SEQUIM — Youths who hang out at Sequim’s so-called “Half Block” soon will hear the strains of Mozart, Brahms and Bach piped in over speakers at the West Cedar Street public bus station lot.
The music is an experiment by the city of Sequim and Clallam Transit intended to drive away loiterers.
The city of Sequim, which shares the Sequim Transit Center with Clallam Transit, is joining Transit in the pilot project that, if successful, will be tried at The Gateway transit center at Lincoln and Front streets in Port Angeles, a Transit official said.
“We’re trying to deal with the kids that are hanging out on the transit property,” said Terry Weed, Clallam Transit general manager.
“If they’re not there for transit purposes, we just want them to move on.”
Whether the music will have any affect on the teens and young adults who for decades have hung out and socialized at the section of West Cedar Street has yet to be seen, though several found there Wednesday said it would be “cool” to have classical music sounding over Half Block.
“If they want to deter people from coming here, they should pipe in the Sequim radio station,” said Jackie Cary, a Sequim High School senior who has come to visit friends at Half Block for five years.
She was one of the young people who voiced approval for classical music at the site that each school day draws between 20 and 30 youths.
“It gets pretty quiet around here, and the old people might like it and hang around here, too,” said Cary, adding that her mother was among the previous generation to hang out at Half Block on West Cedar.
Weed said it was the city of Sequim’s idea to play classical music at the Sequim Transit Center.
The city already has video cameras installed atop City Hall that allow police, city and transit officials to watch and record what goes on at the bus station and parking lot between City Hall and Sequim Transit Center on West Cedar Street just east of North Third Avenue.
Paul Haines, city of Sequim Public Works director, said the music system will be installed on a wall of the Sequim Transit Center within the next two weeks.
“It’s fairly widely used” around the state of Washington and in British Columbia, he said, and comes in a small metal casing that includes a computer with a digital music catalog.
“Agencies use music as a pleasant way to try to keep loitering from being an issue,” he said.
“It is not intended to be disruptive.”
The $800 Mosquito system is in the city shop waiting to be installed, he said, and the cost will be split with Clallam Transit.
Why do youngsters swarm to Half Block?
“It’s a social spot,” said Sequim 10th-grader Larry Lee.
Cary said the Half Block’s proximity to both school and stores is a great part of its allure.
One youth who asked not to be identified described the area as “a nexus for people to come and go as they please.
“You’ve heard of Sequim as God’s waiting room,” he said.
“This is the young people’s waiting room.”
Another youth described it as “an outdoor coffee shop.”
Several said they want a teen center.
Weed said Clallam Transit is particularly concerned about loitering around the bus stop, staff lunchroom and restroom area at the Sequim Transit Center.
A bus driver asked a group of youths Wednesday afternoon to move from a covered bench area next to the center, and they willingly moved to a waiting area fronting West Cedar Street.
Lt. Sheri Crain, a 22-year veteran of the Sequim police force, said young people have gathered at Half Block since she first started as a patrol officer.
She said she knows one Police Department employee who remembers Half Block youths hanging out there up to 40 years ago.
Police periodically patrol the area, she said, often after the youthful crowd swells around the transit center after school.
“They can be intimidating to some bus users and older folks,” Crain said.
“It is a loitering issue, but because there’s buses there, it’s hard to say if there is loitering there or what.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
