Dumb dumb me. Here I thought the problem with the lovely town of Port Townsend, Washington was that the kids can't spell, and an anarchist publisher wants to help terrorists get into the U.S. from Canada.
I had it all wrong. The "corporate dollars" from the "mutual funds and investments" of new, well-off residents, plus their "expensive cars, large new homes and carbon bicycle frames" have driven up taxes, ruined public schools, eviscerated the bowling alley and skating rink, boosted crime and drug use, and have begun to chase the working class out of town. It's time for a regional effort to form "The New Working People's Party," based on a "liberal social and environmental platform incoporating the true meaning of sustainability and diversity." At least, that's what Dave Thielk says, in this week's Port Townsend Leader.
Dave, wash the curried tofu out of your eyes. Those people with the mutual funds, fancy cars and big houses ARE diversity, for Port Townsend. Criminy, you can have your crumbling gingerbread Victorian, OK? And those carbon bicycle frames? They last a LONG time. In the meantime, let's all hope David Lindley comes back to town.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at April 28, 2006 01:35 PM | Email ThisHe starts off like a right winger complaining about taxes:
My property taxes for 2005 were $2,389.48. In 2006, I will pay $3,464.10. I work in Silverdale because of the dearth of jobs available here that will support me financially and professionally.
But then complains that he doesn't make enough as a teacher (don't they get paid by taxes?):
Alas, I anticipate no significant increases in salary ever without a dramatic shift in the public's willingness to pay more taxes for teacher's salaries.
Hmm. Maybe he needs his own political party. A goverment worker anti tax party. Oh well.
Posted by: Erik on April 28, 2006 01:51 PMWould you like some cheese with that whine?
Everything he mentioned that adds to quality of life, adds to the taxes he would pay.
So what do you want, lower taxes, or higher level of services. Can't have both bucko!
Our public schools are in dreadful shape. He's a teacher what is he doing to improve his and his schools performance. Will paying him more improve his performance. Where I work I have to perform first, then get paid more.
Further, at 52, I am beginning to plan retirement. Bit late don't you think? Depending on Social Security and his Teaching pension methinks. (stand by for more whine on that front).
In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny:
What a Maroon
Apparently, Port Townsend residents have 'just realized' what the rest of us outside of Port Townsend have had to do for years.
And, psst. Sherlock. Those bulk of those property taxes pay for your 'dreadful' public schools.
Maybe if you didn't outsource your own job to Silverdale, you'd realize the faults with your public schools have less to do with 'self-indulgent' adults and more to do with whiny teachers such as yourself.
Posted by: jimg on April 28, 2006 03:39 PMAre you kidding? He's a anti tax right winger who hates taxes.
Posted by: Erik on April 28, 2006 04:14 PMI hope his grasp of math is better than his understanding of economics.
He wants "sustainable economic development for families that was not overly dependent on tourism or construction."
What are the chances that Port Townsend's economy could avoid depending on tourism and the construction that accommodates tourists and retirees? The reason the old part of town looks like a Victorian town that got stuck in a time warp is that the railroad wasn't built out to the town as had been hoped. They didn't become the seaport the original investors and builders thought they would become. The "time warp" that preserved that town's Victorian appearance was the lack of economic growth all those years up to the point that tourists and retirees began to have an impact.
What's left now, other than tourism and retirees? The logging industry probably isn't going to make a comeback. Even Thielk has to commute across Hood Canal to Central Kitsap to get a job teaching math in high school.
His utopian dreams mark him as a "liberal" who despises the choices people make in a market economy and free society.
I think that most of them just live bitter little lives whining that life isn't "fair"....
Posted by: H Moul on April 28, 2006 06:59 PMMost of us also do our shopping and conduct our business in Kitsap or Clallam Counties. We consider Port Townsend irrelevant. The leftist kooks who dominate the culture, politics and business climate of PT have little to offer working people. We do have dinner in PT now and then, between bites chuckling at the "diversity" offered by the range in age of the hippies.
The "artsy" hips are mostly 50 or 60-somethings whose wealthy, aged parents live in California and pay the hips' rent in PT, rather than have them move back home. The young hips just like the drugs, back-alley clubs, permissive culture and the free stuff the taxpayers provide.
Unless the polital culture changes and allows businesses some opportunity, most of us will continue to point our headlights towards Hwy 104.
Posted by: Saltherring on May 1, 2006 06:48 AM