Changes to Port Angeles Waterfront
The almost final draft of the Port Angeles Waterfront transformation was unveiled last week at the Red Lion.
Proposed changes include:
Moving the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center from City Pier to the vacant land just east of the Valley Creek Estuary. That same land might become a landscaped park with beach access. And Hollywood Beach could be expanded.
Proposed changes include:
Moving the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center from City Pier to the vacant land just east of the Valley Creek Estuary. That same land might become a landscaped park with beach access. And Hollywood Beach could be expanded.
posted by Tom Harper at 7:52 PM
11 Comments:
Love the comments in the PDN. "Why bother? The bums and kids will just take it over. Let's not ever do anything except stay home and watch TV and eat Cheetos."
Nothing against Cheetos but, geez, no wonder the town is the way it is.
Changes that do not involve more smokestacks and polluting industry would be a good thing. Changes that do involve more open and green space would be a good thing. Overall, these proposed changes will be good things. The naysayers will say nay - but they would no matter what. I look forward to seeing these ideas made real.
I don't have time to be bothered with it, I go much cooler places. Music on the pier is cool though.
Yeah,"bums" and kids are ALL about taking over places, just like Wall St. corporate nazis.
I found this whole "waterfront redevelopment" project interesting from the perspective of "Why this, here, now?".
If the city, county, state or even federal government had lots of extra money floating around, and they were looking for some obscure project to throw money at.. okay.. sure.
As has been said on this blog before, these "improvement" projects are "Lipstick on a pig", and "pearls before swine". Well intentioned, but not realistic.
As another person said on this subject, visitors to this newly redeveloped waterfront will not escape the nearby industrial activities. The huge oil tankers, log yards, machinery and smoke stacks CANNOT be ignored or overlooked.
Does it really do anyone any good to headline pretty pictures showing people enjoying a newly redeveloped waterfront, that ignores the industrial reality only a few feet away? Isn't that a lot like "Bait and Switch"? Isn't that like the old classic Florida real estate scams that lured people into investing in properties by highlighting the beauties of waterfront lands, but neglected to mention the flooding and swamps?
With all the needs Port Angeles has, why has this become a priority? Does anyone really think it will be the economic salvation for Port Angeles? Has any information been developed to support spending money on these projects? Are they just spending close to a million dollars, just because they want to?
Yes, there will still be smokestacks in Port Angeles - so does that mean we should put off any and all improvements to downtown until after those industries are gone? I mean, come on people, this is mixed use we're talking about. The key word there is USE. Why can't we do things to increase the USE of the waterfront and downtown by both tourists and locals?
Well said, Anon 9:58 PM.
What a pity that the money spent on these visions for the downtown area could not be spent instead on supporting the Fine Art Center, the Marine Life Center, the swimming pool, social services, sidewalk and street improvements through the rest of the town, etc.
Why so much attention on only the "needs" of the downtown?
By the way --- when it comes to improving the visual appeal of the downtown - does anybody agree with me that the new parking structure is ugly and way too prominent a feature for a waterfront business district?
Idea: All the vacant downtown storefronts should be bulldozed to make some free parking spaces so that more tourists and locals can come downtown to use the proposed "open and green spaces".
Does anybody NOT think it's fugly?
It looks like it would make a decent detention camp though.
"Yes, there will still be smokestacks in Port Angeles - so does that mean we should put off any and all improvements to downtown until after those industries are gone? I mean, come on people, this is mixed use we're talking about. The key word there is USE. Why can't we do things to increase the USE of the waterfront and downtown by both tourists and locals?"
What makes you think these "improvements" WILL increase the use of the area by any measurable amounts? That is the point of these critical comments.
As in the past, well intentioned folks support these proposals based upon the optimistic rhetoric of project proponents. Money is spent on consultants who tell their clients what they want to hear.
There is no "tourism" in Port Angeles to speak of. I remember being told by a local hotel owner how people make 3 day reservations to come to Port Angeles based upon TV ads touting it being the "...the center of it all..".
Once they get to Port Angeles and spend an hour or so looking around, they return to the hotel to cancel the remaining days of their reservation.
They leave feeling like they've been deceived. I can't imagine they return home to tell their friends what a great place Port Angeles is.
It isn't good enough to hype up something, unless you have something of substance to support it.
So, before the city spends money, yet again.. as it has for years now (with virtually no gain in downtown "use") .. it might well think long and hard, realistically, about what will actually bring tourists TO Port Angeles. FIRST. THEN build the pretty sidewalks along the waterfront, when you know there will be people to actually utilize them.
Like successful businesses, studies are done FIRST to determine IF there will be sufficient patronage BEFORE any investments are made.
"..there will still be smokestacks in Port Angeles - so does that mean we should put off any and all improvements to downtown until after those industries are gone?"
What makes you think those industries are going anywhere, anytime soon? You are aware of Nippon Mills' "Bio-Mass" proposals, which will double the amount of materials being trucked in (to almost 200,000 tons each year) and burned, and raise that smokestack another 75 feet into the sky.
Of course the christians here would not allow that cuz we're supposed to ignore the fact that they are christians in the bars and liquor store. And Hooters and the whorehouse if we had them here.
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