We made a promise on Bainbridge Island to be unusual if not unique among our neighbors. We promised to take seriously the concerns of our social, cultural, humanitarian and housing environments. We are now breaking those promises…and we’re just like any other place scrounging for grants.

We have become a beggar community not unlike the scroungers for federal bailouts and stimuli. But, by golly, we sure are going to get some sewer pipes!

How about the concerns for senior centers, culture, affordable housing and some other areas that we touted as being what makes the island special? What have we done to make it possible for those who serve the community as police, fire department, teachers and others to live here instead of elsewhere?

But, by golly, we sure will develop Winslow Way!

It is not necessary to recite the litany of where we have failed to keep the island paradise a special place, though the scenery will not change and minimizes much thought about those many promises.

If individual responsibility is to be the hallmark of our marvelous piece of geography, then let’s insist that the major property owners along Winslow Way get in the campaign for funding those improvements. After all, they will be the greatest financial beneficiaries the same as folks who build stadiums in big cities for sports teams.

But most of all, let’s get the majority of the city council and government to review what this place is all about and stop the long newsletters about sewer pipes and electric lines. If they’re required, fine, but stop the grandstanding on the issue.

It is time to return to the promises made to the people who make this place what we want it to be. We need to make it possible for those who work to protect, teach and take care of people to be able to reside here, too.

Those demands usually are sparked by those who are elected to make them into realities. Sewer pipes are great. So are people who use them.

Joe Honick

Bainbridge Island