where, exactly, did I say things are "doing fine"? We aren't "doing fine" here. That's the point. A few people are doing fine and they either don't care or don't know that the rest of the town isn't "doing fine". Unfortunately they're the ones in power and they have no problem retaining power. So, yes, I would say this town hasn't broken enough. We still have the same failed system perpetuating the same failed policies. Break that, drive out the idiots who got us in this mess and start over. Easier said than done, of course. Things are going to have to get a LOT worse before the system breaks and things can get better. You think things are bad now? You ain't seen nothing yet.
DeleteIf you actually think Port Angeles hasn't hit rock bottom, let me remind you... Necessities and Temptations is still open. So's the Fudge Shop, Next Door, all of those. They. Are. Still. Open. They either don't care or don't have to worry about the overall town. Have all those people voting PA "Best Town Even" decided we've hit bottom? There's still a pile of logs on their way to China. If you think the sellers have had to worry about the people in this town you can go "pound sand". A third of residents can't pay their utility bills, you think enough people care? Of course not. Jim McIntire is trying to prevent competition so existing businesses can keep wages artificially low.
DeleteThis town is doing well enough that the people with the pocketbooks haven't been affected yet. Yeah go ahead and tell me that Jim McIntire isn't doing alright for himself. Things need to get really bad before he starts suffering. Remember how bad the downtown association got before someone did something? Took awhile, didn't it? They even lost their charter and no one blinked an eye. But it's all better now, right? Right... This town is just like that. It's like AT&T. They don't care because they don't have to. When they have to care, then we'll be close enough to bottom that things might start happening. Maybe.
This is why things don't change here. Too many still try to absolve themselves of their responsibilities by saying it is "them" that is the problem. Instead of recognizing and acknowledging it is "us". Each one of us. You. Me.
DeleteToo many of us go about our daily lives, waiting for somebody else to fix everything WE create. The truth is, McEntire and all the dumb leaders, and the dumb leadership of all the civic groups are ALL elected by us. Too many of us are content to sit at home and NOT get involved in change.
There is no mystery here. "We have the community we create, and the government we allow". It is a lot easier to point fingers at "them", than acknowledge we are actually the problem. If enough of us really did care enough, things would be different, very quickly.
Last Tuesday night at the Port Angeles City Council meeting a throng of dentist and other local medicos including Dr. Scott Kennedy, Chief Medical Officer at Olympic Medical Center and Dr. Tom Locke, longtime Clallam County Medical Officer came to “testify” before the city council on the importance of keeping fluoride in the drinking water. They gave only anecdotal evidence of children screaming while getting their teeth drilled. They brought only fear and no empirical evidence of the efficacy of fluoridated water.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side, dozens of blue-collar types came to plead with the council to stop medicating residents against their will. They came with peer-reviewed articles from prestigious scientific journals. These articles explained why all the European countries have discontinued use of fluoride in their drinking water. They presented articles showing the damage done by extended use of fluoride and how it causes bones to become brittle and causes pock-marked teeth. The blue-collar types brought scientific proof and the professionals brought only fear.
When I was a small boy Mom would take me and my brothers to the dentist. We usually had cavities and usually got our teeth drilled and filled. Upon getting out of the dentist’s chair the dentist would always reach into his top drawer and hand me a sugary lollypop for “being such a good boy.”
Now I realize this was job security on the part of the dentist. Keep giving kids sugary treats for being “such a good boy” and he was sure we would keep getting cavities and keep coming back.
Now, fast forward to the present. The local dentists, as well as the national dentists’ association want everyone to have fluoride in their tap water. They know this causes fluorisis and other problems with teeth and bones. They know this is their best gambit to ensure their continued livelihood. As long as your tap water causes dental problems they can be sure to keep their successful practice throughout their work life and even into retirement if they are smart enough to sell an ongoing practice.
During the past ten years of putting fluoride in the drinking water these two medical officers could have (and should have) carried on an empirical experiment to prove their contention that fluoride is good for you. Here on the peninsula they have a captive audience. The data would have been incontrovertible. They did not bother to carry out such an experiment. They know such experiments have already been done in other places and they know the results would not prove their case nor would it even create doubt in the minds of those forced to keep drinking tainted water.
I accuse these dentists and the doctors of fear-mongering and deception. At the very least they were unprofessional in their attempts to persuade the people and the council. Fear always works but it is never a valid argument when dealing with people’s health.
Shame on them and shame on the city council for not putting an end to this poisoning of the populace. I urge every voter to work for the removal of those on city council who will not make a firm stand to end this madness.
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Vote for Shan Pak!
DeleteWhy? He never says anything different, and can't even stay for a full city council meeting. And, he seems to get along with Dick Pilling, which should be a warning to all.
DeleteHa Ha ha ha, dick pilling is now the "boogy bear?" Grow up.
DeleteNow, why in the heck would I vote for someone who just moved into this town? Much less, someone who was wooed by the notorious Pilling?
DeleteAnd, what, pray tell, is a "boogy bear"?
Because the people who have lived in this town a long time have been dumbed down by fluoride in the water. You can see the evidence every two weeks at city council. Cherie Kidd seems to drink a lot of the tap water. She's nutty as a Christmas fruit cake.
DeleteI think she was always daft. You can't get that mindless without a lifetime of practice.
ReplyDelete