Comments on The Bainbridge Island Postscript: Streetscape Switch and Bait

How discouraging. For months, years now, I've oper...

2008-04-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

How discouraging. For months, years now, I've operated from the notion that most folks, especially those I think of as "Old Bainbridge" conduct themselves with the good of the community at heart, and operate in the open. This past year of expenditures and machinations on the part of City Administration to keep Winslow Tomorrow alive has been an unpleasant dose in the reality of political legacy/empire building. Can it be possible the two downtown anchors we've twisted ourselves inside-out to accommodate don't care about the future of Winslow Way beyond adding more condominiums? Larry, Tom - say it isn't so!

I kind of laughed when I read Kjell Stoknes commen...

2008-04-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

I kind of laughed when I read Kjell Stoknes comments in the Review about T&C being relocated to High School Rd. & 305.

Why in the world does he think Nakata is pushing for Winslow Tomorrow so hard? Of course there will be another Harbor Square at the current T&C site with a mini-T&C below (probably). What is he thinking? They're not moving because repairs aren't being made, they will move because upgrades will be made so they can redevelop their property!

I don't know how long Stoknes has been around here, but those of us that have been here for a long time have always known that T&C has planned to relocate to High School Rd & 305. They've owned that parcel for a long time with the plan to build a store there. I hate to be juvenile, but, DUH!

For years mayors have stacked the Planning Commiss...

2008-04-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

For years mayors have stacked the Planning Commission and influential citizen committees with advocates of development. (Sure, a couple of erstwhile community do-gooders are always tossed in to demonstrate "balance".)

The urgency of Winslow Tomorrow or Streetscape or the "utility redevelopment project (all names for one scheme) is bogus and the rationale of increased FARs has nothing to do with sustainability, it has to do with private profit. Just think about how much the property owners on Winslow Way will profit from the proposed highly increased FAR. This has nothing to do with density or state Growth Management Act (GMA). That's all a ruse because our island is well in compliance with the growth numbers required by the GMA.

The driver is profit, pure and simple. Ask how many of Winslow Way owners will sell their properties after the upzoned heights and utility upgrades? We will be left with super-sized buildings, the "Canyons of Bainbridge" on Winslow Way, some potted plants instead of shrubs and trees and a whole lot of taxpayer and utility debt for the next twenty years.