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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.
Yes and no...
Tough one.. Had to erase what I wrote several times!
Because, I am a member of that "country club".
What do you mean by outsider? It is nothing about place one is from it is about a belief on what some consider the definition of community. (Outside A realm of thinking)
Yes I could be considered snobbish.. If one threatens my way of life, or my communities vibe.
I might say "It's special, and will fight for it. Make sacrifices with your need for material conveniences or try a different town.
Rude?
I think the Snob factor is a form of Seattle "freeze".. Those that don't get it get froze.
Our activism is to actually walk the talk. Protecting our community form the pressure to become like the vast swaths of dead small towns boring suburban strip malls and big pink Mc Mansions for you and me.
Everywhere has some kind of group think,..ours is just unique and different.
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 will admit I only go a few places past Dons or Quimper that often, as downtown is for tourists...
Tourist money is a good thing, snag some for yourself.
Sorry hate Walmart, watched it come in and destroy two small towns I lived by.
Community works for me.. I buy from you you from me. I donate what I don't need, someone else donated what I do need.
I don't pretend to have the answers.. Just believe we gotta keep fighting back. I also believe small family business is a good way to get dignity back.
On healthcare, it don't seem any worse that any other end if the road tourist town I have lived by. .
So, @TrueTimbers, what's your take on the Growler issue? I'm sure I've asked you this before, but newer members may benefit from a review. Maybe only people living near the water hear the noise, as it's amplified by the water? I didn't hear any Growlers when I was there. On an earlier thread, someone said they're not flying over Pt T, they're flying over the water to avoid the town.
Here in Sequim, which of course is not that near water, I believe we get more air traffic noise from smaller prop planes from our local airports.
TrueTimbers - what if I got a job at the small Port Townsend hospital and I moved to Port Townsend? How would people treat me if I, dare say, wanted to shop for groceries and super glue at Wal*Mart? Would I be treated rudely if I didn't use the barter system and even start growing our own food (or some of it)?
I know, kind of a weird question, but, my question is spawned from a "scary" post on here a few days back from someone who moved there from...was it Montana? They just drove Port Townsend's "politics" or shall I say "how the area folk treat new people who move to Port Townsend" right through the meat grinder. I grew up in Edmonds and lived a nice suburban community life there, got a job at Boeing's Everett Division, and worked 20 years for them. I am now in the Allied Healthcare field, and found work in SW Kansas.
I'm not moving back to Washington, I'm just curious how an outsider would be treated if they move to the northern Olympic Peninsula, Port Townsend region. Would the city's townfolk treat a relative stranger with a "Port Townsend" freeze? Sounds like it - their own "Seattle Freeze" kind of deal.
They fly in violation of their alleged rules. Really low, really close to land. At least one time they flew right over my house, and another time when I was in a building at Fort Worden, it sounded like they flew over land there, too. They lie about the times and days they will fly, they do things like stop flying at about 9 pm...and then resume at 11 pm onward. Ruth, you don't seem to want to hear bad things, but all the complaining is not exaggeration. Whidbey Islanders--or at least those not employed by/related to the Navy--could bend your ear more about the noise.
The first time our new neighbors experienced the "sound of freedom," they asked if something terrible had happened, i.e. had the U.S. just been attacked. The sound is far, far louder than even a commercial jet.
To clear the record, I've been fishing for "bad things" ever since I started a dedicated thread about the Growlers, but much to my surprise, most posters hadn't even heard of the issue at all, let alone been in earshot of the phenom itself, and one or two others said they never heard any noise. So I'm still trying to get to the bottom of it. I even went up there to check it out, and the friends I stayed with live on the water at the opposite side of town from downtown, and there were no Growlers in evidence. These were friends who are RABID opponents of the increased military activity on the Peninsula, and are very politically active in all causes in and around Pt T. Back when I posted the Growler thread, I'd viewed UTube vids about them in Sequim, where there's a military landing strip they were using, and I posted links to articles about them, but I can't help wondering if the issue as it pertains to Pt T isn't exaggerated. Where do you live, pika? I know the planes have been devastating to people in Coupeville and around Sequim, but that doesn't seem to be the case as far as I can determine, in Pt T. Do feel free to elaborate on your post.
TrueTimbers - what if I got a job at the small Port Townsend hospital and I moved to Port Townsend? How would people treat me if I, dare say, wanted to shop for groceries and super glue at Wal*Mart? Would I be treated rudely if I didn't use the barter system and even start growing our own food (or some of it)?
I know, kind of a weird question, but, my question is spawned from a "scary" post on here a few days back from someone who moved there from...was it Montana? They just drove Port Townsend's "politics" or shall I say "how the area folk treat new people who move to Port Townsend" right through the meat grinder. I grew up in Edmonds and lived a nice suburban community life there, got a job at Boeing's Everett Division, and worked 20 years for them. I am now in the Allied Healthcare field, and found work in SW Kansas.
I'm not moving back to Washington, I'm just curious how an outsider would be treated if they move to the northern Olympic Peninsula, Port Townsend region. Would the city's townfolk treat a relative stranger with a "Port Townsend" freeze? Sounds like it - their own "Seattle Freeze" kind of deal.
