The Port of Port Townsend widened the launch ramp, assuming increased usage, and increased the annual fee from $40 to $100. Paying ramp users use the port bathrooms. Keys or frequently changing codes are impractical.

Some people are grateful to pay for a hot shower. Further, for a homeless person’s self-respect, being clean is a good thing.

What if the bathroom building in Kah Tai park with shower was renovated before the port shower renovation? Hire an attendant, like public bathrooms in many countries, who keep the place nice, verbally shame anyone who disrespects it. Enhance it with flowers and a smile.

Raise shower fee to $1? Install lockers? Post signs asking people to clean up after themselves and include information on where public showers are found in Port Townsend.

Such helpful interaction might be more cost effective in the long run, compared to “keep out” signals/policing. I have always appreciated hospitable ports I’ve visited and felt obliged to treat them with extra care.

A bad egg should not ruin it for everyone else; a bit like giving in to terrorism.

I feel a building frustration with the untenable direction PT seems to be heading, pricing out many people who contribute to this community in ways other than lots of money.

A healthy town should comfortably accommodate the full spectrum, accepting eccentrics and people of variable incomes that give this town energy and character.

Tourism for the wealthy, by land or sea, is one industry type, but if it becomes the industry, this will not be the Port Townsend that people have loved for so long.

When I hear that “$1,100-a-month rent is low-income housing” or “Keep out of the one central semi-public bathroom,” I want to ask, “What planet are you from? Why are you here?”

ASHLYN BROWN

Port Townsend