Last bits of what’s ‘under-developed’ | Letter to the editor

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Forty-five and more years ago, Port Townsend was like Cannery Row.

Decently-paid, productive jobs were available. There were more fishing boats and fewer puke-er boats in the harbor.

There were affordable rentals and affordable houses for sale. Imagine that!

Water Street was like a stroll through the living room of the community and you’d likely know most of the folks you would meet on the sidewalk.

The Town Tavern was a joyful meeting place for weekend dancing to local bands. Ditto The Judges’ Chambers.

We used to have a skating rink. We used to have a bowling alley. We used to have a swimming pool that regular folks could afford to use regularly.

All this, and much more, is gone.

And now we may lose our small hometown golf course and the wee scrap of native prairie that lives there.

Everything changes, that’s for sure. But nature isn’t making more ground in Port Townsend, and the golf course is one of our last remaining bits of public land that is “undeveloped” or “under-developed” — a place where you can catch a deep breath and rest your eyes on space that isn’t “real estate” or commercially developed and profits taken.

I don’t golf, but that green and open space and its prairie are always a welcome sight to eyes that have seen so much of community and cultural value fade away in the cause of “progress” or the push to accommodate whatever. 

Just because PT is on the waterfront doesn’t require us to develop every other open public space.

Leslie Aickin
PORT TOWNSEND