Other Local Online Forums
I first started this blog because I didn’t know of any online forums in this area. All I knew about was the Port Angeles Journal, which seems like it’s been pretty inactive for the past few years. The same author also publishes the Citizen Review Online, but there's no forum there as far as I know.
Two years ago during the Tse Whit Zen/graving yard controversy, there were two websites for people to voice their differences on that issue; but both of those sites have gone belly up.
During various web searches involving Port Angeles, I've found two national forums that each have a brief section on Port Angeles. Some of the comments are from local residents and some are from people who once lived here or visited here a long time ago. Some of the comments about Port Angeles are positive and some aren't. They're here and here, if you want to see what people think of us. (Or in case you want to answer some of the comments).
Victoria has a huge forum here. With all the travel between Port Angeles and Victoria, we’re affected by some of Victoria’s issues, especially their tentative plan to move the MV Coho from Victoria to Sydney or Esquimalt.
Two years ago during the Tse Whit Zen/graving yard controversy, there were two websites for people to voice their differences on that issue; but both of those sites have gone belly up.
During various web searches involving Port Angeles, I've found two national forums that each have a brief section on Port Angeles. Some of the comments are from local residents and some are from people who once lived here or visited here a long time ago. Some of the comments about Port Angeles are positive and some aren't. They're here and here, if you want to see what people think of us. (Or in case you want to answer some of the comments).
Victoria has a huge forum here. With all the travel between Port Angeles and Victoria, we’re affected by some of Victoria’s issues, especially their tentative plan to move the MV Coho from Victoria to Sydney or Esquimalt.
Labels: Esquimalt, MV Coho, Port Angeles graving yard, Sydney, Tse Whit Zen, Victoria
posted by Tom Harper at 4:02 PM
16 Comments:
One of the biggest problems with PA is that it does is not supportive of new businesses. There is a real low-income, trailer-park mentality that will spend their last dime at Walmart (never what their employment policies or what evil they've done to manufacturers...or what the business has done to the local owned businesses)to the detriment of every other business in town. The local businesses just aren't supported. There is no pride in community, aside from this b.s. one that I keep hearing. (Lip service does not equal real action.)
Of course, to survive the restaurants, remaining businesses, contractors, etc., go out of their way to over charge as much as they possibly can (to the point of charging more than a dinner in NYC!!!!) to stay in business, and because they can gouge. Unfortunately the work ethic in this town is questionable. (Half of the contractors never show up to do bids and IF they do, the bid will be 10x what you'd expect to be "reasonable".) And, if you DO get a written bid (hardly ever, unless it's on a bar napkin) and you ask them to start work, it's a 50/50 chance that they'll even show, EVER. Laziest people I've ever seen. I've seen people in the south, in 100 degree, 100% humidity weather move faster than people around here. Even kids with no education, no skills want $30 bucks an hour, but don't want to work hard enough to break into a sweat! What is the deal?
Then, there are "locals" (born and raised) who are downright RUDE to anyone who came from anywhere else. They make no bones about it "you are ruining our town", they say. And, then some of the church cliques are amazing. They deserve a prize for being the snootiest, rudest, most condescending small minded bigots I've ever seen jammed into one town.
The drug problem and the low income trailer trash just completes the whole picture.
This is a town on the DECLINE.
The town is what it's leaders are...and the council and **most** of the governing body are all about "me me me me" and have the long term sights of a blind mule. They balance the budget by stealing from the populace, meanwhile, cutting services and making a name for themselves with big costly projects. The different departments and the county can't even communicate with each other there are so many little empires and empire builders battling it out. The government lost sight of who they serve....now, it's just themselves. The same handful of idiots have been the city council members for years. The decisions are questionable, at best. One thing is for certain, they do not represent the people.
I'm weary of it all. This is a town that is divided and imploding. In another few years there wont' be business aside from chain stores and crappy franchises. This will be just another bump on the map. The "tourism" is mostly to get to Victoria, or campers and hikers who aren't big spenders. The fiber optic had potential to bring in some other industry, except the city decided to give ONE idiot full control of it (and, he has no more idea how to attract business than a kitten knows how to hunt and kill a deer). In fact, the whole town is ineffective when it comes to attracting any sort of industry, and the locals who hate outsiders will continue to kill tourism.
The reality: There was no reason for the house prices to rise so suddenly, as there is nothing to sustain the value...except idle hope. With the coming real estate crash/bank crisis, you'll start seeing more vacant houses. Downtown businesses are barely surviving. Other businesses are a shadow of what they once were (i.e. Thurman's, Swain's, etc.). The town is looking shabby. The more trees that get taken out, the worse it looks. The entry into town looks like a southern trailer trash slum. The lack of zoning (where nice houses are smashed up against cheap little, ugly box houses, and double wides) and no vision or imagination, coupled with rampant greed and "us-v.s.-them" crony-ism is strangling the town. No matter how nice you'd like to paint it...the town is a sad little one.
Just watch, give it another 5-10 years, and you'll see a ghost town unless something changes really SOON.
The Port Angeles Journal and The Citizen Review Online are not run by the same author.
Peter Ripley, who just ran for City Council, authors the Port Angeles Journal.
Citizen Review Online is put together by Bob and Sue Forde. Bob is the current GOP candidate for Clallam County Commissioner Dist. No. 1, and his wife ran and lost four years ago.