I visited for about a week last fall, and I told people I was considering moving there, and everyone was very nice and helpful. There was nothing "scary" or political, or exclusionary about my experience.
How would anyone know where you shop for groceries and superglue? I think it's sad that people are reduced to shopping at WalMart; wages seem to be going down, not up. There's something very wrong in the overall economy. Where I currently live, the only people who shop at WalMart are illegal aliens and other low-income Hispanics, pretty much. This is the only community I've ever lived in that even had a WalMart. (Unless Seattle has one hidden away somewhere, that I didn't know about.) But, whatever. Shop where you have to shop. Personally, I like the prepared soups at the Co-op in Pt T. They inspired me to get back into cooking soup.
Well, I think that a lot of this is TT's philosophy on bartering, food growing and the "evil" of Wal*Mart. I wouldn't hold back from moving there if I wanted to. I think it's a cool, old Victorian-era town in a great location. A good chunk away from the big city of Seattle, one would really have to keep that in mind if they want to move to the NE corner of the OP.
But everyone should shop where they want and not worry about where they spend their money.
To clear the record, I've been fishing for "bad things" ever since I started a dedicated thread about the Growlers, but much to my surprise, most posters hadn't even heard of the issue at all, let alone been in earshot of the phenom itself, and one or two others said they never heard any noise. So I'm still trying to get to the bottom of it. I even went up there to check it out, and the friends I stayed with live on the water at the opposite side of town from downtown, and there were no Growlers in evidence. These were friends who are RABID opponents of the increased military activity on the Peninsula, and are very politically active in all causes in and around Pt T. Back when I posted the Growler thread, I'd viewed UTube vids about them in Sequim, where there's a military landing strip they were using, and I posted links to articles about them, but I can't help wondering if the issue as it pertains to Pt T isn't exaggerated. Where do you live, pika? I know the planes have been devastating to people in Coupeville and around Sequim, but that doesn't seem to be the case as far as I can determine, in Pt T. Do feel free to elaborate on your post.
Growlers are not "in evidence" every day. In the years I have been here, they flew much more often in summer than anytime else, BUT NOT ON WEEKENDS. They fly anytime between Monday morning and Thursday late night, occasionally on Fridays but NOT ON FRIDAY NIGHT. You can guess why, can't you? Wouldn't want tourists as witnesses to the noise. As it is, tourists can legimitately say, "I never heard or saw any Growlers near PT and I go there often."
BTW, they claim they fly at night because they need practice in the dark. OK, I get that. Except...then they should not fly so much in summer, when it does not get dark until after 10 pm. Yet summer is precisely when they do a lot of their flying.
When I say "fly" I mean "practice", not just travel between Whidbey and ID. ONE ordinary flight as part of their "commute" is not what gets people so outraged. It is the repeated passes, often with bursts of extra power blasted RIGHT AS THEY GO NEAR TOWN, that creates so much noise.
Yes, indeed, Growler noise is a big intrusion in PT. How bad depends on where they fly out of (NAS or OLF), how close to PT they approach, HOW MANY JETS are flying at the same time, AND what they are doing. Some of their exercises are much louder than others. When they are sticking close to NAS the noise is less. When they are at OLF, the noise is horrible, and overwhelming when they come to this side of the water.
There is one maneuver whose name I forget that is so loud no conversation whatsoever is possible, either indoors or outside. I will try to get the name of that activity, might have been named on the COER website. In the meantime, click the second video to get an idea of what goes on. That was a recording of ONE jet, not the multiple simultaneous flights that have happened at other times. It is worse over Coupeville than PT but it does get bad here, and not only a few days per year. 2013 and 2014 were worse than 2015. We shall see what 2016 brings.
Well, I think that a lot of this is TT's philosophy on bartering, food growing and the "evil" of Wal*Mart. I wouldn't hold back from moving there if I wanted to. I think it's a cool, old Victorian-era town in a great location. A good chunk away from the big city of Seattle, one would really have to keep that in mind if they want to move to the NE corner of the OP.
But everyone should shop where they want and not worry about where they spend their money.
Agreed, and I wish more people with your attitude would move here. Would help when the *vocal minority* that tries to pressure new residents into conforming with their personal beliefs gets going. I believe that is what HighPlainsDrifter was referring to. Most residents would not preach at you about where you shop. As Jackie noted, many people here wish the town had its own WalMart or similar.
A lot of the "buy local" boosterism comes straight out of the Chamber of Commerce newspaper supplements and other sources with vested interest. So there is this weird mixture of quasi-hippieness and commerce; some really believe what they preach while others just are in it for the bucks.
Note on the cruise ship that Ciera mentioned, which makes one pass per week, arriving Thursday morning and leaving Friday.
It is American Spirit, not one of the gigundos like Princess. But it is plenty absurd when docked in little PT. It began as a way to squeeze some tourism from the slower spring and fall seasons.
In 2014, the cruise ship ran the agreed-upon schedule that stopped in late spring and then resumed in October.
In 2015, they expanded to run later and resume earlier. No surprise. That is the way things happen: open the door a crack and keep opening it wider.
The ship guests do not spend all that much in town, from what I heard. But look who runs the free shuttle bus for their passengers: Seaport Landing. That is where the real take must be targeted.
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