Cover limitations

In a community with so many artists, how disheartening it was to see you chose to use AI for the cover of the spring issue of Lifestyle magazine. I could tell right away, and it was good of you to credit AI in the issue, but why not support our local talented community for such a prominent image, photograph or otherwise?

Scott Bahlmann
Port Townsend

Nurture the trees

Riding my bike last week on the beautiful trail behind Blue Heron Middle School I noticed a very busy crew of surveyors bushwhacking through the forest behind the big black fence. This is a huge habitat and mature forest area literally in the middle of our town. In the past couple of years a few large scale commercial housing developments landed upon our forests and trails. The Rainier street project and the top of Cook project both began with rich, wildlife laden and high tree canopy forests only to be completely clearcut, shaved down, all traces of trees removed, manicured and then sprawled out with cookie-cutter style home developments. These are not small time builder investor operations, nor are there any local concerns for our tree cover and actual natural landscape taken into consideration, zero. There are examples of smaller local builder operations leaving good amounts of existing topography, trees and plants. In these large big-box style developments chainlink fence surrounded water pits are what replaces thriving wetlands and streets with names from a distant land try to appear cozy.

The city just seems to rubber stamp these massive profit machines and then try to sell the ideas to us citizens as housing solutions and necessary, healthy growth. Is that what they are? Doesn't seem like it. What problems are being solved other than some small group from somewhere making an easy killing? Our infrastructure remains a shambles, low income housing never really appears.

How will hundreds of more car-culture, suburb mini-mansions make that better? Is this what is happening with that big forest on the west side of that lovely trail behind Blue Heron? I surely hope not, our highly praised city manager couldn't be letting more of these alien footprints land on our little peninsula, could he?

It is clearly time for Port Townsend to implement a building restriction or moratorium program, like other cities with these issues, maybe a water meter rationing and standards program? Help the small builders, come up with a better and healthier environmentally friendly design review process, slow down this pounding fast growth non-problem solving heyday. Let us not be the suckers for big nearby urban style development and developers, we can do much better than that. On this Mother's Day please let us all behave as best we can in nurturing our planet and especially the local environment we interact with daily, we are all like mothers too!

William Dentzel
Port Townsend

Public actively misled

When one looks at the lockstep near perfect assessments of City Manager Mauro by council, understand that council is actually reviewing themselves. They are responsible for him. But not. Can the city council really be honest in self-assessing themselves? Each has broken the oath of office by looking the other way regarding expensive ignored parking studies and for 13 years discriminating against those who didn't know parking limit signage had no meaning. Council culture.

This reporting from elsewhere should be the end of Mauro — “Citizens asked repeatedly, what about renovating the existing pool? Mauro and Hite insisted that repairing and upgrading the pool would be prohibitively expensive — that the only option is a full-scale redevelopment of the entire Mountain View complex. More than half a million dollars later, it turns out that reports provided by experts hired to evaluate the options show their assertion is untrue. And that those reports were kept not only from taxpayers, but also from the city council. It took two citizens’ requests for documents that are supposed to be publicly available to uncover these suppressed reports. They revealed estimates to completely refurbish and modernize the pool for $4-$5 million."

Allegedly no member of the city council had any idea where Mauro was spending money, and that studies paid for with taxpayer money were hidden from both council and public. But Mauro was compromised from day one and meshed with the system. Isn't it collusion accepting his position with the understanding that parking would be ignored, contrary to laws and city codes, benefiting insider real estate interests that vetted him? The start of his and the continuation of council's long slippery slope. In an honest town manipulative Mauro would have no job, oath breakers no elected position. Lockstep anyone? Space limits more examples. There are so many examples.

Harvey Windle
Port Hadlock

Hot dog success

The Port Townsend Dog was the result of a partnership between the OCEAN Culinary CTE program and Dogs A Foot!

Ocean students Emilio Schordine and Nolan Simmer created the dog that won by community vote.

It's an eclectic mix of ingredients that comes together to make something unexpectedly delicious.

Much like PT and Ocean alike!

Go OCEAN!!!! WooHoo!

Arica Smith-Simmer
Port Townsend