Tourists: Can’t Live With ‘Em, Can’t Live Without ‘Em
We all want to attract lots of tourists to the Peninsula. But the “Speaking Out” question in today’s PDN reminded us: clueless self-absorbed tourists aren’t just a figment of John Candy and Chevy Chase movies.
The question was “What could the community or businesses do to improve your stay here?”
Here goes:
“…Also, do something about the seagull droppings.”
“I see a lot of empty stores.” OK, we’ll get right on that. All we have to do is push this little button here, and those empty stores will magically fill up and be open for business.
“It’s frustrating for me to pull over at a viewpoint only to have the scenery blocked by trees.” It’s so much prettier in the Nevada desert, where you don’t have all those damn trees blocking the view.
“More variety of restaurants.” How far do you have to go to find a decent Ethiopian restaurant in this Podunk town?
Other than that, I hope they liked it here.
The question was “What could the community or businesses do to improve your stay here?”
Here goes:
“…Also, do something about the seagull droppings.”
“I see a lot of empty stores.” OK, we’ll get right on that. All we have to do is push this little button here, and those empty stores will magically fill up and be open for business.
“It’s frustrating for me to pull over at a viewpoint only to have the scenery blocked by trees.” It’s so much prettier in the Nevada desert, where you don’t have all those damn trees blocking the view.
“More variety of restaurants.” How far do you have to go to find a decent Ethiopian restaurant in this Podunk town?
Other than that, I hope they liked it here.
posted by Tom Harper at 11:42 PM
13 Comments:
what tourists?
You can drive on the ferry dock 30 minute before a sailing and get right on. NO more waiting through one or more sailings. No more getting to the terminal before dawn to catch the first ferry.
It's a snap.
As for people coming here...haven't you noticed? No traffic. No motorhomes by the dozens passing by.
Used to be that every second or third license plate was out-of-state, or out-of-country...no more.
Tourism drought.
The empty storefronts tell tourists that we're a dying town. If any of them were considering moving here, I'll bet they had second or thrid thoughts.
Not that we really want them.
I contend that if we didn't go on vacations to other places that we would spend our money here instead, and then wouldn't depend on tourists to come here to replace the money we spent other places.
Well, I don't go over fifty miles away, but many do. I don't know about tourists in town but I meet plenty of them in the campgrounds and on the trails.
They of course are not interested in the town and spending money there, mostly they come here to enjoy the park and other such areas.
Port Angeles is the place people go to go somewhere else... Victoria, Rain Forests, Hurricane Ridge, Seattle, Forks... anywhere but here. We're definitely living up to the "Gateway" moniker.
I guess I just feel kind of sad about the way the question was framed. All it left for them to say were the negative things. I would have liked at least one person to say something like "Nice town" or "People were friendly" or something positive.
This is NOT a dying town. It's a town suffering the effects of the downturn, like EVERY town. We all need to be more positive, because, you know, it is going to be OK. It'll just take some time to recover, both here AND the places those tourists were from.
I love Port Angeles, and I think it has a good future.
Was listening to the Victoria news last night (don't have cable, not worth spending that kind of money to watch THAT kind of crap!), and they were saying how the housing/real estate market is returned to "HOT", there. Multiple offers, and prices being bid up, beyond asking price.
"This is NOT a dying town. It's a town suffering the effects of the downturn, like EVERY town."
Not quite! Victoria is only 15 or 20 miles away, with many similarities to Port Angeles (port/waterfront town founded on resource industries, etc.)
Folks need to recognize the reality of the situation here in Port Angeles. We are isolated from any kind of population large enough to support much of an economy.
Those empty stores downtown are reflective of that reality. When outside money is flowing, there is enough spending to keep stores going, but when anything happens (like high gas prices, passport requirements, mill closures, fish stock collapses, etc) to impact that outside money, there is no fall-back.
"I love Port Angeles, and I think it has a good future."
Maybe, but many towns/cities across America, that relied on anchor industries that transitioned into closures, have still not "recovered", many years later.
Wishfull thinking and throwing good money after bad (such as with the Rayonier "redevelopment" proposals) will not help this community. Being realistic, seeing what is actually going on, and planning accordingly, will.
Much as I think Port Angeles will survive, I have to agree with Anon 10:22. Things have changed, are changing, will change, and Port Angeles isn’t adapting. It tends to throw all its weight behind one sort of economy and is left staggering when that economy changes. Logging, fishing, and now tourism have fallen to a shift in focus. And it is banking an awful lot on the Rayonier property. I’m unconvinced that, even if everything goes well and the property can be developed, there will be the demand for it to be developed. Look at the convention center and the "Hollywood Beach condos" which now seems to be nothing more than a pickup trailer. Look at the empty lots around town, and the Papa Murphy's complex. If you include the area outside downtown, there doesn't seem to be the demand for growth. In fact, there seems to be a contraction.
This is carried out elsewhere. Enrollment in Port Angeles schools are shrinking. There's a nationwide trend towards urban rather than rural living. High gas prices have changed the nature of sprawl and of tourism. People can shout "drill baby drill" but the gas prices aren't going down sufficiently enough and quick enough to reverse the change in driving habits.
We'll have to deal with less people and less tourists. Port Angeles is most likely going to shrink economically and socially. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I'm not crying the end of the town. But it will change the town. If handled right, it could be for the better. If not...
Anon at 12:56 PM, July 28
I agree, but I think things only really change when a large group of citizens and business owners work to change it. There is only so much a city/chamber/government can do. Change is usually only effective if it is coming from the right people: ie the citizens. For example, they can try and attract tourists all they want but if business owners aren't convinced then they won't be offering the right kinds of services/ attitude to keep people coming back. I think people aren't sure what to throw their weight behind. I'm not sure that anyone actually cares enough to try and create the excitement necessary to change things.
