Aberdeen/Grays Harbor County. Beyond Sad. (Seattle, Bellevue: rental market, credit score, house)

[CrazyDonkey]

One investment that was made was connecting to the Internet backbone via fiber, which is now paying dividends by attracting remote workers. Higher-income workers moving into the area can increase business activity and, by increasing property values, increase tax revenues. Low-orbit high-speed Internet will also be a boon, with much of the north county being effectively without affordable high-speed Internet.

Education: Improved schools, with increased levy funds, could make the area more attractive to families. I'd also like the state to invest in the area by developing Grays Harbor CC into a 4-year college, similar to Bellevue College.

Transportation: A major negative is that Grays Harbor is more remote from Seattle than 30 to 40 years ago, due to increased traffic congestion and bottlenecks in the I-5 corridor. In the '70s and early '80s, you could get to the ocean beaches from Seattle in 2 to 2.5 hours, while now it will likely take 3 to 4 hours, unless traveling early in the morning or late in the evening. Compare that to 1.5 hours, say, from Portland to Seaside. At one time (early 50s?), Aberdeen had both intercity bus service (Greyhound) and passenger rail service, but now has neither. Congestion-reduction and ironing out bottlenecks (at Tacoma, Fort Lewis, and Olympia) and improvements to Hwy 12 could shorten travel times. High(er)-Speed Rail could link up with Grays Harbor Transit, which serves the ocean beaches.

[Diana Holbrook]

I don't think people are going to take a train to go to the beach.

We're a car culture. The beach is a road trip.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

...

Transportation: A major negative is that Grays Harbor is more remote from Seattle than 30 to 40 years ago, due to increased traffic congestion and bottlenecks in the I-5 corridor. In the '70s and early '80s, you could get to the ocean beaches from Seattle in 2 to 2.5 hours, while now it will likely take 3 to 4 hours, unless traveling early in the morning or late in the evening. Compare that to 1.5 hours, say, from Portland to Seaside. At one time (early 50s?), Aberdeen had both intercity bus service (Greyhound) and passenger rail service, but now has neither. Congestion-reduction and ironing out bottlenecks (at Tacoma, Fort Lewis, and Olympia) and improvements to Hwy 12 could shorten travel times. High(er)-Speed Rail could link up with Grays Harbor Transit, which serves the ocean beaches.

Getting the coast sooner for day or weekend trips was a *Big* deciding factor for us in moving to Vancouver over other parts of the state. From a list of pros/cons, that benefit alone is high for many, though certainly not all. I know Seattle has the Sound with salt water access and 'beaches' of sorts. But its just not the same if you love the ocean and coast. For example, here a shot I just took a few weeks ago on a short trip to the Oregon coast. That's hard to replicate especially within ~ 2 hour drive away.





Derek

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

I don't think people are going to take a train to go to the beach.

We're a car culture. The beach is a road trip.

It would provide a transit connection (Amtrak to Grays Harbor Transit). The problem now is that Amtrak's schedule is unpredictable. High(er)-speed rail could improve schedule predictability, making a more seamless connection possible.

[509]

Originally Posted by leastprime

Don't blame the problem on owls.
In the late 60's/70's, almost all of the "old" growth forests were gone. I remember a statistic that if logging of big diameter forests continued, they would be entirely gone in a few years. In the meantime, the mills did not have enough money or volume to transition to smaller diameter logs. Now 2020, trees have now grown large enough to harvest for lumber, the issue isn't logs but where the logs are being sent for maximizing corporate profit.

As a Forester that went through the Spotted Owl crises....it was the owl. That said, most of the reduction was on public land.



I got to give President Clinton credit. He came up with a plan that cost 30,000 union jobs AND put the Spotted Owl on the road to extinction. A TWO-FER.



Great leadership, instead of choosing one or the other solution, he decided to come up with a solution that killed off both the public land timber industry and the Spotted Owl.


We have a "epidemic of trees" and have had for years. Which is why we burned downed the equivalent of the state of TEXAS since 1988.



We were NEVER going to run out of trees for harvest. The industry was already transitioned to smaller trees by 1990. In Chelan County, ALL mills were closed due to a lack of public timber put up for sale.


INCLUDING the small log mill at Winton.



