Noah's Ark

One of the pleasant pastimes of Point Roberts residents is imagining economic development projects for Point Roberts.  I, personally, am of the opinion that the only conceivable genuine economic development project for the Point would be to turn it over to Canada and then it could be developed as the southern end of Tsawwassen.  I don't know that I'd be happy with such an outcome, but I am pretty sure that it would be sustainable economic development. 

Given the isolation, it's hard to imagine what else you could do with five square miles of land with some water around most of  it.  It would be easy if it weren't for that border problem which waxes and wanes as to its problematic qualities and currently seems to be on the waxing cycle.  I concluded that from a random inspection down at Peace Arch last week.  They are said to do a compliance check on 1 out of 100 cars.  However, in the past two years, I have crossed that border no more than 8 times and have had 2 compliance checks.  By contrast, I've had only 2 checks up at the P.R. border crossing, even though I cross that border several times a week.  Maybe I'm just an outlier of course: someone has to be. 

But the thing about the compliance check was that, while I was inside the building and they were outside the building looking at my car, they inquired as to whether I had any of a long list of vile objects in my car: illegal drugs, alcohol, weapons, whatever that list of things they always ask about are, and, as a final item, 'scissors?'  Do I have scissors in my car?  Of course I have scissors in my car, in my purse, in my every room of my every house.  I have 27 pairs of scissors just in my quilting workshop.  And who cares if I have scissors, anyway?  Well, apparently the border people do.  I actually did not have any in the car because I had them in my purse, right with me inside their building.  And the CPB agent said, 'Oh, that's good.'  Any explanation for this exchange absolutely escapes me.  But I did not find it encouraging.

Anyway, back to the economic development plans.  How I work on this question is by assessing what we have a lot of and trying to figure out to turn that into an exploitable resource.  This has led to considerations of how we could exploit hydrangeas, apples, trees (nope, going to run out of them too fast), and even isolation itself (sell the whole place to a Saudi Prince or someone Bill Gates-like with a fleet of small boats/planes/helicopters).

But here's my new idea: we could become some kind of cross between the seed savers and Noah's Ark.  A pair of many kinds of unusual animals that are already in the U.S. could be brought here from Blaine by boat and then kept here and there around the Point for casual exhibit and preservation.  I got to thinking this after my friends brought the angora/pygmy goats over in their boat.  A few weeks ago, someone brought a pig over in a plane.  (I know, it was only one pig and you could scarcely call a pig an unusual animal, but I'm pretty sure it's the only pig on the Point.) And the highland cattle are down at the Marina showing themselves off regularly.

The pygmy goat owners are now looking to bring a llama over from the ROTUS via water.  And only last week, I found myself engaged in conversation with a gentleman at the International Market who was looking for some way to bring a 4.5-foot iguana over from ROTUS.  The price for driving the iguana over was $500+ for permits.  The price for bringing it over in a boat ought to be a lot less since it does not require permits since it isn't leaving the country; perhaps it could share the boat with the llama who is coming.  And the prospective iguana-owner is said to have a lot of other unusual animals already in house.  We could all have an unusual animal at our houses as an alternative to dogs that bark too much.

So, we get all these animals, and then all these people will be anxious to come to Point Roberts to walk around and see them (like Williamsburg, VA, sort of), and then they'll buy a lot of tidbits to feed to the animals, arts and crafts, and soft drinks, and also they'll eat lunch and put gas in their car, and there you have it: economic development!