Aberdeen/Grays Harbor County. Beyond Sad. (Seattle, Tacoma: for sale, insurance, credit)

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by grega94

With the logistical mayhem that the world is currently experiencing, perhaps Aberdeen should try to capitalize on this opportunity and expand their port? Historically it was the largest lumber port in the world and it’s currently the largest pacific port in the US that exports cars. They are also way closer to the Pacific than either Seattle or Tacoma so they would be able to attract many customers if they had the capacity?

There was a proposal once to dig a canal connecting the Chehalis River and Puget Sound. I don't think they envisioned it being big enough for large ocean-going container ships, but it could have been large enough for barge-traffic.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Building up the college is a good idea, but probably not those majors frankly. You want to prepare people for jobs they can actually find. Business, industrial design, logistics, various computer science specialties, etc.

There are really no local jobs in fisheries, watershed management, coastal zone management, etc. All the fisheries jobs are managed out of Olympia or Seattle. And coastal zone management jobs will depend on someone in Gray's Harbor County planning department dying or retiring.

Not envisioning developing a new four-year university (ala Evergreen or Western), but expanding the existing two-year college (GHCC) to include some four-year "academic" degree programs (not unlike Bellevue College, for instance). The problem currently is there isn't enough demand in the area for degree-ed professionals as it is, although development of a four-year college could help bootstrap that demand. I'd rather have unique degree programs in the natural sciences that will draw students in, rather than run-of-the-mill "business" degree courses that could be had almost anywhere.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

There was a proposal once to dig a canal connecting the Chehalis River and Puget Sound. I don't think they envisioned it being big enough for large ocean-going container ships, but it could have been large enough for barge-traffic.

I can’t think of one reason to do that.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

I can’t think of one reason to do that.

Theoretically, it would have cut transit times. Practically, however...

[Wheatridger]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

In Aberdeen we ran into (literally) a big protest/counter protest at the Start Wars store, but I suspect most of those people didn't live there.

https://www.chronline.com/stories/pr...s-store,270416

This little typo made me think things are even worse there than I realized! ; >

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

There was a proposal once to dig a canal connecting the Chehalis River and Puget Sound. I don't think they envisioned it being big enough for large ocean-going container ships, but it could have been large enough for barge-traffic.

Here is an account of the effort. Complete with details of later suggestions to get the job done nuclear weapons. For real.

There was a proposal to build a second canal from Willapa Bay to Ilwaco across the Columbia from Astoria and then a third one from Willapa up to Aberdeen which would have created an inland waterway connecting Portland and Seattle. But I guess railroads made that more or less ridiculous.

https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...+the+Canal.pdf

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Here is an account of the effort. Complete with details of later suggestions to get the job done nuclear weapons. For real.

There was a proposal to build a second canal from Willapa Bay to Ilwaco across the Columbia from Astoria and then a third one from Willapa up to Aberdeen which would have created an inland waterway connecting Portland and Seattle. But I guess railroads made that more or less ridiculous.

https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...+the+Canal.pdf

I can’t believe there was a day when that was thought to be a good idea! Thank you for sharing the details of it! I grew up literally under the main locks from Black Lake down into Puget sound.

[margaretBartle]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Evergreen spinning into its own negative spiral and waste of an otherwise great opportunity.

Unfortunately, what happened with Evergreen is not unique to that specific administration - it is the direction of almost the entire educational establishment.


Unless you are talking about an egotistical billionaire setting up a vanity school, any new school or major increase of purpose would surely be along the "woke", Evergreen-style model.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by margaretBartle

Unfortunately, what happened with Evergreen is not unique to that specific administration - it is the direction of almost the entire educational establishment.

Unless you are talking about an egotistical billionaire setting up a vanity school, any new school or major increase of purpose would surely be along the "woke", Evergreen-style model.

I know what you mean in part. And certainly there is an element of that in all current colleges and universities. But I've attended great public and private institutions that aren't that extreme. While definitely not perfect, they are still 'functional' and serving the students' academic goals as well as the community.

I also have two current WA college students attending the big two and are having a good experience overall. Depending of the classes/majors, there is more or less an emphasis on that 'wokeness' aspect. For my son studying computer science, its a non-issue.

I see it more as a spectrum with some schools being more 'extreme' than others to the point of being basically non-functional. That is, they are so wrapped up in their extreme politics, they've lost sight of their original purpose and charter. And they fail at the most basic levels even leading the students in a safe, orderly fashion.

Derek

[DevanXL]

My question is, what industries bring back Grays Harbor and the Coastal Counties in general. Even if you take a look across the Columbia at the more popular cities like Astoria, Seaside, and Cannon Beach, they all suffer from similar economic depression as Aberdeen. Without steady tourists those areas would be very much run down.

Aberdeen is cold, dark and difficult to get to which makes it hard to set up any major industries. With land out there relatively cheap they could look to become a server farm hub like the ones in Eastern Washington/Oregon.

Sometimes you establish Industries to spur development within the city, and sometimes I think the cities need to develop themselves before any industries can be established. Aberdeen is the latter right now. Maybe they could investment into their downtown area and establish themselves as a "Gateway to the Olympics" tourist city?