I am curious where you think the logs are going?? We are IMPORTING lumber form Canada.



from a 2005 research paper on exports:


Today, however, the log export market, along with the contentious log export
debate, is virtually nonexistent. The precipitous decline of softwood log exports
caused the PNW to lose its position as dominant supplier of building materials to
the Pacific Rim.


https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr624.pdf

[MechAndy]

So it’s good to get rid of union jobs ???

[509]

President Clinton thought so!!!



The real sad part is that the Spotted Owl is also headed for extinction.


Really, the choice was between saving the Spotted Owl or the public land timber industry.


President Clinton decided to kill off BOTH of them.

[xPlorer48]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey[COLOR="Red"

[/color];62491632]One investment that was made was connecting to the Internet backbone via fiber, which is now paying dividends by attracting remote workers. Higher-income workers moving into the area can increase business activity and, by increasing property values, increase tax revenues. Low-orbit high-speed Internet will also be a boon, with much of the north county being effectively without affordable high-speed Internet.

Education: Improved schools, with increased levy funds, could make the area more attractive to families. I'd also like the state to invest in the area by developing Grays Harbor CC into a 4-year college, similar to Bellevue College.

Transportation: A major negative is that Grays Harbor is more remote from Seattle than 30 to 40 years ago, due to increased traffic congestion and bottlenecks in the I-5 corridor. In the '70s and early '80s, you could get to the ocean beaches from Seattle in 2 to 2.5 hours, while now it will likely take 3 to 4 hours, unless traveling early in the morning or late in the evening. Compare that to 1.5 hours, say, from Portland to Seaside. At one time (early 50s?), Aberdeen had both intercity bus service (Greyhound) and passenger rail service, but now has neither. Congestion-reduction and ironing out bottlenecks (at Tacoma, Fort Lewis, and Olympia) and improvements to Hwy 12 could shorten travel times. High(er)-Speed Rail could link up with Grays Harbor Transit, which serves the ocean beaches.

Maybe some of locals in other Washington towns would appreciate it if higher income remote workers would remain in place. I am really tired of my home insurance and property taxes escalating. It is becoming a financial burden.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by 509

As a Forester that went through the Spotted Owl crises....it was the owl. That said, most of the reduction was on public land.



I got to give President Clinton credit. He came up with a plan that cost 30,000 union jobs AND put the Spotted Owl on the road to extinction. A TWO-FER.



Great leadership, instead of choosing one or the other solution, he decided to come up with a solution that killed off both the public land timber industry and the Spotted Owl.


We have a "epidemic of trees" and have had for years. Which is why we burned downed the equivalent of the state of TEXAS since 1988.



We were NEVER going to run out of trees for harvest. The industry was already transitioned to smaller trees by 1990. In Chelan County, ALL mills were closed due to a lack of public timber put up for sale.


INCLUDING the small log mill at Winton.



I am curious where you think the logs are going?? We are IMPORTING lumber form Canada.



from a 2005 research paper on exports:


Today, however, the log export market, along with the contentious log export
debate, is virtually nonexistent. The precipitous decline of softwood log exports
caused the PNW to lose its position as dominant supplier of building materials to
the Pacific Rim.


https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr624.pdf

Spotted owl lives in old growth forest. So if what you say is true and industry has transitioned to younger smaller trees on new growth forest then none of that is spotted owl habitat. We can keep endlessly cutting new growth and "epidemic of trees" as you put it and not affect a single acre of spotted owl habitat.

Clinton left office 22 years ago. But you want to talk about the Clinton Administration and jobs. The Washington State unemployment rate was 7.6% in 1992 when Clinton took office and it was 4.8% when he left office. Lower than it is today. Something north of 50,000 net new jobs were created in the state during his presidency.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by xPlorer48

Maybe some of locals in other Washington towns would appreciate it if higher income remote workers would remain in place. I am really tired of my home insurance and property taxes escalating. It is becoming a financial burden.

So, you want Grays Harbor County to remain in an economic depression, so your property taxes will remain low? If tax revenues significantly increase, they'll be able to afford exceptions for low-income seniors and the disabled, for instance.

One reason your property taxes went up is that Republican legislators slammed homeowners in Western Washington (where property values are much higher) to fund the State's obligation to pay for general education.