The conflict over a botched paving job at Roseballen is unfortunate — coming, as it does, not long after 19…
In the last issue of The Beachcomber, our state representative, Sharon Nelson, wrote an article addressing the seriousness of the state’s current economic situation. Rep. Nelson did a nice job capturing and synopsizing the state’s predicament and the impact it’s having on all of us. Those of us who are not independently wealthy and need to work for a living can certainly feel the impact on our daily lives. I’m sure the unfortunate folks who don’t have a job right now feel it even more.
I have contemporaries who describe themselves as “middle-aged.” This fascinates me. Either they have a stupendous ability to deny reality or an utterly unfounded faith in future medical advances. I, for one, do not expect to reach 100 or more years of age.
Few seem happy with the process that led to the crafting of new rules for dancing at Vashon High School….
As we prepare for the 2010 legislative session, the deep recession we entered in 2008 continues to cloud the futures of many families as well as the state’s budget forecasts.
Remember that 12-page ferry customer survey two years ago? Many people were unable to participate in it because it was done on a hit-or-miss basis while people waited for the ferry.
Begin by reading Paul Hawken’s commencement address to the University of Portland’s class of 2009, printed in the Jan. 3…
A recent Beachcomber article outlined the conclusions of a report commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce regarding attracting tourists to the Island during the “off season,” which seems to be roughly three quarters of the year. The author of the report concluded that tourists won’t visit unless there is a solid reason for coming and that we should market ourselves as an “events and activities get-away,” so that we could entice the “Thoughtful Tourist” (read, “Single and Powerful But Subdued Woman with Lots of Money”) during the months when it’s raining or threatening to rain.
I’d like to bring a different perspective to the issue of dancing styles at Vashon High School. I graduated in June and am now at the University of Washington, living on-campus in Seattle. I’ve been following the debate about grinding whenever I’m home.
I’ve been volunteering with youth-related projects on Vashon for nine years now, and I was surprised that the Vashon Island School District leadership apparently still doesn’t know how to communicate with youth. According to news reports in The Beachcomber and The Riptide, the district’s opening salvo in a recent “dialogue” was to pronounce that grinding was history at Vashon High School.
The holidays are a time for togetherness and celebration, but also often a time of plummeting temperatures and increased heating costs in the Pacific Northwest.
I found Jack Stewart’s article about grinding to be depressingly and predictably ironic. He wants teens and adults to communicate, yet this whole fiasco was created by adults who saw something they objected to and eradicated without including teens in the process.
For the last several weeks, The Beachcomber has run a series of stories on some of the agencies and organizations on Vashon helping those who are in need. Called “Compassion in Action,” each story focused on one nonprofit, taking a look at what it offers up, for whom and why.