PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend, 2020. The downtown has been closed off to cars. Garden carts and tricycle carriers move goods around the community.
People live entirely on organic food grown within 100 miles of Port Townsend.
The 40-hour work week is extinct. There are solar panels on every house. There is universal health-care.
That idealized vision of Port Townsend in 20 years was hashed out at November brainstorming session devoted to a “sustainable community.”
The meeting, which drew 20 to 25 people, included recently elected City Council members Kees Kolff and Freida Fenn.
Hosted at Kolff’s house, the meeting was organized in part by several people who had attended a conference put on by Portland-based Northwest Earth Institute.
The meeting was to be private, but an e-mail summary of what was discussed has since been widely circulated in the community.
Some of those who have seen the summary are critical of the group’s utopian visions. Others have defended the group’s efforts as laudable.
“I would like to work part-time and tend to my organic garden and have no traffic,” said David Hamilton, the owner of Aldrich’s Grocery, who received a copy of the e-mail.
“But we’re not going to all live off the land, he said. “Walden Pond is nowhere near Port Townsend.”
Keith Jackson, who owns the James and Hastings building, agrees.
“There is nothing wrong with fantazing about the future,” he said.” Most people would agree it would be wonderful if things were energy-efficient and environmentally sound. But it’s naive.”
Fenn said the suggestions that were made at the meeting were a “wish list” and not meant to represent an acutal plan of action.
Others attending the event included Port Townsend City Manager David Timmons and Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce General Manager Tim Caldwell.
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