Okay. The Port of Port Townsend said thanks, but no thanks, to the Maritime Center’s proposal to renew, revitalize and restore Point Hudson. 

Now we play the waiting game. What is the plan?

The city of Port Townsend Shoreline Master Program (2007) is more than 10 years old, much still to be implemented. “See what needs to be done and do it” is my wife’s way of thinking: paint the fence, weed the garden. How patient is Port Townsend? Only nature improves by being left alone.

Ideally, one would want someone/some body to have “skin in the game” when tackling such a vital (and challenging) treasure as Point Hudson—not an indifferent outsider. 

The Maritime Center is front and center, at the heart of it. It would want/need its plan to succeed for its own good, not just ours. It offered management and money and time and creativity, lots of it, freeing the Port to worry about its other responsibilities, which are considerable.

Meanwhile the clock ticks, the paint peels, the piers rot, the dust blows, the problems remain. A kind of tired resignation sets in like barnacles.

It’s true that sometimes it’s hard to see the godsend that’s right in front of you. But we pay a high price for indecision, procrastination, and prolonging the inevitable. It’s called deterioration, decay, and even disaster.