Juan de Fuca Festival; Farmers Market DOWNTOWN

The Port Angeles Farmers Market will be downtown again this coming Saturday. They'll be at the same downtown location they were in several Saturdays ago: the parking lot on North Laurel between First and Front, next to The Toggery. It's only for this one Saturday. They're being bumped out of their Courthouse location because of the Juan de Fuca Festival.

It’s gonna be a lively Memorial Day Weekend with the Farmers Market back downtown (Yess!!!!) and the Juan de Fuca Festival (information here). Check it out.

Junk Cars, Property Rights

This controversy has been raging for awhile now. It looks like the “junk car” law will be voted on by the Clallam County Commissioners this coming week.

What do you think about this? Are junk cars a hazard? Does it intrude on your property rights when the government tells you what you can and can't do in your own yard?

How exactly do you define a Junk Car? Would this law discriminate against lower-income people? After all, you aren't likely to see a Lexus or a Mercedes up on blocks in somebody’s front yard.

If this law gets passed, is it enforceable?

Let’s hear from YOU.

Traffic Safety in Port Angeles

As we've been reading in the PDN, traffic accidents have been getting worse around here. With all those graduation parties approaching (and the summer tourists), we need to do something about this.

What's the solution? Road improvements? Stricter enforcement of traffic laws? Hiring more police officers? All of the above?

What do YOU think we should do?

Gateway Center: New Information

This Wednesday, May 9th at 7:30 a.m. there will be a meeting of the Port Angeles City Council and Clallam Transit, in the City Council Chambers. They will be providing updated information about Gateway Center.

If you live, work or shop anywhere near downtown Port Angeles, the Gateway Project is going to affect YOU.

Please attend this meeting. Forewarned is forearmed.

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UPDATE: There was a meeting at the City Council Chambers this morning. The meeting included personnel from Clallam Transit and Primo Construction, the company handling the Gateway project.

They stated that right now there are still more questions than answers, but there will be periodic meetings to keep everyone updated. Tentatively there'll be another meeting in June. They're expecting to start construction next month, and they're hoping to be done by “late summer” of 2008.

The project will include a 2-story parking garage, bus lanes, a clock tower, a plaza area, and a transit terminal building with restrooms. AND, they also said the entire project is funded.

The City has plans for mitigating the parking problems. This includes creating temporary additional parking spaces on Oak and Cherry Streets, and running a trolley during peak periods. The trolley would take people from the parking areas to downtown shopping, the ferries, etc.

Downtown Sequim: A Model for Port Angeles?

No, not the Big Boxes and the miles of strip malls. But the rumors are true: if you look past Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Costco and every other franchise you ever heard of, there's a real living breathing town buried in there somewhere. There are some main streets, old buildings, and locally owned shops. Downtown Sequim — it’s not an oxymoron.

Right now, Port Angeles isn't facing the population explosion that’s been wrecking/wracking Sequim. But Sequim is being forced to deal with saving and revitalizing its downtown, and they're coming up with some very sensible solutions.

Whether or not Port Angeles ever gets bombarded with thousands of newcomers, our downtown could take a cue from Sequim’s planners.

People living right in town, free shuttle buses all over the downtown area — sounds like a plan.

Local Environmental Website

If you're concerned about local environmental issues — and aren’t we all, living here on this beautiful Olympic Peninsula — please check out this local website.

The Olympic Peninsula Environmental News covers environmental issues, events and projects on the Olympic Peninsula, Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Hood Canal.

Regardless of one’s political leanings, protecting this unique treasure should be a top concern of everyone who’s lucky enough to live here. The Olympic Peninsula Environmental News is an excellent site for staying on top of the environmental issues that affect all of us. And if you're looking for any local government agencies or environmental organizations, chances are you'll find them linked there.

Check it out.