SEQUIM — This town has basked in the light of love from business and travel writers ¬– until now.
Sequim is “blessed by more than its share of sunshine and serenity,” The Seattle Times gushed last August.
The city “offers a lower cost of living and an easier pace,” Money magazine added in its Best Places to Retire 2008 guide.
So what a wet blanket it was when MSN.com called Sequim crowded and crime-ridden.
“For years magazines and Web sites have touted Sequim as one of the country’s best places to live. Now so many people live there, it’s becoming unlivable,” MSN writer Jim Washburn said in an article.
“A Great Place to Visit, but . . .” in the site’s CityGuides that discussed such cities as San Francisco, Las Vegas — and Sequim.
“Much of Sequim’s pastoral, small-town charm has been bulldozed,” the old, family-run market has been replaced by Wal-Mart, and “meth labs and murder” stain the news.
Sequim Police Department Lt. Sheri Crain said the town has its share of drug problems, but most don’t involve meth labs.
And the number of homicides within the city limit in the last year? Exactly zero, Crain said.
Sandy Slavin left California seven years ago to “get away from the rising temperatures and urban sprawl,” and makes her home in Sequim’s Emerald Highlands.
She called the CityGuide accurate.
“We selected Sequim for its small-town appeal. We prefer to make local purchases, don’t often shop at big box stores and like having these monster chains an hour’s drive away,” she said.
“Although we are in love with Sequim and have no regrets, had we realized before moving that this town would grow so quickly, we may have looked elsewhere to retire.”
Community’s dilemma
Sequim Mayor Laura Dubois, after reading the article, described what she sees as the community’s dilemma as a “rurbia,” a rural-urban-suburban town.
“Sequim was over-advertised as a great place to live, and the people came. But when they got here, they wanted to bring the suburbs with them,” she said.
“The desire to make Sequim a regional retail center has brought low-paying retail jobs with little career potential. We also have the double whammy of rapidly increasing home prices.
“Young people and families are struggling, while financially secure retirees want more mall-type shopping and chain restaurants. This gap between the haves and have-nots, and the rural and the urban, leads to tension.”
City Council member and former Mayor Walt Schubert, who moved to Sequim from California 20 years ago, responded to Washburn’s reference to methamphetamine abuse.
“Drugs are everywhere. This is not a Sequim problem but a U.S. problem,” he said.
“Drugs are one of the reasons why we need a strong police presence in our community and proactive youth programs such as the Boys & Girls Club.”
Crain said that Sequim police officers have found people growing marijuana and selling small amounts of meth and cocaine. “But we don’t see many labs,” Crain said.
Looking at Sequim’s crime picture, “the economy does have an effect. We are having more domestic violence and shoplifting.”
As for the murder mentioned on MSN, the fatal shootings of U.S. Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks and retiree Richard Ziegler in September were widely publicized.
The two were shot to death in the woods east of Sequim. Police believe Shawn Matthew Roe, a convicted felon whose last address was Everett, was the killer. Roe died in a shoot-out with Clallam County sheriff’s deputies outside the Longhouse Market on U.S. Highway 101 in Blyn.
“What happened to Kris was incredibly unusual,” Crain said.
Schubert, addressing the growth that overtook Sequim earlier this decade, said, “We are all part of the problem because we chose to live here . . . my function is to do all I can to help ensure that our infrastructure keeps pace with our growth.”
Bill Littlejohn, the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce president who’s lived here all his life, added: “Sure, it was pretty when I was growing up. But nothing stays the same. I still wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
Lavender farmer and city planning commissioner Barbara Richmond agreed.
“Welcome to 21st=century reality,” she said in response to the MSN article.
Friendly, small town
Yet Sequim still feels like a friendly, small town to Richmond, who left Southern California behind.
“People here still take the time to look after each other,” she said.
Then there’s retiree Pat Clark, who came from Burien. He remembers driving downtown in the 1980s. The pace was somnolent and suited him fine.
Sure, more traffic lights dot the intersections now, but Clark finds life here far sweeter — and drier ¬– than in the suburbs around Seattle.
“I love the fact that I have the entire [City] Council and most of the city department heads on speed dial,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I love the fact that I never have to drive on I-405 again, and I especially love the fact that even Sequim voted for Obama.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
