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I have a friend who settled in Port Townsend decades ago. He didn't even try to get a traditional job. He went straight for owning a business. It can be done. He was lucky his wife got a hospital job right away. Nowadays, with the Web, there might be more options for owning your own business. Takes imagination and management skills. If you're strong in these areas, some of these garden spots (my impression) are open to you when they'd not be open to others.
Port Townsend is a very nice small town in a beautiful setting. However, there isn't any major industry there, and health care has generally been centralized closer to Sequim, where there are more retirees. This whole area is great...totally unlike the Seattle metro, but close enough to get to if you need to.
This post:
>>Well, Pt. Townsend has a smelly paper mill to begin with, but I don't know if it is still in busness. It didn't used to be a tourist town, they had the mill, logging and fishing. The main street used to be all lined up with taverns. It had the reputation of having the most drinkers and alcoholics in the state. Now these taverns are mostly touristy gift shops and resturants. The once sleezy tavern fronts have been painted up into antiquey chic. I've been told by friends that live there that Pt. Townsend society is very closed. If you think Seattle has a social chill, you haven't witnessed Pt. Townsend. There is a lot of social hiarchy, and in-fighting that you can find in many small towns because they all know each other. If you're not in the social inner-circle, your nobody.<<
...accurately describes my experience in Port Townsend in 2014-2015 since moving here.
I can't imagine who wouldn't smell the paper mill. There are times, when the wind blows into downtown, there the smell is strong enough to make me cough, and make my eyes burn. My cat begins to wheeze from it. It's NOT *nothing*, and the paper mill is very much still in business.
If you're a monied retiree, the town is a playground of delight. You're invited right into the clique. Life is a delight.
But if you're a low-income person, welcome to The Freeze. Shop owners downtown will be cold and downright rude.
People in the city will treat you like you're some kind of leech, or scum. If you are in any way not appearing as one
of the Stepford Retirees, you will be castigated summarily.
There are still plenty of drinking establishments downtown, and after the sun goes down, there are nights
it's downright harrowing. People try to pretend it's some sort of sleepy little Mayberry, but at night, drunks
are out in the streets screaming, breaking shop windows, getting into fist-fights, resisting arrest, etc. ad nauseum.
Police do not regularly patrol downtown, so if you're out after dark, proceed at your own risk.
Right now, PT is undergoing a great Disnification. The people who once made PT interesting and
fun, are being driven out. Replaced by the gentrification of the Stepford Retirees. It is becoming
only a "tourist town"... for tourists over 60. The push is to have a cruise line stop here regularly,
which the shop owners are champing at the bit to happen. They want a constant flow of old people
with open wallets. They don't want real people with real lives living here: they want SHOPPERS.
Shoppers who will buy overpriced worthless trinkets and overpriced old-lady clothes.
Last but not least, the Navy is now proposing to run magnetic warfare games from Whidbey Island over
the Olympics. I wish it was some sort of sick joke, but no, this is what they are proposing. 16 hours a day
of jets flying over. So if you're some kind of hairy-granola artsy person thinking you're going to move
to PT and live the dream of the "eco lifestyle", look elsewhere. PT is NOT that place.
If you're a "conservative" monied retiree looking for a place to look down on poor people and celebrate
your life of championship capitalism all the while claiming to be "progressive" because you wear
wool socks and outlawed plastic bags in your town, welcome home.
This post:
>>Well, Pt. Townsend has a smelly paper mill to begin with, but I don't know if it is still in busness. It didn't used to be a tourist town, they had the mill, logging and fishing. The main street used to be all lined up with taverns. It had the reputation of having the most drinkers and alcoholics in the state. Now these taverns are mostly touristy gift shops and resturants. The once sleezy tavern fronts have been painted up into antiquey chic. I've been told by friends that live there that Pt. Townsend society is very closed. If you think Seattle has a social chill, you haven't witnessed Pt. Townsend. There is a lot of social hiarchy, and in-fighting that you can find in many small towns because they all know each other. If you're not in the social inner-circle, your nobody.<<
...accurately describes my experience in Port Townsend in 2014-2015 since moving here.
I can't imagine who wouldn't smell the paper mill. There are times, when the wind blows into downtown, there the smell is strong enough to make me cough, and make my eyes burn. My cat begins to wheeze from it. It's NOT *nothing*, and the paper mill is very much still in business.
If you're a monied retiree, the town is a playground of delight. You're invited right into the clique. Life is a delight.
But if you're a low-income person, welcome to The Freeze. Shop owners downtown will be cold and downright rude.
People in the city will treat you like you're some kind of leech, or scum. If you are in any way not appearing as one
of the Stepford Retirees, you will be castigated summarily.
There are still plenty of drinking establishments downtown, and after the sun goes down, there are nights
it's downright harrowing. People try to pretend it's some sort of sleepy little Mayberry, but at night, drunks
are out in the streets screaming, breaking shop windows, getting into fist-fights, resisting arrest, etc. ad nauseum.
Police do not regularly patrol downtown, so if you're out after dark, proceed at your own risk.
Right now, PT is undergoing a great Disnification. The people who once made PT interesting and
fun, are being driven out. Replaced by the gentrification of the Stepford Retirees. It is becoming
only a "tourist town"... for tourists over 60. The push is to have a cruise line stop here regularly,
which the shop owners are champing at the bit to happen. They want a constant flow of old people
with open wallets. They don't want real people with real lives living here: they want SHOPPERS.
Shoppers who will buy overpriced worthless trinkets and overpriced old-lady clothes.
