voice of bainbridge

Campfire at Cannery Cove

 Friends of "John Nelson Park" at Strawberry Cannery Cove shared a day of warmth and song Saturday, Sept. 11, in the scenic cove at the Head-of-Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Is., WA. It was the eve of the scheduled demolition of the historic cove by the City of Bainbridge Island.

Photo Joel Sackett

Reflections on the last days of Cannery Cove

Those reflections are by Judie and Gerald Elfendahl of Friends of Cannery Cove. You can also listen to a short segment on KUOW. LISTEN

Let us put solar panels back on the roof of the White House: sign the petition

Bill McKibben is going to accompany the students of Unity College where the solar panels installed in 1976 on the roof of the White House under Jimmy Carter had been stored since they were put down by Ronald Reagan (in 1986). Time to put them back (or new more performing ones) on. Follow their road trip from Maine to the White House on their blog:

Put solar on it! The trip is from Tuesday September 7 to Friday September 10. You can sign the petition right away.
Maybe the Sierra Club should join the Coalition that supports such an installation?

You can also practice your French by reading a French version of this post on blogvert.

John Nelson Park: one more meeting at City Hall on Wednesday August 25 and a park Board meeting on Thursday

From Gerald who keeps the faith and invites us to stand up again for a real park not the shadow of one.

Wednesday night, Aug. 25 at 7:05 PM is a VERY important opportunity at City Council chambers to share your thoughts about the City's plan to excavate and destroy the shore side meadows, cove and parking at Strawberry Cannery Cove Waterfront Park.  Please speak now.  Your voice matters.

About the "discussion" at city hall about John Nelson Park

Jerry Effendahl reports about this "discussion" without any public participation (but silent) allowed: our local democracy at work. All our thanks to the Friends of Cannery Cove for persisting.

An eloquent defense of John Nelson Park by Roger van Gelder

Roger van Gelder is a Winslow resident, civil engineer, professional environmental consultant and 12 year member of the Bainbridge Is. Road End Committee. He shares his thoughts on Cannery Cove.

Gerald also informs us that the "Strawberry (Cannery) Park Restoration Project" is -again- on the Bainbridge Island City Council agenda for a 20 minute discussion next Wednesday, July 21 at 7 PM. Attend and show your representatives you are very concerned about their decisions.

Friends of Cannery Cove on line

Friends of Cannery Cove is now on line with a nice set of pictures and all the information you need to keep advocating for a real public park at Cannery Cove, that would respect the wishes of John Nelson thanks to whom this property was given to the community.

Dee DuMont's opinion about Strawberry Park/Cannery Cove

I asked Dee what she thought about the Strawberry Park/Cannery Cove debate. Below is her answer.
(The picture is by Judie Elfendahl -thanks Judie- and came from a different email). What are the other candidates and elected officials thinking?

  My first concern about the Cannery Cove issue is how one city employee, with no apparent public input and no apparent permission from the council to seek a grant, could spend 2 years working on a proposal, secure a grant, and THEN present it to the public as a fait accompli.

Apparently, the grant money is once again being used as a weapon against the public...'how dare we turn this down, it's being paid for by someone else?'

The city could/should regulate the presence of trees in parking lots via a green ordinance for urban sustainability

Thinking about what happened to the trees at the ferry terminal parking I wondered about existing city regulations elsewhere. Just google parking lots and trees: here comes the regulation adopted by the city of Sacramento. It is about shading trees but it makes perfect sense to require the presence/planting/maintenance of trees on parking lots. Looks like the city is going to hire a consultant...and as usual such regulations already exist.

Who is responsible for the disastrous "pruning" of the trees in the parking at the ferry terminal?

Reading the February 20 issue of the Bainbridge Review we don't learn what firm was responsible for this job. A manager for Diamond Parking does not provide any specific information nor apologize for anything wrong. The City acquiesces by saying nothing inherently wrong (illegal) was done and we get the usual argument about private property. Diamond Parking is a big corporation, they claim to be the biggest private parking company in the world (and I bet they are). It is not clear that they were in charge of this "pruning" as they could only be in charge of operating the parking while the property is owned by somebody else. This somebody else could be an entity called Winslow Marine LLC but the property tax map does not provide any clue about who they are, but for the address of an accounting firm in Bellevue. I think the people deemed "responsible" should publicly say so and offer a compensation to our community or explain to us why all is well. What type of compensation? They could plant more/new trees in this parking lot and/or provide money for trees to be planted. They should come up with internal guidelines to avoid such bad practices in the future.

32 new blogs from NRDC

Under the title (and poor picture choice in my opinion) of a switchboard, NRDC enters the blogosphere with 32+ blogs. That's good news. The pictures are from Beijing on a clear day and not so clear...

Save Winslow Way

Save Winslow Way has a blog with key pictures for downtown's future and a petition to sign.

Welcome to Green Voices for Bainbridge Island

Green Voices For Bainbridge Island is a new site devoted to environmental issues. I discovered them via Rachel Pritchett's article in the Bainbridge Islander (print) but it is also in her blog: thank you Rachel :)
The Green Voices site includes a very sobering assessment of the total neglect of our elected elected officials and of the people who have been in charge of open space toward parks in Winslow. It's probably because most of them don't live downtown. Disastrous non planning and missed opportunities. A very different view from the usual fuzzy congratulatory articles about the pseudo wonderful work of the open space commission.

The community forestry commission wants to hear from you

The Community Forestry Commission (pdf) is holding an open house session on Tuesday September 12 from 7 to 9 PM. I am not sure there is much to gain but if a few good people wish to attend. Maybe you can also email your suggestions? So many of our previous suggestions have been totally ignored it's hard to persist but what else is there to do? All my best wishes to the people who want to attend. If someone wants to take a digital mp3 recorder contact me and I'll lend you one.

Developer vs Trees: A Call for Help

My name is Dan Hagen. Joyce Hansen and I own a piece of waterfront property Next to
Driftwood cove and beneath Southworth Landing communities, about 2 miles sound on
the beach from the Southworth Ferry.

A developer is suing us to try and enforce a very poorly written "view addendum". 
At issue is the view that his housing development had in 2001. 

Donald Shoup and the high (hidden) cost of "free" parking

Diane Horn hosts a public interest radio program entitled the sustainability segment on KEXP that airs at the typical 7 am on saturdays. Her guest last saturday was Donald Shoup, THE expert on parking issues. He explains the high cost of so called free parking and offers alternative strategies that should be considered for Winslow. Maybe Islandwood could invite Shoup for a conference (and some local consulting)?
LISTEN and spread the word :)

Olaf Ribeiro emails the Council Members about tree cutting on the island

Dear Council members,
I wish to record my great disappointment at the tree cutting rampage that has occurred in the past couple of weeks on the island. Without a tree ordinance and lack of enforcement, tree cutting companies have discovered that they have free reign to take down magnificent healthy trees with no consideration for the subsequent cost to the environment.

Sign the pledge

Click here

In the thick of it: his life in the Sierra Club

Michael McCloskey has spent more than 40 years of his life with the Sierra Club. He talks about the book he just published about his experience. This presentation was recorded at the Elliott Bay Bookstore.
Listen (1 hour 20 minutes)

The blog solution for local media and civic life

The bad news is I have been frustrated with our local media (The Bainbridge Review, the Kitsap Sun, the Bainbridge Islander, BIB) for quite a while. I think the City website is abysmal and our elected officials totally fail in  responding to our needs to be informed about what's happening to our community under their watch.