From Stark
Bellingham Port Commissioner Michael McAuley has offered some thought-provoking perspective in an email message triggered by the recent public debate over whether to save the port-owned Granary Building on the waterfront.
McAuley forwarded his thoughts to me and several other people after last week’s announcement that the port has agreed to give private developers an opportunity to offer proposals for re-use of the Granary as part of the larger effort to get projects under way at the north end of the old Georgia-Pacific Corp. property that has been owned by the port since 2005.
McAuley used the Granary issue as a starting point for some observations on what it will take to make waterfront redevelopment a reality in the years ahead:
“I am all for adaptive reuse – if you spend five minutes looking at my bonepile you will see my optimism. But, there comes a point where the bone pile is just a pile and it has no value above what a scrap hauler will pay.
“I was asked by Whatcom County voters to move forward and I will work to that end.
“I believe that the few remaining structures on the old GP land could create a solid historic district but it doesn’t happen in a vacuum by a few loud voices crying out for results. This effort is big, millions and millions of dollars big. The kind of big that takes real effort not just drive-by sniping that your commissioners aren’t doing the people’s work.
“So let’s not just throw out ideas. I do that constantly and I have learned a hard lesson that the people who will make my ideas reality need a little more than my random thoughts and vague direction.
“So, for all that, I call on all of you who see the bigger picture on our waterfront to join in or remain engaged in making the next steps happen. We already have the idea now let’s do the really hard work and put it into play.
“Thank you all for your engagement and effort. “
….At some point in time, if this project is ever to get off the ground, the endless public hearings and design churn have to stop. Over the last ten years I dont know how many public heardings have been held, comments received and objections raised and a new plan developed for review and comment. And then the whole process starts over. We have a process of endless recycle. It needs to be made clear to the City Council, that while review meetings are exciting and gives them something to do, churn does not represent progress.
We also have a City Council who are sympathetic to complaints from a vocal activist element in the City, who are either against any type of commercial development or demand so many non productive elements to the scope as to make the project unfeasible. Given all these constraints, small wonder there has been no progress made.
Finally, one wonders if this project is even within the experience and capabilities of the current City Staff or the City Council to competently manage. So far, just based on progress, this core competency is also in doubt.
So, no small wonder that Mr McAuley is frustrated. Until these issues are resolved there is no way any investor would touch this project with a ten foot pole.
As I’ve mentioned before, for now just plow up the asphault and rent out plots for garden space until the City gets it’s act together. This will occur, most likely, not in my lifetime…
I have three ideas for the waterfront that could tranform it.
First create a walking bridge over the tracks above the marina. This would create a pathway for the COMMUNITY to get to the waterfront centrally without having to drive and park. It is not a friendly walk down F street past the union gospel mission and over the tracks. Have you ever tried to get out of there in a car after the fireworks?!
The second would be to make some creative uses for small business to provide refreshments to park users and tourists. The city could use the funds generated by the fees to maintain the park. Please keep the Port out of it. They charge HUGE fees and then want a piece of your gross. They put small businesses into insurmountable debt way too quickly. I’m talking vendors that sell food, kites, balls, books, games, and toys that people may use while at the park. Sorta like a street fair atmosphere, keep it local, keep it inexpensive for the vendors. Open maybe from April to the first of October. (if it was at the old GP property it would bring extra people to the farmer’s market.
If a convention center was built this street fair would be a way for the community to syphon a couple bucks out of visitors. They don’t need another mall they have that at home.
Third, create a continued waterfront walkway to connect the GP site with the marina. Walking past the TRASH SSC is just gross. Why not relocate the transfer station to a more appropriate location. Do we actually put the trash on water craft or load it onto trains there? NO? Then why is it in such a horrific location? Imagine being able to walk or bike from the marina to Fairhaven, past a historic quaint street fair. Imagine coming from out of town and walking the beautiful waterfront before finding a local restaurant for dinner. Now the reality, walking past derelict industrial sight down the noisiest dirtiest streets past the trash collection site to get to the park. OOps you have to walk PAST the marina and then BACK to get to the park. You only do that once before you decide to pass on the walk, if you have to get in your car, you are going to go to a chain restaurant instead of a local one.
First of all, Mike, not all of us are snipers; so at least, please give a nod to those of us, even if few in number, who wrote to the Port without taking pot shots.
Second, you are not the only one in this community who understands that millions of dollars are involved and that any developer who takes the renovation of the Granary on will not be doing it for goodwill or altruism alone. We understand that a developer is a business person who wants a monetary return on the investment – usually a BIG monetary retrun. We know it will not be easy to argue for renovation under those circumstances.
Possibly the form our argument could take is that of enlightened self-interest as it used to be called. This is the optimistic approach you yourself in this blog claim to have; although you immediately undercut this claim for optimism by implying that the Granary is merely a scrap pile.
As to QQQQ’s complaint – some of us had been asking for years that Georgia Pacific and later the City consider preserving the historic character of the Granary. We were never even given a nod; so naturally, the public comment period is dragging on and on – because on one side (not ours) there is no real will to preserve the building in the face of the Dubai-like treatment our waterfront could get –generating really big bucks – mostly for the multi-national “developers’/interests that are currently salivating over our County’s relatively undeveloped state.
There are those amongst us who would only be happy with a park being located on our waterfront for the homeless and mentally ill to thrive in, oh I’s heard some may think that might just be an extenuation of our current down town, don’t ya know!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
AFY probably wouldn’t mind turning the waterfront into a golf course; he could get one of those homeless or mentally ill freaks to caddy for him on the cheap.
On the other hand, if some of those mentally ill folks he speaks of were able to have access to appropriate health care there wouldn’t be as many homeless littering the parks.
Golf course sounds like a winner to me! There jobs in them there greens!
Methinks if the homeless could get jobs maybe they wouldn’t be homeless and they then might if they wanted to pay for or even get employer provided healthcare!
With our dollar headed down the toilet there’s gonna be a bunch more loonies being spent down here on golf, don’t ya know!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
What an ugly building, which blocks the view of the waterway. Please use it for fire practice and burn it down. PLEASE!
I can’t imagine it fitting in with anything we might be planning for this revitalized area.