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.
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.
Labels: Port Angeles, Sequim
posted by Tom Harper at 9:58 AM
7 Comments:
Let's have free shuttle buses to move all newcomers to Sequim instead of Port Angeles.
"a real live town under all those big boxes" -- who knew.
I went to the Sequim First Friday Artwalk this weekend. I did not get there till around 7 since I own a shop myself and couldn't get ther till that time. I have to admit I enjoyed the shopping more than the "art events". It was so nice that all the shops were open so late. It was 8-8:30 and all the shops were open!! I wish Port Angeles shops could work together to stay open late for events.
That's great news about downtown Sequim. Shops staying open until 8:30 when there's an event going on -- that's the key. Port Angeles merchants, are you listening?
We talked about it a year ago and I decided to go forward with staying open later, It's been in the paper now at least 5 times and it's been a year and I can honestly say I haven't made one sale from 5:30 till 7pm on those nights.
Now that the farmers market is coming back on Wed. night well.... we will just have to wait and see. I don't know what it takes to generate interest in shopping downtown.I don't buy into the parking excuse, because I have never had a problem parking downtown PA, yet I have a hard time finding parking in Sequim.
Aside from the Downtown Hotel and Quality Inn on Second Street there's a lack of hotels within the downotwn area. It was a big mistake to turn the Lee Hotel into "low income housing". If you look at Port Townsend there's at least four motels within the downtown area.
Did everybody read about that new 3-story building in downtown Sequim? (Today's PDN.) A mixture of offices, retail and residential. Whatever anyone thinks of this project, the architect says he's "designing for pedestrian flow, to keep downtown alive." He said:
"The idea is to circulate people, just like a shopping mall. You need continuous storefronts. Pedestrian flow is like blood flow. If you block it, everything dies. That's one of the problems with downtown Port Angeles. They have gaps that are like blocked arteries."
This is something Port Angeles needs to be aware of and to take action on.
(I left this same comment at the Gateway Center post also, since this comes under both topics.)
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