Point Roberts Crime Wave

I was down at the Saturday Market last Saturday, looking for New Library contributions, when I discovered that in the intervening two weeks, someone had made off with the gorilla, ruffled lizard, and dinosaur that had found a home on the Book Sculpture in front of the Julius Firehall, the site of the new library.

The sculpture has been up in its present size since last year and I don't remember at what point the plastic animals appeared.  In any case, well over a year ago, we showed up at the Saturday Market, and there they were.  It surprised me, since there are always a lot of kids around at the market area, that nobody had made off with any of them: they weren't glued down or anything.  But, then, I got used to the idea that nobody would make off with them.  And now they are.....gone!

And, incidentally, we are still in need of contributions to the library's renovation if you've been meaning to do it but just haven't gotten around to it.  We're looking for gap funding of about $100,000, but we'd accept less, of course.  Checks made out to FOPRL, then dropped off at the library or mailed to PO Box 970, 98281.

What's the Essential Problem?

The blog has had several thoughtful and extensive responses to the last post.  They are written as comments to that post and you have to go there to read them.  This the link.  You need to go to the end of the post where the comments are posted.

The views of the commenters differ: Judson, I think, is of the opinion that we don't know how to do what we need to do to make Point Roberts the wonderful place it could be.  Jeff, I judge, thinks we may be on the wrong side of history (although my daughter points out that 'History doesn't have a side.').  The third commenter echos that, suggesting that he may be too late for what he had hoped.   A private response from a longtime resident disagrees with both of them: R says essentially that this is how Point Roberts always works, how it always has worked: there was resistance to the grocery store, to the bank, to everything.

People who have talked to me about this directly have suggested that the problem is there's no 'head' to this organism.  It's just a creature with arms and legs and it thrashes about, with the five districts all thrashing independently of one another.  Does it make sense for the Fire District to have twice the financial resources that the Hospital District has?  Or for the Fire District to have about 10 times the financial resources as Park and Rec District has?  When the Community Advisory Committee was formed, it looked like there was some possibility for getting some kind of overall planning (although it would not have addressed that particular inequity), but once the availability of the gas tax money stalled out (thanks, Washington State Legislature!) and it got involved in character plan judgments of compliance and complaint,...ah, well, let's not go there.

Jeff points out that all the energy that is available here gets used up by dumb projects like the radio towers.  Which is probably true, but there is no way to determine what's important and what's not.  Or to whom it is important.  That is what government with an executive branch is supposed to do for you: but we have no head.

Another resident with a long history in volunteer work here points out that there are probably only about 50 people here on the Point that you can call to help in a sustained way to get something actually achieved.  Unless you're one of those 50, you may not know who they are.  But, without expecting to be in any way comprehensive, here are some people/groups who could always use some help:

1.  Friends of the Library.  Doing those book sales is very labor intensive.  Volunteer to help when the call comes out; you have to be strong enough to move boxes of books around or, to move individual books around and take money for the books (Americans only, for this last task).  But it only happens 3 or 4 times a year.
2.  The Food Bank provides a major service here: check with Henry Rosenthal to see if he needs YOUR skills.
3.  All five districts: It's important that people know what the Commissioners are doing or thinking about doing.  Go to a meeting now and then and see if you can make any sense of it.
4.  Point Interface: Join its email list, pay your $10 a year, and make sure PAWS gets a small cut (or a big cut) of anything you sell.  We are so lucky to have Carol Fuegi and Pam Circassian putting this together for us.  They might need a list of backup people with the appropriate kind of technical skills.  Let them know you're available and are fluent in https or whatever.
5.  If you feel strongly about the radio towers project and the possibility of this community's keeping the towers out of the Point, get in touch with them and go to their fundraising event on June 7th.  Link here
6.  Read the newspaper: the APB does a wonderful job of keeping us informed.
7.  Attend the Trinity Lutheran Concerts.  They're very high quality performances and in an accoustically terrific space.  And they make the kids' summer music camp possible.  That's a good thing to have in your community.

Doubtless many other things.  Let me know what they are.  I've got summer company so my brain is functioning on about half-speed, but i can convey information.