Anon 2:57...
No, I agree 100%. The city can do a few things. I'd argue that one of the best things it can do right now is shrink, or retrench if that sounds less final. I think it was wise to temporarily give up on the eastern UGA. Closing schools sounds horrible, but it's necessary to focus on what they've still got.
It can also re-focus on select areas and, frankly, give up on others. Let them run down and go back to nature. There are several vacant lots that would make more attractive green spaces than eternally wishing for development.
Any definite growth is going to come from the people, the business owners and the building owners. Right now I don't think Port Angeles is ready to grow, but I see some signs of promise for the future. I also see a lot of potential roadblocks. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out in ten years, though we might just wind up more or less as we are now.
I don't see that town, the city government, or even the businesses support this town. I don't see the city doing more than sucking a sick cow dry. I don't see anyone really caring much about their fellow person. I don't see that most people in town even LIKE their town.
I know everyone is tired of the antagonistic everything that exists here. The bullshit prices, the lack of customer service, the laissez faire attitudes of most everyone, and the city who constantly runs interference, and/or favors only a select few. That's the perception, folks. I used to argue it, but I'm a recent convert.
If you want big examples of this same idealistic "rah rah, we're so great, we're going to come back" check out Detroit
http://www.forgottendetroit.com/
I've driven through lots of ghost towns -- where only one cafe was open, and blocks and blocks of downtown businesses were empty and shuttered. Go to Arizona or Las Vegas and check out the vast empty housing tracts. Look at how many homes are for sale here, and now vacant.
Empty storefronts are an issue all over the country, not just here. But, cities have the advantage of more people and a larger economy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0826013320090709
What do we have to offer businesses? Look at the rental rates of our vacant offices and storefronts: http://www.portangeleslandmark.com/commercial-listings.html
The average is dollar a square foot. Many are more. The spaces are huge -- what kind of business can start here if no owners make smaller spaces, lower rents to cater to new businesses, or something to be ATTRACTIVE Some greedy building owning fools want triple net (lessee to pay for its share of the property's taxes, insurance and operating expenses). Tenant must make all improvements as it is, and most owners are little more than slumlords.
So tell me, how many customers does it take to keep a business afloat if the monthly nut is over $2k a month, not including utility costs and employees? We're not even talking state, county and local taxes, employee taxes (employer pays a share of the benefits), medical (if that turns into a law that the employer is taxed for that), and then the little things, like association dues, advertising, merchandise costs (no credit anymore), etc.
We're seeing a dying downtown..no doubt about it. And, that downtown is in a dying town. No thriving businesses, no demand for housing, no demand for housing, property values drop through the floor. City and county need to find new ways to tax the people who stay.
And, all I see are people saying "lalalalalalala" with their fingers in their ears and clinging to illusion all is great. Fantastic!
" There is only so much a city/chamber/government can do. Change is usually only effective if it is coming from the right people: ie the citizens."
Well, I think "leadership" has a certain function in any community, and here in Port Angeles, THAT has been one of the primary problems. And continues to be.
Even now, the council meets in secret to do things like create that HarborWorks, which involves potentially the biggest development project in Port Angeles history! The previous city council not only disregarded all those petitions to give the Port Angeles citizens the right to run Referendums on issues they care about, but then spent taxpayer money challenging that "right" (this IS a democracy, right?)in the courts.
Remember the previous council (Headrick, Rogers, Williams et al) that threatened to turn off the water to residents in the Gales Addition unless they agreed to sign an annexation agreement? That was in the heat of that summer, for added arm twisting effect.
The list is long, and ever growing. It is one of the reasons that Port Angeles continues to shoot itself in the foot at most every opportunity. The few who can control things (such as they do here) are so busy making sure everything is to THEIR benefit/profit, that the rest of the community just gives up trying. Largely. There are always a small percentage of "rah-rahs" in any community, and they keep trying here, too.
I'm not inclined to be "negative", and don't mean to sound so negative. Will Port Angeles survive? Of course. But, what it will look like, and how much turmoil and upset locals will have to endure, and how much taxpayer money will be wasted needlessly is another question.
Seeing all the vacant buildings around, I sure can't see the rationale of spending serious money to pursue building even more buildings over at Rayonier. To compete with the already properous businesses in Port Angeles?!? Then tourists will see an even higher ratio of "empty storefronts". There's leadership, Port Angeles style.
Typical PDN wording. I love your post. Just the right dash of snark to make it funny.
I like the tourists. Except the ones standing in Safeway line talking about my town being a shithole. They were from Tacoma. I asked. You can imagine what my comment was back to them.
our town IS a shithole!
Please, people. Look around. We have our small businesses struggling, but two Safeways (no charm there), an Albertson's, a huge Goodwill, a Walmart (and someday a bigger one, right across from the vacant old one). We have a 30-40% vacancy rate in our commercial buildings (with the owners wanting way toooooo much money and would rather leave them vacant than cut a deal). We have a glut of vacant, for sale homes. We have a largely uneducated workforce, and a very high unemployment rate compared to the state average. We have a massive drug problem (meth being the biggest problem) including more drunks and smokers -- much higher than the state average. We have an excessive number of kids involved with DSHS (more than state average). We have more people living at or below the poverty rate than the state average. We are predominantly white, with a high school education, two or more kids, and married more than once.
We are, in short, largely a town of poor dumb white people with an attitude! We are not glad to see tourists, but instead sneer at them, provide crappy service, and have little initiative to actually create a tourist industry.
Tourists are, on average, more affluent and better educated. Of course they make fun of this town and are NOT IMPRESSED.
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