Changes Coming to Port Angeles

Two city-owned Port Angeles buildings are for sale: the City Light building at 240 West Front Street and the old fire hall at 215 South Lincoln. (Here’s the link.)

The fire hall (a historic building) is currently leased to MaMa’s Bakery & Restaurant, which hasn’t been open for awhile.

Family Medicine of Port Angeles (currently on West Eighth Street) might move into the City Light building. This would bring a lot more people into the downtown.

The Clallam County Historical Society is hoping whoever purchases the fire hall will be required by the City to maintain the building’s historical characteristics.

Also, the Bella Rosa Coffee House — at Fourth and South Lincoln — is for sale. There's an ad on Craigslist. Let’s hope it stays a coffee house, whoever buys it. As far as I know, it’s the only coffee house in Port Angeles that’s open in the evenings. What will happen to Port Angeles’ caffeine addicts?

Crime in Port Angeles: What To Do?

Next November we’ll probably be voting on a measure to increase the local sales tax. The increase would be one tenth, two tenths or three tenths of one percent. The tax increase would be used for funding more sheriff’s deputies, assistant prosecutors, public defenders and a new Superior Court judge.

It’s clear that we need more law enforcement personnel. Vandalism seems to be everywhere, and serious crimes — last Friday’s attempted mugging (in the middle of the day) was the most recent — are getting more brazen. One judge said his caseload has almost doubled since 2001.

What do YOU think we should do about rising crime in the Port Angeles area? Do we need more police officers on patrol? More surveillance cameras in public places? Will viligantism start becoming more common and more acceptable? Do you think raising the sales tax is the way to increase law enforcement and reduce crime?

What's your perception of crime in the Port Angeles area? Do you feel safe when you're out shopping, doing errands, strolling around? If not, what's your solution?

Jazz in the Olympics

Are you all ready to party? This weekend — April 27th through the 29th — Port Angeles will be hosting the annual Jazz In The Olympics Festival. Three days of music at four Port Angeles locations: Red Lion (2nd floor); Elks Lodge (First and Lincoln); Vern Burton Center (Fourth and Peabody) and the Eagles Club (110 Penn Street).

These are the bands.

Here's the Schedule.

Check it out!

The Farmers’ Market

OK, Port Angelinos — ARE YOU READY?!? Mark your calendars for this coming Saturday, April 21st. The Farmers’ Market will be returning to downtown Port Angeles — for this one Saturday only. They’ll be in the parking lot at First and North Laurel, next to The Toggery; across the street from the fountain. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Details here.

And that’s not all. Along with the Farmers’ Market there'll be an Earth Day celebration and live music. Don't miss it.

Downtown rocks!

UPDATE:

Today’s Peninsula Daily News has an interesting article about the Port Townsend Farmers Market. For some reason this article doesn’t appear in the printed version of the paper; it’s online only. Here’s the link.

The Port Townsend Farmers Market’s website is very detailed and might have some helpful information that we can use here in Port Angeles. Here's their site.

UPDATE:

Today's Peninsula Daily News has an article about tomorrow's Farmers Market/Earth Day celebration in downtown Port Angeles. Here's the link.

See y'all tomorrow in beautiful downtown Port Angeles.

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It was great having the Farmers Market back downtown on a Saturday. People were shopping and strolling everywhere. Downtown was ALIVE.

Looking forward to having the Farmers Market return to downtown Port Angeles every Wednesday, starting this June.

Port Angeles Waterfront Property Development

As you probably read the other day in the Peninsula Daily News, a new development project will soon be coming to the property at Oak and Front Streets in downtown Port Angeles. (Here’s the link.)

Black Diamond Harbor Plaza will tentatively include retail space, a restaurant, condominiums and an underground parking garage. Construction might start this summer.

The property is owned by Harry Dorssers, who bought the land from the Port of Port Angeles in September 2006.

So, what do you think of this project? Will it be good for downtown Port Angeles? I’d like to see the glass as half full instead of half empty. When this project is complete, a lot more people will be living in downtown Port Angeles. These will be affluent people who live within walking distance of everything downtown Port Angeles has to offer. This can only be good, right?

What do YOU think?

Downtowners' Meeting, April 25th: NOT!

OOPS! There's been a change, or a "misunderstanding," or something. Turns out April will have a standard Morning Mingle after all. Same time, same station: Landings, 8 a.m. on Wednesday April 25th. We'll try to get this new evening format started in May (hopefully), pending PADA Board approval.

Thanks to all of you who responded in support of a new format. We'll let you know as things progress.

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EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

The Port Angeles Kayak Symposium, April 13th through 15th at City Pier and Hollywood Beach. For more information click here and here.

Check it out. And let's hope this brings a big influx of people into downtown Port Angeles this weekend.

Downtown/Gateway/Parking/City Council/ PADA

Things are heating up again in Downtown Port Angeles. Gateway Center construction will be starting soon, and the downtown parking situation will be Godawful. As you probably know, there's a disagreement (to put it mildly) between the Downtown Association and the City Council, regarding the parking situation.

In a nutshell: How much of a priority is it to provide parking for customers shopping downtown?

There have been long-term agreements between the City Council and the Downtown Association, stipulating that the Gateway construction will cause no net loss of parking spaces downtown. But several downtown parking lots have already been condemned (to make way for the Gateway project) and sold. This has created a loss of parking revenue for the Downtown Association, not to mention the huge loss of parking spaces for downtown customers. Just think how much worse it'll get when the construction actually starts. What happened to those agreements???

The Downtown Association wanted to go through the mediation process with the City Council to work out their disagreements on downtown parking. This mediation was to be an alternative to litigation. The City Council turned down the mediation request. So, where do we go from here? Litigation? There might be a meeting between the City Council and the Downtown Association — will this meeting be public or private? Will it be on the record or off the record?

What do YOU think should be done?

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UPDATE: The Port Angeles Farmers Market will be returning downtown on Wednesdays. This will begin in early June. They'll be using the parking lot at the corner of Laurel and West First Streets. Saturdays are unlikely any time soon, at least for that particular parking lot. However, the Farmers Market WILL be downtown (at that same parking lot) on Saturday, April 21st. That's because the Courthouse parking lot, where the Market usually sets up, will be closed that day for a car show.

So come on, Port Angeles residents, be sure to come into town on Saturday April 21st, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to check out the Farmers Market at West First and Laurel. It'll be just like the good old days. And be sure to do lots of shopping and dining and strolling while you're here.