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I worked in the Sequim schools for awhile, they are much better than many public schools in this country. Perhaps public schools in Wisconsin are in much better shape than a lot of states... I don't believe that Wisconsin has a steadily increasing population like the western states do...it puts a strain on the infrastructure, obviously. There is a large & ever-increasing student population in the western states...not so in Wisconsin. Your state is not growing in leaps & bounds. You are not yet a resident of Washington, Jumpindogs...perhaps your perspective will change when you are.
Are you comparing to public schools in areas of similar population and incomes? I get that Sequim's public schools are better than those in some of the poorer areas of the country but that wouldn't be a valid comparison.
Excellent point about growth, MMM. And yes, my perspective may change...I am certain it will some. But I cannot imagine myself denying school age children many of the improvements that have been written about. And I am a childless, generally fiscal conservative so that's saying something. Education is so important.
Kids don't need infrastructure to learn but they do need it to feel safe and to be safe. In today's world of heightened school security how is that managed with so many temporary structures and with street crossings to get from class to class?
And having to wait in a long line for one bathroom? Yeah, in a one room schoolhouse out in the boonies of yesteryear. But not in today's world. At least that's how I see it.
LOL! Nobody wants to move to Wisconsin. We have frigid cold and snow and heat and humidity and mosquitoes and ticks and thunderstorms and tornadoes and obscene taxes and...oops. Sorry. I got carried away. But we do have the Packers!
OP
Live with less and live in PT. Right in uptown. Walk, bike, take public transportation. Use the internet at the library.
Port Ludlow is a million miles away. We travel that far maybe a couple times a year. Hadlock or Chimacum is plenty far travel for us. Hehehe,..
We are 100% involved, living, breathing, working,.playing shopping, kids in school Port Townsend area residents.
It is a perfect fit for us.. But we were small town upper Midwesterners and the real vibe of the Rural and remote Olympic Peninsula is just that.
I will take breif mill smoke, over the stench of a big city any day. All those freaking cars. Yuck. (Park that car... Walk the talk!!!)
It is my opinion the cost of living in Ludlow and regularly , driving to PT is very high, especially for the environment!! It goes against the old world self contained community vibe. Walk, bike, get rid of the car.
Personally I can't imagine all those old people in huge fancy houses so isolated. It's sad too me, why?? seems.so lonely ????
Live low impact.. Keep it local. If you got time give it.
Less is more!
By the way we have the most awesome Marine science center that always needs help.
If Port Townsend fits a person it fits real good. As a.people person, it is one big family party from now till the end of the year! Our farm.market, and events are second to none. Kids like Rhody fest, me it's all about Kinetic races.
We are a community...
Seriously, follow your gut.. For me it took 3/seconds to know Sequim was not for me. IMO, Big box stores stole the heart and soul of America.. I personally dispise them... And consider their cost to society to be very very high!
Port Townsend might just be the last small town in America to not be "Zombified" by Walmart!!
And maybe just maybe the Mill keeps us REAL.. Real people, doing real work at real jobs, with real benefits, that actually produce real products.. Living real lives,.spending local money locally..
And ya.. We like it where weeks go by and we never go faster than 35mph!
One must slow down to island time...
Hey, TT, I was reading someone just mercilessly putting down Port Townsend on here earlier. Wow, they were trying to say that the people of Port Townsend were in some kind of snobbish "Country Club" of sorts, rude to outsiders. Truth? I immediately thought that I should ask someone who really lives there.
I find your comments interesting...PT has a better age mix then Sequim? Don't think so....Sequim is actually getting younger and younger...hard to believe until you see Sequim is looking to add schools and that is for a reason....more young people are staying in Sequim after graduation from high school. I for one have to scratch my head why any high school grad would stay in PT....PT discourages businesses unless it has to do with the so-called arts or antique businesses that pays minimum wages. Which I guess is fine if you plan to spend all your time fondling old stuff.