Sorry about that. I thought the Citizen Review Online was Peter Ripley's publication.
To the first "anonymous" whose opinion of Port Angeles is that it's a crappy, no-hope place, I say this: Please try to help make it better instead of bewailing the ways it's lacking. More positive change is needed, and people like you (and I) need to do it. Just moaning about it isn't going to help.
Port Angeles is a physically beautiful place, surrounded by the Strait, the Park, access to Victoria, woods, wildlife -- much to recommend it. We need to attract people here with the good we genuinely possess. Once they're here, we need to make a point of treating them well. I agree, some people are rude, and people litter and graffiti here just like everywhere. But we CAN make it better, and we MUST, for everyone's sake.
Please think of some positive ways to do that, and let us all make Port Angeles what it could and should be.
--A Concerned Resident
"negative" is a subjective term. The reality is...one must identify the problems BEFORE any change can occur. The post (first one) wasn't negative, as much as it was an accurate summation of my experiences (for the last decade and a half) in this town. The pride doesn't go deep. I'm NOT talking about tagging or littering. I'm talking about the total "whatever" attitude that the majority of the people in this town exhibit. The TOWN is not one, but many, many fractured communities. This is the problem.
We need to elect better leadership, FIRST, and then hold our leaders accountable. We need to get behind movements such as the one to limit our property tax increases, we need to create community....because right not there is "no here, here".
Attract people here? Tell me what you mean by that? Let Walmart build another eyesore at the entrance to town? Let Starbucks push out all the local mom-and-pop coffee houses? Encourage the city to make the town more unfriendly to business with outrageous fees and downright hostility? See our city services deteriorate?
What exactly is the point of having a city government if it doesn't work to help US? How many children's programs have been eliminated by the Park and Rec department in the last ten years? Why aren't there adequate signs to direct out-of-towners through the "new maze" of 8th street? Why wasn't a better traffic flow study done? Who decided that a transit center was needed, and why in the heck does the contractor work two weeks, and then take off for weeks on end? (How long is this project going to take, and how much over budget?) What is the deal with a flimsy, ugly cyclone fence INSTEAD of a plywood walkway, which would allow parking, and be safe for pedestrians? What about that awful stretch of roadway up Race (where the motorhome plunged to the drivers death), why wasn't that a state-approved barrier guardrail (like the block ahead, which withstood the impact), and why, almost two months later, is there still a flimsy plastic netting fence. It's not safe!
Our city government is where we need to START to make changes. So, tell me, how do we do that? Any suggestions?
I love this blog! Its great, thank you.
I just wish you'd post more often, because then I could come here daily -- as part of my internet morning routine.
I'm glad it's here.
M: Thanks. I'll try to come up with more frequent posts.
It's me again, Concerned Citizen. Anonymous, please understand that I don't (and didn't) disagree with anything you said. I've been here only 3 years, and I've seen mostly changes that aren't so good. We do need positive change, and I agree it must start with the City government.
Why these powers that be decided to do Gateway, the 8th Street bridges, the possible dam removal, the new water mains, the sidewalk/
Underground project ALL AT ONCE is a mystery to me -- talk about chaos! And I agree that they don't seem to care what the citizens want, or what would help small businesses. We DON'T need a bigger Wal-Mart or more Starbucks. But all of us need to support the little businesses. Most people don't seem to bother coming downtown -- if they did, they'd see that there's a lot here, and it's worth a look.
Let's try to get some of these changes made. Maybe the couple of new people on the City Council will be a start -- did you vote? Hope you will! It's not a magic bullet, but it's something we CAN do.
--C.C.
When I came here many moons ago, one of the first things I noticed was an appearant attitude of a lot of the local merchants of 'anti-local' and uncaring customer service. I could cite many examples but one that stands out was a call I made to a computer store once. After what sounded like him dragging the phone by the cord across the floor, he guy said he was busy right now and told me to call him back tomorrow.
If someone act likes they don't care whether or not I am shopping at their establishment, then I'll shop at a big box or drive to a far away place.
It could be worse. We could be living in Forks!
Hey what am I chopped liver? well, ok I don't make a lot of posts, but it will change..promise. Maybe we could have some kind of Port Angeles network?
http://portangeles.blogspot.com/
Sorry, didn't mean to snub you :) I didn't think you were intending for your site to be a forum. I do have you linked in the sidebar.
There are several local blogs that I'm linked to, but I didn't mention them in the post since I wasn't sure if they wanted people posting and debating on their sites:
Rollin' Waters (a local music group who plays all over the Peninsula) has a blog.
Olympic Peninsula Environmental News -- based in Port Townsend.
Daughter of Tse Whit Zen -- the last post was January '07 and the comments are disabled.
And there are Daily Photo blogs for Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks.
I definitely would like to see more online activity in this area.
I'd like to remind you all--please write to Victoria's mayor and Council and let them know what the Coho means to you and P.A.'s economy and that its dock should be in the Inner Harbour--not out in a Victoria suburb.
http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/mayor_contact.shtml
Also, write the editor of the Times-Colonist:
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Concerning http://portangeles.blogspot.com/, anon comments are not allowed. If I have to register just to comment, whats the point in even bothering to read it?
Really like your blog, Tom. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Barry.
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