As a Bainbridge resident and executive director of the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council, Zoltan Szigethy observed more closely than most the curious relationship between his hometown and his home county.
On the one hand, we take full advantage of our geographic proximity to downtown Seattle – far more islanders commute east than west, and the convenient availability of Seattle cultural, entertainment and sports events is one of the amenities that contributes to the desirability that propels Bainbridge property values. On the other hand, we’re not completely happy about the number of Kitsap County residents who use “our” roads, parking lots and ferry terminal to get to and from their jobs, or their entertainment.
One small manifestation of our ambivalence has been the degree of resistance to the KREDC’s annual request for a $20,000 contribution from our city. Each year, questions are raised about the wisdom of kicking in for economic “development,” the arguments being that support for job-creation elsewhere does nothing for Bainbridge, and that we don’t really want more job-creating development here.
Both of those views strike us as short-sighted. More jobs on the peninsula may mean fewer commuter trips from there to Seattle, which, in turn, would mean less commuter traffic. And a better economy in the rest of the county could lead to a more vibrant artistic and cultural life on the west side of the bridge – perhaps, dare we say, even to happenings that might attract islanders.
Nor is it true that we don’t want jobs on Bainbridge. We don’t want factories in the conventional sense, and we’re surely wary of low-wage, high-impact development such as fast-food emporia. But how many of our daily commuters wouldn’t like to stay on-island for the same quality of work they now find in Seattle or points east? Through better telecommunications facilities, such as the broadband “backbone” championed by KREDC, that might become possible.
We thank Szigethy for his three-year stint on KREDC, wish him well in his future endeavors, and hope a strong successor can be found. Though we don’t always admit it, Kitsap County’s business is our business.
Olympian tasks
The Washington State Senate wants a five-cent gas-tax boost. Gov. Locke says four cents, the House, three. All would make a dent in the state’s transportation mess, none will solve the problem. Any would be better than nothing.
One thing, though, is manifestly clear to us – the job must be done in Olympia, by the legislators. Will there be a citizen referendum? Maybe. But a vote to remove what’s on the table is a lot tougher than a vote against what might be on the table – we suspect the environmentalists who opposed last year’s Ref. 51 because it did too little for transit might have been less inclined to seek its repeal had it already been law.
You were elected to make decisions, legislators. Do it.