Most younger people in PT have other things to do than shopping at hobby owned businesses that pays those minimum wages and has the strangest hours..The fact is most of the younger kids flee PT after High school. And that is a fact.
Your not from rural America are you?
Young people flee from rural areas... That is not new or unique.. What is unique are communities that support and nourish small start up business.. By young people that left and then came back!!!
Those "hobby" stores are frequently owned by young entrepreneurs. Owning your own business is better than being at a dead end Walmart greeter job for fat pig billionaire Waltons.
(We are done being Wall Street slaves, we are taking back Main Street!)
So I will support what I believe in and shop at "hobby" stores.. Since I am a full time "hobby" Farmer.,.LOL
Not from what I've seen. Not that there's anything wrong with that but it seems like a retirement community. Maybe upgrading the schools will help. A poster a while back said Sequim's schools were in terrible disrepair so maybe they have no choice.
Yes the overall presumption is Sequim is a retirement community and yes a lot of retired people do live here. Mostly I guess because of the weather and the overall beauty of the area from the mountains/National Park to the closeness of the Strait. But a lot of young people do live here in the area.
Now about Sequim schools...we have had three failed levies in the past year, mostly voted down by those very same retirees....why? Because IMO it about the state legislature dragging their feet passing a court mandated fully funded education bill and maybe a little selfishness.
People thought the state was going to be forced to fully fund education so why should they vote to raise their property tax for any school levy.
Well the state legislature didn't pass anything but promises.....And by the way because of the 60% majority voted required the levies failed with majority of votes still in favor all three times the levy was presented.
May I ask where do you live? I have lived on the Peninsula for 18 years and the past 14 in Sequim and the first four years in the PT area. I have a grandson who has went through the Sequim school system from k-up and now attends Sequim High School. I also had a grand daughter who attended and graduated from PT high school.
Thank you, Ciara, for the reality check. The message I get loud and clear, is "don't live downtown!"
this is not so much to you, ruth, but to *locals* who have the same sort idea as you,
that the easy thing to do in PT is just "find the perfect part of town" to live in, and
everything will be okay. like as if, if people don't like it downtown they
just simply shouldn't live there.
my mother has lived downtown for 30 years. i was raised downtow, and
i raised my kids downwown. it's not like everyone who lived downtown
moved in *after* the whole "spiff project" happened. but now, the people
who have lived there for quite some time, are considred "the enemy" and
these fancypants empire-builders who have swooped in, are trying to
drive them out by redlining. (if you dn't know what that is, look it up.
it describes PT very well.)
for those who are claiming healthcare is so great here, based on "what you
heard" from someone, it might be becasue those people dont know any
better. but if you compare cancer care out here compared to cancer (or
anyother care) across the nation, the way of doing things out here is
deadly.
most of the people who keep tooting the PT horn on here, sound just
like they're the verysame chamber of commerce/pt mainstreet foundation
kind of people who are actually strangling this city to death, trying to
turn it into a playground for the wealthy instead of a place where real
people who actually *work* for a living, can live. this place now is
just pretty much for people who have so much money they live
on their interest payments, or people who own big companies and
just sit back and go sailing while other people do the work for them.
anyone who is just a bluecollar working family is considered scum,
and when we walk into the the stores downtown where we have lived
our whole lives, the neuvo (sp?) rich who have moved here and taken
over, treat us like we stink like cowpies. this city was not always this
rude, this uptight, or this broken. the influx of the california people
driving the cost of everything up, is a problem over the entire
pacific northwest, but it's especially bad here.
i don't know if any of you have ever watched the show "wayward
pines" but when i watched it, i laughed so hard. it's basically port
townsend in a nutshell. anyone who wants to understand *exactly*
what it is like to live here, should watch that show.
Young people flee from rural areas... That is not new or unique.. What is unique are communities that support and nourish small start up business.. By young people that left and then came back!!!
Those "hobby" stores are frequently owned by young entrepreneurs. Owning your own business is better than being at a dead end Walmart greeter job for fat pig billionaire Waltons.
(We are done being Wall Street slaves, we are taking back Main Street!)