Last but not least, the Navy is now proposing to run magnetic warfare games from Whidbey Island over
the Olympics. I wish it was some sort of sick joke, but no, this is what they are proposing. 16 hours a day
of jets flying over. So if you're some kind of hairy-granola artsy person thinking you're going to move
to PT and live the dream of the "eco lifestyle", look elsewhere. PT is NOT that place.
If you're a "conservative" monied retiree looking for a place to look down on poor people and celebrate
your life of championship capitalism all the while claiming to be "progressive" because you wear
wool socks and outlawed plastic bags in your town, welcome home.
Thanks for the reality check. Please feel free to post news updates on my Oly. Peninsula & the war games thread here.
Today I received a message from someone in the process of packing to move to Sequim from out-of-state. They said the State of WA has notified the Powers That Be that WA declines to participate in the war games project. What effect this will have, if any, remains to be seen, but it lends a ray of hope. Olympia is aware of the issue, and is on our side.
This is the first I've heard of a cruise ship port. That would be a disaster. I've seen what happens to small towns and villages in Alaska that become cruise ship ports of call. But you know, something like that just might have saved the Native art gallery in town that closed. That was a really nice place. Though the overly-huge cattle-car type cruise ships generally carry mainly 3rd-world passengers who can't afford fine art, only trinkets. If they allow cruise ships, they should limit the port capacity to the smaller ones, that carry European tourists and other high-end clientele.
I've heard Port T. is friendly and welcoming. I haven't heard about this cliquishness. How would the shop owners downtown even know who is off the monied classes, and who isn't? I'm moving there with no solid job prospects. I'm planning to fan out throughout the area to network with friends and put together income from a variety of sources/projects. And maybe if something opens up at Goddard College or some other rare admin-type opportunity, I'll try to grab that, but I'm thinking creatively re: employment, so I won't be dependent on the local scene. And I have friends among the progressive rabble-rousers and the Stepford retirees as well, so I figure I have my bases more or less covered. We'll see.
I thought about moving to Bellingham, instead, but isn't the weather a lot worse there? And rents are higher there.
Ruth4Truth - good for you, you're coming to the most beautiful of all 50 states, too, my birth state. It does sound like you'll be fine as far as making a living goes. Remember I didn't have moving money and my wife and I and our Pomeranian, Chow Chow and two rescue puttins are now living in a Moses Lake, WA, house. And I'm working in my field of choice (this can be rare but it's sometimes true, eh?) and I'm being driven to be a better Sleep Tech. The field is ripe and open and jobs abound because not nearly enough people know how ta do Sleep Medicine but it's at the same time a needed and growing field. One's sleep does affect the rest of your life and how good you feel about your life.
Good fortune to you, you are a source of knowledge regarding Washington state and I just know you will succeed in getting to Washington state and at least attempting a good, fulfilling life here. This is the most beautiful state of all 50 states. I have lived in many of the Western U.S. states and Washington tops them all for freshness and beauty.
Ruth4Truth - good for you, you're coming to the most beautiful of all 50 states, too, my birth state. It does sound like you'll be fine as far as making a living goes. Remember I didn't have moving money and my wife and I and our Pomeranian, Chow Chow and two rescue puttins are now living in a Moses Lake, WA, house. And I'm working in my field of choice (this can be rare but it's sometimes true, eh?) and I'm being driven to be a better Sleep Tech. The field is ripe and open and jobs abound because not nearly enough people know how ta do Sleep Medicine but it's at the same time a needed and growing field. One's sleep does affect the rest of your life and how good you feel about your life.
Good fortune to you, you are a source of knowledge regarding Washington state and I just know you will succeed in getting to Washington state and at least attempting a good, fulfilling life here. This is the most beautiful state of all 50 states. I have lived in many of the Western U.S. states and Washington tops them all for freshness and beauty.
Thanks. My first choice was the Bay Area, where I'm from (CA), but rents have exploded there, so it's hopeless. So I've been psyching myself for a life in the Puget Sound region, looking up old friends in the San Juans, and elsewhere (there are pockets of old growth forest on Orcas Island!), and trying to make the best of it.
Don't get me started on sleep doctors!!!!!! I don't want to be rude, since you've been so nice so I won't say anything more.
I've lived in Seattle before (GAH! Never again!), but I know WA has many special places. I have a theory about the Western cedar trees; I think they're the cold-weather version of the California redwoods. They fill the same niche, have somewhat similar wood, and behave like redwoods in some ways; fallen trees act as a matrix from which new trees grow, for one thing. I'm going to study this some more.
Uhh, yeah, I'm not a Sleep Doctor, just a lowly old Sleep Tech. I know that money rules the entire health care roost, so 'nuff said. I'm not judging and I'm not directing. Just takin' what I'm gettin' 'cause I'm workin' for a living. Nothing is safe and sane anywhere as evil forces are running and ruling the world. Don't ask on a public forum, the know-it-alls will stifle knowledge and good will.
Just do the best you can anywhere and everywhere and that's all that can be expected, eh?
You guessed right, the only jobs are pretty much low pay such as restaurant and hotel, or retail. Not much in health care either, they have to go to bigger cities for specialized service with only one little hospital there.
It's not that close to the Olympics, either. I'd suggest Sequim or Port Angeles for a little better job picture and much better access to the mountains.
No work in PA or Sequim, unless you Know Someone. Or, you can work as a minimum wage caregiver.
Yup. BYOJ, or Know People, and even then, your People may not be able to do anything, unless you cast your net more widely. I'm working some angles via friends on Bainbridge, Seattle, San Juans, everywhere and anywhere that I have contacts that could use any services I can offer, and I figure a lot of this will be free-lancing and/or internet-based, plus, with luck at some point, a part-time admin job. BTW, do any of you people in the area need any massage work? I wear many hats, along with a massage therapist's apron.
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so I won't say anything more. 