So I will support what I believe in and shop at "hobby" stores.. Since I am a full time "hobby" Farmer.,.LOL
yeah, "hobby stores". the shops downtown owned by "young entrepreneurs" are
basically kids from rich families, who set up shop and then sit in their shops treating
the locals in the most surly manner possible. not only that, when you look at the
bottom of all the crapthey sell, it's "made in china". not only that, their stores last
on average about 3 months. then they wait a minute, go to a new locattion with
a new name, and set up another store. my guess is, it's a tax writeoff for their
parents, or money laundering, or both. "taking back main street"my fanny.
there's word for it. it's called *gentrification*.
you may be a hobby something or other, but we who are working class and
struggling to make ends meet, could *really* use a wal mart here. the truth of
our lives is, our money is gonna get stolen from us by banks and large corporations,
nomatter what. most of the rich people here avoid paying whatever taxes they can,
and refuse to help build a homeless shelter or any of the other things low income
people need. what difference does it make to us if the rich people are waltons
or city council memebers? i've lived in communities where there is a wal mart.
wal mart does more for low income people than port townsend does, and if
you know anything at all about wal mart, that should give you an idea of
how cruel the redlining in port townsend is.
you aren't "taking back mainstreet". you're just making sure the rich fat pigs
of this particular town fare well, intead of the rich fat pigs of another town.
meanwhile, the poor still suffer and starve, either way.
Sequim schools are not terrible. Compared to other public schools, they are luxurious. The people who send their kids Sequim public schools just want more...that's understandable, everybody wants more for their kids. But a huge number of them are not property owners...therefore, do not pay property tax...therefore, do not fund public schools, yet want the very best. There are many people in the area who do private or home school...viable options in small communities.
Whoa! FYI people who rent still pay the owners property taxes! Do you actually think the property owner would bear the cost by themselves? Another point... parents who send their kids to private school/home school are not exempt from paying property taxes....
Sequim schools are luxurious? When was the last time you visited a Sequim school? The in town grade school (Helen Haller), for example, has numerous portables and in fact after the levy failure they just added two new ones in the parking lot of the high school football field. Check out the bath rooms in those portables. Some of the activities at Helen Haller are done at the near by Boys and Girls Club because of a lack of space for the large student body. Boy did you get me started or what?
yeah, "hobby stores". the shops downtown owned by "young entrepreneurs" are
basically kids from rich families, who set up shop and then sit in their shops treating
the locals in the most surly manner possible. not only that, when you look at the
bottom of all the crapthey sell, it's "made in china". not only that, their stores last
on average about 3 months. then they wait a minute, go to a new locattion with
a new name, and set up another store. my guess is, it's a tax writeoff for their
parents, or money laundering, or both. "taking back main street"my fanny.
there's word for it. it's called *gentrification*.
you may be a hobby something or other, but we who are working class and
struggling to make ends meet, could *really* use a wal mart here. the truth of
our lives is, our money is gonna get stolen from us by banks and large corporations,
nomatter what. most of the rich people here avoid paying whatever taxes they can,
and refuse to help build a homeless shelter or any of the other things low income
people need. what difference does it make to us if the rich people are waltons
or city council memebers? i've lived in communities where there is a wal mart.
wal mart does more for low income people than port townsend does, and if
you know anything at all about wal mart, that should give you an idea of
how cruel the redlining in port townsend is.
you aren't "taking back mainstreet". you're just making sure the rich fat pigs
of this particular town fare well, intead of the rich fat pigs of another town.
meanwhile, the poor still suffer and starve, either way.
I didn't see any hobby stores in Pt T. I didn't go into every store downtown, but all the ones I went into were "real" stores. I think it's too bad the Ancestral Spirits Gallery had to close, that was a nice store. The bottom dropped out of the art market, and they were surviving for years on trinket sales--art mugs and similar cr@p. That's what paid their rent, for the most part. Cr@p sells. "Real" art doesn't.
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But we do have the Packers!
